Olympic champion Melanie Walker will head into next week's London Games on somewhat of a low note after finishing third in the women's 400m hurdles at the Herculis Diamond League track and field meet in Monaco yesterday.

Walker ran a season-best 54.44 seconds in the one-lap hurdles event, but that was only good enough of third behind winner Zuzana Hejnoa of the Czech Republic, who also returned a season best 54.12. World champion Lashinda Demus of the United States clocked 54.26 for second.

placing fourth

It was a strong showing, however, for another Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade, who powered home to win the men's 200m. The powerful Ashmeade, who missed out on an Olympic place after placing fourth in the 200m at the Jamaica trials, clocked 20.02 seconds to finish ahead of Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles (20.07) and American champion Wallace Spearmon. Marvin Anderson of Jamaica placed fifth in 20.36.

National champion Kimberly Williams (14.50 metres) was second in the women's triple jump, won with a best of 14.85m by Caterine Ibarguen of Colombia. Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan was third with 14.46m.

Jamaica's pair of Kerron Stewart and Sheri-Ann Brooks were outrun by Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare and American Tiana Madison in the women's 100 metres. Okagbare clocked a personal-best 10.96 to take the event from Madison 10.99 and fellow American Jeneba Tarmoh, who finished fast in 11.09. Stewart, 11.11, was fourth while Brooks was sixth in 11.24.

Sprint hurdler Andrew Riley found the going tough in a field which included world leader Aries Merritt and fellow American, World champion Jason Richardson. Merritt won the event in a meet record 12.93 seconds to equal his world-leading time. Richardson was second in 13.07, while Russian Sergey Shubenkov clocked a national record 13.09 for third. Jamaica's Riley was seventh in 13.28.