Kenya's Faith Cherotich ran a world lead of 8:53.37, holding off Uganda's Peruth Chemutai to win the women's 3,000 metre Steeplechase title at the Paris Diamond League athletics meeting Friday night.

Tokyo Olympic Champion Chemutai settled for second in 8:54.41 while Sembo Almayew placed a distant third in 9:01.02.

It was a race that saw the two pre-meet favourites dominate from start to finish.

By the fourth lap, the two had already created a major gap between themselves and the rest of the field.

By the final lap, they were the only ones ahead and despite Chemutai putting in a strong effort, Cherotich was just too good.

"I'm happy to compete against such a strong field. This is good practice ahead of the World Championships. I'm grateful to come out on top," she told Broadcast Media immediately after her race.

Kenya's Nelly Chepchirchir also won the women's 1500m in a season-best time of 3:57.02. She saw off Sarah Healy who ran a personal best 3:57.15 for second. Ethiopia's Birke Haylom settled for third, 3:57.50.

In the 1500 metres for men, Azzedine Habz sent the Parisian crowd into raptures by becoming the sixth fastest man over 1500m of all time, riding the coattails of two pacemakers to clock 3:27.49 for a meet record and new French best.

In a fast race, Kenya's Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech set a world junior record in second, while 11 of the next 12 athletes all timed personal bests, including national records for the Netherlands, Belgium and South Africa.

American Grace Stark clocked 12.21 sec in the 100m hurdles to go joint fifth fastest of all time, holding off Nigeria's 2022 world champion and world record holder Tobi Amusan.

"I wanted to break that 12.3 so bad!" Stark said. "It feels that I can have a party," she told Reuters.

"And then, I just need to keep working, taking it race by race, stay focused and stay quiet."

Dominican Republic's Marileidy Paulino made no mistake in the women's 400m, although she had to pull out all stops down the home straight to outpace Bahraini rival Salwa Eid Naser.

American Rai Benjamin also racked up a meet record of 46.93 sec in the 400m hurdles, making easy work of the victory in the absence of Norwegian arch-rival Karsten Warholm and Brazilian Alison Dos Santos.

Morocco's Sofiane El Bakkali, a two-time Olympic steeplechase champion, opted to race the 5,000 m in Paris alongside the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who claimed his 11th Diamond League victory in 12:47.84.