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2013 Zurich Diamond League Zurich, Switerland August 29, 2013 Photo: Giancarlo Colombo@PhotoRun Victah1111@aol.com 631-291-3409 www.Photorun.NET
Weltklasse Zürich – It all goes right for Kanter in Zurich while Hejnova is supreme again – European Athletics (EA) – News
The penultimate Diamond League meeting of the season brought the event to the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich for the Weltklasse and it was a night to remember. European athletes were at the forefront of so many events which took place for the last time this summer in the first of the two finals.
Kanter sees everything fit into place
Gerd Kanter was the outsider going into the discus final. Not only did Estonia's 2008 Olympic champion need to win but he also needed Piotr Malachowski, the man who finished behind him in Beijing, not to be second to him here.
Not only did Kanter achieve what he needed to with victory with a throw of 67.02m in the third round, his best of the season, but his Polish rival was back in seventh with 63.70m after a night where his last four efforts were fouls.
What a turnaround it was as Kanter won the eight points on offer in the final to double his total for the season and win the Diamond Race, overtaking Malachowski, who started as the leader with 14 and ended with 14 – in second place overall.
Germany's Olympic and triple world champion Robert Harting also had an evening of only two throws but his fourth round 66.83m brought him second place and third overall with 12 points with Iran's Ehsan Hadadi third with 66.07m.
It is another outstanding achievement for Kanter, a double European silver medallist, who was third in Moscow but he now ends the season as the Diamond Race winner when that did not always look like the case.
Menkov is sixth but the glory is still his
Aleksandr Menkov had won the Diamond Race even before the long jump began and after starting with a foul and then landing only 7.94m in the second round, he did not compete again.
It has been some week for the Russian world champion who became a father on Monday.
But on Thursday he suffered a rare defeat as South Africa's Zarck Visser won with 8.32m with Menkov finishing sixth.
Bondarenko cannot repeat his world lead
Something out of the ordinary was expected of Ukraine's world champion Bohdan Bondarenko and he attempted to make history but it did not work out.
The man who leads the world rankings with 2.41m cleared 2.28m and 2.33m and by that stage he had won the event.
The bar was then raised to 2.46m, one centimetre more than Javier Sotomayor's world record.
After failing to earn his place among the legends of the event by failing with his first attempt, he then retired from the night's proceedings.
But Bondarenko had long since been crowned the winner of the Diamond Race for the event where, here in Zurich, Greece's Konstantinos Baniotis was second with 2.33m on countback from Qatar's Muraz Essa Barshim.
Hejnova stays unbeaten in 2013
The figure of 32 Diamond points is quite a statement as it sits next to the name of the Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova after her seventh victory in this summer's Diamond League.
Hejnova, the 400m hurdles world champion, won again in style in 53.32 from Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer in 54.22 with Denisa Rosolova, also of the Czech Republic, third in 54.99.
The standard set by Hejnova has been magnificent, and she wins the Diamond Race by 25 points from Spencer.
Abakumova earns another fine success
She could not do it in Moscow or even in the first part of the Diamond League season but Mariya Abakumova is ending the summer in fine fashion in the way she is beating Germany's javelin world champion Christina Obergfoll.
Obergfoll had a 6-0 record against Abakumova but that has now been cut back to 6-3 after the Russian's latest success here.
She led all the way after a first round throw of 64.90m and stretched that to 68.94m in a consistent programme that also included 66.91m and 66.26m.
Obergfoll had a foul on her first go, reached 60.59m on the second and her only other legal throw was in the fourth round when she achieved 63.36m.
It meant second place for Obergfoll on the night but she had won the Diamond Race even before the competition started with Germany's Linda Stahl third with 63.24m from round five.
Obergfoll ended with 25 points with Abakumova's eight in Zurich giving her 18.
Silke smooth for pole vault glory
There was another European victory in the pole vault as Germany's Silke Spiegelburg won with a season's best of 4.79m from Brazil's Fabiana Murer with 4.72m, second on countback ahead of Cuba's Yarisley Silva.
Spiegelburg, the 2010 European champion who was fourth in Moscow, earned the eight points to give her victory in the Diamond Race as Silva finished second in the series with 13 points.
And there was celebration, too, for Great Britain's Shara Proctor who won the Diamond Race in the long jump as she earned one of the best wins of her career in Zurich.
Her moment to remember came in the third round when she leaped 6.88m to take the lead from Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare who was in front with 6.69m at the end of the opening round.
But after 6.65m and then a foul, Proctor delivered in style to land the eight points that took her to 17 in the standings ahead of Okagbare with 14 after she improved to 6.76m in the third round with Ivana Spanovic, of Serbia, third with 6.73m.
Vicaut smashes the barrier once more
Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut enhanced his reputation as he broke 10 seconds again in the 100m.
In a fine display, he was fourth in 9.98 as Usain Bolt won in 9.90.
Olympic champion Mariya Savinova made a bold effort to win the 800m, where the Diamond Race was for grabs.
At the home turn she moved onto the outside to challenge Eunice Jepkoech Sum, who had replaced her as world champion in Moscow, but the Kenyan found a final kick.
Sum won in 1:58.82 from Savinova in 1:58.93.
Poland's Marcin Lewandowski ran a personal best of 1:43.79 in the non-Diamond League men's 800m as he finished second to American Nick Symmonds in 1:43.56.
European Athletics (EA) – News
