Cooper Lutkenhaus, 17, beats Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi in Oslo
American teenager Cooper Lutkenhaus produced a stunning 800m performance to defeat Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
The 17-year-old crossed the line in a personal best of one minute 42.08 seconds to edge out the Kenyan by a single hundredth of a second.
Despite being narrowly beaten, the Paris 2024 gold medallist still managed to record his fastest time of the current season.
This latest victory means the young American remains unbeaten in all five of his 800m finals this calendar year.
He previously claimed gold at the World Indoor Championships and became the competition’s youngest ever winner on his debut in Stockholm last weekend.
Wanyonyi praises teenage sensation
The 21-year-old Kenyan star, who missed the recent event in Sweden following the birth of his first child, was full of praise for his conqueror.
“This boy is in a good shape,” noted Wanyonyi after the dramatic finish.
“Can you believe that as an Olympic champion, you are trying to knock down a 17-year-old boy?
“I started the race in front and after 600m to go, I tried to see who is coming to push me.
“Then I saw him passing me so then I tried to respond, but my target today was to run my season best, to improve.”
Gout struggles on Diamond League debut
While one teenager shone brightly in Norway, it proved to be a difficult evening for Australian prodigy Gout Gout.
The 18-year-old finished sixth in the 200m as he failed to recover from a remarkably slow start out of the blocks.
Reigning Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo demonstrated his elite class by storming to victory with a commanding time of 19.84 seconds.
Gout clocked 20.60 seconds, which fell significantly short of the blistering 19.67 national record he established in April.
“Tebogo is a great athlete, I’ve looked up to him for a long time and he deserved the win,” the Australian sprinter conceded.
“I’m going out here against the big boys and I’ll definitely come back.”
Botswana’s gold medallist offered some measured words of caution for the emerging talent.
“First and foremost, he should not get comfortable racing with the seniors,” added Tebogo.
British success and Ethiopian dominance
Elsewhere in the Norwegian capital, British sprinter Amy Hunt secured an impressive second place in the women’s 100m.
She clocked 10.99 seconds to finish directly behind St Lucia’s Olympic champion Julien Alfred.
Fellow Briton Amber Anning placed fourth in the women’s 400m as local favourite Henriette Jaeger delighted the home crowd with a win.
In the Dream Mile, former world champion Jake Wightman crossed the line fifth behind Kenyan victor Timothy Cheruiyot.
The women’s 3,000m race was entirely dominated by Ethiopian athletes, with Freweyni Hailu leading a top-four sweep for her nation.
Hailu recorded the fastest time in the world this year by crossing the line in eight minutes 24.22 seconds.
The evening concluded with Brazilian Alison dos Santos upsetting home favourite Karsten Warholm to win the men’s 400m hurdles.
