Wayde van Niekerk continued his record and history making journey towards London World Championships in August where the 200m and 400m double is his target.
The World Record holder at 300m and 400m broke the 21 year old Diamond league record, the meeting record for the Lausanne League with 43.62 in the 400m.
Going off fast in lane 5, the South African had the clear lead by 150m and then left the opposition by 4 metres as he came off the bend, then turned off the turbo as he completed the final 30 metres to the line.
Botswana’s Baboloki Thebe and Isaac Makwala (SB) were the closest contenders in 44:02 and 44.03 respectively and making a mark for Southern Africa.
The men’s 100m proved to be a great tussle with USA’s Justin Gatlin crashing the line in 9.96, with Youssef Meite of ivory coast just 0.02 seconds adrift and Akani Simbine recording 9.98 for his 15th time under 10 seconds and showing the sort of consistency that can take him into the London World Championships final e
Henrico Bruitjies was sixth, which would prove a popular position for South Africans in the Lausanne Diamond league, in 10.15 seconds.
watch the 100m here:
Commonwealth Champion Cornel Fredericks lead out the 400m hurdles with a blast of a start from lane 8 but sadly tied up with 80 metres to go as the field passed through to leave him in 6th in 49.32 seconds.
Home crowd favourite Kariem Hussein took the honours in 48.82.
LJ van Zyl, who has earlier in the week spent time introducing kids to the art of hurdling was a disappointing 7th in 50.04 seconds and needs to re-gain form to meet the ASA qualification.
Sunette Viljoen was over 2 metres off her seasons best when she launched the javelin to 61.38m for sixth place behind Croatian Sara Kolak who set a Meeting and National record of 68.43m. Kolak’s performance is also the World lead for 2017.
Barbora Spotakova, a multiple world champion, was second with a season best of 67.40m
The excitement of the meeting lasted to the final event when Mariya Lasitskene set a new Diamond League record in the high jump with her 2.06m. Although unable to clear the world record 2.10, the potential is clearly there.