Seventeen-year-old American runner Cooper Lutkenhaus won the men's 800m at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo on June 10, setting a personal best and the fastest time of the year with 1:42.08 seconds. He narrowly beat Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who finished second with a season-best 1:42.09 seconds[citation needed] [1, 2].
Wanyonyi, who missed the previous Diamond League event in Stockholm due to the birth of his first child, praised Lutkenhaus’s performance, saying, "This boy [Lutkenhaus] is in a good shape. Can you believe that as an Olympic champion, you are trying to knock down a 17-year-old boy?" [1]
Despite his victory, Lutkenhaus downplayed claims of being the new world No. 1. "I don’t think so. Wanyonyi’s the Olympic champ. Just because you beat someone one time, I don’t think that means you’re better than them. But today I had a great day and I was able to come out with the win," he said [2].
In the 200m race, Australian 18-year-old Gout Gout finished sixth with a time of 20.60 seconds. Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo won the event in 19.84 seconds [1, 2].
