<p>Noah Lyles offered another fluent demonstration at Lausanne&rsquo;s Athletissima IAAF Diamond League fixture tonight (5) that he could be the next big thing in the men&rsquo;s sprints as he equalled his 2018 world-leading time and personal best of 19.69 to win a 200metres stacked with talent from his equally young compatriots.</p>
<p>It was another hugely talented US athlete, Michael Norman &ndash; who won last month&rsquo;s NCAA 400m title in a 2018 world-leading 43.61 and followed up with a 200m victory in Paris last Saturday in 19.84 &ndash; who led into the final straight, but Lyles moved smoothly past his right shoulder over the final 50 metres.</p>
<p>Norman clocked 19.88, with Ecuador&rsquo;s Alex Quinonez third in 20.08, one place ahead of Norman&rsquo;s University of Southern California team-mate Rai Benjamin, winner of his own NCAA title over 400m hurdles in 47.02, who clocked 20.16.</p>
<p>After doing a no doubt carefully choreographed dance of celebration, Lyles pronounced himself &ldquo;very pleased&rdquo; to have matched his best time, although he added: &ldquo;It could have been faster.&rdquo;</p>
<h3>Mihambo edges Spanovic</h3>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s Malaika Mihambo earned a dramatic victory in the women&rsquo;s long jump as, with her last effort, she matched the lead of 6.90m that Olympic bronze medallist Ivana Spanovic had established with her first effort, winning by virtue of a better second jump &ndash; which, at 6.70m, was just three centimetres farther than the Serbian&rsquo;s second best.</p>
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Malaika Mihambo takes a big win in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spanovic, third in this year&rsquo;s world lists with 6.99m, had one final chance to tip the result her way, but could only manage 6.62m.</p>
<p>Colombia&rsquo;s reigning Olympic triple jump champion Caterine Ibarguen did her best to add to the drama as she produced her best of the night with a final effort of 6.77m to take third place.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am very happy it came together,&rdquo; said Mihambo. &ldquo;The Berlin European Championships are a huge target for me, especially competing at home.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It was a disappointing evening for the two Britons involved &ndash; Shara Proctor was fifth with 6.62m, and Lorraine Ugen, who heads the current world lists with the 7.05m she produced to win the national title last weekend, was seventh with 6.48m.</p>
<p>For Olympic champion Tianna Bartoletta of the United States, however, the evening was even worse as she was unable to start.</p>
<p>The women&rsquo;s pole vault was similarly tight, and won eventually by Greece&rsquo;s world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi, although it needed a season&rsquo;s best of 4.82m for her to do so, with the &ldquo;revitalised&rdquo; 36-year-old London 2012 champion Jenn Suhr of the United States matching her height but taking second place on countback.</p>
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Katerina Stefanidi takes the win in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Countback also determined the third-placed competitor, Anzhelika Sidorova, with New Zealand&rsquo;s Eliza McCartney fourth with the best record of four vaulters clearing 4.72m.</p>
<p>McCartney&rsquo;s compatriot, the world shot put champion Tomas Walsh, earned victory in unanswerable fashion with a late effort of 21.92m that rendered all the previous shifts in competition irrelevant.</p>
<h3>Walsh threatens 22 metres</h3>
<p>Darrell Hill of the United States, the defending Diamond League champion, had established an opening lead with an effort of 21.04m, only for Poland&rsquo;s Michal Haratyk to move past him in the fourth round with 21.21m.</p>
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Tom Walsh in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>However the blue touch paper was already lit under the Kiwi &ndash;and in round five &ndash; boom! 21.92m. By the way he walked away you knew he knew the job was done, even before the scoreboard confirmed the distance.</p>
<p>Although the man with whom he has boxed-and-coxed for most of the season, US Olympic champion Ryan Crouser, is hors de combat after injuring himself during the national championships, Walsh, who leads the 2018 world list with 22.67m, is ticking all the boxes he can to establish his own pre-eminence.</p>
<p>In the absence of Qatar&rsquo;s world high jump champion Mutaz Barshim, who injured his ankle in attempting a world record height of 2.46m in Hungary on Monday night, Authorised Neutral Athlete Danil Lysenko made the most of his opportunity, winning with a season&rsquo;s best of 2.37m.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
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Danil Lysenko jumps to victory in Lausanne</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Australia&rsquo;s Brandon Starc and Jeron Robinson of the United States took second and third respectively after clearing 2.29. Italy&rsquo;s Gianmarco Tamberi, still seeking the fitness he lost in a traumatic moment of injury on the brink of the Rio Olympics, cleared 2.25 but finished last on countback.</p>
<h3>One centimetre separates Taylor from Pichardo</h3>
<p>One centimetre was all that separated perennial men&rsquo;s triple jump rivals Christian Taylor and Pedro Pablo Pichardo &ndash; and it was the US world and Olympic champion who did enough to win with a third round of 17.62m that overtook the Cuban&rsquo;s second round lead.</p>
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Another Lausanne victory for Christian Taylor</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Shamier Little of the United States won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in a season&rsquo;s best of 53.41 after running neck and neck down the home straight with Jamaica&rsquo;s Janieve Russell, second in a personal best of 53.46 ahead of Little&rsquo;s compatriot Georganne Moline, who clocked 53.90.</p>
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Shamier Little en route to her 400m hurdles win in Lausanne</div>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Nikola Ogrodnikova of the Czech Republic won the women&rsquo;s javelin with a best of 65.02m, although China&rsquo;s Liu Shiying looked briefly as if she might have turned things round with her last effort before it was confirmed as being 64.46.</p>
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Lausanne javelin throw winner Nikola Ogrodnikova</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Slovenia&rsquo;s Martina Ratej was third with 63.28.</p>
<p><strong>Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF</strong></p>

