Idowu impresses in Shanghai triumph

Phillips Idowu
19 May 2012

Phillips Idowu fired an early warning to his Olympic triple jump rivals on his first outing of the season by winning Saturday's Diamond League meeting in Shanghai.

The world silver medallist beat the man who pipped him to the world title in Daegu last year, American Christian Taylor, with a jump of 17.24 metres in very difficult conditions, a meeting record.

The Londoner coped much better than his competition with the heavy rain and wind as he put together a decent series.

Taylor, who won the World Championship with a leap of 17.96m, produced four no jumps and could only manage a best of 16.96m for third place, with countryman Will Claye, who took bronze in Daegu, second with 17.12m.

Home favourite Liu Xiang ran a world-leading 12.97 seconds to win the 110m hurdles in emphatic fashion. The former Olympic champion comprehensively beat London 2012 rivals David Oliver and Jason Richardson, the world champion, who were second and third respectively.

Asafa Powell won the 100m in 10.02secs, the wet conditions and a headwind putting paid to hopes of a fast time. The Jamaican, beaten into second by Justin Gatlin in Doha last time out, got off to a flying start and stayed relaxed to cross the line 0.06 ahead of Mike Rodgers.

Keninisa Bekele, the Olympic champion over 5,000 and 10,000 metres and set to be one of Mo Farah's major rivals this summer should he stay fit, could only finish fifth over the shorter distance. Fellow Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet won in 13:11.00, the fastest in the world this year.

Great Britain's Barbara Parker was eighth in the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:40.16.

Genzebe Dibaba produced perhaps the performance of the night to win the 1,500m in 3:57.77, an Ethiopian record and more than eight seconds quicker than the previous fastest time in the world this year. The top three all ran quicker than Great Britain Olympic medal hopeful Hannah England has ever run, showing the size of the task the world silver medallist is likely to face this summer.

Two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor, likely to be one of Dai Greene's main rivals for gold in London this summer, won the 400m hurdles in 48.98.

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