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Athletics World Championships: Day 7

Homage to Jesse Owens.

Decathlon (from 20/8)

Gold   Trey Hardee    USA  8790 points
Silver     Leonel Suarez     CUB  8640
Bronze      Aleksandr Pogorelov  RUS  8528

Men’s 50k walk

G  Sergey Kirdyapkin  RUS  3 Hours 38 minutes 35 seconds
S  Trond Nymark   NOR  3:41.16
B  Jesus Angel Garcia ESP  3:41.37

Men’s High Jump

G  Yaroslav Rybakov  RUS  2.32 metres
S  Kyriakos Ioannou  CYP  2.32
B  Raul Spank   GER  2.32

Women’s Discus

G  Dani Samuels   AUS  65.44 metres
S  Yarelis Barrios      CUB  65.31
B  Nicoleta Grasu     TOU  65.20

Women’s 200m

G  Allyson Felix USA  22.02 seconds
S  Veronica Campbell-Brown    JAM  22.35
B  Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie  BAH  22.41

Men’s 400m

G  LaShawn Merritt  USA  44.06 seconds
S  Jeremy Wariner   USA  44.60
B  Renny Quow   TRI   45.02

 

In the top left corner of the running vests of the American athletes competing in Berlin can be espied the legend ‘JO’, standing for ‘Jesse Owens’, the iconic sprinter, who won four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. With Usain Bolt having been so dominant in Owens’ events of the 100m and 200m, it was almost beholden upon one of the big-name American 400m male runners to put in a performance worthy of him. And LaShawn Merritt did so.

It was the last track final of the evening, and eagerly anticipated. The protagonists were Merritt and Jeremy Wariner and it looked to be a 50-50 call. It still looked to be a 50-50 call 300m into the race, as both men had run strongly but at relatively even pace, Merritt running in lane four having the slight advantage of being able to see Wariner, sporting his trademark wraparound shades, out in lane six. Off the final bend and it was Merritt who took control of the race, keeping his upper body form superbly whereas Wariner was clearly not in A1 condition and looked ragged in the home straight, his second-place time a full second off his PB. It was deservedly Merritt’s night.

Earlier in the evening, there had been female US success at one of Owens’ events, the 200m, as the impossibly winning Allyson Felix strode majestically to victory, albeit in a rather disappointing time. As in her semi-final yesterday, Felix was slow off the blocks, very average round the bend and only gained the lead in the straight. Relaxed and graceful, she moved away from the field, breaking the line just outside 22 seconds. Taking the silver was Veronica Campbell-Brown, the Jamaican who had missed out in the 100m medals. The evergreen Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie got the bronze, at the ripe old age of thirty three.

The stirring strains of “The Star Spangled Banner” had been heard at the start of the evening’s proceedings, as the American with the classic college jock mien, Trey Hardee, was crowned decathlon champion, the competition having finished late last night. A narrow third at the end of the first day, exceptional performances in the 110m hurdles and the pole vault (13.86s and 5.20m), allied to solid discus and javelin throws, saw him amass enough points to have an effectively unassailable lead going into the 1500m finale. The devisor of the decathlon must have been a sadist because just watching these men built for power performance events lug their unwilling frames 3.75 times round the oval is painful. However, a fair few are deceptively quick. Hardee is not one of them but it didn’t matter.

The decathletes get a bit of a bum deal in terms of immediate glory because the action is so extended that, come the end of the 1500m, the wow! factor of the overall win is probably, well, about one tenth that of a regular individual event. In a soccer analogy, think of winning the league against winning the cup. Which is the more impressive? Most people would say winning the league, because it testifies more to strength of character. The very epitome of this must be the veteran world record holder Roman Sebrle, who ran, threw, and jumped gamely to finish back in 11th place.

The most dramatic action of the day was to be found in the men’s 800m semi-finals, as the overall favourite, Sudanese Abubaker Kaki, keen to make the pace in the first semi, unfortunately gave us a piece of slapstick as he tripped over himself, slid along a rail at the side of the track (still wet from earlier heavy rain), fell to ground and took out two other big guns with him – Lewandowski of Poland and Som of the Netherlands. The powerful American Nick Symmonds, who had been worryingly left at the start, took advantage of the mayhem to pull through strongly and eventually win the race (the European pair have since been reinstated for tomorrow’s final). The second semi was loaded, seven of the eight men having run sub-1:44, and there was more upset here, as the other much fancied Sudanese Ismail pulled out at 400m and the Kenyan hope Kiprop floundered. Yusuf Kamel, the 1500m Champion, won the race and perennial Russian hope Borzakovskiy also went through.

