Ujah beats Baker to win men's 100m in Rome
Britain's Chijindu Ujah powered to a season's best of 10.02sec to hold off French sprint hope Jimmy Vicaut and American Ronnie Baker to snatch a tense men's 100 metres victory at the Rome Diamond League on Thursday.
Ujah famously failed to make the Olympic final in Rio last year by just 0.01sec.
But two weeks after finishing an encouraging third behind Baker in Eugene, where he finished in a wind-assisted time of 9.95, the 23-year-old Londoner underlined his emerging class to win the non-scoring event.
Vicaut, 25, and Baker were both clocked at 10.05 but were separated by milliseconds.
"My focus was to be free and run free, and that is what I did," said Ujah, who like many athletes has the World Athletics Championships in London this August as his main focus.
"London, yes that is the main one. I hope I can do something special then."
In the absence of Jamaican 110m hurdles star Omar McLeod, the USA's world record-holder Aries Merritt also capitalised on the perfect race conditions at the Stadio Olimpico to match his earlier season's best in a winning time of 13.13.
Along with a decisive dip at the line, it secured victory to leave Spain's Cuban-born Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega, who had run 13.15 this year, second in 13.17.
Russia's world champion Sergey Shubenkov -- competing under a neutral banner -- was third in 13.21.
"It was a bit sloppy," said Merritt, who suggested that without "jetlag" he could have gone faster.
"I just got off the plane after it was late from the States, just arrived two days ago and it's no secret I'm still jetlagged.
"I wanted to run much faster but in the end I'm happy with my season's best. I mad many mistakes, hit a lot of hurdles, but my speed is getting better."
In the women's 100m, Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers, the 200m world champion, was just short of her season's best of 10.95 but dominated the field to leave Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou second in 11.03 and Trinidad and Tobago's Michelle-Lee Ahye third in 11.07.
Colombia's Caterine Ibarguen, the 2016 Olympic champion, wowed the crowd but finished second best to Venezuela's world indoor champion Yulimar Rojas as the women's triple jump made its Diamond League debut.
The world leader by more than half a metre, Rojas had leapt 14.96m this year and kept to the formbook with a leap of 14.84 that left Ibarguen in second place, albeit with a season's best of 14.73.
Kazakhstan's Olga Rypakova was third (14.64).