Canada's Brown, De Grasse finish 5th, 6th respectively in 200m Diamond League event
Canadian Newman finishes 11th in women's pole vault at Swiss Diamond League stop
Canadians Aaron Brown and Andre De Grasse finished neck-and-neck in fifth and sixth place respectively on Friday in the men's 200-metre event - the first of two races against one another this weekend in Diamond League action.
The two countrymates first squared off on the Diamond League's sixth stop of the season in Lausanne, Switzerland, racing alongside one another in the third and fourth lanes.
Toronto's Brown got off to a blazing start, leading all eight competitors to start the race, but eventually lost steam, being overtaken by four athletes, including first-place Letsile Tebogo. The Botswanan won with a time of 20.01. Brown finished with a time of 20.44, while De Grasse clocked in at 20.57.
WATCH | Brown, De Grasse finish 5th, 6th in 200m:
Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago was second with a time of 20.11 and Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh was third at 20.21.
Brown - who has a season-best time of 20.00 in the 200m - has now won six consecutive combined 100m and 200m matchups between the two fellow Canadians, as well as eight of the last 11 races between the two overall.
The 200m competition behind them, the two will now turn their attention to Sunday's 100m Diamond League event in Stockholm.
Sunday's race will be the first head-to-head meeting between the two Canadians in the 100 since the Diamond League Final last September in Zurich, where Brown was third and De Grasse - battling through various ailments - finished eighth.
Vancouver's Kieran Lumb will also be competing on Sunday in the men's 3,000m event.
Newman places 11th in women's pole vault
Canadian Alysha Newman finished 11th in the women's pole vault earlier on Friday.
The London, Ont., native had been mired in a tough stretch that saw her put forth three no-height results in the past four events over the last two weeks, most recently failing to clear 4.34 metres on Tuesday in Ostrava.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist has a season's best jump of 4.61m, which she earned in Los Angeles in May.
Four women - American Katie Moon, Australian Eliza McCartney, Finland's Wilma Murto and Slovenia's Tina Šutej - were able to clear that 4.61m mark on Friday, with Moon walking away with a first-place jump of 4.82m.
Aregawi clocks 5th-fastest men's 5,000m in history
Berihu Aregawi ran the fifth-fastest men's 5,000m in track history to beat Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei.
Aregawi raced clear of Cheptegei over the last two laps to win a compelling duel in 12 minutes, 40.45 seconds. The 22-year-old Ethiopian, who was fourth in the 10,000 at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, never let Cheptegei get too close on his shoulder and broke clear 50 metres from the finish. Cheptegei set the world record of 12:35.36 three years ago. Track greats Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie are second and third on the all-time list.
With the top American and Jamaican sprinters at home for national trials ahead of the world championships in August, the men's distance runners took centre stage on the latest stop on the Diamond League circuit.
WATCH | 2023 World Athletics Diamond League: Lausanne:
Olympic 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen eased to victory in 3:28.72, a meet record in Lausanne but more than seven-tenths of a second slower than his European record set on his home track in Oslo two weeks ago.
The storied Athletissima meet is known as a fast track but the sprint lineups lacked their usual depth Friday with national championships taking priority before the Aug. 19-27 worlds in Budapest, Hungary.
Ta Lou takes women's 100m
In the women's 100, Marie-Josee Ta Lou — who was fourth at the past two Olympics — took advantage of the weakened starting field to extend her winning streak in June with victory in 10.88 seconds.
"The conditions weren't ideal, it was cold for me," the Ivory Coast sprinter said. "But I'm happy at least I ran under the 11 seconds barrier."
WATCH | Ta Lou wins women's 100m:
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the women's 100 hurdles in 12.40, 0.07 ahead of Tobi Amusan, the world record holder and 2022 world champion.
Ryan Crouser was one of the few Americans competing in Lausanne as he is directly qualified for Budapest as the reigning world champion in shot put.
Crouser's winning throw of 22.29 meters on a cool evening was well down on his world record of 23.56 set in Los Angeles a month ago.
Diamond League calendar
- Silesia, Poland — July 16
- Monaco — July 21
- London — July 23
- Shanghai — July 29
- Shenzhen, China — Aug. 3
- Zurich — Aug. 31
- Brussels — Sept. 8
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here
With files from The Associated Press
