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Photo courtesy of UniversalSports.com

The third Diamond League meet of the year was the best one yet, with superstars Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards-Ross going head-to-head in the 200m and 400m, Blanka Vlasic entertaining the crowd at the high jump pit, and of course Usain Bolt showing up and racing countryman Asafa Powell. Apparently that Bolt guy is kind of a big deal ;)

47,732 people showed up at Rome's historic Olympic stadium to catch the action.

In the javelin, Russia's Mariya Abakumova, Olympic silver medallist in 2008, launched a world-leading 65.40m throw to take the win over European silver medallist Christina Obergfoll (63.97m). American Record holder and Women Talk Sports member Kara Patterson threw a season's best 62.76m for fourth.

The women's steeplechase again produced a world-leading time by 2010 Diamond League champion Milcah Chemos Cheiywa of Kenya (9:12.89), out-kicking Ethiopia's Sophia Assefa, who set a National Record of 9:15.04. American Sara Hall finally got her World and Olympic "A" Standard that she's been edging closer to with each race, setting a PR of 9:39.48. Her husband, marathon star Ryan Hall was very excited after the race:

More highlights of the Rome Golden Gala meet, in video clips courtesy of Universal Sports, who broadcast the meet live in its entirety and then later on its television station in condensed format (thank you!):

Allyson Felix dominates the 400m field (49.81):

Beijing gold medalist Dawn Harper edges fellow American Kellie Wells in an exciting 100m hurdles race. Lolo Jones had a fantastic start and led until she tripped up on the 6th hurdle and stopped her race:

Bianca Knight wins the 200m over a stellar field, including Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards who doubled back from the 400m and were a bit fatigued (they ARE human!), placing 4th and 5th, respectively:

Croatian superstar Blanka Vlasic wins the women's high jump (1.95m) in typical dominating fashion:

2009 World Champion Brittney Reese edges fellow American Funmi Jimoh in the long jump:

Maryam Jamal outkicked the rest of the field to win the women's 1500m after avoiding a traffic jam that sent several women to the track:

Complete Results for the Rome Golden Gala

Next up on the Diamond League schedule is the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, for which I will be participating in a live chat...stayed tuned to @anngaff for the link.

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• Track & Field
• Sports
• Media
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This post is related to events on our Calendar:

• Rome Golden Gala
• IAAF World Track and Field Championships - Daegu, Korea

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• Road to Daegu 2011

This article was written by a WomenTalkSports.com contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own women's sports content.

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