BATON ROUGE – Just two weeks after earning a spot on Jamaica’s Olympic team for the second time, former LSU NCAA Champion long jumper Damar Forbes captured his second career IAAF Diamond League long jump title when he jumped a seasonal best of 27 feet, 0 inches at Friday’s Monaco Herculis meeting at the Stade Louis II.
Forbes was recently crowned the Jamaican Champion on July 2 while jumping his previous seasonal best of 26-9 ¼ to earn his spot on Team Jamaica for the 2016 Olympic Games this summer.
He eclipsed the 27-foot mark for the first time in 2016 in Friday’s competition in Monaco when he hit the board and landed 27-0 (+1.5) into the pit on his third attempt to extend his lead and claim the second win of his professional career in the IAAF Diamond League. Forbes was also crowned a Diamond League champion in his competition debut in 2013 when he won the Paris Meeting Areva at the Stade de France.
Watch Damar Forbes’ winning jump of 27-0/8.23m on his 3rd attempt at the #MonacoDL! @damarforbes @Diamond_League https://t.co/ILt3QEqa72
— LSUTrackField (@LSUTrackField) July 15, 2016
Forbes was the only jumper in the field to eclipse eight meters in each of the first two rounds as he followed a jump of 26-6 ¼ (+1.4) on his first attempt with a jump of 26-5 ½ (+0.1) on his second attempt before going 27-0 (+1.5) on his third attempt to tie as the No. 13-ranked long jumper in the World rankings this season.
Forbes scored a narrow victory over Australian Fabrice Lapierre, who was second overall with a mark of 26-11 ¼ (+1.3). China’s Gao Xinglong was third in the competition with his series-best mark of 26-3 (+0.6).
“It is always good a good thing to come out here and beat guys who have been on the circuit for a long time,” Forbes said in a story by Ryon Jones for The Jamaica Gleaner. “I have been struggling with injuries all these years, so it kind of shows what kind of form I would be in if I wasn’t struggling, so I just have to build on it.”
Feels good to be healthy during this part of the season, got my 2nd diamond league win since 2013 today safe to say im on the right track
— Damar Forbes (@damarforbes) July 15, 2016
Forbes wasn’t the only former LSU athlete to appear in Friday’s Monaco Diamond League meeting as 2015 World Championships Bronze Medalist Cassandra Tate ran one of her fastest times of the season with a run of 54.63 seconds for a second-place finish to Great Britain’s Eilidh Doyle (54.09) in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. Doyle turned the tables on Tate in Monaco after Tate beat the British standout in her home country with her first career Diamond League victory in Birmingham, England, back on June 5.
Tate was comfortably in second place as she was followed across the finish line by Denmark’s Sara Petersen (54.81) in third place, South Africa’s Wenda Nel (54.93) in fourth place and Switzerland’s Lea Sprunger (55.42) in fifth place. Rounding out the field were American Shamier Little (55.73) in sixth place, France’s Phara Anacharsis (56.20) in seventh place and American Ashley Spencer (56.46) in eighth place.