It was a dominant start to the 2016 Diamond League in Doha, Qatar as the US had athletes competing in 11 of the 16 events and won seven of those. On the men’s side the US went four for five with only the 110m hurdles title eluding the US athletes. All three athletes for the US had season best marks but David Oliver, the defending champion, was 0.11 seconds off the winner and finished fourth in 13.16. Ameer Webb set a meet record in the 200m as he won by .21 seconds at 19.86. Lashawn Merritt won the 400m in 44.41, a winning margin of 0.27.  Erik Kynard was the only one to clear 2.33m in the high jump, the best mark in the world this year, while Christian Taylor also posted a world best mark in the triple jump at 17.23m, winning by .16m.

Tori Bowie similarly set a 2016 world best and a Doha meet record with a fast 10.80 100m, just 0.03 ahead of second place. The other two US wins were Tia Brooks in the shot put with a personal best 19.48m (winning by 0.26m) and Sandi Morris who dominated the pole vault with a 4.83m score that tied the Diamond League record as well as being the top score of 2016. She tried three times unsuccessfully to set a new record of 4.93m.

In the other women’s events the US was unable to medal. Chanelle Price was the top American in the 400m but her time of 2:01.05 was sixth place and 1.31 off third place despite being a season best. Cassandra Tate had a season best in the 400m hurdles in 55.57, good enough for fifth place 0.52 behind bronze. Over in the javelin Brittany Borman’s 61.27m throw was only fifth best and 1.15m less than third place.

The next Diamond League event will be in Shanghai on May 14th though with different events featured than this weekend.

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