Canada's Brown, De Grasse finish 2nd, 3rd in 200 as Diamond League season begins
Canadians Brown takes silver, De Grasse grabs bronze in 200m season debut
Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown finished second in the 200-metre final in Diamond League action, while fellow Canuck Andre De Grasse was third at the meet in Gateshead, England, on Sunday.
Brown, from Toronto, finished with a time of 20.79 seconds, while De Grasse, a native of Markham, Ont., finished in 20.85 seconds.
WATCH | Aaron Brown, Andre De Grasse place 2nd and 3rd in 200m race:
U.S. sprinter Kenneth Bednarek won the race in 20.33, pulling away late from the rest of the competition.
In other action, Canada's Matt Hughes finished 11th in the 3000-metre steeplechase earlier in the day. American Hillary Bor won the race with a time of eight minutes and 30.2 seconds, followed by Kenya's Leonard Kipkemoi Bett (8:31.52) in second and France's Djilali Bedrani finishing in third (8:32.04).
Asher-Smith defeats Richardson
Britain's Dina Asher-Smith overcame appalling home conditions to destroy a strong field, notably new American golden girl Sha'Carri Richardson, to win the 100 meters.
The 200m world champion got a fabulous start and held her form into a fierce headwind of 3.1 meters to win in 11.35 seconds. Fast-finishing Richardson, who ran a startling 10.72 last month, clocked 11.44 for second, with Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.48) just pipping double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce for third.
The meeting took place in cold, wet and windy weather in north-eastern England, although the few thousand fans allowed to attend stayed in their places until the end and were rewarded by Asher-Smith's morale-boosting run.
"I feel really good," she said. "Conditions were far from ideal for sprinting but the most important thing is to come away with a good result and a win and I was very happy to do that."
Richardson, 21, in her first Diamond League outing, said: "I'm definitely proud that I was able to execute and now I know what I need to go back and work on and what I need to get better at.
"This won't be the last time that I'm going to line up against these ladies and I want to let the world know and let the ladies know that I'm here to compete just as well as they've done for many years."
Normal Weather
Jakob Ingebrigtsen delivered another middle distance master class to win the 1,500m in an impressive 3:36.27.
The Norwegian's tactical awareness seems to be improving with every outing. He hit the front for the last lap and eased clear, almost imperceptibly, to draw the speed out of Australian duo Oliver Hoare and Stewart McSweyn who finished second and third.
"This is normal weather back in the west coast of Norway - I'm used to these conditions," said Ingebrigtsen. "It's really tricky to run fast in these conditions and it turned out to be a tactical race."
Scotland's Laura Muir has also spent plenty of time in the rain and she obliterated the field in the women's 1,500m to come home in 4:03.73.
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Spaniard Mohamed Katir also produced a gutsy last lap to win the 5,000m in a personal best 13:08.52, with Kenyan Nicholas Kimeli (13:10.11) breathing down his neck until the final meters
Poland's Kamila Licwinko won the women's high jump after clearing 1.91 meters to end world champion Mariya Lasitskene's run of 14 event wins as the Russian finished fourth.
Fellow Pole Marcin Krukowski donned a wooly hat with built-in pony tails and he might keep it on in the future after producing a series of 80 meter-plus throws, including a best of 82.61 two win the men's javelin.
Italian Filippo Randazzo took the win in the men's long jump with a monster leap of 8.11m in the shootout. "For me, it's a dream," he said. "I watched the Diamond League when I was young and today I've won. I have no words."
American Sam Kendricks emerged victorious from the latest of his pole vault battles with Mondo Duplantis - helped by the world record holder, who held an umbrella above the world champion as he prepared his run-up.
Kendricks won with 5.74 meters to the 5.55m of Sweden's Duplantis, who thought he had cleared 5.80 with his last jump of the day, only to see the bar wobble then fall.
The next round of Diamond League action is in Doha on Friday.
With files from Reuters
