logo
Alfred coasts in London, but Lyles pipped in season-opening 100m

Alfred coasts in London, but Lyles pipped in season-opening 100m

France 2419-07-2025
Alfred, the women's 100m Olympic champion, set a meet record with a world-leading 21.71 seconds at a 60,000-capacity sell-out London Stadium.
It put her joint ninth on the all-time list for the 200m in a massive boost for the St Lucia sprinter before the world championships in Tokyo in September.
"It was a strong first 150 metres of the race and I managed to control it to finish strongly," said Alfred, whose 100m gold at the Paris Olympics was the first of any colour for her tiny Caribbean island homeland.
"It was a great race for me, and races like this give me a lot of confidence as we get closer to Tokyo. I did the 200m last year before the Olympics and I finished second, but seeing how I ran today and how comfortable I felt, I am a lot more confident in my 200m heading into the worlds," she added.
Lyles, who won Olympic gold in the men's 100m in Paris last year, suffered a dreadful start and was left chasing Jamaica's Oblique Seville, who racked up a straightforward gun-to-tape win in 9.86sec.
The 28-year-old American, making a late start to the season after coming back from an ankle tendon injury, insisted, however, that he felt great.
"I feel extremely healthy and I am feeling no pain," he said.
"I wanted the win but I think it was my fastest ever season opener, so I will take that result today."
In an afternoon of high-class track and field, Femke Bol produced yet another dominant run in the 400m hurdles for her 29th consecutive Diamond League win.
The Dutch athlete clocked 52.10sec, finishing a full second ahead of American Jasmine Jones.
"I wanted to run quicker in Monaco but my second bend was really not great there," Bol said, referring to her world-leading 51.95sec from last week.
"I had hoped to do better here. I think I executed the second bend better here but other elements were a little less good, so it is a bit disappointing."
Wanyonyi still chasing Rudisha
Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi, hunting down compatriot David Rudisha's 800m world record of 1:40.91 -- set when he won Olympic gold in this same stadium in 2012 -- fell short.
Wanyonyi, the current Olympic champion, edged Canada's Marco Arop for victory in a meet record of 1:42.00.
"My training right now is at 80%, so I will be upping the training in the next few weeks and over the next races before Tokyo," the Kenyan warned.
There was also a meet record of 3:28.82 for Kenya's Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech in a loaded men's 1500m.
Reigning world champion Josh Kerr came second in 3:29.37 in a dramatic final event at the home of Premier League club West Ham.
Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell delighted the home crowd by producing an impressive kick to win the women's 800m in a season's best of 1:56.74.
It was the first of a trio of wins by British athletes in quick succession.
Charles Dobson ran a personal best of 44.14sec to seal a dramatic victory in the men's 400m, overhauling fellow Britain Matthew Hudson-Smith, the world and Olympic silver medallist, in the final metres.
"It is an incredible feeling, I love running here in front of a massive home crowd. It is just awesome to get that time," said Dobson.
"Tactically it went perfectly, and I won the race, so what more can I ask for?!"
And Morgan Lake claimed an unlikely win in the women's high jump, the sole athlete to clear 1.96m to finish ahead of the likes of Australia's 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson and Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the world record holder and current world and olympic champion.
The outstanding performance in the field came from Lithuania's world record holder Mykolas Alekna, who threw a Diamond League and meet record of 71.70m in the men's discus.
Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay also set a meet record of 4:11.88 in an electric women's mile, bettering the previous best set by Sifan Hassan in 2018 by almost three seconds.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Tadej Pogačar crowned Tour de France champion 2025 for 4th time
Tadej Pogačar crowned Tour de France champion 2025 for 4th time

Euronews

timean hour ago

  • Euronews

Tadej Pogačar crowned Tour de France champion 2025 for 4th time

After three weeks of intense effort, Wout van Art won the final and 21st stage of the Tour de France solo in 3 hours, 7 minutes and 30 seconds. The Belgian was the first to cross the finish line on the Champs-Élysées, ahead of the Yellow Jersey winner Tadej Pogačar of the men's 2025 edition of the cycling competition. For this final stage of the 132.2-kilometre Tour, the riders started in Mantes-la-Ville and made three passes over the Butte Montmartre, the emblematic site of the 2024 Olympics, for a 1.1-kilometre climb with an average gradient of 5.9%. They crossed the finish line on the world's most famous avenue, the Champs-Elysées. Tadej Pogačar wins his fourth Grande Boucle With rain threatening the finale of stage 21, the Tour de France organisers froze the general classification times with 50.3 kilometres to go in order to protect the riders. Tadej Pogačar, the 26-year-old Slovenian rider from UAE Team Emirates XRG, won his fourth Grande Boucle, having already won in 2020, 2021 and 2024, thus confirming his status as a cycling legend. He finished almost 4 and a half minutes ahead of his direct rivals. Jonas Vingegaard, who was very strong in the mountains but fell behind in the first time trial and the stage to Hautacam, took second place and Florian Lipowitz was third on the podium.

