Tia Brooks twice improved on her personal best to win the shot put at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha with 19.48m and become the first winner of a Diamond Race discipline in 2016 after she managed an upset victory on Friday (6).
Brooks got her first personal best when she reached 19.45m in the second round and extended that by three centimetres with her following effort.
Hungary&rsquo;s world indoor silver medallist Anita Marton applied a little pressure on Brooks when she sent her implement out to 19.22m in the penultimate round but could not improve further with her last effort.
Surprisingly, USA&rsquo;s world indoor champion Michelle Carter failed to get beyond 18 metres with her first three efforts, having a best of 17.83m and placing fifth after three rounds. Under the new IAAF Diamond League regulation which sees only the top four horizontal jumpers and throwers get three more attempts, she failed to make the cut.
Another US woman to win in the field in Doha was the rapidly improving pole vaulter Sandi Morris, who equalled the IAAF Diamond League record when she went clear with her first attempt at 4.83m.
Both Switzerland&rsquo;s Nicole Buchler and Greece&rsquo;s Ekaterina Stefanidi were still in the competition at that stage but neither could negotiate that height.
Morris, the world indoor silver medallist, then had the bar raised all the way up to 4.93m but brought the bar down three times.
Buchler, now 32, took second after clearing a national record of 4.78m on her first attempt.
<h3>Last-gasp win for Malachowski</h3>
On a traditionally still and humid evening in Doha, there wasn&rsquo;t much help from the elements for the discus throwers but world champion Piotr Malachowski still produced a world-leading 68.03m with his last throw to overtake Belgium&rsquo;s Philip Milanov, who finished one place behind the Pole in Beijing.
Milanov had improved his national record by 36 centimetres to 67.26m in the fifth round but Malachowski, lying in second at that point with 65.81m, wasn&rsquo;t to be denied his third straight win in Doha. The world silver medallist had no response and could only foul his final throw.
Eilidh Doyle, perhaps better known still under her maiden name of Child, was the strongest over the final 250 metres of the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles and showed some crisp clearances over the barriers to win in 54.53 in her first race of the year.
Doyle was just 0.31 away from her personal best and 0.25 away from the meeting record of Romania&rsquo;s Ionela Tirlea-Manolache, the longest standing meeting record in Doha which has stood since 1999.
USA's LaShawn Merrit powered his way to a confident 400m win in 44.41.
Briefly, with a strong penultimate 50 metres off the final bend, Trinidad and Tobago&rsquo;s world junior champion Machel Cedenio looked like he was going to catch the 2008 Olympic champion but the latter weakened more rapidly than Merritt over the final metres and came home second in 44.68.
Ameer Web won the 200m with an impressive piece of sprinting off the bend to win in a personal best and meeting record of 19.85, taking 0.06 off the former mark and 0.17 off the latter.
<h3>Kipruto solo run</h3>
Conseslus Kipruto hit the front in the 3000m steeplechase with less than a kilometre to go, after the last pacemaker had stepped to one side &ndash; with the 1000m mark being passed in 2:39.40 and 2000m and 5:20:00 to keep the runners on course for an eight-minute finish &ndash; and quickly established a 30-metre lead owing to no one being willing to chase him despite the pace dropping slightly.
Kipruto then as good as held his lead all the way to the line. Easing up over the final few metres, he won in a world-leading 8:05.13 with 2015 Diamond Race winner and fellow Kenyan Jairus Birech taking second in 8:08.28.
Erik Kynard&rsquo;s second-attempt clearance at 2.33m was enough to win what was otherwise a slightly lacklustre high jump contest. An ostensibly classy field generally under-performed, apart from the Olympic silver medallist and China&rsquo;s world silver medallist Zhang Guowei, who went over 2.31m but could go no higher and finished second.
Among the men who would have been expected to go higher, world champion Derek Drouin finished down in fifth with 2.29m while local hero Mutaz Essa Barshim looked well below his best and only negotiated 2.26m to finish eighth.
In the middle-distance events, there was a confident and comfortable win for South Africa&rsquo;s Caster Semenya in the 800m, hitting the front with 50 metres to go before winning in a world-leading 1:58.26.
Kenya&rsquo;s Asbel Kiprop looked equally dominant in the 1500m, holding a 20-metre lead at the bell and being enough in command to wave to the crowd with 50 metres to go and start to ease down before taking all 10 Diamond Race points in 3:32:15.
In a repetition of the gold and silver medal placings at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, Kiprop&rsquo;s compatriot Elijah Manangoi took second place in 3:33:67.
In the women&rsquo;s javelin, South Africa&rsquo;s Sunette Viljoen proved to be almost two metres better than the rest of the field and won with her opening effort of 65.14m, going on to have three more throws better than anyone else.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF`

Tia Brooks twice improved on her personal best to win the shot put at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha with 19.48m and become the first winner of a Diamond Race discipline in 2016 after she managed an upset victory on Friday (6).

