Jeremy Wariner of the United States ran the world's fastest 400-meter time of the year at the Weltklasse Diamond League meeting Thursday. Wariner timed 44.13 seconds to take 0.27 off the season's best set by Jamaica's Jermaine Gonzales at the Monaco Diamond League meet last month. Wariner went to the front with 60 to go and quickly went clear, earning himself a $20,000 bonus from Weltklasse organizers for setting a world-leading time. He also collects $40,000 for winning the seasonlong points standings in Diamond League 400 races. Gonzales was second in 44.51 and Angelo Taylor of the US clocked his season's best of 44.72 in third. David Oliver of the US failed in his latest attempt to take down Cuban Dayron Robles' 110 hurdles world record of 12.87. Oliver didn't get the best start, but blazed through the middle section and hurled himself over the line in 12.93 – 0.04 outside his national record set in Paris last month. Tyson Gay skipped the individual 200 race, but ran the third leg of a 4x100 relay for an American quartet which set a world's best time this year. Gay, Trell Kimmons, Wallace Spearmon and anchor Michael Rodgers timed 37.45 to beat a Jamaica quartet by 0.31. With Usain Bolt also missing the 200, after shutting down his season because of a back injury, Spearmon took the spotlight in a meet record time. Spearmon ran 19.79, his season's best, to edge Jamaica's Yohan Blake in 19.86. Ryan Bailey of the US ran a personal best 20.10 in third. Spearmon also won the Diamond League title because points leader Walter Dix was injured and could not fulfil the rules requirement of running in the final. Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown won the women's 100 in a photo finish with Carmelita Jeter of the US, as the two women both timed 10.89. Another American, Marshevet Myers, was third in 10.97. Kaliese Spencer of Jamaica saved her best for last in an excellent season of 400 hurdles races. Her fourth straight Diamond League victory in 53.33 took 0.15 off her personal record, and was more than a second faster than Czech runner-up Zuzana Hejnova. Allyson Felix completed the first half of an expected Diamond League double by winning the 400 in 50.37, ahead of her fellow American Debbie Dunn in 50.57. Botswana's Amantle Montsho was third in 50.63. Felix clinched the one-lap title and only has to start in the 200 final at Brussels to also collect that trophy. World champion Ezekiel Kemboi won the 3,000 steeplechase, distancing fellow Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech from the final bend to clock his best time of the season, 8:01.74. Koech took the seasonlong title. Ethiopia got a 1-2 finish in a high-class 5,000 field, with Chris Solinsky of the US third. Tariku Bekele won in 12:55.03, ahead of season champion Imane Merga. Newly crowned European champion Mo Farah set a British record of 12:57.94 but placed just fifth. Christina Obergfoell of Germany set a Weltklasse meet record in the javelin with a winning throw of 67.31. Americans took home both Diamond League long jump trophies. Brittney Reese's first leap of 6.89 was enough, and no one bettered Dwight Phillips' opening 8.20 jump. Germany's Robert Harting took the men's discus with a throw of 68.64 meters, 16 centimeters further than Piotr Malachowski of Poland who collected the diamond trophy. In a men's 100 run outside the Diamond League program, America's Kimmons won in a personal record of 9.95.
