By CHRIS MUSUMBA and IAAFKenya’s Olympic champion Nancy Jebet Lagat became the first athlete to secure the Samsung Diamond League title when she chalked up her fourth victory in five attempts in winning Friday’s 1,500 metres race at the London meeting.
Consistency is the yardstick for determining the winner of the Diamond League series and Lagat, the new Africa champion, added the London title to her collection this season.
Lagat has only lost once this season to Russian Anna Alminova in Lausanne but kept her composure to win in Doha, New York, Stockholm and London.
This brings her tally to unassailable 17 with only one race left in Brussels on August 27. Her closest pursuant Alminova has only eight points while Gelete Burka, the world Indoor champion, is third with seven ahead of her Ethiopian countrywoman Meseret Defer on four.
Only a maximum of eight points is up for grabs in Brussels and this leaves Lagat the first world number one over the four lap race.
She takes home a Sh3.2 million ($40,000) cash prize and a spectacular diamond trophy of equal amount created by Beyer, one of the oldest and most respected jewellers in the world.
In Friday’s race, Lagat had too much speed over the final 150 metres for the Russian who leads the world standings this year with three minutes 57.65 seconds.
Lagat pulled away to finish five metres clear in 4:07.60, with Alminova recording 4:08.82 at the end of a race which got faster and faster after a relatively cautious start.
In the men 3,000m steeplechase race, Paul Kipsiele Koech took over the leadership of the Diamond League standings thanks to a tactically astute front-running performance.
The Kenyan simply ran the legs off the opposition after hitting the front with just over three laps to go.
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