High-flying Olympian Yual Reath has soared onto the Diamond League podium to lead the Australian athletics action in Rabat, Morocco as middle-distance runner Jude Thomas took another step forward in his developing career.
Yual matched it with the world’s best high jumpers when delivering a 2.25m clearance for equal second place, only denied the win by Kiwi rival and Olympic champion Hamish Kerr (NZL) on countback.
A second attempt success at 2.25m saw Yual take down global medallists Shelby McEwen (USA) and JuVaughn Harrison (USA), tying with Marco Fassinotti (ITA) with identical cards, while Kerr’s first attempt clearance at 2.25m proved to be the winning blow.
“I’m happy with that. It’s been a long build up, things have been delayed but I’m slowly getting better with each competition,” Yual said.
The Ballarat landscaper bounced back from an incident in the warm up of last week’s Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, rewarded for his resilience with his career-best Diamond League result.
“Back in Tokyo, I scissored two metres, next minute I looked at my leg and I had ripped through my ankle. I had to get 20 plus stitches, it must have been my spikes once I landed on the bag,” Yual said.
“I told the first aid ‘strap it up, I’m finishing this competition!’. It was a lot of mental work because I could still feel it, but I had to keep going.”
Rising star Jude Thomas boxed on valiantly in what was a physical men’s 1500m contest, defying the messy race to set a new personal best of 3:33.35 to finish in 10th place – climbing from 23rd to ninth on the Australian all-time list.
Struggling to settle in the field of 19, the 23-year-old kept his composure to finish strongly when narrowly missing the World Athletics Championships qualifying standard of 3:33.00, while Sarah Billings raced prominently in the pre-program women’s 1500m – claiming seventh place with a seasons best time of 4:02.93.
Marking her individual debut on the Diamond League circuit, Bree Rizzo (Masters) raced to a performance of 11.43 (+0.2) to take ninth place in the women’s 100m after being put under pressure early, while Mackenzie Little clinched seventh place in the women’s javelin with a throw of 56.90m.
The Diamond League is the world’s premier athletics circuit and sits in the top tier of World Athletics one-day meets, offering athletes significant prize money and world ranking points. The Diamond League will make its next stop in Rome on 6th June.
