London: Nijel Amos ran down David Rudisha to beat the Olympic champion by a tenth of a second in the 800 metres at the London Diamond League meet at the Olympic Stadium yesterday.
Rudisha led into the home straight but Amos, of Botswana, overtook him with 20 meters remaining to clock 1:44:57.
When Rudisha claimed Olympic glory three years ago with a time of 1.40.91, Amos took the silver medal, but pushed himself so hard that he was carried away from the track on a stretcher. Since then, Amos has beaten the Kenyan in six out of seven races.
“All I wanted was the win, and I got it, so I’m happy,” Amos said. “I was confident and, with my speed, I knew with the last 100 I could take it.”
Meanwhile, pole vault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie soared to a stadium record of 6.03m on the second day of the tournament. There were also a clutch of national records set in the 2012 Olympic Stadium, notably in the women’s 100m, with double European outdoor sprint champion Dafne Schippers clocking 10.92sec in the final and 19-year-old Briton Dina Asher-Smith 10.99sec in the heats.
But Lavillenie produced the performance of the day in an event that was tagged on to the start of the programme, having been postponed on Friday because of torrential rain.
The 28-year-old Frenchman, crowned as World Athlete of the Year in 2014 after his world record 6.16m vault indoors in Donetsk, sailed over at 6.03m before registering three failures at 6.10m.
It was the second best outdoor performance of Lavillenie’s career, behind his 6.05m clearance at the Eugene Diamond League meeting in May.
It also bettered his winning height from the 2012 Olympics at the same venue (5.97m) and the stadium record he set at the 2013 London Diamond League meeting (6.02m).
Two more British records were registered in the space of two minutes.
The first came from Asher-Smith who won the opening 100m heat in 10.99sec, an improvement of 0.03sec on the British record she set in May.
In the final, the teenager had to settle for fourth place in 11.01sec as Schippers claimed victory in 10.92sec, improving her Dutch record by 0.02sec, from Commonwealth champion Blessing Okagvare (10.98sec) and Ivorian Murielle Ahoure (11.01sec).
The second UK record came in the women’s long jump, Shara Proctor securing victory with 6.98m, a 3cm improvement on her national mark.
Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson was a clear winner of the 200m in 22.10sec, taking a chunk of 0.27sec off her personal best.