Merritt Wins 400 Meters in Stockholm Meet
LaShawn Merritt won the men's 400 meters at the DN Galan Diamond League meet on Thursday in his first major race since regaining his world championship title at Moscow last week.
Merritt won in 44.69 seconds, more than a half-second clear of Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, the bronze medalist at Moscow. Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic was third.
"I still feel like I'm in top form. I've put in the work to last the whole season," said Merritt, who ran the fastest time of the season to win the world championship on August 13. He also won the world title in 2009.
Other world champions carried their winning form to Stockholm.
David Oliver of the United States won the men's 110-meter hurdles in 13.21 seconds, 0.14 seconds ahead of Sergey Shubenkov of Russia.
And Svetlana Shkolina of Russia repeated her triumph from Moscow in the high jump, winning at 1.98 meters in a countback from countrywoman Anna Chicherova in front of the audience of 12,814 people. Another Russian, Mariya Kuchina, was third.
Sweden's Emma Green Tregaro — who created headlines in the Moscow qualifying heats for painting her fingernails in rainbow colors to support gay rights — once again competed with rainbow-colored nails.
"Now I mostly just did it because it felt boring not to do it," she said after finishing sixth on Thursday.
Green Tregaro was forced to compete with red nails in the finals of the World Championships after track officials said the earlier gesture might violate the meet's code of conduct. The gesture had prompted Russian pole vault star Yelena Isinbayeva to complain that Green Tregaro was disrespecting Russia, which has recently introduced a law that bans gay "propaganda" for minors.
Kerron Stewart of Jamaica won the women's 100 meters, clocking a modest 11.24 seconds to edge Alexandria Anderson of the United States by just 0.01 seconds. Barbara Pierre of the United States finished third.
Three athletes earned a one-carat diamond during the early part of the program after setting stadium records at the venue used for the 1912 Olympics.
Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic won the women's 400 hurdles in 53.70 seconds ahead of Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer and Dalilah Muhammad of the United States.
Four-time world champion Valerie Adams of New Zealand won the women's shot put with a throw of 20.30 meters, breaking her own stadium record from last year, while Russia's Mariya Abakumova set a venue mark in the women's javelin at 68.59 meters.
In a men's 200 field with no big names, Serhiy Smelyk of Ukraine won in 20.54 seconds, 0.04 seconds ahead of Jaysuma Saidy Ndure of Norway. Jamaica's Rasheed Dwyer was 0.1 seconds back in third.
In the distance events, Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti won the 1,500 meters in 3 minutes, 33.59 seconds, ahead of Silas Kiplagat and Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba of Kenya. World champion Asbel Kiprop finished sixth.
Eunice Jepkoech Sum of Kenya won the women's 800 meter in 1:58.84, edging Alysia Montano of the United States and Malika Akkaoui of Morocco. Abeba Aregawi, the 1,500 meter world champion from Sweden, placed sixth.
