Arron drops out of jackpot chase


Christine Arron saw her hopes of claiming a share of the $1m Golden League jackpot end in Zurich.
Arron was out of contention in the 100m right from the gun and battled to fourth place in a race won by Veronica Campbell in pouring rain.

Tatiana Lebedeva is now the only athlete left who can win the prize which goes to any athletes who win their events at each Golden League.

The Russian impressively won the triple jump with her effort of 14.94m.

"I'm very happy and every attempt I got better and better," Lebedeva said.

Now Lebedeva must sustain her winning form in the last two Golden League meetings in Brussels and Berlin.

While Arron struggled in the women's race, things went smoothly for Olympic and world champion Justin Gatlin in the men's 100m.

The American poured on the pace in the last half of the race to finish clear of his rivals in 10.14 seconds.

Portugal's Francis Obikwelu took second ahead of Ghana's Aziz Zakari with world silver medallist Michael Frater fourth.

Former Olympic champion Maurice Greene admitted he had a terrible race as he crossed the line a dismal last in 10.39.

Jeremy Wariner, who also added the world title to his Olympic crown, was also in dominant form in the men's 400m.

The American pulled clear of Chris Brown at the 300m-mark to win in 44.67 ahead of Canada's fast-finishing Tyler Christopher and Brown.

Britain's Tim Benjamin struggled in the damp conditions and finished in seventh place, clocking 45.45.

"I'm so tired I got to 150 metres remaining, where I usually kick, but I had absolutely nothing," the Welshman said.

In the women's race, Sanya Richards avenged her defeat at the hands of Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling in Helsinki.

The American surged down the home straight to cross the line in a world-leading time of 48.92.

With the heavy rain making dismal in Switzerland - and reminiscent of the Worlds in Helsinki - a few upsets were inevitable.

Shaheen's world record bid fell down when he fell at the water jump

Dominque Arnold bettered world champion Ladji Doucoure , Olympic winner Xiang Liu and Allen Johnson in the men's 110m hurdles.

The American, who finished fourth in Helsinki, overhauled the trio of world medallists to win in 13.03.

World champion Michelle Perry comfortably won the women's 100m hurdles in 12.55.

A dramatic conclusion to the men's 3,000m steeplechase saw double world champion Saif Saeed Shaheen miss out on his world record bid.

The Qatar athlete fell at the last water jump and scrabbled his way back to his feet to win in eight minutes 02.69 seconds.

Shaheen had been attempting to break his own world record in Zurich but he conceded the conditions were against him even before he fell.

"I wanted to break the record but when it started to rain, I starting thinking it might not happen," said Shaheen.

Britain's James McIlroy set a season's best time of 1:45.35 to finish sixth in the men's 'B' 800m.
Mo Farah posted a personal best of 3:38.62 in his under-23 race over 1500m.

And there was also an encouraging performance from Jemma Simpson, who set a lifetime best of 2:01.95 in the under-23 800m race.

Courtesy BBC

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