Slovak athlete Emma Zapletalová won the 400 m hurdles at the Diamond League race in Rome. in the world performance of the year 52.58 s. Zapletalová followed up on her performance from Sunday, when in her season debut in Rabat she also won in the world maximum and moved the Slovak record to 52.82.
She reached the top three at the meetings of the most prestigious athletics series for the fifth time in her career. In addition, the winner of the 2025 Sportsman of the Year poll in Slovakia has already moved up to 12th place in the historical charts.
Zapletalová triumphed in Rome in stronger competition than four days earlier in the Moroccan capital. The American Anna Cockrellová (52.77), the silver medalist from the 2024 Olympics in Paris, came in second place behind her, Jamaican Rushell Claytonová (53.14) was third.
The fourth place was occupied by former world record holder Dalilah Muhammadová from the USA (53.39) and sixth was another American Jasmine Jonesová (53.92), who defeated Zapletalová last September at the WC in Tokyo and won silver. The Slovak athlete, just like in Rabat, started cautiously and gradually increased the pace and resisted Cockrell’s finish on the checkerboard.
