Three members of Jamaica’s track and field team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games finished fourth in their respective events at the Herculis EBS Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco on Friday.
Shanieka Ricketts, Malik James-King, and Andrew Hudson were the Jamaicans who placed fourth in their events.
Ricketts achieved a season’s best of 14.67 metres in the women’s triple jump, surpassing her previous best of 14.58 metres in round three. Her performance placed her ahead of teammate Ackelia Smith, who finished fifth with a jump of 14.30 metres, achieved in round four.
Cuba’s world bronze medallist Leyanis Perez Hernandez threatened 15 metres, taking top spot with her fifth-round leap of 14.96 metres (1.7ms) and also managing 14.95 metres in round three. World indoor champion Thea LaFond was second on 14.87 metres and Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk returned from injury to jump 14.81 metres for third place.
James-King produced his second sub-48 clocking to secure fourth place in the men’s 400 metres hurdles. Two weeks after setting a personal best of 47.42 for victory at the Jamaica Olympic trials, James-King clocked 47.73 in a highly competitive field featuring the three fastest 400-metre hurdlers of all time.
In their first battle since the Diamond League final in Eugene in September, Rai Benjamin, Alison Dos Santos and world record-holder Karsten Warholm all went out hard and seemed evenly matched off the final bend. But as they stormed down the home straight in a line across lanes five, six and seven, it was Warholm in lane seven and then Benjamin in lane six who showed the greatest finishing strength.
Dipping over the line, USA’s Olympic silver medallist Benjamin maintained a win streak that dates back to that Diamond League final last year, clocking 46.67 to finish 0.06 ahead of Norway’s Olympic champion Warholm. Brazil’s 2022 world champion Dos Santos was third in 47.18.
Between them, the trio of Warholm, Benjamin and Dos Santos have now achieved the 17 fastest times in men’s 400m hurdles history.
Hudson clocked 20.43 seconds, just missing out on a podium finish in the men’s 200m. Botswana’s world bronze medallist, Letsile Tebogo, continued his streak of sub-20.00 performances, winning the event with a time of 19.87 seconds (0.6m/s). He was followed by the Dominican Republic’s Alexander Ogando, who finished in 20.02 seconds, and Uganda’s Tarsis Orogot, who clocked 20.32 seconds.
Meanwhile, national champion Rasheed Broadbell was scheduled to compete in the men’s 110-metre hurdles but did not participate. The event was won by USA’s three-time world champion Grant Holloway, who also maintained his unbeaten streak this season by clocking 13.01 (-0.7m/s) to dip clear ahead of Italy’s Lorenzo Simonelli (13.08) and USA’s Cordell Tinch (13.10).
