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Bosnian Tuka nips surprising win with world lead result in Monaco

Xinhua, July 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bosnia's Amel Tuka claimed an easy win at men's 800 meters with a world-leading time of one minute and 42.51 edconds here on Friday at the Monaco Diamond League meeting.

The 24-year-old beat Nijel Amos of Botswana to the second place by 0.15 seconds. Djibouti's Ayanleh Souleiman was the third on 1:42.97.

Tuka's personal best was 1:46.12 set last August in Zurich.

"I don't know what happened. You need to ask my coach why such a big improvement," said the Bosnian, who moved from Bosnia to Italy to train with Gianni Ghidini in Verona 20 months ago after the European under-23 championships in Tampere.

"My goal for this season was 1:45," he said. "Today I felt very good. I said to myself 'let's try in last 100m' but was not thinking I could win the race."

With the result, Tuka became the fastest 800m runner in the world so far this year, and the fourth best European ever.

"That's amazing," said Tuka who started athletics at 18 as a 400m runner in Zenica, Bosnia. "I do not have words for that. I need to calm down."

"Amazing coach now, great training group, superb conditions," he summarized, adding that he'll go back to Italy for some hard training before the world championships in Beijing on August 22-30. Enditem