Duplantis sails to victory in Suzhou, Simbine beats Coleman
Sweden's pole vault sensation Armand Duplantis failed to set a new world record after securing gold at the second meeting of the 2024 Diamond League on Saturday, while Chinese athletes claimed two silver and two bronze medals.
Having soared to his eighth world record of 6.24 meters at the season opener in Xiamen last week, Duplantis was looking to make history again.
Akani Simbine (2nd R) of South Africa and Christian Coleman (1st R) of the United States react after the men's 100m final at the Yangtze River Delta Athletics Diamond Gala in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, April 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
In the final, Duplantis raised the bar directly to 6.25m after securing gold at 6.00m, but failed to clear the height on all three attempts amidst applause at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center.
"I felt great today, really good. To jump six meters today and complete a very successful tour, I have a lot of good takeaways," said the 24-year-old.
"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. Now I go back home and train for a few weeks until my next competition in Ostrava," he added.
Tokyo Olympic champion Valarie Allman of the United States won the women's discus with a season's best of 69.86 meters on her fifth attempt. Local favorite Feng Bin also improved her season's best to 67.11m to take silver, while Yaime Perez of Cuba got bronze with 65.59m on her only valid throw.
"I've enjoyed an awesome trip in China. It was great to have two stacked back-to-back fields," said Allman. "Conditions were good today and it has been very motivating. My technique was a little bit off today, so to still get the win was very encouraging."
In the men's long jump, China's Wang Jianan just missed the gold, 0.01m shy of Marquis Dendy of the United States, while Suzhou local Shi Yuhao settled for bronze with 7.99m.
Armand Duplantis of Sweden competes during the men's pole vault final at the Yangtze River Delta Athletics Diamond Gala in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, April 27, 2024. (Xinhua/Song Yanhua)
"The result today was not as good as I expected, I jumped 8.04m but I was aiming for 8.10m," Wang said. "I will be aiming to compete more confidently for the Olympic Games and improve the following season."
In the women's shot put, Tokyo Olympic champion Gong Lijiao of China failed to make the podium, while her compatriot Song Jiayuan claimed bronze with 19.83 meters, following Chase Jackson of the United States and Canada's Sarah Mitton.
Akani Simbine of South Africa stunned title favorites Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley in the men's 100m, while Daniel Roberts and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the men's and women's hurdles respectively.