SPLIT, Croatia, Sept 4, 2010 (AFP) - European sprint king Christophe Lemaitre took advantage of the missing Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay to clinch victory in the 100m at the Continental Cup on Saturday.
World record holder Bolt has ended his season while US sprinter Gay was taking part only in the relay, leaving the field open for French ace Lemaitre to win in 10.06sec.
At least Gay had the consolation of helping the Americas team win the 4x100m relay after a baton blunder by the Europeans.
Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Daniel Bailey and Churandy Martina cruised home to win in 38.25sec after the French quartet messed up their final exchange between Pierre-Alexis Pessonneuax and Teddy Tinmar and failed to finish.
The win helped the Americas take the lead into the second day of the tournament with a narrow nine-point lead over Europe. Africa sit third on 148 points with Asia-Pacific fourth on 134.
Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova, representing Asia/Pacific, registered one of the day’s most impressive performances winning the triple jump in 15.25m, the seventh best leap of all-time.
Another competition record was set in the men’s 400m as Jeremy Wariner led home an Americas one-two. Wariner clocked 44.24sec with Jamaican Ricardo Chambers in second place in 44.59sec.
Svetlana Feofanova cleared 4.70m at the third time of asking to add the polevault title to her European crown.
The men’s 400m hurdles saw Britain’s David Greene win in a personal best of 47.88sec, stunning American favourite Bershawn Jackson who was third.
Bernard Lagat of the Americas won the men’s 5000m ahead of Moses Kipsiro while Meseret Defar of Ethiopia took the women’s 3000m in 9min 09.33sec.
The women’s 800m saw Diamond League winner Janeth Jepkosgei claim victory in 1min 57.88sec.
MHT
With 74.87m Robert Janet recorded the best mark for the fifth place at the men’s HT in the Contiental Cup.
The previous best 5th place mark was 74.72m by Alberto Sanchez in 1994.
WTJ
Not only Olga Rypakova’s winning jump, 15.25m, is the Continental (previously World) Cup record, replacing 15.13m
by Tatyana Lebedeva’s mark four years ago, her winning margin of 55cm is the largest ever in the Continental Cup
replacing 46cm by Anna Birykova from 1994.
M400mH
The winning time of 47.88 by David Green is the fastest non-Ed Moses time at the Continental Cup.
(Moses has 47.37, 47.53 and 47.58. The previous fastest non Moses time was 48.08 by Matete in 1998).
47.88 is the fastest time in Split for 400mH, replacing Akabusi’s time of 47.92 at 1990 Euro Champ.
The second place time of 48.08 by Javier Culson is the fastest second place time at Continental Cup.
The previous fastest second place time was 48.17 by Mubarak Al-Nubi in 1998.
W400mH
The winning margin of 0.07 (=54.59-54.52) equaled the previous smallest winning margin by Nezha Bidouane
from 1998.
WPV
Addition to the Continental Cup record of 4.70 by Feofanova (previsous record was 4.60 by Isinbayeva in 2006),
the best marks for place for 2nd (4.60m replacing 4.55 by Murer from 2006), 4th (4.50m replacing 4.40m by
Martina Strutz from 2006), 5th (4.35m replacing 4.30m by Monika Pyrek from 2006) and 6th (4.35 replacing
4.15m by Afroditi Skafida in 2006) were set. The best 3rd place height (4.50m by Gao Shuying in 2006) was tied.
M5000m
The winning margin of 0.12 second by Bernard Lagat is the smallest winning margin ever in the Continental Cup
replacing 0.15 by Coglan from 1981 edition in Roma.
W800m
Jepkosgei is the first Kenyan to win this event at Continental Cup.
MHJ
For the second time (first time was in 1979 when F Jacobs won over J Wszola) the MHJ was won by count back in
the Continental Cup. Also Rashid Ahmed Al-Mannai is the first Asian to win this event at the Continental Cup.
M400m
Behind Wariner who set a Continental Cup record of 44.22 (replacing 44.47 by Michael Franks from 1985), Ricardo
Chambers (44.59), Michael Bingham (44.84) and Kevin Borlee (45.01) recorded the fastest time for place 2, 3 and 4
at the Continental Cup, replacing 44.66 by Gary Kikaya (2006), 44.97 by Gabriel Tiacoh (1989), and 45.12 by Darren
Clak (1985), respectively.
Wariner ran the fastest time in Split replacing 45.00 by C Cornet in 1990 European Champ
MLJ
With 8.34, D Phillips recorded the longest jump in Split replacing 8.25m by D Haaf from 1990 Euro Champ.
M100m
Christophe Lemaitre’s winning time of 10.06 is the fastest time in Split (stadium record), replacing 10.09 by Linford
Christie at the European Championships twenty years ago.
M4x100mR
The winning margin of 1.03 seconds is the largest winning margin ever at this event in the Continental Cup,
replacing the previous record of 0.86 seconds by US team in 2006.
K Ken Nakamura