Sundar and Jadeja follow Gill's lead as defiant India draw fourth Test with England
Sundar and Jadeja follow Gill's lead as defiant India draw fourth Test with England

France 24

timean hour ago

  • France 24

Sundar and Jadeja follow Gill's lead as defiant India draw fourth Test with England

Record-breaking skipper Shubman Gill scored his fourth century of the campaign before Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar also made hundreds as India finished on 425-4 in their second innings -- a lead of 114 runs -- inside the last hour. England remain 2-1 up in this five-match contest ahead of a quick turnaround to Thursday's start of an Oval finale. An India victory in south London would ensure a share of the spoils for Gill's men in a series where the first four Tests have all gone to the last day. Defeat, rather than a draw, looked likely when India collapsed to 0-2 in the opening over of their second innings on Saturday as Chris Woakes struck with successive deliveries following England's mammoth first-innings 669. But Gill, in on a hat-trick, went on to score 103 in a marathon seven-hour stint as he turned the tide during a stand of 188 with KL Rahul that ended before lunch on Sunday. Jadeja, reprieved first ball when Joe Root dropped a tough slip chance, went on to make 107 not out, his first century of the series following four fifties, with fellow spin-bowling all-rounder Sundar unbeaten on 101 -- his maiden Test hundred. 'Brave effort' "I am extremely pleased with our batting effort over the past couple of days," said Gill. "I think we were put under a lot of pressure, but the way we responded, especially after losing two wickets, was a very brave effort." Sundar and Jadeja's unbroken partnership of 203 on a flat pitch frustrated a toiling England, despite the best efforts of inspirational captain Ben Stokes. This match was a personal triumph for Stokes as he became just the fourth England cricketer to score a hundred and take five wickets in the same Test, his 141 on Saturday following a haul of 5-72 in India's first-innings 358. But Stokes, who insisted "pain is just an emotion", repeatedly clutched the top of his leg -- having had hamstring surgery earlier this year -- and also suffered a bicep strain. "When you put in good performances for the team, the joy is dictated by how you feel at the end of the Test and the result," said Stokes. "Obviously, I'd give the bottle of champagne and the medal (away) in a heartbeat if we were on the right side of the result." India resumed on 174-2 with KL Rahul 87 not out and Gill 78 not out. Stokes, the leading bowler on either side this series with 17 wickets at 25.23, brought himself on at the start of Sunday's play after not bowling Saturday and had obdurate opener Rahul, plumb lbw for 90 to a nip-back ball that kept low. And when Gill was caught behind off Jofra Archer, India were still not safe at 222-4. But Sundar and Jadeja, after his first ball reprieve, were largely untroubled. And even when Stokes braved the pain barrier again, Sundar pulled the England skipper for a six and a four off successive balls to reach fifty. Sunday's closing stages became a question of whether either of India's fifth-wicket duo would go to a hundred after Gill declined to take a draw immediately at the start of the last hour when Sundar was 80 not out and Jadeja unbeaten on 89. The match ended in farcical circumstances when batsman Harry Brook came on to bowl. Jadeja smashed a woeful Brook delivery for six to complete a 182-ball century before Gill's two off the Yorkshireman took him to a 206-ball hundred -- the last act of the match. "It got to that point where there was obviously only one result left on the table and I wasn't going to be risking any of my frontline bowlers, especially with a quick turnaround," said Stokes. Sundar and Jadeja received some verbal abuse from England fielders for carrying on towards the three-figure landmark, with Stokes telling reporters: "That partnership was massive, they played incredibly well and I don't think there would have been too much more satisfaction at walking off 100 not out than 80 or 90." © 2025 AFP

Russia's Egorian wins world fencing gold as neutral athlete
Russia's Egorian wins world fencing gold as neutral athlete

France 24

time2 hours ago

  • France 24

Russia's Egorian wins world fencing gold as neutral athlete

Egorian defeated Poland's Zuzanna Cieslar 15-11 in the final in the Georgian capital. The 31-year-old, who won both the individual and team titles at the 2016 Rio Olympics, won her first world championship individual gold medal. Egorian is among the Russian and Belarusian fencers allowed to compete under a neutral banner, despite being a member of CSKA Moscow, a club historically linked to the Russian military. On Sunday, dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of the Olympic Palace in Tbilisi to protest at the participation of fencers from both countries, some of whom "are military personnel", protesters told the Interpressnews agency. In July, the International Fencing Federation (IFF) decided to simplify its procedure for granting Neutral Individual Athlete (NIA) status, allowing the return of certain fencers who had been excluded from competition following the Kremlin's Ukraine offensive. That decision sparked debate both before and during the world championships. In the other final of the day, Japan's Koki Kano, Olympic epee champion in Paris, won the title, defeating Hungary's Gergely Siklosi.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store