American teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus produced a stunning performance to hold off Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in the men’s 800m at the Diamond League meeting in Norway.
The 17-year-old crossed the line in a personal best of one minute and 42.08 seconds to edge out the Kenyan by one hundredth of a second in Oslo, despite Wanyonyi recording his fastest time of the season (1:42.09).
Lutkenhaus was unbeaten in his five previous 800m finals this year, having claimed gold at the World Indoor Championships and become the Diamond League’s youngest ever winner on his debut in Stockholm last weekend.
“This boy [Lutkenhaus] is in a good shape,” said the 21-year-old Wanyonyi, who missed the event in Sweden following the birth of his first child.
“Can you believe that as an Olympic champion, you are trying to knock down a 17-year-old boy?
“I started the race in front and after 600m to go, I tried to see who is coming to push me. Then I saw him passing me so then I tried to respond. But my target today was to run my season best, to improve.”
British sprinter Amy Hunt placed second in the women’s 100m in 10.99 seconds, with St Lucia’s Olympic champion Julien Alfred taking victory in a time of 10.76.
Amber Anning was fourth in the women’s 400m as Norway’s Henriette Jaeger enjoyed success, while her fellow Briton, Jake Wightman, finished fifth in the Dream Mile behind Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot.
There was Ethiopian dominance in the women’s 3,000m race, with Freweyni Hailu, Likina Amebaw, Senayet Getachew and Hawi Abera occupying the top four positions.
Hailu recorded the fastest time in the world this year, crossing the line in 8:24.22, while GB pair Megan Keith and Innes Fitzgerald finished seventh and ninth respectively.
In the final event of the evening, home favourite Karsten Warholm’s time of 47.40 was only enough to earn the Swede second place behind Brazilian rival Alison dos Santos (46.89) in the men’s 400m hurdles.
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