Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba (right), Norway’s Karsten Warholm (left) and USA’s Kerron Clement compete in the men’s 400m hurdles event during the Oslo IAAF Diamond League meet yesterday.
DOHA: Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba yesterday made a brilliant comeback in the home stretch to outshine home hero and world champion Karsten Warholm to win the 400m with a meet record at the IAAF Diamond League in Oslo.
Also yesterday, reigning world high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim maintained his unbeaten Diamond League record this season, winning his pet event, clearing 2.36 metres.
At the Bislett Stadion, Samba erased the 32-year old meet record held by American legend Danny Harris with a brilliant run, clocking a time of 47.60 seconds in the men’s 400 metres hurdles.
The event saw a host of top rated competitors, including Rio Olympics finalist Yasmani Copello of Turkey and Kerron Clement, the reigning Olympic champion. However, all eyes were on the home hero Warholm and Samba who is in brilliant form this season, having the world leading time under his name.
Samba was trailing at the third position until halfway mark, with Warholm leading the pack. But Samba eased past Warholm in the final 100 metres to disappoint the home crowd, completing a record breaking performance once again.
“I cannot say I was confident coming into the last hurdle to win, but I have better endurance in last meters. I’m enjoying life and hoping to continue to run fast next time in Stockholm,” Samba said.
“And you can be sure I can run faster, maybe even close to 47 seconds. And Samba dance, I need to learn that more,” Samba added. It was his third win the Diamond League this season.
Yasmani finished third (48.54 secs.) behind Warholm who clocked a time of 48.22 secs.
USA’s Timothy Lamont ‘TJ’ Holmes and Clement finished fourth and fifth respectively.
The men’s high jump field saw eight of the top athletes in contest, but ell eyes were on the exciting duel between the 2017 World Athlete of the Year, Barshim and Russia’s Danil Lysenko who won the silver medal at the IAAF Worlds last year.
Only Barshim and Lysenko made it beyond the 2.30 mark as Majd Eddin Ghazal, Marco Fasinotti and Donald Thomas all failed to clear the height.
Lysenko cleared the 2.30m mark with ease before Barshim succeeded in his second attempt. Both of them made it past the 2.33m mark, a new seasonal best for Lysenko.
The Russian neutral athlete failed in all his attempts at the height of 2.36 but the Qatari star kept on moving higher.
After clearing 2.36 metres in his first attempt, he decided to go for the record height of 2.40 meters but failed on all three of his attempts.
