Wanyonyi follows up Olympic win with sizzling 800 metres in Lausanne
Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya inched ever so close to the men's 800 metres world record on Thursday, missing the global mark by two tenths of a second in winning the Lausanne Diamond League with the second fastest time in history.
Wanyonyi, who turned 20 during the Paris Olympics, clocked one minute 41.11 seconds to narrowly miss the world mark of 1:40.91 set by Kenya's David Rudisha at the 2012 London Olympics.
The young Kenyan ferociously chased the green lights in the inner lane that keep pace with the world record in ideal 25 C conditions, just missing Rudisha's record but matching Wilson Kipketer's 1997 time as second fastest ever run.
«I'm so happy to have run the world lead (quickest time this season). I really loved the crowd, and I hope for the best in Silesia,» said Wanyonyi, who will take aim at the record again on Sunday in Poland.
Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen exacted a small measure of revenge over American Cole Hocker in winning the men's 1,500m in 3:27.83, two weeks after Hocker shocked the Olympic field to win gold in Paris. The American crossed second on Thursday.
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«It's been almost two weeks since Paris so there was plenty of time to recover,» said Ingebrigtsen, who bounced back from his fourth-place finish in the Olympic 1,500m to win the 5,000.
«A lot of it has been mental including going home, taking some easy days and then getting back to work.
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