13 AUG 2017 REPORT LONDON, UK SURPRISE VICTORIES CONTINUE THROUGH TO THE END – DAY 10 WRAP – IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS LONDON 2017The United States topped the medal table at the IAAF World Championships London 2017 with 10 gold medals – and 31 in total – but the championships fittingly climaxed with yet another upset result in the men’s 4x400m with Trinidad & Tobago claiming the title. The United States were by no means fielding a vintage quartet but the reigning champions were still nonetheless tipped to close out the programme with their seventh successive title in this event. However, it became clear the favourites were missing the injured LaShawn Merritt – who anchored their quartet to a narrow win over Trinidad and Tobago at the last World Championships – and in a reversal of the outcome in Beijing, Lalonde Gordon overhauled world finalist Fred Kerley on the anchor for a famous win, 2:58.12 to 2:58.61. The women’s 4x400m final played out exactly as expected with Quanera Hayes handing on a big lead to Allyson Felix, who duly extended their margin with a second leg split timed unofficially at 48.7. Shakima Wimbley and individual champion Phyllis Francis got the baton around without any skirmishes with the United States winning by the best part of half a length of the track in 3:19.02 ahead of Great Britain (3:25.00) and Poland (3:25.41). ![]()
But while Bolt bowed out of competition at this championships, it is full steam ahead to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo for Felix. HISTORY FOR DINIZ AND HENRIQUESYohann Diniz has had more than his fair share of disaster and misfortune in major championships but everything came right for the charismatic Frenchman on a gloriously sunny morning on The Mall. The world record-holder required an unscheduled early race pit stop but he quickly slotted himself back into the leading pack, although not for too long. By the 10-kilometre checkpoint, Diniz was already 40 seconds clear of the pursuers and his lead had doubled over the course of the next 10-kilometre segment. ![]()
At 39, Diniz becomes the oldest man to win a gold medal in World Championships history but retirement is by no means on his mind. “I am still missing one [title] and that is the Olympic one,” said Diniz, who turns 40 on 1 January. “It would be a nice way to finish in Tokyo.” The first edition of the women’s 50km race walk at the World Championships was fittingly capped with a world record from the event’s standard-bearer, Ines Henriques from Portugal. Henriques, who clocked 4:08:26 earlier this season, ended up finishing two minutes inside that time today, crossing the finish-line on The Mall in 4:05:56 ahead of China’s Yin Hang in an Asian record of 4:08:58. ![]()
The men’s 20km race walk was another see-sawing affair which saw the medal positions change constantly in the last five kilometres. Six years after Colombia won this title courtesy of Luis Fernando Lopez, Eider Arevalo followed suit in a national record of 1:18:53 ahead of teenager Sergei Shirobokov (1:18:55) and Brazil’s Caio Bonfim (1:19:04). OBIRI AND MANANGOI MAKE IT FIVE FOR KENYAKenya topped the medal table at the last World Championships in Beijing with seven gold medals and on the last night of competition, Hellen Obiri and Elijah Manangoi brought their tally up to five across the championships, putting them second on the medal table behind the United States. A silver medallist behind Vivian Cheruiyot at the Olympics last summer, Obiri followed – and weathered – Almaz Ayana’s trademark mid-race break before producing a blitzing final circuit of 60.11 to scupper the Ethiopian’s chances of achieving a long distance double. Obiri stopped the clock at 14:34.86 with Ayana fading to second in 14:40.35 – some 16 seconds slower than the second half of her momentous run in the 10,000m last Saturday. Manangoi banished the memories of an injury-ridden Olympic campaign last summer by claiming the 1500m title, and dethroning the three-time reigning champion Asbel Kiprop in the process. A medal sweep looked possible at the 800m checkpoint in 1:57.55 with the Kenyan triumvirate eight metres clear but while Manangoi and Timothy Cheruiyot filled the top two spots on the podium in 3:33.61 and 3:33.99, Kiprop – who seemed to be returning to form during the rounds – faded back to ninth in 3:37.24. ![]()
PERKOVIC AND BARSHIM DELIVER ON THE IN-FIELDCroatia’s Sandra Perkovic now has two world discus titles to go alongside her pair of Olympic titles, as well as her four European crowns. Perkovic’s second-round throw of 70.31m – the first 70-metre-plus throw in a World Championships since 1991 – placed her in an unassailable position, although her winning margin was cut back drastically in the sixth round when 2009 world champion Dani Stevens from Australia added nearly two metres to her lifetime best and Oceanian record with 69.64m. ![]()
Syria’s Majd Eddin Ghazal won a bronze medal on countback by virtue of a second-time clearance at 2.29m to become just his country’s second medallist in World Championships history after Ghada Shouaa, who won a gold medal in the heptathlon in 1995 and bronze in 1999. |
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