It was a mixed day for Team GB. On the positive side, Lisa Dobriskey ran a very skilful tactical race to qualify for the 1500m final. The problem for her is that, unlike Jenny Meadows, she doesn’t have a real kick finish and that will probably cost her a medal, especially in the event of a slow-run race. The other plus was the 4 x 100m men’s relay team, who put in a good showing in qualifying for the final. On the down side, Michael Bingham and Emily Freeman both put in mediocre runs as they placed seventh in their respective finals (the 400m and 200m). It was clear that they had run their personal finals in the previous round, when they posted much faster times. Michael Rimmer found the 800m semis way too hot to handle.

Performance of the day: LaShawn Merritt.

Athletics World Championships: Day 6

Bolt on the blue part 2... Nnnineteen:Nnnineteen!

Women’s High Jump

Gold   Blanka Vlasic   CRO 2.04 metres

Silver Anna Chicherova   RUS   2.02

Bronze  Ariane Friedrich GER    2.02 

Women’s 400m Hurdles

G  Melaine Walker   JAM  52.42 seconds
S  Lashinda Demus  USA  52.96
B  Josanne Lucas    TRI   53.20

Men’s 200m

G  Usain Bolt  JAM  19.19 seconds (world record)
S  Alonso Edward        PAN  19.81
B  Wallace Spearmon  USA  19.85

Men’s 110m Hurdles

G  Ryan Braithwaite    BAR  13.14 seconds
S  Terrence Trammell     USA  13.15
B  David Payne      USA  13.15

 

One of my favourite quotes in sport is the impromptu end of race response Ato Boldon gave to Michael Johnson’s record-breaking 19.32s performance in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics 200m final:

“That’s not a time. It sounds like my Dad’s birth date."

The brilliance of that folksy assessment lies in the recognition that something akin to a category error had taken place. The record had stood at 19.72s to Pietro Mennea of Italy for yonks and yonks until, just two months prior to the Atlanta Olympics, Johnson had managed to break it (also in Atlanta), running 19.68s, but even Johnson himself thought that 19.5s would be his (the?) absolute ceiling. To bring the record down by the amount that he did was literally incredible, hence the mix of confusion with the joy that it brought.

Fast-forward to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Usain Bolt broke this record, running 19.30s. For all that this was an awesome performance, there was not quite the sense of disbelief that had surrounded Johnson’s run for two reasons. One, Bolt had just broken the 100m world record, easing down to register 9.69s and two, he had only (!) bettered the record by two hundredths of a second – it was an eminently believable performance in terms of ‘what man could do’.

In a simple pro rata reckoning, his 200m record was stronger (2 x 9.69 = 19.38), so it was likely that Bolt could break his 100m mark, which he duly did on Sunday, giving it everything for his 9.58s. Flipping back, it figured that if he were able to maintain this level of performance over 200m, then a sub-19.20s run was possible (2 x 9.58 = 19.16). When Bolt broke the line this evening we initially saw 19.20s – new world record! Then it was rounded down to 19.19s – he’s done it! A magnificent achievement but, at the same time, is anyone truly surprised? The next 'paradigm shift' moment is obviously sub-19s - if Bolt can do that, then we will be genuinely dumbfounded. 

The particularly impressive feature of Bolt’s race tonight was his start – he had the fastest gun reaction time of all the competitors and got his huge frame up more smoothly than usual. He ran a sensational bend and kept on giving it “the eyeballs” as he did in the 100m albeit he was clearly losing a bit of form as the shoulders started to roll. No matter, the legs had it.

Behind Bolt, four men ran sub-20s, something which had scarcely looked possible in the lead-up rounds; the eighteen-year-old Panamanian Alonso Edward coolly got the silver and a strong finishing Wallace Spearmon caught teammate Shawn Crawford to take the bronze.

