Moraa, Amusan and Van Niekerk in fine form a few weeks before the World Championships
Silesia Meeting: Moraa, Amusan and Van Niekerk in fine form. The latter two also set new meeting records.
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Sooufiane El Bakkali has become unbeatable in the 3000m steeplechase. The Olympic and reigning world champion, the Moroccan was a deserved winner on Sunday at the Silesia meeting. He won again in 8:03.16 and confirmed he is the favourite to complete the double at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, scheduled for 19 to 27 August.
Tobi Amusan can also land a double. A year after winning the 100m hurdles at the World Championships in Eugene, the Nigerian is gradually returning to top form. She won in Poland in 12s34, her best time of the season and a new Silesia meeting record. It is a timely surge for the woman who holds the world record in the 100m hurdles.
Van Niekerk also sets a Silesia meeting record
Wayde Van Niekerk also holds a world record, the 400m mark he set brilliantly at the 2016 Rio Olympics (43s03). But several injuries have kept him away from the best one-lap runners in recent years. The South African is, however, on the road to redemption. He won at the Silesia meeting with a superb time, a new meeting record (44s08). It is his best mark in more than three years and the 2nd fastest time in the world this year over 400m. In the same race, Botswana's Bayapo Ndori (2nd) and South Africa's Zakhiti Nene (4th) set personal bests of 44.61 and 44.74.
In the women's 800m, Mary Moraa also improved her best time of the season, winning in 1:56.85 at the Silesia meeting. The Kenyan is thus stringing together Diamond League wins. This season, only Britain's Keely Hodgkinson has run a faster 800m than her (1:55.77).
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