China's Gong dominates shot put in Paris
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E-mail Xinhua, July 2, 2017
China's Gong Lijiao met little resistance from her rivals en route to the women's shot put crown at the IAAf Diamond League Paris meeting on Saturday.
Olympic champions fared differently as Jamaica's Elaine Thompson continued to shine on the 100m track, contrary to a sluggish performance from women's 3,000m steeplechase world record holder Ruth Jebet and men's 110m hurdler Omar McLeod of Jamaica.
Gong recorded 18.56m in her first attempt, building a solid start compared with the second-placed Yuliya Leantsiuk at 17.83m. Anita Marton of Hungary, Gong's toughest rival in the event, just made it 17.82m at her first try.
Since witnessing 18.68m in the second attempt, the confident Gong improved her result step by step until 19.14m at last, finishing the six best throws at the Charlety Stadium to the south of Paris. Marton was placed second with 18.48m, while standing first with a total of 25 points after four meetings, one ahead of Gong. Leantsiuk finished third with 18.28m.
"The conditions at the stadium were very good today. I hope to come back next year," said Gong after her third consecutive triumph after Shanghai and Rome.
"My main target will be the World Championships in London in August, and I will go back to Germany tomorrow for preparation," she added.
Thompson, the double winner of 100m and 200m in the Rio Olympic Games, clocked 10.91 seconds to stand out in the 100m event in French capital, although that was 0.2 second short of her season best recorded in Kingston one week ago.
The Jamaican has extended her 100m winning streak to 17 races including heats, according to Diamond League statistics.
"In this moment, I am exactly where I want to be, feeling excited with one month to go to the World Championships," Thompson pointed out.
Christian Taylor became another Olympic champion to upper in Paris as he won the men's triple jump with 17.29 meters.
However, other Olympic gold medalists found it pretty hard to position themselves on top of the podium.
Jebet, who wished to improve on her current world record of 8:52.78 set one year ago in the same meeting, just ranked fourth in the women's 3000m steeplechase with a result of 9:10.95.
McLeod fared even worse. The Jamaican could not build on his leading position in the heats and saw himself seventh with 13.41 seconds, with the title going to his compatriot Ronald Levy at 13.05.
Local favorite Renaud Lavillenie, still recovering from his injury early in the season, lost to American Sam Kendricks again after the Shanghai meeting. The 2012 Olympic champion finished second at 5.62m, 20 centimeters lower than Kendricks' result.
Thomas Rohler, men's javelin titleholder in Rio last year, came third with 87.23 meters. His fellow German Johannes Vetter tasted the victory at 88.74m.
Host athlete Kevin Mayer, Olympic decathlon silver medalist, comfortably won in triathlon, a new event at the meeting.
The 12-stop Diamond League has brought its seventh meeting in Paris to an end, with the next slated for July 6 in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The eight best athletes of each of 32 disciplines will head to Zurich and Brussels for the finals after all 12 stops have curtained down.
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