Summary Van Niekerk and David Rudisha failed to reproduce their form at the Diamond League meet in Zurich.
ZURICH (AFP) - Wayde van Niekerk, David Rudisha and Maria Arzamasova failed to reproduce their world title-winning form at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.
Coming just four days after the action at the world championships came to a halt in Beijing, it was always going to be a big ask for athletes to pull out another big performance.
And so it proved despite a packed stadium at the first of two season-ending Diamond League finals, the finale coming in Brussels on September 11.
Poland s Adam Kszczot won a high-quality 800m, beating out Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi, Ethiopian Mohammed Aman and Kenya s world record holder and newly-minted world champion Rudisha.
In the 400m, American Lashawn Merritt got the better of Van Niekerk and in the women s 800m, Kenyan Eunice Sum gained a degree of revenge over Arzamasova, winning in 1:59.14.
Genzebe Dibaba again played second fiddle to Ethiopian teammate Almaz Ayana, this time in the 3000m, which the latter outsprinted the former to win in a meeting record of 8:22.34. Dibaba, however, was one of the 16 athletes on the night to win the Diamond Race for topping the season standings in her respective discipline.
There was no such drama for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the Jamaican replicating her winning Beijing form for victory in the women s 100m in 10.93sec running into a headwind.
Russian Sergey Shubenkov was also victorious in the men s 110m hurdles in 13.14sec ahead of American David Oliver, Czech Zuzana Hejnova was first across the line in the women s 400m hurdles, Briton Greg Rutherford won the long jump in 8.32m and Kenyan Asbel Kiprop strode to a convincing 1500m win (3:35.79).
Rutherford won the Diamond Race, meaning he could add that accolade to his being Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion simultaneously.
Pole Piotr Malachowski s second place in the men s discus was enough for the world champion to win the Diamond Race for a fourth time, just as Czech Barbara Spotakova did in the women s javelin despite not even medalling in the Chinese capital.
