Jamaican Andrew Riley crashed the Olympic 110m hurdles reunion, edging London Games gold medalist and world record-holder Aries Merritt at the Drake Relays athletics meeting.
Riley, a 24-year-old who recently completed a US collegiate athletics career, won in 13.43sec, with Merritt settling for second in 13.48 in a race that featured all three medalists from last year's London Games.
"It means a lot," Riley said of the triumph in the talent-packed field. "Hurdles is one of those events where we don't duck and dodge each other like the 100 meters.
"In the hurdles we race each other week-in and week-out so a field like you just saw today you'll see many many many times again this season, which is a really good thing for the sport and hopefully people can see the hurdles as a marquee event."
Merritt, who followed up his Olympic gold medal by setting a world record of 12.80sec at Brussels in September, pronounced himself satisfied with the race, especially since his training has been hindered by an injury picked up in the indoor season.
"I haven't raced a field of this caliber since Brussels," Merritt said. "It was a pretty good run even though it's relatively early in my training since I came off of injury indoors."
Merritt said the unfavorable wind of 3.2m/sec made for a messy race. Olympic silver medalist Jason Richardson was disqualified for a false start and Olympic bronze medalist Hansle Parchment was seventh.
"Had the wind not been so strong the outcome probably could have been different for everyone," Merritt said. "Everyone was smashing hurdles because you can never get on top of your run and it's really difficult to navigate barriers with that amount of wind.
"Andrew Riley did a really good job navigating the barriers. Big props to him," Merritt added.
Americans Michael Tinsley in the 400m hurdles and Jenny Simpson in the 1500m and Cuba's Yarisley Silva in the pole vault posted world-leading performances for the season.
Tinsley won in 48.55sec, 22-hundredths of a second faster than the prior world-leading time of 2013 he had established at the Kansas Relays.
The Olympic silver medalist finished ahead of compatriot Johnny Dutch (48.73) and Puerto Rican Javier Culson (49.33) -- the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist.
In the 1500m, reigning world champion Simpson won in 4min 03.35sec.
In the women's pole vault, Olympic silver medalist Silva turned the tables on Olympic champion Jennifer Suhr with a vault of 4.85m to the American's 4.63.
In other events, Dominican Luguelin Santos, 19 years old and already the Olympic 400m silver medalist, won the 400m in 44.72sec, with US veteran Jeremy Wariner, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion, a distant second in 45.35.
In the women's long jump, American Brittney Reese, Olympic champion and two-time reigning world champ, won with a leap of 6.94m on her final attempt.
Source: AFP
