SUZHOU, CHINA, April 27 — Sprint fans in this Olympic year have to wonder: When will the fast 100 times start coming?
They got no answers in Suzhou, the second Chinese stop on the Diamond League circuit. South Africa’s Akani Simbine overcame a slow start to nip former world champions Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley at the line, clocking 10.01. Coleman, after leading most of the race, trailed in 10.04. Kerley was never really a threat and placed 3rd in 10.11.
Thus, the world list is still led by a high schooler, one Christian Miller of St. Johns, Florida, at 9.93. Nigeria’s Favour Ashe is the only other sub-10 (9.99) of the season.
“I knew the field here would be strong but I just had to replicate what I did last week at the South African Championships,” Simbine said.
In fact, he did exactly that, matching his time from Pietermaritzburg.
“This has built a lot of confidence leading into the Olympic year,” Simbine added. “This helps build momentum, which I hope to build on further as the season progresses.”
“I expected a better performance but I am fine with today’s result and I achieved a season’s best today,” Coleman said. “I am prepared for the Olympics Games. I’m going to keep training and improving in the upcoming months.”
Over at the pole vault pit, it was time for Mondo Duplantis’ weekly World Record attempt. This week, however, the Louisiana Swede was unable to top his spectacular Xiamen performance, which produced a 20-5½ (6.24) WR with plenty of air to spare. This week he had to settle for winning at a “mere” 19-8¼ (6.00).
His sheet was clean before his three misses at 20-6 (6.25), none of which were really close, and he was well above the 2nd-place mark of 19-1 (5.82), a tie between Belgium’s Ben Broeders and American Sam Kendricks.
“I felt great today, really good,” said an unfazed Duplantis. “To jump 6 meters today and complete a very successful tour, I have a lot of good takeaways. I felt a little bit flat today, but still really good. I just feel that conditions have to be perfect for me to jump a World Record and I wasn’t quite feeling it off the runway tonight.”
It was a night of solid but unspectacular marks (if we’ve become so jaded by Duplantis’ talent to now consider 6 meters pedestrian).
In the 110 hurdles, Daniel Roberts continued to hold serve over…
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