It was a tale of two Bahamian athletes at the Shanghai Diamond League, with the duo of Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Steven Gardiner both storming to Meeting Records (MRs) to win their respective events on Saturday.
For Miller-Uibo who was making her first appearance after winning the 2018 Commonwealth title, she further displayed a dominance that could see her remain untouchable in the one lap and half-lap races in the near future, easily winning the women’s 200m with a time of 22.06s.
That time saw Miller-Uibo surpass the MR of 22.36s, which was set four years ago by Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare-Ighotegunor.
Immediately Miller-Uibo got out off the blocks, she accelerated into the lead and maintained it to the finish as others played catch-up. Dafne Schippers finished 2nd with an SB of 22.34s and Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson 3rd with a time of 22.36s.
For Miller-Uibo’s compatriot Gardiner, he demonstrated that his victory last week in Doha was no fluke as he went under 44s for the second time this season, winning the men’s 400m with an MR of 43.99s.
Gardiner who surpassed Jeremy Wariner’s MR of 44.02s, held off the challenge of Botswana’s Isaac Makwala who was 2nd with a Season’s Best (SB) of 44.23s and Abdalleleh Haroun 3rd in 44.51s
It’s a big statement from Gardiner who has no doubt passed a message to other 400m challengers that he’s the dark horse, well there won’t be any doubts about his credentials, especially seeing the manner he stormed to a WL and PB of 43.87s last week.
Meanwhile in the men’s 100m, it was neither Justin Gatlin nor Chijindu Ujah who won, rather it was Reece Prescod who came from the outside to dip ahead of Bingtian Su and win in 10.04s. Su was 2nd in 10.05s and Zhenye Xie 3rd in 10.17s, all the top 3 athletes ran SBs.
The women 100m Hurdles produced an American 1-2-3 and the big story there being that World Record holder, Kendra Harrison finished 3rd with a time of 12.56s. Brianna McNeal won the race with an MR of 12.50s ahead of Sharika Nelvis who finished 2nd with an SB of 12.52s.
While in the men’s 110m Hurdles, Omar McLeod narrowly edged out Orlando Ortega in a photo finish to win, equalling his Season’s Best of 13.16s. The latter finished 2nd in an SB of 13.17s and Sergey Shubenkov was 3rd also with an SB of 13.27s
It was a similar tale of near victories as Dalilah Muhammad narrowly defeated Janieve Russell to win the women’s 400m Hurdles with an SB of 53.77s. Rusell clocked a Personal Best of 53.78s to finish 2nd and Sage Watson, 3rd with an SB of 55.23s.
In the 800m Kenya’s Wycliffe Kinyamal won with an MR and PB of 1:43.91. His compatriot Jonathan Kitilit was 2nd in 1:43.95 and Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski 3rd with a time of 1:45.41.
There was another Kenyan victory to report on through Timothy Cheruiyot who won the men’s 1500m clocking a WL of 3:31.48. Cheruiyot beat Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera who ran a PB of 3:31.48 to finish 2nd and Morocco’s Abdelaati Iguider 3rd with an SB of 3:32.72
