Olympic champion sets 3000m steeplechase best

Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion Yuliya Zaripova clocked a season's best time of 9min 05.02sec to win the event at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting on Friday. The Russian finished ahead of Tunisia's Habiba Ghribi, the silver medallist at the London Games, who timed 9:10.36, with Etenesh Diro Neda of Ethiopia running a personal best of 9:14.07 to take third place. Zaripova, 26, had set the previous best for the season in winning Olympic gold on August 6 in a time of 9:06.72. Ethiopia's Sofia Assefa, the bronze medallist in London, failed to finish the race. America's Jennifer Suhr, the Olympic polevault champion, returned to the circuit with a resounding bump when she failed to register a height, flopping three times at 4.55m. Cuba's Yarisley Silva, the Olympic silver medallist, won the competition with 4.70m ahead of Germany's Silke Spiegelburg on 4.55m.