Noah Lyles offered another fluent demonstration at Lausanne’s Athletissima IAAF Diamond League fixture tonight (5) that he could be the next big thing in the men’s sprints as he equalled his 2018 world-leading time and personal best of 19.69 to win a 200 metres stacked with talent from his equally young compatriots.

Lyles takes 200m showdown in Lausanne - IAAF Diamond League

<p>It was a role reversal from last summer&rsquo;s IAAF World Championships in London, as Danil Lysenko gained revenge on Mutaz Essa Barshim in a thrilling battle on the opening night of the championships.</p>
<p>The 20-year-old, competing as an authorised neutral athlete, extended his 2018 win streak to nine by clearing 2.36m to the Olympic silver medalist&rsquo;s 2.33m best mark.</p>
<p>Having registered lifetime bests on three occasions this winter campaign with 2.35m, 2.36m and 2.37m respectively, Lysenko&rsquo;s Birmingham victory marks his first major international title in an event he only began competing in five years ago.</p>
<p>Enjoying first-time clearances at 2.20m, 2.25m, 2.29m and 2.33m, he needed all three attempts at 2.36m before sailing over on his final chance to deny Barshim the opportunity of a jump-off contest for gold.</p>
<p>In preparation for that final jump --just one centimetre below his personal best-- Lysenko requested silence from the crowd and handled the pressure superbly to produce the first big surprise of the championships.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Barshim, the champion in 2014 and last year&rsquo;s male World athlete of the year, came into the competition with recent technical difficulties but leapt a world-leading 2.38m at the Asian Indoor Championships in early February.</p>
<p>The 26-year-old two-time Olympic medallist from Qatar also had no issues up until 2.36m, yet his best effort came in a tight near-miss on the second attempt.</p>
<p>Competing in the centre of the infield, back to back with the women&rsquo;s contest taking place simultanously, the athletes benefitted from receiving up-close support and feedback from their coaches, who were permitted to watch from lane two of the track.</p>
<p>Taking the bronze medal was Germany&rsquo;s Mateusz Przybylko, who registered a second-time clearance at 2.29m - just a centimetre shy of his lifetime best - to capture his first major international championship medal.</p>
<p>The 25-year-old London fifth placer entered the competition in only 13th place on the 2018 world list but held his nerve to only tease the bar on his third attack at 2.29m.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, the 2016 bronze medalist Erik Kynard of the USA needed all three tries at 2.29m and placed fourth, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist finishing ahead of Poland&rsquo;s Sylwester Bednarek, whose first-time 2.25m clearance sealed fifth position for the European indoor champion.</p>
<p>European junior champion Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus, Yu Wang of China and 2007 world champion Donald Thomas of The Bahamas left the competition at 2.20m in a tie for sixth.</p>
<p>British hope, Robbie Grabarz - the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist and 2016 world indoor silver medallist - could only manage 2.20m on his third attempt for equal ninth position.</p>
<p><strong>Nicola Sutton for the IAAF</strong></p>

It was a role reversal from last summer’s IAAF World Championships in London, as Danil Lysenko gained revenge on Mutaz Essa Barshim in a thrilling battle on the opening night of the championships.

