Staněk has a medal in the Diamond League after 6 years, he was third in Florence. Kipyegonová ran a world record

At the same time, Staněk had a painful journey to Florence, which took him twelve hours by plane on Thursday. Therefore, he was not feeling well before the meeting. “Especially when it rained here before the race. It looked like it should stop raining a little earlier, but unfortunately we caught it too,” he lamented.

He got off to a slower start at the Golden Gala. Performances of 21.17 from the second and 21.18 from the fourth series were not enough for the podium. In the fifth round, however, he added almost half a meter and came close to seven centimeters of the performance from the opening race of the season in Turnov. This moved him into third place ahead of two-time world champion Joe Kovacs of the USA. “My ring was slipping. Fortunately, it gradually dried up during the race. The fact that I beat Joe Kovacs after that difficult journey is certainly great news,” he praised.

Thanks to his position in the leading three, he had a chance for the sixth attempt, but the ball from his hand landed only on the tape marking twenty meters. This was also due to the fact that, due to the television broadcast, the bowlers had to wait ten minutes for the final.

“I was mainly thinking about not getting injured. My legs were dragging a bit. Especially when the organizers made us wait there for such a long time, it’s not the best system for the dynamic disciplines. But that’s how it is. I’m glad I didn’t hurt myself. It could have flown in 21, but it flew through my fingers,” described Staněk.

Today’s performance gave him a lot of confidence. “Given how I threw today and how it was hampered by the weather and the feeling in my legs, I think 21.60 is great. I feel like when it’s a dry circle and I’m not traveling that long, I definitely have attempts for 22 meters. I’m very satisfied with that and I think I’ll be even more satisfied soon,” added Staněk, whose next race will be the Odložil Memorial in Prague on Monday. So far, the forecast promises sunny and warm weather there.

New Zealander Tom Walsh (21.69) took second place behind Fabbri. World record holder Ryan Crouser did not start in Florence.

Kipyegonová ran the world record for 1500 meters

At the end of the meeting, historical tables were rewritten. Kipyegon, 29, won the 15-meter in 3:49.11 minutes, knocking 96 hundredths off Ethiopia’s Genzebe Diababa’s record set in 2015. She became the first woman to break the three-minute, 50-second mark over the distance.

Two-time Olympic champion and reigning world champion Kipyegon has been showing for a long time that she is the current queen of this track. She already attacked the move to first place of all time last year, but in Monaco she was still three tenths short of the world record. In Florence, however, she had no record ambitions before the race. “I’m surprised, I didn’t expect this today,” she told Sky TV.

For the first time in the current year of the Diamond League, the Dutch star Femke Bolová appeared in the 400 meter hurdles and it was a great race. The European record holder improved by 69 hundredths compared to her first start in the season and with a time of 52.43 exceeded by 39 hundredths the thirteen-year-old meeting record of the American Lashinda Demusová. The winner from Rabat Shamier Little finished second (53.38). Third was another American, Anna Hallová, winner of the weekend all-around meeting in Götzis. She improved her personal record to 54.42.

The American youngster Erriyon Knighton (19.89) dominated the 200m. His favored compatriot Grant Holloway (13.04) triumphed in the short hurdles. The role of reigning world champion was confirmed by Fred Kerley in the smooth 100, who extended this year’s invincibility with a time of 9.94. On the contrary, in the women’s 100, the Americans did not make an impression. The sprinter from Ivory Coast Marie-Josée Ta Louová won (10.97).