Richards 5th at Diamond League Monaco

TT Commonwealth gold medallist Jereem Richards placed fifth at the Monaco leg of the IAAF Diamond League, yesterday.

The lone TT athlete in Monte-Carlo, Richards ran out of lane three and crossed the finish line in a solid 20.16 seconds.

American Noah Niles won the 200m final yesterday and did so in a world leading time of 19.69 seconds, which was also his personal and a meet record.

Taking second was Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev who scraped under 20 seconds in a 19.99 finish out of lane seven.

Alex Quinonez of Ecuador placed third in 20.03, and Alonso Edward of Panama also finished above Richards with a mark of 20.15 seconds.

In another major race yesterday, Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou finished above her country-mate Murielle Ahoure to win the women’s 100m. Ta Lou clocked 10.89, just shy of her world leading 10.85 mark. Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica took third in 11.02 seconds.

Bahamian Shaunae Miller-Uibo perhaps put on the performance of the day when she sealed the women’s 400m gold in a world leading, Diamond League record-setting finish. She clocked 48.97, in what was also a new national record for the Bahamas and her personal best. Her nearest challenger was Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, who finished in 49.08 seconds, also her personal best.

The Diamond League continues today and tomorrow with the 11th leg in London. Grenadian Olympic champion Kirani James will line up in a mouth-watering men’s 400m race, along with Qatar’s Abdalleleh and Jamaica’s Nathon Allen, who has the fastest season best (44.13 seconds) in the line up.