World Championships: Days 8 and 9
September 4th 2007 13:56
The world championships ended on early Sunday morning in a wave of finals and top performances.
First up in the mens pole vault American Brad Walker added to the not inconsiderable number of gold medals USA bound after the championships with a 5.86m clearance, beating Romain Mesnil of France on count back.
German Danny Eckher was third with a 5.81m clearance beating no fewer than 5 other athletes on the count back rule.
In the women’s 5000m it was yet another Etheopian gold medal as Meseret Defar who provided a sublime performance to take gold in 14:57.91.
Alyson Felix made it two gold medals in two days as the American 4x100m (41.98) team headed the Jamaicans (42.01) and a surprisingly good team from Belgium (42.75) lead by Kim Guevert.
That double was surpassed by fellow American speedster Tyson Gay who recorded a hat trick of world titles with a victory in the 4x100m in a time of 37.78 followed closely again by Jamaica (37.89) and Olympic Champions Great Britain (37.90).
Day 9 Kicked off with the women’s high jump where pre championship favourite Blanka Vlasic of Croatia lived up to her billing, winning with 2.05m and 2cm clear of silver medallist Antonietta Di Martino of Italy and the Russian bronze medallist Anna Chicherova.
In the men’s Javelin the Norwegian Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen had to settle for silver with a best throw of 89.16m behind Finnish Toro Pitkamaki who launched a mamouth 90.33m final throw to secure the championship. America’s Breux Greer placed third with a best of 86.21m.
Back on the track ‘american’ Bernard Legat completed a memorable 1500m/5000m double with victory in the latter event in 13:45.87. The pedestrian pace of the early leaders played into the hands of the experienced former Kenyan who waited patiently before using his superior speed to pass the competition.
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya provided some opposition finishing second in 13:46.00 and Ugandan Moses Kipsiro scooped the bronze.
There was no such slow pace in the women’s 1500m however as Yelena Soboleva of Russia taking the race out at express pace only to be passed in the final stretch by Maryam Yusuf Jamal once of Etheopia, now of Bahrain who clocked 3:58.75 to Soboleva’s 3:58.99.
Iryna Lishchynskaya of Ukraine took the bronze with 4.00.69.
Rounding off the middle distance finals was the men’s 800m which once again proved a slow paced race with an electric finish.
Going into the final few metres it looked as if Canada’s Gary Reed would win a surprise gold but as he was beaten to the punch by the smallest of margins (0.01 infact) by 20 year old Kenyan Alfred Kirwa Yego in the very pedestrian time (given the circumstances) of 1:47.09.
Russian Yuriy Borzakowski managed to hold his act together long enough to make sure of a bronze medal to go with the Olympic gold already in his collection.
Bringing the curtain down on the entire championships were the 4x400m relays with surprise surprise the USA winning both.
In the women’s event Alyson felix emulated Tyson Gay in winning 3 gold medals at these championships with victory coming in 3:18.55.
The rest of the team consisted of Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg and DeeDee Trotter.
Once again Jamaica came second in 3:19.73 ahead of Great Britain in third (3:20.04) who despite posessing the gold and silver medallists in the individual event in their ranks could not get closer to either of the big two.
Such was the dominance of the american men in the individual event (a clean sweep of Wariner-Merritt-Taylor) that a triumph here was all but assured.
And it was when the afformention three combined with Darold Williamson to take the gold in 2:55.56, almost 4 seconds ahead of second placed Bahamas who clocked 2:59.18 with Poland a place back with 3:00.05
And that was that – the end of the 11th world championships - leaving us with great memories and plenty to mull over.
What was your highlight?
First up in the mens pole vault American Brad Walker added to the not inconsiderable number of gold medals USA bound after the championships with a 5.86m clearance, beating Romain Mesnil of France on count back.
German Danny Eckher was third with a 5.81m clearance beating no fewer than 5 other athletes on the count back rule.
In the women’s 5000m it was yet another Etheopian gold medal as Meseret Defar who provided a sublime performance to take gold in 14:57.91.
Alyson Felix made it two gold medals in two days as the American 4x100m (41.98) team headed the Jamaicans (42.01) and a surprisingly good team from Belgium (42.75) lead by Kim Guevert.
That double was surpassed by fellow American speedster Tyson Gay who recorded a hat trick of world titles with a victory in the 4x100m in a time of 37.78 followed closely again by Jamaica (37.89) and Olympic Champions Great Britain (37.90).
Day 9 Kicked off with the women’s high jump where pre championship favourite Blanka Vlasic of Croatia lived up to her billing, winning with 2.05m and 2cm clear of silver medallist Antonietta Di Martino of Italy and the Russian bronze medallist Anna Chicherova.
In the men’s Javelin the Norwegian Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen had to settle for silver with a best throw of 89.16m behind Finnish Toro Pitkamaki who launched a mamouth 90.33m final throw to secure the championship. America’s Breux Greer placed third with a best of 86.21m.
Back on the track ‘american’ Bernard Legat completed a memorable 1500m/5000m double with victory in the latter event in 13:45.87. The pedestrian pace of the early leaders played into the hands of the experienced former Kenyan who waited patiently before using his superior speed to pass the competition.
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya provided some opposition finishing second in 13:46.00 and Ugandan Moses Kipsiro scooped the bronze.
There was no such slow pace in the women’s 1500m however as Yelena Soboleva of Russia taking the race out at express pace only to be passed in the final stretch by Maryam Yusuf Jamal once of Etheopia, now of Bahrain who clocked 3:58.75 to Soboleva’s 3:58.99.
Iryna Lishchynskaya of Ukraine took the bronze with 4.00.69.
Rounding off the middle distance finals was the men’s 800m which once again proved a slow paced race with an electric finish.
Going into the final few metres it looked as if Canada’s Gary Reed would win a surprise gold but as he was beaten to the punch by the smallest of margins (0.01 infact) by 20 year old Kenyan Alfred Kirwa Yego in the very pedestrian time (given the circumstances) of 1:47.09.
Russian Yuriy Borzakowski managed to hold his act together long enough to make sure of a bronze medal to go with the Olympic gold already in his collection.
Bringing the curtain down on the entire championships were the 4x400m relays with surprise surprise the USA winning both.
In the women’s event Alyson felix emulated Tyson Gay in winning 3 gold medals at these championships with victory coming in 3:18.55.
The rest of the team consisted of Sanya Richards, Mary Wineberg and DeeDee Trotter.
Once again Jamaica came second in 3:19.73 ahead of Great Britain in third (3:20.04) who despite posessing the gold and silver medallists in the individual event in their ranks could not get closer to either of the big two.
Such was the dominance of the american men in the individual event (a clean sweep of Wariner-Merritt-Taylor) that a triumph here was all but assured.
And it was when the afformention three combined with Darold Williamson to take the gold in 2:55.56, almost 4 seconds ahead of second placed Bahamas who clocked 2:59.18 with Poland a place back with 3:00.05
And that was that – the end of the 11th world championships - leaving us with great memories and plenty to mull over.
What was your highlight?
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