Report: men's high jump - IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018

<p>Though three days of the Russian Junior Championships in Cheboksary didn’t provide any records or world-leading marks, there were some enthralling contests in the men’s triple jump and javelin.</p><p>By any standard, five jumpers finishing within eight centimetres of one another is something of a rarity. The eventual winner, 17-year-old Vitaly Pavlov, jumped 15.17m, while just one centimetre separated the two other medallists, Alexey Postnov and Vildan Sultanbekov, who jumped 15.14m and 15.13m respectively.</p><p>Behind them, Sergey Hilimendik jumped 15.12m for fourth place, and Dmitry Chernov leapt 15.09m for fifth. Incidentally these marks don’t make it into the top 20 on this year’s world junior lists, but considering the competitive nature of the event, there’s plenty of motivation for each of them to progress.</p><p>Relatively speaking – given the longer distances involved – the results of the javelin were even closer as just 15 centimetres covered the top five athletes. Winner Andrey Sadovnikov sent his spear out to 66.15m, just seven centimetres ahead of Egor Nikolayev.</p><p>Ruslan Emurlayev threw 66.03m in third place, and just one centimetre separated the athletes in fourth and fifth as Vladislav Panasenkov and Ivan Filippov threw 66.01m and 66.00m respectively.</p><p>Unlike the javelin throwers, 17-year-old high jumper Danil Lysenko will be among Russia’s top hopes of a medal at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene next month. The 17-year-old – who will still be eligible to compete at the 2016 World Junior Championships – cleared 2.24m to equal his PB and world youth-leading mark set earlier this month in Baku.</p><p>On this year’s world junior lists, Lysenko is just two centimetres behind world junior leader Andrei Skabeika from Belarus, who is two years his senior.</p><p>Ilya Terentyev made huge progress in the hammer, improving his PB by almost three metres. His winning mark of 78.23m moves him to third on this year’s world junior list and he too will head to Eugene with hopes of a medal. </p><p>Yana Glotova, who took bronze in the 4x400m at the 2012 World Junior Championships, was the fastest in the 400m with her winning time of 52.79. It was her fourth national junior title over the distance, having now won two titles indoors and two outdoors.</p><p>European junior silver medallist Leonid Kobelev equalled his season’s best of 5.30m to win the pole vault, while Anastasiya Sadovnikova – no relation to javelin winner Andrey – won the women’s pole vault with 4.25m. Both Kobelev and Sadovnikova rank among the top 10 in their event on this year’s world junior lists.</p><p>Elsewhere in the women’s field events, Irina Iliyeva won the high jump with 1.86m, Valeriya Fedorova took the triple jump title with 13.69m and Yekaterina Starygina threw 54.50m to win the javelin.</p><p>In the absence of world youth silver medallist Alena Bugakova, world youth finalist Yelena Bezruchenko claimed the shot put title with a PB of 15.92m.</p><p>Kristina Sivkova, the 17-year-old sprint prodigy who last season broke Irina Privalova’s national youth 60m record, moved up to the longer distance and took the 200m title in 23.83, just 0.03 short of the PB she set last summer at the Moscow World Challenge meeting. 16-year-old Anastasiya Zholobova was a distant second in 24.05, but she took some consolation from winning the 100m title in 11.79 after clocking a PB of 11.67 in the semi-final. </p><p><strong>Natalia Maryanchik for the IAAF</strong></p>

Though three days of the Russian Junior Championships in Cheboksary didn’t provide any records or world-leading marks, there were some enthralling contests in the men’s triple jump and javelin.

Lyles takes 200m showdown in Lausanne - IAAF Diamond League

Report: men's high jump - IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018

Close battles highlight Russian Junior Championships