Noah Lyles came, put on the show and won, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage hit one with the spear and Thomas Röhler held up the German colors: The Diamond League meeting in Rome was peppered with top performances.
The “Grande Finale” in the Olympic Stadium kept what it promised: the big show garnished with top performances. Tokyo world champion Noah Lyles competed for the first time at the Golden Gala in the Olympic Stadium and, after a slow start, won the favorite over 100 meters in 9.88 seconds – a season’s best performance for the American.
Somewhat surprisingly, Emmanuel Eseme from Cameroon came second in a strong field (9.94, national record). 200-meter Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo (9.95, Botswana) came third. Local hero and 2021 Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs only finished fifth in 9.99 seconds.
Show of power from Olympic champion Alfred
In the women’s 200 meters, Julien Alfred left no doubt about her impressive early form. From the start, the Olympic champion from St. Lucia dominated the race and clearly won the eagerly awaited duel with Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in 21.93 seconds. The three-time world champion from Tokyo from the USA only remained second in her season debut in 22.17 seconds.
Pathirage breaks the 90 meter mark
Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage opened the evening at the Stadio Olimpico with a real banger. The 23-year-old javelin thrower from Sri Lanka broke the magical 90-meter mark for the first time in his career, winning with 92.62 meters – a world-class performance from the seventh-placed World Cup winner in Tokyo, and also a national and meeting record. It was the first 90-meter throw of the season.
92.62 meters! Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage from Sri Lanka.
Olympic champion Röhler impresses again
Thomas Röhler took a good fifth place with 82.89 meters and is getting better and better after a long period of weakness. The 35-year-old Olympic champion from Rio 2016 threw over a meter further than he did in Rabat (81.61). He narrowly missed his season’s best of 83.33 meters from April. Röhler is currently throwing farther than he has since 2019 and in this form could become a German hope for the European Championships in August in Birmingham.
Local hero Fabbri dupes them Ball competition
In the shot putter ring, world record holder and three-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser surprisingly came up short. With a modest height of 21.50 meters for his standards, the American only came in third, behind his compatriot Joe Kovacs (21.87) and the Italian European champion Leonardo Fabbri. The local hero’s 22.14 meters were unbeatable and made the Italian fans in the Olympic Stadium jump for joy.
Cunningham cracks Ancient meeting record
Trey Cunningham conjured up a hurdle race that was all of a piece. In 12.98 seconds, the American set a world annual best (the first run under 13 seconds this season) and improved Allen Johnson’s ancient meeting record from 1999 (13.01).
Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalová raced to victory and a national record in the women’s 400 meter hurdles in 52.58 seconds. Megan Simmonds was unable to set a Jamaican record in the 100 meter hurdles in 12.50 seconds, but the Olympic bronze medalist beat former world record holder Kendra Harrison and Dutch record holder Nadine Visser in a strong field.