Athletes compete for Zurich meet’s top spots

The 80th Zurich Weltklasse athletics meeting has taken place but failed to produce any world record-breaking performances.

Friday’s event was one of the Golden League series of the six most important athletics meetings in Europe.

High jump competitor Blanka Vlasic and 800m runner Pamela Jelimo are both in line for the league’s $1 million (SFr1.05 million) jackpot after winning in their respective events. The prize money is awarded to athletes who win their event at all six league meetings.

Attending athletes had 41 Olympic medals between them from the Beijing Games. As expected, triple gold medallist Usain Bolt won the 100m, but his time of 9.83 seconds could not match his record-breaking achievement in Beijing.

Also in men’s events, Jeremy Wariner of the US took top place in the 400m and Kenya’s Haron Keitany in the 1,500m. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia won the 5,000m.

Dayron Robles of Cuba won the 110m hurdle event and Angelo Taylor of the US took the 400m hurdle. Paul Kipsiele Koech of Kenya won the 3,000m steeplechase and US team Rodney Martin, Travis Padgett, Shawn Crawford and Darvis Patton won the 4×100 relay.

In the women’s events first places went to Americans Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards for the 200m and 400m while Pamela Jelimo of Kenya won the 800m in the fastest time in more than two decades.

The 100m hurdle was won by another American LoLo Jones, while the high jump went to Blanka Vlasic of Croatia. The pole vault first place went to Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva.

Twenty-four world records have been broken at the Zurich Weltklasse in the past.