Source : ABC NEWS
Australian Olympic medallists Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers finished second and third respectively in the women’s high jump at the opening Diamond League meet in Xiamen, China.
In the men’s events, Australia’s Liam Adcock was second in the long jump and rising sprint star Lachlan Kennedy placed a credible fifth in the 100m on his Diamond League debut.
Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers (both 1.94m) finished behind Ukraine’s Paris Olympics gold medallist and world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
Mahuchikh claimed the win with a first-attempt clearance at 1.97m, before having three unsuccessful cracks at 2.03m.
The much-improved Adcock was a close second behind local favourite Zhang Mingkun in the men’s long jump.
World indoors bronze medallist Adcock (8.15m) looked the likely winner for much of the night, only for Zhang to secure victory with a leap of 8.18m in the penultimate round.
Sprinter Kennedy arrived in Xiamen in career-best form, having claimed silver in the 60m at last month’s world indoor titles in Nanjing.
He also moved to second on the Australian 100m all-time list with a run of 10.00 seconds at the national championships in Perth a fortnight ago.
The 21-year-old held his own against a world-class field on Saturday night, crossing the line in 10.18.
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South African Akani Simbine won in 9.99 ahead of Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (10.13) and Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu (10.17).
Only seven-hundredths of a second separated the next six runners across the line behind Simbine.
Australian Abbey Caldwell broke the Oceania record in the non-championship women’s 1,000m with a time of 2:32.94.
Caldwell was second behind legendary Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, with another Australian, Sarah Billings, in third spot in 2:33.45.
Kipyegon clocked 2:29.21 to come within striking distance of Svetlana Masterkova’s world record of 2:28.98 set in 1996.
Rose Davies broke her Australian women’s 5,000m record, clocking 14:40.83 when finishing ninth in a race won by Olympic gold medallist Beatrice Chebet from Kenya in 14:27.12.
Davies’s previous national mark of 14:41.65 was set last year in Tokyo.
AAP
