Athletics World Championships: Day 3

The long and the short of it: An exhibition from Kenenisa Bekele in the 10000m and an exuberant continuation of Jamaican sprinting dominance in the women’s 100m.

Men’s Hammer Throw

Gold    Promoz Kozmus   SLO  80.84 metres.
Silver  Szymon Ziollkowski POL  79.30
Bronze   Aleksey Zagornyi  RUS  78.09

Women’s Pole Vault

G  Anna Rogowska   POL  4.75 metres.
S  Monika Pyrek  POL  4.65
B  Chelsea Johnson  USA  4.65

Women’s Triple-Jump

G  Yargeris Savigne  CUB  14.95 metres.
S  Mabel Gay    CUB 14.61
B  Anna Pyatykh    RUS  14.58

Women’s 3000m Steeplechase

G  Marta Dominguez   ESP  9 minutes 7.32 seconds
S  Yuliya Zarudneva    RUS  9:08.39
B  Milcah Chemos Cheywa  KEN  9:08.57

Men’s 10000m

G  Kenenisa Bekele    ETH 26 minutes 46.31 seconds
S  Zersenay Tadese    ERI  26:50.12
B  Moses Ndiema Masai  KEN     26:57.39

Women’s 100m

G  Shelly-Ann Fraser  JAM  10.73 seconds
S  Kerron Stewart   JAM  10.75
B  Carmelita Jeter  USA  10.90

Usain Bolt's pyrotechnics combined with the inaccessibility of Flo-Jo’s world record meant that the women’s 100m was always going to be more interesting than scintillating but in the event, not only was it a fine race but it produced the equal third fastest time in history and a Jamaican one-two – a repeat of the clean sweep they managed in last year’s Olympics foiled by American Carmelita Jeter.

Kerron Stewart had looked to be the woman to beat throughout the season and in the early rounds but Shelly-Ann Fraser, the Olympic champion with the giggling schoolgirl persona decided to come to the party tonight, clocking the best time in the semis and, to the general agreement of all watching, effectively winning the final in the first 30m with an extraordinary start. I think Michael Johnson gave some suitably clinical analysis of it for the BBC, but even he at some point just referred to it as “a jump out of the blocks”. It wasn’t that her reaction time was the fastest, it was the sheer force with which she propelled herself into the “drive phase” compared to the others. Accelerating smoothly up to and past 50m it did indeed look like a fait accompli but the more powerful physique of Stewart was beginning to take effect and the gap diminished rapidly from the 60m point until, had it been a 102m race, Stewart would have won, but how many times over the years can that have been wistfully hypothesised? Jamaican jubilations encore in any case.

A completely different sort of athletic performance was provided by Kenenisa Bekele in the 10000m, and one which was badly needed after a poor women’s 10000m. In effect, almost as much credit should be given to silver medallist Tadese, who took the race to Bekele from a long way out in a heroic attempt to try and shake the nerve and rhythm of the unbeaten Ethiopian. After the increasingly familiar sight of a couple of Kenyan ex-pats running for Qatar (money money money!) had made the early running, the Eritrean Tadese took up the pace, and boy, what a pace! Lap after lap at sub-64s. The fancied Kenyan Kogo was dropped and the field reduced to three: Tadese, Bekele and Moses Masai, brother of Linet, the women’s 10000m champion. And sure enough, Masai was dropped in his turn, leaving the two East Africans to battle it out. The contrast was a sight to behold, the hunched Shakespearean villain form of Tadese, his face wreathed in agony, maniacally glancing up at the screen on the home straight sections to see if he had broken Bekele, who was running with his usual unperturbed economy, some beads of sweat the only sign of exertion. A final visible surge of effort on the penultimate lap from Tadese was to no avail and, at the bell, Bekele simply accelerated away and flew round the track to acclaim a record-equalling 4th consecutive World Championship victory.

In the other track final of the evening, the women’s 3000m steeplechase, there was a European one-two with the diminutive Spaniard Marta Dominguez putting in a decisive kick off the final barrier to hold off the lesser fancied of the Russian women. Continuing my somewhat ungracious deriding of the women’s hurdles the other night for being too small, I’ll have to extend my sentiments to the steeplechase, where the obstacles appear to be so cursory as to be irrelevant – it’s barely conceivable that the fastest person over 3000m flat wouldn’t also be the fastest person over 3000m steeplechase should he or she so wished (bah humbug!).

The field event finals were a damp squib tonight. In the men’s Hammer Throw, the exquisitely named Olympic champion Promoz Kozmus of Slovenia was the only man to launch the ol’ ball and chain beyond the 80m mark, the benchmark of world-class competition. The women’s pole vault produced a major upset as Ice Queen Yelena Isinbayeva didn’t manage a single clearance, softening hearts as she let out her emotions in front of the camera; the experienced Pole Anna Rogowska’s clearance at 4.75m proved to be sufficient for the gold. The third final was arguably the worst of the lot, as not one of the women managed a 15m effort in the triple-jump.

On the Team GB front,  Jenny Meadows and Marilyn Okoro both made it through to the women’s 800m final. Meadows was extremely impressive and if she can produce the sort of sprint finish she mustered this evening in the final, she has got a real chance of getting a medal. In the men’s 1500m, as expected, the general strength in depth of the field proved too much for James Brewer and an injury-nursing Andy Baddeley. In the women’s 400m hurdles heats, Eilidh Child and Perri Shaker-Drayton both made it through.

Performance of the day: Kenenise Bekele.

correction: I must apologise for having yesterday described Denise Lewis as being a relatively weak javelin thrower, when in fact she was a very decent javelin thrower.