Athletics World Championships: Day 9

Ich bin ein Berliner.

Results

Women’s marathon

Gold  Xue Bai   CHN 2 hours 25 minutes 15 seconds 
Silver  Yoshimi Ozaki  JPN 2:25.25
Bronze  Aselefech Mergia ETH 2:25.32

Women’s long jump

G Brittney Reese  USA 7.10 metres
S Tatyana Lebedeva RUS 6.97
B Kerin Mey Melis TUR 6.80

Men’s javelin

G Andreas Thorkildsen NOR 89.59 metres
S Guillermo Martinez CUB 86.41
B Yukifumi Murakami JPN 82.97

Men’s 5000m

G Kenenisa Bekele ETH 13 minutes 17.09 seconds
S Bernard Lagat  USA 13:17.33
B James Kwalia C’Kurni QAT 13:17.73

Women’s 1500m

G Maryam Yusuf Jamal BRN 4:03.74
S Lisa Dobriskey  GBR 4:03.75
B Shannon Rowbury USA 4:04.18

Men’s 800m

G Mbukeni Mulaudzi RSA 1 minute 45.29 seconds
S Alfred Kirwa Yego KEN 1:45.35
B Yusuf Saad Kamel BRN 1:45.35

Women’s 4 x 400m relay

G USA (Dunn, Felix, Demus, Richards)   USA 3 minutes 17.83 seconds
S Jamaica (Whyte, Williams-Mills, Lloyd, Williams)  JAM 3:21.15
B Russia (Kapachinskaya, Firova, Litvinova, Krivoshapka) RUS 3:21.64

Men’s 4 x 400m relay

G USA (Taylor, Wariner, Clement, Merritt)   USA 2 minutes 57.86 seconds
S Great Britain (Williams, Bingham, Tobin, Rooney) GBR 3:00.53
B Australia (Steffensen, Offereins, Thomas, Wroe)  AUS 3:00.90

 

The famous quote from John F. Kennedy’s 1963 Berlin address has featured extensively in the marketing backdrop to these Championships, which have been replete with international bonhomie. It was all smiles from the American delegation today after the traditional final event of major Championship athletics, the 4 x 400m relays, where both the US men’s and women’s quartets ran out comfortable winners, taking the US gold medal total to ten and first place in the medals table, finally stretching clear of Jamaica, with whom they were surprisingly tied on seven golds at the start of the day. The third-placed nation was Kenya.

The first track final of the evening saw Kenenisa Bekele claim a tenacious victory in the 5000m, to add to his 10000m gold. Whereas the 10000m final had been a true run race, where Bekele had used his fourth gear to win after attacking at the bell, he needed his fifth full-on sprinting speed today to hold off 1500m specialist Bernard Lagat, after a disjointed concertina fast-slow-fast-slow race rhythm. How the race is run is usually irrelevant to Bekele, who can win every which way, but it was surprising, given the presence of Lagat in the field, renowned for his finishing speed, that some of the other athletes didn’t make it a true run race to try and draw his sting. It looked for all the world that Lagat would win after moving level with Bekele on the final straight but Bekele used all of his physical and mental reserves to go again and claim the first 5000m and 10000m double in World Championship history. The Ethiopian is to long-distance running what Bolt is to sprinting, it’s just he’s, well, a tad more demure!

In the second track final, the women’s 1500m, there was a wholly avoidable incident 200m from home, in which the Spanish athlete Rodriguez, itching to get to the front of the field, pushed the slightly built leading Ethiopian woman Burka to the ground, in attempting to go through a gap that simply wasn’t there. She rounded the final bend and strode to victory but it was already apparent in her face and the negative crowd reaction that it was hollow. The steward’s enquiry was swift and she was duly disqualified, the gold passing to Olympic champion and pre-race favourite Jamal. Taking the silver, just a hundredth of a second behind, was Great Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey, who again ran an excellent race. The effort of staying with the leaders on the final lap and avoiding the stricken Burka meant that she didn’t have much left in the tank on the final straight; yes, she might have got the gold, but realistically the silver was a great result.

The last individual final was the men’s 800m, which was won by the rank outsider, South African Mbulaeni  Mulaudzi, to add to his compatriot Semenya’s triumph in the women’s 800m. In all honesty, it was a poor race, not helped by there being ten rather than the usual eight runners (after reinstatements), as the big guns all seemed cagey. Mulaudzi had led from a long way out but, other than a burst from American Nick Symmonds onto his shoulder, which one would have thought would have precipitated further moves from the others, no-one was pushing. Come the final straight and the South African still had the lead, Symmonds was tying up, but the others had finally roused and were bearing down on Mulaudzi. Leading the charge was the 1500m champion Kamal, but this was a race too far for him and he couldn’t make it, getting pipped to the silver himself.

Earlier, out on the streets, watched by a million people, the women’s marathon was won by the 20-year-old Chinese Xue Bai, who completed her first marathon aged just fourteen. She and the Japanese runner Ozaki had been tracking the Ethiopian Mergia, whose exaggerated swinging arm action looked so much more energy inefficient than the running actions of the Asian women. They sped by her and in the final kilometre on Unter den Linden, the Chinese pulled away decisively.

Continuing the rise in general quality of the field event finals over the week, there were two first-class such today, the men’s javelin and the women’s long jump. The javelin is the prince of the throwing events and there was a worthy winner in the Norwegian Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen, who managed to pull everything together for his second round effort of 89.59 metres. Behind him in silver was the rather incongruous sight of the Cuban, Martinez, who, even accounting for casual prejudice, really did look like he should have been weightlifting and the bronze medallist Japanese, Murakami, hot off the press.

The women’s long jump was an excellent contest, recalling the days of Heike Drechsler and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. On the European side was the Russian Tatyana Lebedeva, the technician with a high stepping approach and a classic hitch-kicking action; on the American side was the raw talent of Brittney Reese, who is all about runway speed and uses the hang technique. The women exchanged the lead in the first two rounds but in the third round Reese nailed a decisive 7.10m jump. Another turn-up saw a Turkish bronze.

The final reckoning for Team GB was a better-than-expected six medals, two of each colour. Added to Dobriskey’s silver, the 4 x 400m men’s relay team put in a sterling performance, just outside the magic three minute mark, to get the silver behind the USA. The women’s team were slightly disappointing in placing fourth.

These have been a hugely enjoyable Championships, extremely well organised and lit up of course by Usain Bolt, but having a depth of quality that should carry the sport nicely until the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Performance of the day:  Andreas Thorkildsen

 

correction: Chris Tomlinson finished eighth not seventh in yesterday’s long jump final.

 

 

Comments

[Charles le Roi]

hear hear! danke sehr

[Ceann Mor]

Dupin
I've really enjoyed your coverage of the athletics. I found it much easier to get the simple facts and figures with a little commentary here than the usual suspects of IAAF, ESPN and the BBC.
Great 5000m but otherwise the last day was pretty disappointing all round. Fortunately, there was the Ashes, Solheim Cup, Soccer and a Grand Prix to keep me busy.