Jereem Richards sprint­ed to bronze in the men’s 400 me­tres at the Gold­en Gala Pietro Men­nea Di­a­mond League Meet in Rome, Italy, Fri­day.

Richards fin­ished strong­ly to clock 44.54 sec­onds to pass Botswana’s Bapyo Ndori (44.56) just be­fore the fin­ish line.

Rac­ing in his first 400m race since his fourth-place fin­ish at the Paris Olympics ear­li­er this month, Richards start­ed strong­ly and pro­duced his tra­di­tion­al trade­mark strong fin­ish but the 2022 World In­door cham­pi­on could not catch Paris Olympic bronze medal­list Muzal Samukon­ga of Zim­bab­we (43.99) and for­mer Olympic and World cham­pi­on Grena­di­an Ki­rani James (44.30) both of whom got to the line ahead of him.

The race is the sec­ond from Richards since he set a new na­tion­al 400m record of 43.78. He was fifth in the Lau­sanne, Switzer­land Di­a­mond League 200m on Au­gust 22 in a sea­son’s best time of 20.10.

Ak­era Nu­gent set a new Ja­maican record of 12.24 sec­onds in win­ning the women’s 100m hur­dles ahead of the Paris Olympic cham­pi­on Amer­i­can Ma­sai Rus­sell (12.31). Nu­gent im­proved on the pre­vi­ous na­tion­al mark of 12.28 she set in tak­ing the Ja­maican ti­tle in late June. The win is the sec­ond af­ter she won in Lau­sanne in a meet record of 12.29. The dou­ble vic­to­ry was re­demp­tion for the 2021 World Un­der 20 cham­pi­on af­ter she failed to fin­ish in the fi­nals.

Nu­gent’s com­pa­tri­ot, Paris Olympic men’s dis­cus win­ner Ro­je Stona was among three Ja­maicans who were sec­ond in their events.

Stona was run­ner-up in the men’s dis­cus in Rome with 67.85. Slove­nia’s 2022 World Cham­pi­on Krist­jan Ceh took the top spot (68.61) with world record-hold­er Myko­las Alex­na of Lithua­nia (67.68) tak­ing bronze.

An­oth­er Ja­maican Ro­maine Beck­ford nar­row­ly missed out on gold in the men’s high jump. The Paris Olympics tenth-place clear­ance a per­son­al best of 2.30m but lost out for the top spot to Woo Sanghyeok of South Ko­rea, the 2022 World In­door gold medal­list, who al­so cleared 2.30m.

Shi­aan Sel­man took sil­ver in the women’s 400 hur­dles in 53.20. Olympic sil­ver medal­list An­na Cock­rell of the USA won in 52.59.

Ja­ma­ia’s for­mer World and Olympic cham­pi­on Omar Mc Leod fin­ished third in the men’s 110m hur­dles in 13.28. France’s 2021 World Un­der-20 vic­tor Sasha Zhoya won with 13.18 and Asi­er Mar­tinez of Spain, 2022 World Cham­pi­onships bronze medal­list, was third in 13.27. Ja­maican Or­lan­do Ben­nett was fifth in 13.33.

Rome Di­a­mond League

Men’s 400m

1 Muzal Samukon­ga (Zim­bab­we) 43.99

2 Ki­rani James (Grena­da) 44.30

3 Jereem Richards (T&T) 44.55

4 Bay­po Ndori (Botswana)44.56

5 Ver­non Nor­wood (USA) 44.71

6 Charles Dob­son (Great Britain)44.75

7 Bryce Dead­mon (USA) 44.77

8 Bu­sang Ke­bi­nat­shipi (Botswana) 45.14

9 Lu­ca Sito (Italy) 45.25