For the first time this week, the stadium was looking healthily full because the darling of German Track and Field, high jumper Ariane Friedrich, was competing. The stage was set, “Deutschland über alles” having just rung out for the discus medal ceremony, where Robert Harting had delighted the home nation yesterday in taking an unlikely gold. It was expected to be a direct contest between Friedrich, the bright-eyed, angular platinum blonde and the equine defending champion Croatian Blanka Vlasic. In the event, the Russian silver medallist from Osaka, Anna Chicherova, almost nipped in to steal it from under their noses, she being the first to clear the first really testing height of 2.02m. But both Friedrich and Vlasic were not going to be beaten this easily. Vlasic cleared at her second attempt and in a scene of high theatre, Friedrich, having been perturbed by the noise in the stadium, put her finger to her lips and uncannily, the crowd were rendered completely silent. There was baited breath as she loped up but she lacked the elevation on take-off and just brushed off the bar. More heartened though, she went through the same procedure again and arched clear on her third and final attempt, to general delight. Sadly, there was no more to come from the German as Vlasic was the sole athlete to clear the next height of 2.04m. Chicherova got the silver courtesy of having had fewer failures than Friedrich in the previous rounds.

The warm-up act for Usain Bolt was the women’s 400m Hurdles final, where, yet again, Jamaica prevailed, Melaine Walker executing the perfect race plan in clocking the second fastest time in history. She used her lane three draw to keep a check on main rival, American Lashinda Demus, outside of her in lane four, and coming off the final bend the two were neck and neck. However, at the penultimate hurdle Walker found another gear whereas Demus muffed it and never recovered. Cue more green, gold and black celebrations.

The last track final of the evening, the men’s 110m Hurdles, was also highly entertaining and in contrast to the men’s 100m final, there was a blanket finish, as is evidenced in the times. Youngster Ryan Braithwaite from Barbados made the most of pre-Championship favourite Dayron Robles’s semi-final exit to see off the experienced American pair of Trammell and Payne. Great Britain’s William Sharman had a sensational race to finish fourth in a PB of 13.30s.

Elsewhere, it was a good day for Team GB, with Chris Tomlinson and Greg Rutherford both qualifying for the long jump final, Mo Farah qualifying for the 5000m final, Michael Rimmer getting through his 800m heat and Emily Freeman running a PB to qualify for the 200m final.

Performance of the day: D’oh.

NB. I shall be including the decathlon in tomorrow’s report.

 

 

Athletics World Championships: Day 5

I’m just an advertisement for a version of myself…

Men’s Discus

Gold     Robert Harting    GER   69.43 metres
Silver   Piotr Malachowski   POL   69.15
Bronze    Gerd Kanter    EST   66.88

Men’s 1500m

G   Yusuf Saad Kamel BRN   3 minutes 35.93 seconds
S   Deresse Mekonnen ETH   3:36.01
B   Bernard Lagat   USA   3:36.20

Women’s 100m Hurdles

G   Brigitte Forster-Hylton   JAM   12.51 seconds
S   Priscilla Lopes-Schliep   CAN   12.54
B   Delloreen Ennis-London   JAM   12.55

Women’s 800m

G   Casto Demenya  RSA   1 minute 55.45 seconds
S   Janeth Jepkosgei    KEN   1:57.90
B   Jennifer Meadows   GBR   1:57.93

 

The big theme in Berlin tonight was that of identity, human and political. The more serious issue concerned the winner of the women’s 800m final, eighteen-year-old South African Casto Semenya, who is in the middle of an almighty furore about her gender. Following rumours and suspicions about her sudden emergence this season, the IAAF have asked the South African Athletics Federation to conduct “gender tests” to determine whether Semenya is in fact female. Whilst it is obviously important to establish this for fair competition, the timing is all wrong, especially for the athlete, who is an entirely innocent party, having been raised culturally as a female.

