DOHA: Jamaica’s Tia Clayton edged her twin sister Tina Clayton in the women’s 100 metres at the Doha Diamond League meet on Friday while Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo nearly threw away a victory near the finish line in the men’s 200 metres.

Tia clocked a world-leading 10.92 seconds, 0.1 second faster than her sister Tina who edged Amy Hunt by one hundredth of a second after the Briton ran a personal best to deny Jamaica a podium sweep.

“I made the world leading mark, but honestly I didn’t do the best possible because I couldn’t do the start I always get,” Tia said. “But other than that it was a great race for me. It is very special for me and my twin sister to finish first and second in this event tonight.”

The two sisters are training partners and Tina said family ties are set aside when they race.

“When we line up for a race, we are no longer sisters, we are rival competitors,” she said. “But after the race is over, it feels really good to make the top two places.”

Twice 100m Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had to settle for fourth on her return to Diamond League as the 38-year-old failed to defy the odds in Doha, where she won the world title six years ago.

Tebogo started the 200 metres final well out on lane seven but the Botswanan sprinter eased up towards the end and nearly paid the price for a cheeky look over at American Courtney Lindsey in the next lane as he won by a whisker.

Tebogo clocked 20.10 seconds, just 0.01 seconds ahead of Lindsey.

In a high-quality men’s 800m, Tshepiso Masalela chased down Wycliffe Kinyamal to clock 1min 43.11sec, the fastest time in the world this year.

Masalela, another athlete from Botswana, showed he has what it takes to challenge for medals at the world championships in Tokyo in September.

In the women’s 400m, Salwa Eid Naser, the 2024 Olympic silver medallist, eased to victory in 49.83sec as she made a triumphant return to the city where she won the world title in 2019.

The Bahraini athlete’s career was interrupted by a two-year doping ban from 2021 to 2023 but she is approaching her best again.

Reynold Cheruiyot had the Kenyan fans in raptures when the 20-year-old stormed to victory in just his second career race in the men’s 5,000 metres.

Cheruiyot switched gears in the final lap and took the lead in the last 200 metres to win with a time of 13 minutes and 16.40 seconds while South Sudan’s Dominic Lobalu and Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew had a photo finish for second and third.

The Kenyan fans were on their feet once again after the final event where Faith Cherotich clinched victory in the 3,000 metres steeplechase, beating Paris gold medallist Winfred Yavi in the final few metres with a sudden burst of speed.

Despite the hot and humid conditions, Cherotich clocked a world-leading 9min 05.08sec, with Winfred just 0.18sec behind.

In the field events, Indian javelin star Neeraj Chopra, Olympic champion in 2021 and silver medallist in 2024, breached the 90-metre mark in the for the first time in his career to delight his 9.5 million Instagram followers and the Indian spectators in the crowd.

Chopra warmed up with a world-leading 88.44 metres with his first throw before a monster 90.23 metres attempt in the third round for a personal best and national record.

But Chopra was deprived of victory by Germany’s Julian Weber, who hurled a superb 91.06m on his sixth and final attempt.

Molly Caudery claimed her first win of the season in the pole vault when the Briton became the only woman to clear 4.75 metres.

Olympic high jump champion Hamish Kerr finished third as he was beaten by the silver medallist from Paris, Shelby McEwen, who cleared 2.26m to the New Zealander’s 2.23m, the same height as second-placed Ryoichi Akamatsu of Japan.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2025