Diamond League Brussels

Close behind in third was Canada’s Andre DeGrasse who ran a season’s best 19.89 for third place. His Canadian teammate Aaron Brown also ran a season-best 19.98 for fourth place.

Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands and Shamier Little of the USA, as well as McLeod, battled for the lead over the first 300m with the American taking the lead coming off the curve into the home straight. She seemed headed for victory before Bolingo unleashed a stirring run to take victory in 50.02.

Klaver managed to edge ahead of Little to take second place in 50.16 with the American fading to third in 50.58.

Great Britain’s Victoria Ohurugou managed to out-lean McLeod at the line to take fourth in 50.81.

Jackson running from lane six, was not as smooth as she would have liked in the early stages of the race but recovered well in the straight and sprinted away to stop the clock in 21.48s in a slight tailwind of 0.2 metres per second.

She bettered the previous Meet Record of 21.64s set by another Jamaican stalwart Merlene Ottey back in 1991 and will now turn her focus to Eugene which represents her final shot at the World Record of 21.34s held by American Florence Griffith-Joyner since 1988, this season.

Bahamian Anthonique Strachan closed fast to take second in 22.31s, with American Jenna Prandini (22.47s) taking third.

Speaking at the press-conference ahead of Friday’s Brussels Diamond League meet, Duplantis made the declaration after Fraser-Pryce jokingly asked him the question.

“How fast do you think you could do in a 100m against me?” said Fraser-Pryce, the current world leader at 10.62 and owner of six sup 10.7 times this season, the most in history.

“I would beat you,” said Duplantis in reply before Fraser-Pryce jokingly responded “survey says, that’s a lie.”

The reigning World and Olympic pole vault champion then recalled his days running the short sprint back in high school in the USA in 2018 where he ran a wind-aided 10.57.

Fraser-Pryce then pointed out how much time had passed between then and now but Duplantis made the claim that he’s faster now.

Finally, the two world-beaters decided to put a friendly wager on a race between them at next year’s Brussels Diamond League event.

With World Champion Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela absent, silver medallist Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine and Ricketts were both heavily favoured to battle for top spot on this occasion and the manner in which they started, justified that much.

Both cut the sand at 14.30m on their first attempts, but Ricketts improved to 14.70m on her second attempt in a negative 0.2 metres per second wind reading, while Bekh-Romanchuk failed to register a mark.

Ricketts maintained her rhythm in the series and with it came the big personal best of 15.01m on her third attempt, as she bettered her previous best of 14.98m which was set in Doha in 2021.

Though she skipped the fourth and fifth attempts and fouled on the sixth and final jump, the 31-year-old Ricketts, who was fourth at the World Championships in Hungary, had done enough to top the podium, as Bekh-Romanchuk’s next best efforts of 14.56m and 14.57m, came on her last two attempts.

Lafond’s best effort of 14.49m which came on her third attempt, secured her the third-place finish, while Kimberly Williams, the other Jamaican in the event, placed fifth with a best mark of 13.96m.

Struggling for form primarily because of injury throughout most of the season, the double-double Olympic champion ran her best race this season with a commanding performance that would have inspired confidence that she is finally getting back to her best.

In her devastating wake was compatriot Natasha Morrison, who ran a season’s best 10.95 for second place. Great Britain’s Dina Asher Smith was third in 10.97.

Sashalee Forbes was fifth in 11.17.

This was Thompson-Herah’s third season best time in as many races after running 10.92 in Switzerland on September 4, which followed an 11.00 clocking on August 31.