French runners suspended

Top French runners Mehdi Baala and Mahiedine Mekhissi Benabbad have been suspended pending an inquiry into their embarrassing punch-up on the track on Friday.

The two men squared up and traded blows at the end of the 1500m, prompting Bernard Amsalem, the president of the French athletics federation, to set up a meeting of the disciplinary committee.

The committee will meet within the next eight days during which time the two runners will be provisionally suspended,

Baala, world silver medallist in 2003 and bronze medallist in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, clashed with Benabbad, the 3000m steeplechase Olympic silver medallist, after the end of Friday's Diamond League race.

The duo had finished 9th and 11th in a high-quality race won by Kenyan Silas Kiplagat.

AFP