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19:26, 12-May-2018
China's Gong Lijiao wins women's shot put gold medal at 2018 IAAF Diamond League Shanghai
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Reigning world champion Gong Lijiao of China accomplished a season best throw of 19.99 meters to win the shot put gold at the Shanghai leg of the IAAF Diamond League on Saturday.
29-year-old Gong, winner of the Diamond League trophy last year, overpowered her rivals in a tough contest with five over-19m throws. Her winning mark came from the second round, but each of her five valid marks was good enough to retain the title on the home soil.
After her emphatic victory, Gong said: “My plan was to break 20m today, but unfortunately I was just one centimeter short of the mark.”
Lv Huihui of China competes to win in the women's javelin throw at the IAAF Diamond League Shanghai. /VCG Photo
Lv Huihui of China competes to win in the women's javelin throw at the IAAF Diamond League Shanghai. /VCG Photo
“I probably will not join every Diamond League race this season, but I will try to get more points in each race I compete in.”
The silver went to Danniel Thomas-Dodd of Jamaica with a throw of 18.70m while Raven Saunders from the USA came third at 18.63.
Another Chinese athlete who dazzled on Saturday was two-time world medalist Lv Huihui, who broke her own meet record under heavy rain to win the women's javelin title in Shanghai.
The 28-year-old kick-started her campaign with a first round throw of 64.39 meters before going on to improve her mark to 66.85m in the third round. She wrapped up the victory with a 66.26m, surpassing her record of 64.08m.
It was also the best performance of the current season for the silver winner at the World Championships in London last summer. Marcelina Witek of Poland came second at 64.49m, followed by Eda Tugsuz of Turkey at 63.20m.
Reece Prescod of Great Britain (L), Xie Zhenye of China, Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey compete during the men's 100m event in Shanghai. /VCG Photo
Reece Prescod of Great Britain (L), Xie Zhenye of China, Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan and Ramil Guliyev of Turkey compete during the men's 100m event in Shanghai. /VCG Photo
Meanwhile, in the much-anticipated men’s 100m dash, Reece Prescod outpaced reigning world champion Justin Gatlin and Chinese sprint star Su Bingtian to bring home the gold medal. The 22-year-old set a season-best time of 10.04 seconds to win the title in a thrilling race.
The neck and neck race saw Su prematurely celebrating as he believed that he had done enough to triumph on his home soil, but the final result showed Great Britain’s Prescod dipped ahead of Su by 0.01 second.
Another Chinese sprinter Xie Zhenye took third with a disastrous Gatlin managing to end the race in seventh.