Brooks upsets the favourites in Doha – IAAF Diamond League

At the 13th Johnson/JJK Invitational in the US town of Westwood, shot putter Joe Kovacs reached a lifetime best of 22.35m on Saturday (11), the longest distance in the world since 2010.His big put came in the third round and he also had three other valid efforts between 21.15m and 21.77m in his first competition of 2015 after having given the indoor competitions a miss.Kovacs' previous best was 22.03m, the best in the world outdoors last year, when he won the 2014 US title last JuneBut before Saturday, that was actually his last victory as his best form seemed to desert him during July and August on the international circuit in Europe, apart from finishing second at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in London when he reached 21.44mTia Brooks won the women&rsquo;s shot in Westwood with 18.49m. Brazil&rsquo;s throwers were also on form in California. Jucilene de Lima won the women's javelin with 61.23m and Fernanda Borges took the discus with 62.80m.The best mark on the track came in the women&rsquo;s 200m, with Kimberly Duncan clocking 23.07 into a 0.9 metres-per-second breeze.Olympic 400m champion Kirani James opened his 2015 campaign in fine style when he ran 44.31 at the 36th Sun Angel Classic in Tempe, his fastest ever start to the season. His compatriot Bralon Taplin was second in a personal best of 44.89.In the women&rsquo;s 100m, Muna Lee won in 11.21 (0.4m/s) while there were some good times in the 200m with Kamaria Brown the best woman in 23.01 (0.0m/s) and South Africa&rsquo;s Anaso Jobodwana winning the men&rsquo;s event in 20.38 (0.6m/s).World record-holder Aries Merritt won the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles in 13.29 while world junior 400m hurdles champion Shamier Little won her specialist event in 56.43.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

At the 13th Johnson/JJK Invitational in the US town of Westwood, shot putter Joe Kovacs reached a lifetime best of 22.35m on Saturday (11), the longest distance in the world since 2010.

