LaShawn Merritt romped to victory in the 400 metres at the IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakech as the Americas opened the defence of the title they won four years ago.

The American clocked 44.60 seconds for victory while compatriot Francena McCorory took the women’s 400.

“It feels good to defend the title from four years ago,” said Merritt, the former Olympic and current world champion.

“I tried to execute the race the way I planned, to stay smooth, trust my speed. All the guys were very hungry for the victory.”

Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, captaining the Americas, won the women’s 100.

The Americas did not have things all their own way in the sprints with Britain’s James Dasaolu beating American Mike Rodgers in the men’s race, clocking 10.03 seconds

“Definitely, 2014 is the year of my big breakthrough. After my win at European Championships I was focused in preparation for Continental Cup because it was important for me to make this race fast and easy,” he said.

“This is a little bit of a new level for me and I hope the next year will be successful like this one.”

Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko also helped spark Europe into the team lead with victory in a world-class high jump.

World champion Bondarenko cleared 2.37 metres on his first attempt to defeat Russian Olympic gold medallist Ivan Ukhov and world indoor champion Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar.

The Europeans also won the shot put on German champion David Storl’s best of 21.55 metres.

Africa enjoyed a solid opening day with victories in two of the day’s distance races. Kenya’s Isiah Kiplangat Koech won the men’s 5,000 while Ethiopia’s world indoor champion Genzebe Dibaba won the women’s 3,000.

Asia-Pacific’s only win of the day came from China’s Li Ling who cleared 4.55m, the best women’s pole vault mark ever on African soil.