Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim competes in the High Jump competition of the Diamond League athletics meeting at Bislett Stadium in Oslo on Thursday. Barshim, the leading competitor this year with 2.41m to his name, finished third with a jump of 2.33m. (AFP)
Reuters/Oslo
The celebrations of the Bislett Games’ 50th edition fell flat on Thursday when anticipated world records in the men’s high jump and women’s 5,000m failed to materialise.
Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba finished way off her target in the 5,000m after being off the pace for large parts of the race and could only finish in 14 minutes 21.29 seconds.
The high jump world record of 2.45m set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor back in 1993 is also still safely intact after five of the 16 men to have cleared 2.40m all failed on the night.
Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, the leading competitor this year with 2.41m to his name, could finish third with 2.33m.
Asian Games silver medallist Zhang Guowei upstaged the favourites to win the men’s high jump, clearing 2.36 metres on a cool evening with swirling winds which made conditions difficult for the athletes.
He then failed with three attempts at 2.40 to finish ahead of Italian Marco Fassinotti and Qatar’s world silver medallist Barshim, who was joint third with American Erik Kynard.
But even they were better off than Canada’s Derek Drouin (2.29m for 6th spot), Russia’s Ivan Ukhov (2.25m for eighth) and Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenki (2.25m for a ninth place finish).
Barshim and Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko, who finished fifth, have been locked in a fierce battle to break Javier Sotomayor’s 22-year-old world record of 2.45 metres.
The Cuban was watching from the stands on Thursday.
Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba, running solo for the latter part of the 5,000 metres race, failed in a bid to break her sister Tirunesh’s women’s world record of 14 minutes 11.15 seconds, set at the Bislett stadium in 2008.
Dibaba, the world indoor 3,000 metres champion, finished more then 17 seconds ahead of second-placed compatriot Senbere Teferi.
“I tried hard but the pacemakers could not do what I needed,” Dibaba said. “Of course, the cold and the wind also played a part but overall I’m okay with the race.”
Britain’s Olympic champion Greg Rutherford followed his victory at Birmingham last Sunday on his return to competition after injury by winning the men’s long jump with 8.25 metres.
“I jumped on Sunday in Birmingham and so I wanted to monitor my body and rest after 8.25m,” Rutherford told www.diamondleague.com.
“I was feeling that might be good to win, but there were lots of other jumpers who could attack my position so I stayed warm and was ready if something happened. Now I have three good weeks of training in front of me. So far I have been very satisfied with my season.”
The customary Kenyan battle for supremacy in the men’s 3,000 metres steeplechase resulted in victory for Commonwealth silver medallist Jairus Kipchoge Birech in 8:05.63 ahead of world silver medallist Conseslus Kipruto.
Consistent Jamaican Kaliese Spencer won the women’s 400m hurdles, the first track event of the evening, in a world leading time of 54.15 seconds.
American 100 metres hurdler Jasmin Stowers, who has faltered in her last two Diamond League meetings, returned to winning ways with victory in 12.84 seconds.
Stowers set world leading times of 12.40 and 12.39 at the start of the season before clocking 12.35 at the Doha Diamond League meeting.
She then jogged across the line in Rome after hitting the eighth hurdle and was disqualified for a false start in Birmingham.
“After Birmingham I paid attention to my start and technique,” she said.
Briton Laura Muir was rewarded for some bold front-running tactics, in the women’s 1,500 and holding on to win her first Diamond League meeting in four minutes 00.39 seconds as the pack strove in vain to chase her down.
“I heard them coming as the crowd got louder but I managed to keep on running,” Muir said. “I think this is the biggest win of my career.”
The Dream Mile, the final event of the evening, was won by Kenyan Asbel Kiprop in 3:51.45.
In the men’s 200m, meanwhile, French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre celebrated his 25th birthday with victory in 20.21sec for his first career win at a Diamond League meeting.
South Africa’s Anaso Jobodwana was second in 20.39sec ahead of America’s Harry Adams (20.75sec).
The Bislett Games stadium has seen 54 world records fall since 1924.
