OSLO — Canada’s triple Olympic medalist André De Grasse took victory in the 100m at the Oslo Diamond League meeting Thursday as Norwegian 16-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen again broke the four-minute barrier for the mile.
De Grasse, 22, sprinted home in 10.01sec ahead of Britain’s Chinjidu Ujah (10.02sec), who won in Rome last week, and Ben Youssef Meité of the Ivory Coast (10.03).
“It’s my best for the season. I hope it will continue in Stockholm on Sunday and where I want to get under 10 seconds for the first time before the Canadian trials for the world championships,” said Grasse.
Ingebrigtsen won the mile race in 3min 56.29sec, improving his recent best of 3:58.07 which had allowed him to become the youngest man to go below four minutes for the mile.
Ingebrigtsen, who will only turn 17 on September 19, said he has the capacity to go faster.
“I could have run faster today but it doesn’t matter because it was a crazy experience,” said the Norwegian star.
World champion Dafne Schippers’s 25th birthday celebrations fell flat Thursday when the Dutch sprint star was disqualified twice from the 200m.
Schippers, the 2015 world champion and silver medalist at the Rio Olympics last year, was originally disqualified for a false start. She was then allowed to run under protest, taking an impressive victory in 22.30sec before she was disqualified again after the race.
Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure was crowned the winner instead with a season’s best 22.74sec.
“There was a lot of noise at the start and it was difficult to concentrate,” pleaded Schippers. But these things happen and I just have to accept that.”
South Africa’s Caster Semanya won the 800m in 1min 57.59sec ahead of Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba (1:58.18) and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui (1:59.17).
It was the same 1-2-3 from the Rio Olympics.
Chilly temperatures shattered hopes of world records at the famed Bislett stadium which has witnessed 62 of them down the years.
Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barhim recorded 2.38m in the high jump, a centimeter’s improvement on his best for the year.
It also bettered the stadium record of 2.35m set in 1989 by the only man who has jumped higher than him, Cuba’s world record holder at 2.45m, Javier Sotomayor.
“That was the target,” said Barshim. “We came for 2.38. So mission completed. At the beginning I was feeling a little bit sleepy, but after 2.33 I woke up and came into the right rhythm.” — Agencies
