Sarah Healy (file photo). Alamy Stock Photo

Sarah Healy stays top of Diamond League 1500m standings

Dubliner finishes ninth in Silesia.

LAST UPDATE | 16 Aug

IRELAND’S SARAH HEALY remains top of the 1500m standings in the Wanda Diamond League after a ninth-place finish in Silesia, Poland. 

The in-form UCD AC runner had already qualified for the final and now has 23 points, seven clear of Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in second. 

Tsegay stormed to victory today in 3:50.62, a meet record and season’s best. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet was next home in a personal best of 3:54.73, while Georgia Hunter Bell of Great Britain finished third in 3:56.00.

Healy clocked 3:57.95, also achieving automatic qualification for next year’s European Athletics Championships.

But the Dubliner’s focus will be on the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich on 28 August, with a top prize of just over €25,000 on the line.

Healy claimed her first-ever Diamond League victory in Rome in May, and ran a personal best (3:57.15) as she finished second in Paris in June.

Elsewhere in Silesia today, Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson made a triumphant return to action as she ran a world-leading time in her first 800m since winning gold at the Paris Games last year.

The 23-year-old — a training partner of Healy’s — showed no sign of the lingering hamstring problems that had sidelined her for months as she clocked a meet record of 1:54.74 in hot and humid conditions in the Polish city of Chorzow.

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon just missed out on the long-standing world record in the women’s 3,000m.

Six weeks after improving her own world 1500m record in Eugene, the three-time Olympic and four-time world gold medallist clocked 8:07.04 over the non-Olympic distance. That fell just short of the 8:06.11 world record set by China’s Wang Junxia in 1993.

And Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson exacted a measure of revenge by beating Olympic champion Noah Lyles over 100m. It was the first time the two sprinters have met since Lyles was awarded Olympic gold in Paris a year ago, just five-thousandths of a second ahead of Thompson.

The fast-starting Jamaican timed a joint meet record of 9.87 for victory, with Lyles second in 9.90. Another American, Kenny Bednarek, rounded out the podium in 9.96.

sarah-lavin-wins-the-race Sarah Lavin (file photo). Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Elsewhere, Sarah Lavin finished fourth in the 100m hurdles final at the CITIUS meeting in Bern, Switzerland.

The Limerick star clocked 13.20. Home hero Ditaji Kambundji won in 12.66, with Netherlands’ Maayke Tjin A-Lim (12.90) and Saara Keskitalo of Finland (13.06) second and third respectively.

Meanwhile at the Meeting voor Mon in Leuven, Belgium, Jack Rafferty was the best of the Irish in the men’s 400m, finishing fifth in 45.50.

Cillín Greene (46.54), Andrew Egan (47.20) and Chris O’Donnell (47.59) were also in action.

With over 20 Irish athletes competing, Nick Griggs ran a season’s best time of 3:37.64 over 1500m.

- Additional reporting from – © AFP 2025

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