20.08.2010

Lapierre stitches up second in Diamond Race final

National and world indoor long jump champion Fabrice Lapierre has finished second overall in the IAAF Diamond League long jump standings after rounding out his 2010 campaign with an eighth placing in Zurich (SUI) overnight.

Lapierre was joined in Round 13 of the 14-meet tour by fellow Commonwealth Games nominees Matt Davies (fifth, 100m – non-Diamond League), Aaron Rouge-Serret (DQ, 100m – non-Diamond League), Richard Colman (fourth, T54 1500m – non-Diamond League) and Australia’s men’s 4x100m relay team (seventh – non-Diamond League) on a night of mixed fortunes for the green and gold.

Entering the seventh and final long jump competition on the 2010 Diamond League calendar in second place behind 2004 Olympic and three-time world champion Dwight Phillips (USA), Lapierre was hoping fate would fall his way overnight, the 26-year-old needing to take out the Zurich title and for Phillips to finish no higher than third to take out the lucrative Diamond Race.

But while Lapierre, who is steadily building a reputation as a gun performer under pressure, looked sharp on the runway, he was unable to record a valid jump and finished the competition in eighth place.

"I was feeling really good and I know there are some big jumps there, I thought tonight might be the night but the fouls just got in the way," he said.

Despite the overnight result Lapierre hung on to second place in the season-long Diamond Race competition, his 2010 campaign highlighted by wins in Shanghai (CHN) and Gateshead (GBR) before running into some bad luck late in the series.

"In London (GBR) I had a bad day and I couldn't get going. Today I was feeling good but could not get one in. I can't pinpoint the problem, maybe my run might have been different," Lapierre said.

"I had a big jump that probably would have won it."

Reigning world champion Phillips dominated the competition overnight, winning with a first round leap of 8.20m (w:-0.3) that sealed his victory in the Diamond Race and the $USD40,000 cash bonus.

Despite the absence of the three fastest men of all time in Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell (injured) and America’s Tyson Gay, who ran the 4x100m relay, there was still plenty of drama in the men's 100m, where confusion reigned during and long after the race.

Australia fielded two of the nine starters in the event, with Commonwealth Games-nominated relay runners Aaron Rouge-Serret and Matt Davies starting in lanes one and nine respectively alongside a field that included sub-10 second men Michael Frater (JAM) and Michael Rodgers (USA).

In a drama-fuelled race, Rouge-Serret and Mark Lewis-Francis (GBR) got away to starts that looked a little too good to be true and had most of the field waiting for a recall gun. It never came, or misfired if it did. Trell Kimmons (USA) didn't mind and went on to trim his best all the way from 10.09 down to a quick 9.95 (w:-0.8), with Rouge-Serret crossing the line in sixth place and Davies in seventh. Frater and countryman Mario Forsythe pulled up early, waiting for a second chance that never came.

"I think everyone thought they would pull (the field) back," Rouge-Serret said.

After a delay of more than an hour the official results confirmed Rouge-Serret's disqualification (reaction time: 0.033). Lewis-Francis (reaction time: 0.030) also fell foul of the judges, which saw Davies into fifth place with his run of 10.45.

Rouge-Serret and Davies returned later in the evening for the 4x100m relay with teammates Jacob Groth and national 100m record-holder Patrick Johnson.

The Australian team finished in seventh place with a time of 39.45, exactly two seconds behind the American quartet of Trell Simmons, Wallace Spearmon, Tyson Gay and Michael Rodgers, whose slick baton changes saw them all the way to the fifth fastest run in history with a world leading and meet record time of 37.45.

Also featuring on the track overnight was Paralympic medallist and Commonwealth Games nominee Richard Colman in the T54 1500m. Following his third placing at the London stopover of the Diamond League tour last week, the Victorian took some eight seconds off his time to cross the line in 3:12.16 but could not overcome Swiss world record-holder and crowd favourite Marcel Hug, first in 3:01.07.

In other action, Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep continued her good form, backing up her London win with another victory in the 100m hurdles. Her time of 12.53 (w:-0.2) was just outside the world leading time of 12.52 she set last week. American Lolo Jones was third in 12.81.

In the absence of the world's sprint superstars, most interest surrounded American David Oliver in the 110m hurdles and how close he could get to the Cuban Dayron Robles' world record mark of 12.87. 

Despite a less than optimal start, the American record-holder asserted his dominance by the first hurdle. He nudged the third barrier and then clattered the fifth before opening a huge lead that indicated something special was on the cards.

Oliver's desperate lunge and subsequent shoulder-roll went below the finish beam to show 13.24 (w:-0.3) but the knowledgeable Swiss crowd knew it looked better than that and so it was confirmed, as the revised time of 12.93 was announced.

"I know I am not a perfect hurdler, I am still making mistakes and that is why I am missing the world record," Oliver said.

"But I will fix that mistake one time. If not this year then next year. But the key is to remain healthy," Oliver said.

Oliver just missed the meet record time of 12.92 set by two-time Olympic champion Roger Kingdom (USA) in 1989. Incidently, Oliver recorded the exact same time that hurdling legend Renaldo Nehemiah (USA) clocked in Zurich in 1981 to set the then-world record.

The 2010 Diamond League series now moves to Brussels (BEL) for the final stopover of the 14-meet series on Friday, August 27.

With thanks to Pat Birgan in Zurich