After a strong opening 200m Jones held on to take the victory in 51.91 seconds. Coming into the final bend Germany’s Claudia Hoffmann cut into Jones' advantage, but she switched into another gear to record another quality time in her first serious attempt over the distance. 

Hoffmann finished in second-place with a time of 52.50, while Shereefa Lloyd of Jamaica, who took race B in a personal best of 52.55, took third overall.

Close till the end

In perhaps the highlight of the meet, Cuba's Dayron Robles and China's Liu Xiang entertained the crowed in a thrilling battle over the 60m hurdles. In a match that is expected to flow throughout the entire 2007 season, the Chinese Olympic gold medallist won a narrow decision over the Cuban, at 7.42 to 7.44. Both athletes ran stride-on in the close, intense race before Liu managed to record his winning time, which was a national record.

American Ron Bramlett finished third in 7.53, while Jamaican Commonwealth Games champion Maurice Wignall took sixth in 7.72.

Another close defeat in the hurdles

In the women's race, Jamaica's Lacena Golding-Clarke was unable to hold on to her lead and was defeated by a strong finish from Lolo Jones of USA. Jones rushed to the tape in a personal best time of 7.87, which also equalled the meet record.

Golding-Clarke, who finished last season as the fastest female hurdler over the distance, posted a second-place time of 7.91, a performance that improved on the 7.97 she ran in Stuttgart earlier this month.

The other Caribbean athletes in the race, Vonette Dixon of Jamaica and Cuban Anay Tejeda, took 5th and 7th respectively with times of 8.05 and 8.17.

The Caribbean was also fruitful in the men's triple jump competition, despite not taking the victory stands. Cubans David Giralt, Osniel Tosca and Joandris Betanzos all finished in the top five positions in the event.

All three finished behind Christian Olsson of Sweden, who produced a fourth round world-leading mark of 17.44m to dash all hopes his other competitors may have had.
   
Giralt, who took the lead after the second jump, took second with a leap of 17.25m, Tosca finished third in his first season on the big circuit with a personal best mark of 17.25m also. The other Cuban in the event, Betanzos, snatched fourth with an effort of 17.00m. Bahamian Leevan Sands (16.69) and Grenadian Randy Lewis (16.19) were sixth and tenth respectively.

In a fast men's 60m dash, which produced a world-leading mark, Cuba's indoor sprinter Fredy Mayola took third behind American Marcus Brunson in 6.63. Brunson, who picked up his training and got rewarded in the latter half of last season, won the sprint with a time of 6.46, improving the previous mark of 6.49 set by Nigerian sprinter Olusoji Fasuba.