Chebet triumphs in duel with Tesgay, Jackson returns to Diamond League

Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet triumphed in her distance duel with Gudaf Tesgay, Mondo Duplantis won the pole vault and Shericka Jackson finished second on her return to the track as the 2025 Diamond League season got underway on Saturday.

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Sweden's Duplantis was the headline act at the Egret Stadium but there was to be no repeat of his record-breaking feats in Xiamen last year as he failed with three attempts at 6.01 metres to win with a jump of 5.92, well short of his world mark of 6.24.

With five months until the season peaks at the world championships in Tokyo in September, many athletes are still testing their bodies in competition after winter training.

Chebet was delighted with how she came through her race against world record holder Tesgay and nine other Ethiopians in the women's 5,000m after pulling away down the home straight to win in 14 minutes and 27.12 seconds.

"The season is still new and I was not sure where the body is so I just thought I'd try to push because there were a lot of Ethiopians there," she said.