Wariner, Whiting bag US titles

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: Three-time Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner and reigning world indoor shot put champion Ryan Whiting won landmark titles on Sunday at the US Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Athens Olympic 400-meter winner Wariner, a five-time world champion and two-time Olympic relay title-holder competing in the US Indoors for the first time, won the 400 in 45.82 seconds, .72 ahead of runner-up Marcus Boyd.
Wariner’s chief rival, Bershawn Jackson, failed to finish the race. He was the 2005 world champion and third in the 400 hurdles at the 2008 Olympics.
Whiting’s winning effort of 21.80m, .87 ahead of runner-up Cory Martin, was the best indoor shot put performance in the world this year.
D’Angelo Cherry just missed matching the fastest 60-meter time in the world this year with a victory in 6.49 seconds, .05 ahead of runner-up Reggie Dixon.
France’s Jimmy Vicaut won the European indoor 60m title on Saturday in a season’s world best 6.48 with Britain’s James Dasaolu second in the same time.
Olympic long jump bronze medalist Janay DeLoach Soukup, who won her third consecutive US Indoor title on Saturday, was third Sunday in the 60m hurdles.
Blake to run
at opening Doha Diamond
League meeting
Meantime, Jamaica’s 100 meters world champion Yohan Blake is the first high-profile athlete to sign up for the opening Diamond League event in Doha, organizers said yesterday.
The meeting on May 10 in Qatar is the first of the 14 Diamond League fixtures.
“This will be my first time in Qatar and I am looking forward to going to Doha, for my first Diamond League appearance on the Asian continent,” Blake said in a IAAF statement.
“I have heard about the fast track in Doha and I hope to break the meeting record (9.85 seconds, Olusoji Fasuba, 2006). I always want to surprise the audience, everywhere I go.
“I am the second fastest man in the world at the moment. My ambition is to become the best. I have to continue working very hard for that. Anything is possible.”
Blake, 23, won silver in the 100 and 200 behind compatriot Usain Bolt at the London 2012 Olympics and was part of the world record-breaking 4x100 gold medal-winning Jamaican quartet.