Athletics World Championships: Day 4

From bridesmaids to brides…

Men's Triple Jump

Gold  Phillips Idowu  GBR  17.73 metres.
Silver   Nelson Evora   POR  17.55
Bronze Alexis Copello  CUB  17.36

Women’s Javelin

G  Steffi Nerius     GER    67.30 metres
S  Barbora Spotakova   CZE    66.42
B  Maria Abakumova  RUS    66.66

Women’s 400m

G  Sanya Richards   USA  49.00 seconds
S  Shericka Williams JAM  49.32
B  Antonina Krivoshapka  RUS  49.71

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase

G  Ezekiel Kemboi    KEN  8 minutes 00.43 seconds
S  Richard Kipkemboi Mateelong KEN  8:00.89
B  Bouabdellah Tahri    FRA  8:01.18

Men’s 400m Hurdles

G  Kerron Clement   USA   47.91 seconds
S  Javier Culson  PUR   48.09
B  Bershawn Jackson  USA   48.2

Finishing in the runner-up spots can become a habit, just ask Phillips Idowu, Steffi Nerius, Sanya Richards and Ezekiel Kemboi, who have all experienced serial disappointment in either Olympics or World Championships past but who all won the gold tonight.

The men’s triple jump final turned out to be the straight shoot-out reprise of Beijing between Portuguese Nelson Evora and Great Britain’s Phillips Idowu that had been anticipated. It was Evora who laid down the first marker with 17.54 metres in the first round. The much taller Idowu, resplendent in his trademark augmented Union Jack livery (white socks and sweatbands, red hair) and face metal, responded well with 17.51m of his own and then leapt out to a huge 17.73m personal best in the third round. It proved to be decisive as Evora could only better his original hop, skip and jump by 1cm with his final effort. After a bathetic moment, when he appeared to be thinking “Is that all there is?”, Idowu warmly embraced his adversary and started his well-deserved celebrations, wreathed in still more Union Jack and finally free of the spectre of predecessor Jonathan Edwards.

After a bronze and silver in previous field events finals and silver in the heptathlon there was finally some echt cheer for the Berlin crowd as the fearsome-looking Steffi Nerius hurled the ol’ spear out to beyond 67 metres to claim the women’s  javelin gold for Germany.  Nerius has placed third in each of the previous three World Championships and was not expected to win but main rivals Spotakova and Abakumova couldn’t produce when it mattered.

On the track, one of my favourite athletes, Sanya Richards, finally shook off her choker tag in comfortably winning the women’s 400m final. She shot off from the blocks as is her wont, relaxed down the back straight but unlike in races past, she had the fitness base from a good regular season to dig again and power down the home straight to finish in 49 seconds dead. The easy-going Jamaican athlete Shericka Williams posted a PB in taking the silver. It was good to see a European get the bronze albeit not Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu, who placed a decent fifth,  continuing her steady improvement in times but not having the raw speed to trouble the top women.

In World Championship terms, the biggest bridesmaid of them all was the boyish-looking Kenyan Ezekiel Kemboi, who has three times taken home the silver medal in the steeplechase but who came good tonight, breaking the Championship record whilst he was at it. As we have come to see and expect over the years, the race was dominated by the Kenyan contingent with only the tall Berber Frenchman Tahri keeping them company in a slightly comical ensemble. Kemboi was leading at the bell and grimaced as he kicked hard on a scruffy final lap, the collective memory of all those previous runner-up positions driving him on to victory, ahead of compatriot Mateelong.

The climax to the evening was the men’s 400m hurdles final, which pretty much went to form with American Kerron Clement retaining his world title in a fast time. It was close however, as the telltale sign of weariness in a 400m runner – the loss of upperbody form – was alarmingly apparent in Clement in the home straight and the line couldn’t come quick enough as he just fobbed off the fast-finishing Puerto Rican Javier Culson and compatriot Bershawn Jackson.

Elsewhere, judging from the evidence of the first two rounds of the men’s 200m, with no Tyson Gay in the field and barring injury, Usain Bolt will win the event by the biggest margin in history.  Only fellow Jamaican Steve Mullings looked remotely capable of running sub-20s, as American stalwarts Shawn Crawford and the baby-faced Wallace Spearmon looked horribly laboured.

It was all about the one-lap stuff for Team GB today. Very creditable performances from Ohuruogu and Dai Greene, who placed seventh in the 400m Hurdles final, were preceded by an immaculate 400m qualifying session for the men in the morning. All three of our athletes, Robert Tobin, Michael Bingham and Martyn Rooney ran in the mid-45s to put themselves into the semis (albeit ‘the semis’ here is often a misnomer, as there are usually three of them run in order to accommodate all the athletes). Our two representatives in the women’s 400m hurdles semi-finals, Perri Shakes-Drayton and Eilidh Child, unfortunately didn’t have enough firepower to make the final. In the 1500m heats Lisa Dobriskey qualified comfortably but there was disappointment for Steph Twell, who crashed out. Evergreen Marlon Devonish qualified for the 200m semi-finals but doesn’t stand an earthly of making the final looking at his times.

Finally, it was interesting to note that Jessica Ennis’ high jump mark of 1.92m in the heptathlon would have been right on the cusp of qualification for the individual high jump event final  - pretty impressive given that Ennis stands at just 5”4.

Performance of the day: Phillips Idowu.