{"id":3045,"date":"2025-07-11T21:41:51","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/lyles-back-with-a-bang-in-monaco\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T13:54:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T13:54:16","slug":"lyles-back-with-a-bang-in-monaco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/lyles-back-with-a-bang-in-monaco\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyles back with a bang in Monaco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Olympic 100m champion hadn\u2019t raced since April due to minor injury issues in his ankle, but any questions over the US sprinter\u2019s form were answered swiftly within the space of 20 seconds after the gun fired for the men\u2019s 200m. <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Lyles<\/strong>, who was drawn in lane seven, just one lane outside Olympic champion <strong>Letsile Tebogo<\/strong>, got a solid start and was level with the world leader as they came off the bend. The multiple world champion showed no signs of rustiness as he held his form well in the closing stages, pulling away from Tebogo to win in 19.88. Tebogo was second in 19.97, just 0.02 ahead of Zimbabwe\u2019s Makanakaishe Charamba.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Olympic champion <strong>Emmanuel Wanyonyi<\/strong> lived up to expectations in what was arguably the toughest test of his career so far. Not only did the men\u2019s 800m reunite all eight finalists from the 2024 Olympics, it also had the addition of world indoor champion Josh Hoey and Oceanian record-holder Peter Bol. <\/p>\n\n<p>Wanyonyi tracked the pacemaker through the first half as 400m was covered in 49.21, 0.07 quicker than David Rudisha\u2019s first lap when the legendary Kenyan set his world record. Once the pacemaker dropped out, Wanyonyi held the lead until the end and pulled away from Hoey, who was doing his best to hold off Algeria\u2019s Djamel Sedjati. <\/p>\n\n<p>Wanyonyi crossed the line in 1:41.44, shaving 0.02 from the meeting record Sedjati set last year and racking up his sixth career sub-1:42 clocking \u2013 just one shy of Rudisha\u2019s record tally. Hoey was second in a PB of 1:42.01 with Sedjati placing third (1:42.20). Bol came through to set an Oceanian record of 1:42.55 in fourth, one place ahead of world champion Marco Arop (1:42.73).  <\/p>\n\n<p>Like fellow Herculis debutant Wanyonyi, <strong>Femke Bol<\/strong> also ensured her first Monaco appearance was a good one. The world champion bided her time in the women\u2019s 400m hurdles and pulled away gradually from former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad to win in a world-leading 51.95, breaking one of the oldest track meeting records at Herculis. <\/p>\n\n<p>Muhammad was second in a season\u2019s best of 52.58, also inside the previous meeting record set by Lashina Demus back in 2009. Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell was third in 52.91, also a season\u2019s best. <\/p>\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Nelly Chepchirchir maintained her undefeated<\/h4>\n\n<p><strong>Nelly Chepchirchir<\/strong> maintained her undefeated record in 2025 to win the women\u2019s 1000m in one of the fastest times in history.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Kenyan, no doubt inspired by the recent record-breaking feats of compatriots <strong>Faith Kipyegon<\/strong> and <strong>Beatrice Chebet<\/strong>, sat back in the field during the early stages, allowing Jessica Hull to take the leading spot behind the pacemaker.  <\/p>\n\n<p>USA\u2019s <strong>Addison Wiley <\/strong>came through for second place in a North American record of 2:30.71 with Hull finishing third in an Oceanian record of 2:30.96.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Kejelcha dominant on the 5000 m<\/h3>\n\n<p><strong>Yomif Kejelcha<\/strong> was similarly dominant in the men\u2019s 5000m. The two-time world indoor champion led through 3000m in 7:39.47 with Sweden\u2019s Andreas Almgren close behind, but he dropped out soon after. <\/p>\n\n<p>Kejelcha, meanwhile, then pulled away from his remaining opponents and won comfortably in 12:49.46, his third consecutive sub-12:50 time this year. France\u2019s Jimmy Gressier came through for second place in 12:53.36 ahead of Bahrain\u2019s Birhanu Balew (12.53.51). In fourth, Mohamed Abdilaahi broke the long-standing German record with 12:53.63.  <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Paulino and El Bakkali shine<\/h3>\n\n<p>In the 400m flat, world and Olympic champion <strong>Marileidy Paulino<\/strong> had to call upon all of her strength in the home straight to reel in Aaliyah Butler. Paulino caught the US youngster just before the line to win in 49.06, while Butler was rewarded with a PB of 49.09 in second. Jamaica\u2019s Nickisha Pryce (49.63) and Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Bukowiecka (49.72) set season\u2019s bests in third and fourth.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Paulino wasn\u2019t the only world and Olympic champion who had to pull out something special to hold on to victory. Morocco\u2019s <strong>Soufiane El Bakkali<\/strong> had initially tried to attack the world record in the men\u2019s 3000m steeplechase. He carved out a huge lead at the half-way point but his pace then began to fade. On the final lap, Japan\u2019s Ryuji Miura started motoring and even caught El Bakalli at the top of the home straight, but the Moroccan responded and sprinted to the finish line in 8:03.18. Miura was rewarded with a huge national record of 8:03.43 and Kenya\u2019s Edmund Serem set a PB of 8:04.00 in third.   <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Convincing wins for Alfred, Tapper and Cunningham<\/h3>\n\n<p>Olympic champion <strong>Julien Alfred<\/strong> returned to winning ways after her recent surprise defeat in Eugene. The St Lucian sprinter trailed USA\u2019s Jacious Sears at the start of the women\u2019s 100m, but came through strongly to win in 10.79, running into a -1.4m\/s headwind. Sears held on for second in 11.02.  <\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Megan Tapper<\/strong> equalled her recent PB of 12.34 to take a surprise victory in the women\u2019s 100m hurdles. Ditaji Kambundji was second in 12.43 in a race where Olympic champion Masai Russell (12.57) and US compatriot Grace Stark (12.64) struggled over the early barriers. <\/p>\n\n<p>USA\u2019s 2022 world silver medallist <strong>Trey Cunningham <\/strong>notched up his second Diamond League victory in a row, following on from his win in Paris last month. The 26-year-old put together a near faultless run to lead a US 1-2-3 in 13.09 from world leader Cordell Tinch (13.14) and 19-year-old Ja\u2019Kobe Tharp (13.17), who was making his Diamond League debut. <\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meeting record for Duplantis, world leads for Scott and Sanghyeok<\/h3>\n\n<p>All three jumping events on the programme produced notable performances.<\/p>\n\n<p>Pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis won the men\u2019s pole vault and claimed the meeting record with a winning clearance of 6.05m. There are now just two Diamond League meeting records (Rabat and London) left for the Swede to claim. Greece\u2019s Emmanouil Karalis and Australia\u2019s Kurtis Marschall were second and third respectively, both clearing 5.92m.  <\/p>\n\n<p>Jamaica\u2019s Jordan Scott continued his strong run of form to win the men\u2019s triple jump. He set a PB of 17.44m in round five then improved in the final round to 17.52m \u2013 the farthest outdoor jump in the world this year. Algeria\u2019s Yasser Triki was second (17.23m). <\/p>\n\n<p>World indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok also produced the best outdoor jump in the world this year, winning the men\u2019s high jump with 2.34m. Czechia\u2019s Jan Stefela was second with 2.32m. <\/p>\n\n<p>European champion Jessica Schilder uncorked a final-round effort of 20.39m to win the women\u2019s shot put from world champion Chase Jackson (20.06m) and world indoor champion Sarah Mitton (20.00m).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World-leading meeting records were set by Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Femke Bol at Herculis, but...","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-3045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monaco-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3045"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3092,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3045\/revisions\/3092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3045"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monaco.diamondleague.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=3045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}