Putting the off-track controversy to one side, the race itself was a race within a race - the powerful Semenya led from start to finish and was untroubled; the contest was for silver and bronze. The first lap was run too quickly and many of the women who went with the early pace paid for it on the second lap. At 600m, the field was stretched out in the manner of a longer distance race. Behind the piston-pumping arms of Semenya were Olympic champion Janeth Jepkosgei, in something of a return to form, and Ukrainian Yuliya Krevsun; behind them it was anyone’s game. Having judged her race to perfection, Great Britain’s Jenny Meadows emerged from the dilated peloton and, in a repeat of her semi-final showing, motored down the home straight, her basic 400m speed endurance taking her past the field until just the barely separable flagging pair of the Kenyan and the Ukrainain were ahead of her. On the line, she managed to split them, Jepkosgei  getting the silver, Meadows the bronze in a very fast sub-1:58 time.

In what in bygone years would have been perhaps the most prestigious track final, the men’s 1500m, there was a confused melting pot of very good similar standard runners but no one star turn. Here, the issue was of national identity. Of the twelve-strong starting line-up, eleven men had an immediate African heritage but only six were running for African nations: two Kenyans, marginal pre-race favourite Asbel Kiprop and Augustine Kiprono Choge, three Moroccans and the Ethiopian, Mekonnen. Of the other competitors, there were three Kenyan ex-pats, Bernard Lagat, who took up United States citizenship a long time ago, and two others, who in a similar way to the 10000m Kenyan Qataris, had gone for the money of Bahrain, the ex-Sudanese Lopez Lomong, also running for the USA and the talented Berber Frenchman, Mehdi Baala. All in all, a bit of a mess.

The race was an undistinguished affair, Choge reluctantly taking the lead as they chugged round the first 1100m. At the bell, Mekonnen, a la Bekele in the 10000m, took the initiative and made a bid for home. He managed to fend off the field until about 50m out, when the long-striding Yusuf Saad Kamel né Gregory Konchellah (son of former great Billy Konchellah) caught him and won the gold for, er…Bahrain. Lagat ran astutely and bagged the bronze.

In the other track final of the evening, Jamaica continued their domination of the short sharp stuff with gold and bronze in the women’s 100m Hurdles. There was an interesting contrast of styles between the rangy left-leg lead of winner Foster-Hylton and the almost sumo-wrestler squat right-leg lead of second-placed Canadian Lopes-Scliep. The winning time was fairly unremarkable. Pre-race favourite American Dawn Harper clattered the second hurdle and never recovered (perhaps they aren’t so small after all…).

In the one field event final of the evening, the men’s discus, there was more joy for the home crowd, as, in an upset probably of the same order of magnitude as that of Isinbayeva’s defeat in the pole vault, massive favourite Estonian Gerd Kanter didn’t deliver, letting in first of all Pole Malachowski and ultimately German Robert Harting. It looked as though Malachowski was going to go one better than compatriot Majewski had managed in the shot put, as he pulled out two national record throws but in the sixth and final round, Harting steeled himself, spun round the turning circle and sent the ol’ shell arcing out to nearly 70m. The Pole couldn’t respond with his last throw and Harting seized his moment to whip-up the crowd, pulling silly faces and finally taking out that bloody mascot (I think it’s a bear but I’m not quite sure).

Elsewhere, Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt both looked in great shape in winning their 400m semi-finals. Usain Bolt duly won his 200m semi-final with only Wallace Spearmon showing any signs of improvement amongst the other athletes. The decathlon is wide open after the first day of competition; American Trey Hardee was in the lead after a strong 100m and long jump and a decent shot put but faded in the high jump, as Ukrainian Oleksiy Kasyanov displaced him atop the leaderboard and managed to stay there by edging Hardee in the final event of the day, the 400m. Old warhorse, world record holder Roman Sebrle is still fighting on back in seventh place.

It was a relatively quiet day for Team GB, the highlight being Michael Bingham’s excellent qualification for the 400m final, as he ran second only to Wariner in his semi. Both Bingham and Martyn Rooney in the next semi were handed lane eight draws but whereas Bingham gave himself a fighting chance by running the first 200m hard, Rooney never really got going. Our third man, Robert Tobin also missed out. Perhaps inspired by fellow Belgrave Harriers Dwain Chambers and Phillips Idowu, William Sharman made it through his 110m High Hurdles heat but outside-hope-of-a-medal man Andy Turner is out, after feeling his dodgy left hamstring and having to throttle back – all the more disappointing because hot favourite Dayron Robles also looks to be suffering a similar left hamstring complaint.

Performance of the day: Robert Harting.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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.