Shawn Barber earns top-5 finish at Diamond League event in London
Canada's Mo Ahmed races to 7th in men's 5000m
Canada's Shawn Barber dropped one spot from last week's Diamond League event, placing fifth in men's pole vault in London on Saturday.
Despite the fall in standings, Barber, of Toronto, improved his best jump to 5.71 metres from 5.60 in Monaco seven days ago.
Barber, who won the world championships in 2015, is coming off a Canadian championship victory two weeks ago in Ottawa that saw him set a meet record.
Canada's Shawn Barber 🇨🇦 (<a href="https://twitter.com/vaultbarber?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@vaultbarber</a>) squeezes over the bar for the clear at 5.71 metres<a href="https://t.co/ZmUQsra4Cw">https://t.co/ZmUQsra4Cw</a><a href="https://twitter.com/Diamond_League?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Diamond_League</a> <a href="https://t.co/BjY6kfjdsE">pic.twitter.com/BjY6kfjdsE</a>
—@CBCOlympicsAmerican Sam Kendricks won for the second consecutive week after clearing 5.92.
CBCSports.ca will carry live coverage of Day 2 in London beginning Sunday at 9 a.m. ET.
Ahmed, Watson place 7th
In the men's 5,000m race, Canadian Mo Ahmed ran at the front of the pack before falling behind at the end for a seventh-place finish.
Ahmed posted a time of 13 minutes 16.82 seconds, just under two seconds off his season best, but over 15 seconds removed from his personal best of 13:01.74.
Paul Chelimo of the U.S. won the race at 13:14.01. A pair of Ethiopians, Muktar Edris and Yomif Kejelcha, finished second and third, respectively.
Meanwhile, Canada's Sage Watson also earned a seventh-place finish in the women's 400m hurdles.
Watson clocked in at 56.21 seconds. America's Shamier Little won the event in a photo finish at 53.95 seconds, one millisecond ahead of Jamaica's Janieve Russell.
Coleman pulls out
In the men's 100m, last week's victor Christian Coleman pulled out with a recurrence of a hamstring injury suffered in warmups for his heat. The American had missed 44 days with the injury before returning in Rabat.
On Friday, Coleman had said he was "100 per cent healthy but not in peak form."
Still, the U.S. won the event as Ronnie Baker posted a time of 9.90 seconds. Britain's Zharnel Hughes finished second at 9.93, with South Africa's Akani Simbine one hundredth of a second behind. Jamaica's Yohan Blake placed fourth.
In the women's long jump, Canada's Christabel Nettey placed eighth at 6.54 metres.