Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba (right) leads British Virgin Islands’ Kyron McMasters and Norway’s Karsten Warholm during the men’s 400M hurdles final at the Diamond League meet in the Charlety Stadium, Paris, yesterday.
Doha: Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba yesterday became the second man to ever crack 47 seconds in the 400m hurdles while competing at the Diamond League meet in Paris.
The 22-year-old clocked 46.98 seconds to continue his dream run in the Diamond League to collect his fourth win the seventh race of the Diamond League season.
Having collected impressive victories in Doha, Rome and Oslo, Samba shattered several marks in Paris - Asian, world, Diamond League and meet record.
Samba’s new world lead overtook Rai Benjamin’s 47.02 from the NCAA Outdoor Championships and the mark sits just behind world record-holder Kevin Young’s 46.78 from the 1992 Olympic Games.
The Qatari hurdler has been on an absolute tearaway this season, going undefeated in a string of 47-second performances to improve his personal best five times in six outings.
In many of those races, it was to the chagrin of Swedish rival Karsten Warholm, who once again mounted a furious attempt to dethrone Samba yesterday but faded off the final turn and clobbered the penultimate hurdle to finish third in 48.06. Kyron McMasters put together a brilliant race to finish runner-up in 47.54.
“I told it even before - I want to become the fastest man in the world and I work hard to achieve it. It definitely did not feel like under 47 race today,” Samba told reporters after the race.
“I made a small mistake at the start, lost my balance on the first hurdle so I did not expect to run so fast. But it feels great to be the second fastest man in the history. The world record is getting close but I just want to improve step by step and to run fast. I improved my technique since last year and who knows, maybe I can be one second faster next year. I am speechless now,” he added.
Meanwhile, Kevin Mayer won the triathlon treating himself to two personal bests along the way. In a repeat of last year, the reigning world decathlon champion took victory with 2,860 points ahead of the Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov (2,643pts) and Grenadian Victor Lindon (2,464 pts).
Posting a convincing performance in the long jump (7.62m), Mayer excelled in the shot put (16.51m) and the 110m hurdles (13”71), securing personal bests in both, and really making the most of his participation in the Parisian meeting in front of an audience which was right behind him.
Shericka Jackson was just one hundredth of a second shy of the best performance in the world this year while winning the women’s 200m clocking 22.05. The 23-year-old sprinter posted a personal best and finished way ahead of the American Jenna Prandini (2nd, 22”30).
The reigning world number two in the speciality, Marie-Josée Ta Lou from the Ivory Coast, rounded off the podium (3rd, 22”50), whilst French runner Brigitte Ntiamoah finished 8th in the race (23”48).
