Ta Lou runs 10.75 World Lead, says: ‘I need to keep working hard to get a medal at the Championships’

African 100m record holder, Marie-Josée Ta Lou clocked a world lead and an Oslo Diamond League meeting record to claim her second Diamond League win of the year.

The Ivorian, 34, ran 10.97 to win in Florence at the start of the month and has now threw down the gauntlet as the sprinter to beat at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August.

Ta Lou was delighted to run a world lead and knows she needs to be consistent with two months to go to Budapest.

‘It is amazing to come back and win here again after winning two years ago. To run a world lead is especially good but it is early in the season as we still have two months to the Championships but it bodes well,’ the Ivorian told the media after the race.

With two silver medals in the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics Championships in London in 2017, Ta Lou will be looking to upgrade to gold in Budapest and she knows what she needs to do to keep that dream alive.

‘I am running well in the Diamond League and it was a big strong field here so a good start but I need to keep working hard to get a medal at the Championships.’

Ta Lou won the race ahead of Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas who ran a 10.92 personal best and Shericka Jackson of Jamaica (10.98) with Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith fourth in 10.98 (a personal season’s best).