Stahl and Perez take discus Diamonds

A ninth-place finish in Paris two weeks ago provided the perfect motivation for Yaime Perez as she lined up to defend her Diamond League discus title. The Cuban put together one of her best series of the year, opening with 65.95m to take an early lead and extending it to 67.24m in round four.

Her two main rivals – fellow Cuban Denia Caballero and world and Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic – struggled to match Perez. Perkovic threw 65.48m in round two, while Caballero’s best of the day was 63.53m, eventually good enough for fourth place.

Perkovic ended her series with 66.00m, her best throw at an IAAF Diamond League meeting this year, but it wasn’t enough to catch Perez, who extended her leading mark to 68.27m with her final throw.

“I’ve been much more consistent the past couple of years and that’s mainly because I’ve been working a lot on the mental aspect,” said Perez. “In the past I was always very nervous at important competitions but now I have this under control.”

Like Perez, Daniel Stahl led from the outset to win his first Diamond trophy. His opening throw of 68.68m stood up as the best mark of the day, but he followed it with four other throws beyond 67 metres.

Defending Diamond League champion Fedrick Dacres was third with 65.27m, one place behind Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger (66.03m).