Kovacs 22.35m shot put, Kirani James 44.31 season openers

US collegiate records by Tia Brooks in the women’s Shot and Arkansas in the men’s 4x400m relay highlighted the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Center in Fayetteville on Friday and Saturday (March 8-9), while Lawi Lalang broke the meeting records in the mile and 3000m within the space of two hours.Brooks threw 19.22m in the women’s Shot to crush her PB of 19.00m set at last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships. She broke by seven centimetres the collegiate and meeting record set by Laura Gerraughty in 2004, and in doing so moved up to fifth on the US indoor all-time list. All five of the Oklahoma student’s valid throws would have been enough to win.In the 4x400m Relay, the final event of the weekend, the Arkansas quartet of Marek Niit, Neil Braddy, Caleb Cross and Akheem Gauntlett clocked a world-leading 3:03.50. They turned back Florida by 0.21 and shaved a hundredth of a second off the collegiate record of 3:03.51 by a 2005 Florida team that included two-time World 400m Hurdles champion Kerron Clement. The triumph also put the finishing touches on Arkansas’ 74-59 victory over Florida for its 20th national indoor title and 41st overall.The Oregon women defeated Kansas, 56-44, for their fourth indoor title in a row led by American junior 100m record-holder English Gardner, who placed second to Aurieyall Scott of Central Florida in the 60m, 7.13 to 7.15m, and ran the opening leg of Oregon’s victorious 4x400m relay that ran 3:30.22.Lalang’s record-breaking doubleThe Kenyan-born Lalang was a one-man show, winning the mile in 3:54.74 and the 3000m in 7:45.94 with just one hour and 45 minutes between events. Lalang turned the mile into a solo effort with a hard-charging Ryan Hill of North Carolina taking the runner-up spot in 3:55.25. Both Lalang and Hill were under the 1995 meeting record of 3:55.33 set by Canadian Kevin Sullivan.In the 3000m, Lalang pulled away to win over Kemoy Campbell of Arkansas, 7:45.94 to 7:46.59. Lalang’s time broke the meeting record of 7:46.03 set in 1998 by Adam Goucher. Campbell’s time is an outright Jamaican record, smashing the 7:55.78 outdoor best set by Mark Elliot in 1989.NCAA cross country champion Kennedy Kithuka of Texas Tech, who just missed Lalang’s collegiate record by 0.27 in the 5000m, finished ninth in the 3000m.The last runner to accomplish the mile and 3000m double was Bernard Lagat in 1999. Lagat, coincidentally, is a volunteer assistant coach at Arizona and training partner of Lalang. Abbey D’Agostino of Dartmouth completed a 3000m and 5000m double on the women’s side with times of 9:01.08 and 15:28.11, while US Steeplechase champion Emma Coburn of Colorado won the women’s mile in 4:29.91.In the 60m Hurdles, Eddie Lovett of Florida won the men’s final with a meeting record 7.50. World-leader Brianna Rollins of Clemson won the women’s race in 7.79, just 0.01 off the 7.78 PB she set earlier in the year. Rollins now holds the top three times in the world in 2013.Olympic medallist Drouin and Barrett prevail in High JumpThe men’s High Jump featured Olympic silver medallist Eric Kynard of Kansas State and bronze medallist Derek Drouin of Indiana. Drouin won his third national indoor title in a row with a Canadian record 2.35m. The mark was the second-best collegiate mark in history, just two centimetres off the record. Drouin had first-attempt clearances at his first seven heights, including his winning effort, before having two narrow misses at a collegiate record of 2.38m.The unheralded Marcus Jackson of Mississippi State raised his PB by six centimetres to finish second on count-back ahead of Kynard, both jumping 2.29m.In the women’s High Jump, Barrett won with a season’s best of 1.95m to become the first three-time NCAA indoor winner in the event. In all, Barrett has won the last five national collegiate titles indoors and out.American junior record-holder Andrew Irwin of Arkansas won the Pole Vault at 5.70m and Natalia Bartnovskaya of Kansas was the women’s winner at 4.45m on count-back over Jade Riebold of Eastern Illinois and Martina Schultze of Virginia Tech. In the horizontal jumps, Marquis Dendy of Florida won the Long Jump with a PB of 8.28m to extend his US-leading mark of 8.25m set last month. Bryce Lamb of Texas Tech won the Triple Jump with 16.96m. Andrea Geubelle of Kansas won the women’s Long Jump with 6.55m on count-back over Christabel Nettey, then won the Triple Jump the following day with 14.18m. World lead for Webb in the 200mAmeer Webb of Texas A&amp;M won the 200m in a world-leading 20.37 to successfully defend his title and join an illustrious group of two-time winners in the event that includes Walter Dix (2006 and 2007), Leo Bookman (2003 and 2004), Shawn Crawford (1998 and 2000), Obadele Thompson (1996 and 1997), Chris Nelloms (1993 and 1994) and Michael Johnson (1989 and 1990). US leader D’Angelo Cherry of Mississippi State won the 60m in 6.54 after false starts in the prelims that claimed Dentarius Locke and Marvin Bracy of Florida State. Errol Nolan of Houston won the 400m over Mike Berry of Oregon, 45.75 to 45.83, in two separate timed finals.Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU beat Scott of Central Florida to win the women’s 200m, 22.58 to 22.70, to become the first three-time men’s or women’s indoor winner in the event. Duncan, however, finished seventh in the 60m to Scott.Shaunae Miller, the 2010 World junior champion and 2011 World youth champion, won the women’s 400m with an outright PB of 50.88. Her time is a world indoor age-18 best, but just missed the World junior indoor record (50.82) set by Sanya Richards-Ross in 2004. Regina George of Arkansas was second in 51.05 and World junior champion Ashley Spencer was third in 51.27.Elijah Greer won the men’s 800m in 1:47.13 to become Oregon’s first champion in the event. Jamaican Natoya Goule of LSU won the women’s race in 2:02.00.Clarke wins fourth consecutive men’s Shot titleJordan Clarke of Arizona State defended his title in the men’s Shot with an effort of 20.50m. It was the fourth consecutive national title for Clarke, who won the 2011 outdoor title and swept the indoor and outdoor titles in 2012. In the Weight Throws, Andrew Ziegler of Virginia Tech was the men’s winner at 22.46m, while Felisha Johnson of Indiana State, who won in 2011, was the women’s winner at 23.52m.Kevin Lazas of Arkansas and Erica Bougard of Mississippi State were the winners of the combined events. Lazas won the Heptathlon by just 10 points over Japheth Cato of Wisconsin with a score of 6175 for the smallest margin of victory since the event was introduced in 2004. Lazas, who had personal bests in four of seven events, posted marks of 6.90 in the 60m, 7.55m in the Long Jump, 15.00m in the Shot, 1.99m in the High Jump, 8.27 in the 60m Hurdles, 5.40m in the Pole Vault and 2:49:00 in the 1000m.Lazas had a 50-point lead over Cato entering the 1000m in the final event but had to endure several tense moments while the scores were calculated after Cato ran 2:45.26 to cut the final margin to 10 points.Bougard won the Pentathlon with 4399 points with marks of 8.34 in the 60m Hurdles, 1.75m in the High Jump, 11.00m in the Shot, 6.11m in the Long Jump and 2:10.80 in the 800m.Kirby Lee for the IAAF

Collegiate records by Brooks and Arkansas 4x400m at NCAA Indoor Championships

US collegiate records by Tia Brooks in the women’s Shot and Arkansas in the men’s 4x400m relay highlighted the NCAA Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Center in Fayetteville on Friday and Saturday (March 8-9), while Lawi Lalang broke the meeting records in the mile and 3000m within the space of two hours.