by Larry Eder
Tianna Bartoletta, photo by PhotoRun.net
I remember being in Helsinki in 2005, and this college kid named Tianna Madison kicked everyone’s butt in the Long Jump. A decade later, now Tianna Bartoletta leaps 7.14 meters in the final round, and the mighty 7.07m NR from Shara Proctor was a silver. The mightly 7.01m meters by Ivana Spanovic was now a bronze.
Bartoletta tied the decade time period between Heike Dreschler’s HJ medals, a World Champs record!
Dafne Schippers looked to be good in the 200 meters, but her 21.63 was exciting, as Dafne did not win until the final meters!
Both hurdle races were surprising, with Shubenkov winning the mens and Danielle Williams on the women’s side.
Here is Alex Mills’ reprise of night of Day 7.
Surely at one point during these championships, I will be able to describe an evening without using the words sensational, surprise and record. That point however, is not tonight, as yet again the world’s best athletes ripped up the record and form books, to leave spectators and journalists gasping in unison.
Undoubtably the race and performance of the evening came in the final of the women’s 200 metres where Dafne Schippers ran a stunning championship and European record time of 21.63 seconds to edge out Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson by .03 of a second and claim gold. Her time was a new record also taking her to third on the world all-time lists.
In one of the most amazing sprinting battles ever, despite being behind her rivals as they came round the final bend, the Dutchwoman powered through her final 100m to ultimately out-dip Thompson on the line and ensure she would go one better than her silver medal from the 100m.
Behind her both Thompson and Veronica Campbell brown both ran sub-22 races, clocking 21.66 and 21.97 respectively as Campbell just won bronze ahead of America’s Candyce Mcgrone.
One place further back Dina Asher-Smith ran 22.07 to break Cathy Cook’s British record and become the fastest teenager ever. Her time was also the fastest ever fifth-placed finish in a world championships.
Speaking after her race Schippers said: “I hoped before coming here for the gold medal and for a time under 22 seconds. I did it both, but I can’t believe it. What a race, what a tournament for me. I didn’t believe it. “
Over in the long jump it took more than seven metres to make the podium in one of the best competitions of the world championships so far as a last gasp WL jump of 7.14m from Tianna Bartoletta, gave her gold ten years after had first won her title. Taking the win ahead of Great Britian’s Shara Proctor, who smashed her own British record by jumping 7.07m, to become the first woman from the nation ever to jump over seven metres. Having also broken her national record and lead in the early rounds, Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic was forced to settle for bronze with a best of 7.01.
In total, 4 woman, held the lead at one point during the competition with Proctor holding it the longest, between rounds three and six. After following up her PB with another 7.01 jump, the Brit could not improve and she was made to pay, as Bartolletta who had arguably the best series of the competition, but had never lead the competition smashed her final jump to take victory.
There were some big shocks in the final of the sprint hurdles as the pre-race favourites failed to live up to expectation. In a very open men’s 110mh Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov ran 12.98 to claim gold in a new national record time as the 24 year-old upgraded from the bronze medal he won two years ago. His closest challenger were Hansle Parchment of Jamaica, who took silver and Olympic champion Aries Merritt who claimed his first world medal despite operating with only 20% kidney function. They came home in season’s best 13.03 and 13.04 seconds respectively.
The women’s 100m hurdles ended in a big a surprise with Danielle Williams of Jamaica winning gold in 12.57 ahead of Germany’s Cindy Roleder and Alina Talay of Belarus.
Britain’s Tiffany Porter had looked on course to claim a fourth gold for Britain heading into the final two hurdles, but sideways momentum took her out of her stride, to eventually finished fifth in a time of 12.68 behind defending champion Brianna Rollins in fourth.
After the race Williams who train in North Carolina said: “I am sure when I came here nobody knew who I was, I am pretty sure. I came here only with one target, to get to the final. This is the world championships, so once you stand on the start, anything can happen.”
Having already made a brilliant start to the defence of his decathlon title, Ashton Eaton ran a sensational decathlon world record 45.00 seconds in the 400m to end the day with an overall score of 4703 with Damian Warner of Canada second with 4530.
The time was an amazing .66 of a second improvement on the previous best time for the decathlon and it puts him on world record pace going into the second day.
In the only middle-distance action of the day it was two big sprint finishes that decided the men’s 1500m semi-finals. As is so often the case the first race was taken out incredibly slowly with the first 400m covered in just 75 seconds, despite an injection of pace from reigning champion Asbel Kiprop, it wasn’t until the final 300m where the athletes had their expected burn ups, with Kiprop coming through unscathed to win in 3:43.48 ahead of Nick Willis and compatriot Silas Kiplagat, with American’s Matthew Centrowitz and Leo Manzano also making it through. Manzano after producing an epic final kick in the home strait having been back in 10th with 100m to go.
The slow pace allowed seven men to progress from the second heat, as they ran a much more honest pace that saw Elijah Motonei Manangoi breaking away in the final moments to win in 3:35.00 just ahead of Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi. Abdalaati Iguider, Charlie Grice Timothy Cheruiyot, Robby Andrews and Aman Wote were the other qualifiers.
