11.07.2010

Lapierre leapfrogs Olympic champion in Gateshead

World indoor long jump champion Fabrice Lapierre has leapt to the top of the Diamond Race table with a come-from-behind win over the reigning Olympic champion in Round 8 of the IAAF Diamond League series in Gateshead (GBR) overnight.

Lapierre was joined on the British leg of the 14-meet tour by fellow Commonwealth Games long jump nominee Chris Noffke (eighth) and Olympic and world championships steeplechaser Youcef Abdi (fifth).

Opening his account with two consecutive fouls, Lapierre hit 7.85m (w:-0.3) in the penultimate round to sit in third place overall. The 26-year-old New South Welshman then turned on a last-ditch leap of 8.20m (w:0.0) to join Swede Michel Torneus (8.01, w:0.0) as one of only two athletes to jump over eight metres in the shortened four-round competition and rocket to first place.

Entering the meet in third place on the Diamond Race rankings table behind 2004 Olympic and three-time world champion Dwight Phillips (USA) and reigning Olympic and 2007 world champion Irving Saladino (PAN), Lapierre now sits atop the Race ladder with two wins and nine points to his name, one point clear of Phillips and two clear of Saladino, who was forced to settle for third place with a leap of 7.96m (w:1.4).

Lapierre, who took out the national long jump crown in April with a monster wind-assisted leap of 8.78m in Perth, now boasts Diamond League victories over both the reigning world and Olympic champions in Phillips and Saladino, his win over Phillips coming in Round 2 of the series in Shanghai (CHN) in May.

Also in action in the sandpit in Gateshead was Queenslander Chris Noffke, who placed eighth with a best distance of 7.64m (w:0.0). Opening his campaign with a foul, Noffke posted jumps of 7.55m (w:0.4) and 7.63m (w:0.9) before hitting his best mark of the day on his fourth and final trip down the runway.

The men’s long jump competition now moves to Monaco (MON) for the fifth round of the seven-event series on Thursday, July 22.

On the track, Beijing Olympic and Berlin world championships representative Youcef Abdi ran a season’s best time of 8:28.93 to finish fifth in the men’s 3000m steeplechase in his continuing chase for nomination to October’s Commonwealth Games. Kenya’s Linus Chumba took out the event in a new meet record time of 8:19.72.

The 14-meet IAAF Diamond League tour now moves to Paris for Round 9 of the series on Friday, July 16, where world, Olympic, world indoor and Commonwealth Games champions Steve Hooker (pole vault) and fellow world champion Dani Samuels (discus throw) will headline the action for Australia.