Stockholm Diamond League: Nugent grabs second in 100m hurdles

There were several high-quality performances at yesterday's Diamond League meet in Stockholm, Sweden.

The best placed Jamaican at the meet was sprint hurdler Ackera Nugent who finished second in her event. The top performance, however, came from Mondo Duplantis who set a new world mark in the men's pole vault while Julien Alfred, Grace Stark, Femke Bol, and Rai Benjamin registered meet records.

Competing in her first Diamond League race of the season, Nugent clocked 12.37 seconds in the 100m hurdles behind American Grace Stark, the Diamond League leader, who won in a meet record and season's best 12.33. Nadine Visser of the Netherlands was third in 12.49.

Nugent was pleased with her race execution despite not getting the win.

"Everything went smoothly after I was initially shaken a little from the call back, but that actually was my best start, so I was very pleased. The season has been good for me so far, and I'm enjoying the sport. I'm looking forward to competing in Paris this week, and I know I can make the finals in Tokyo at the World Championships," she shared.

Jamaica's Olympic champion Roje Stona was sixth in the men's discus with a throw of 64.68m, while Ackelia Smith was ninth in the women's long jump with 6.76m. In that event, Olympic champion Tara Davis-Woodhall of the United States won with 7.05m to equal the meet record.

Duplantis, competing before his home crowd, broke the pole vault world record by clearing 6.28m. It was the 12th world record of his career, his first on home soil.

SEASON'S BEST

After opening up her season in the 100m three days earlier in Oslo with a 10.87 performance, Olympic champion Alfred of St Lucia clocked a season's best and meet record 10.75. Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain was second in a season's best 10.93, with Cote d'Ivoire's Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith third, equalling her season's best of 11.09.

Fans were treated to excellent performances in both the women's and men's 400m hurdles, which produced meet records.

In the women's event, World champion Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who was pressured early by American Dalilah Muhammad, showed her class in the latter stages to win in a season's best and meet record 52.11 -- the second-fastest time in the world this year behind Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin's 52.07. Muhammad finished second in 52.91.

In the final event of the day -- the men's 400m hurdles -- the second clash in three days between the world's top three intermediate hurdlers, Benjamin registered a fine win.

After drawing first blood in Oslo in the rarely run 300m hurdles, where he broke the world record, Norway's Karsten Warholm was confident of another win here. However, unlike in Oslo, where he went out very fast early and paid the price, American Benjamin -- the Olympic champion -- ran a more controlled race just staying close to Warholm before going by him. In the end, it was a battle between himself and World champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil. Benjamin sealed the win in a meet record and world-leading 46.54. The Brazilian was second in a season's best 46.68, with Warholm relegated to third in 47.41.