Jamaica’s Janieve Russell and Andrenette Knight took second and third places, respectively, in the opening track event at the Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

The race was won by the imperious Dutch athlete Femke Bol in a new meet record of 52.65.

The third Jamaican in the race, Rushell Clayton, fell late and did not finish.

Bol, who won the rare 400m hurdles/400m double at the recent European championships in Germany proved too strong for the field pulling away over the last 120m for a comfortable victory. Russell, the 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, clocked 53.92 for second place.

Knight, who missed out on the 2022 World Championships in Oregon after she fell at the Jamaica national championships in June, finished third in 54.33.

Speaking afterwards, Russell said she was disappointed with the time.

“The race was okay but, honestly, I wanted to go faster. I felt that with such fast competitors in the field I could have put together a better race,” she said.

“I shuffled between a few hurdles and did not execute my technique correctly at times. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the result because it’s been a long season and I have run a lot. I love running and it’s part of the job that I do (to also do some 4x400ms for Jamaica), so even though my body is tired I´m happy to be racing. I look forward to coming back to Switzerland for the finals in Zurich.”

Meanwhile, Knight, who had not raced since she ran 53.85 at Marietta, Georgia on July 2, was happy with her run from lane one.

“Very pleased with my race,” she said, “I felt I executed my plans well this evening, especially since I had not competed in the last two months. I hope to continue improving and doing a PB this year. It will be great if I can make it to the Diamond League final.”