• James sets WL and beats Merritt in Iowa
» Saturday, 30 April 2016

Olympic champion Kirani James beat LaShawn Merritt on Friday afternoon at the 2016 annual Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.
The 2012 Olympic champion James showed that his Olympic preparation for the Rio Olympics is going to the right direction as he managed to produce the world leading 44.08 seconds to beat the 2008 Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt by 0.14 seconds.
Last year the 23-year-old Grenadian Kirani James finished in third place at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, while Merritt placed in second place.
“It just shows that I’m on a great track to do some great things this year,” James said after Friday’s race.
Here is men's 400m race video>>
Men's 400m Results Drake Relays 2016
1 James, Kirani Nike 44.08D 2 Merritt, LaShawn Nike 44.22D 3 Taplin, Bralon Grenada 44.92 4 Verburg, David United States 45.03 5 Brown, Chris adidas 45.82 6 Yousif, Rabah Great Britain 46.14 7 Al-Masrahi, Yousef Nike 46.38 -- Santos, Luguelin Puma DNF