Schippers sweeps to gold with all-time great performance
Another night of history at the Birds Nest Stadium saw Dafne Schippers write her name into the annals as one of the all-time sprinting greats with her first World Championship title coming in the 200 metres.
A blistering 21.63 seconds saw her set new Championship, European and Dutch records, elevating her to third in the all-time list, with the fourth-fastest time ever.
Elaine Thompson of Jamaica had been leading with 30m to go, but Schippers put on a magnificent spurt in the final strides, added to by a dramatic short dip right on the line to clock the fastest time ever by a European, slicing a mammoth 0.40 seconds off her lifetime best.
Thompson was pipped into second in Beijing with a personal best of 21.66, with fellow Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown relegated to third from lane 2 (the furthest inside lane being used).
Only Florence Griffith-Joyner and Marion Jones have run faster than Schippers over 200m in the history of the sport.
Our quote of the day and everything else you need to know about day seven at #Beijing2015: http://t.co/sqQ3VvkKJa pic.twitter.com/CiLGVlPd7F
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 28, 2015
Sergey Shubenkov of Russia also dipped in time to win the men’s 110m hurdles title, with a new Russian national record of 12.98 seconds, his first time below 13 seconds.
London 2012 bronze-medallist Hansle Parchment of Jamaica came second in 13.03, with world record holder Aries Merritt third in 13.04, a season’s best.
There was a shock line-up of medallists in the women’s 100m hurdles as Danielle Williams of Jamaica took gold in 12.57 seconds, edging out Cindy Roleder of Germany on 12.59 into second and Alina Talay of Belarus took bronze on 12.66.
All three medallists ran lifetime bests, and in the case of Talay, it was a national record too.
PB of 12.57 and a 100m hurdles world title to take home from #Beijing2015
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 28, 2015
Great night for Jamaica's Danielle Williams pic.twitter.com/j6BBzxrZjI
The final leap of the women’s long jump final saw Tianna Bartoletta of the United States wrest gold away from Shara Proctor of Britain.
Proctor’s 7.07 in the second round was a new national record and right until the end, looked like it was enough for gold.
But Bartoletta produced a sensational 7.14m effort to take the title.
10 years from taking her first world title, @TeamTianna Bartoletta regains the long jump crown with 7.14m! Congrats! pic.twitter.com/ymAMMTp6OF
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 28, 2015
Bronze was claimed by Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic with a national record 7.01m.
In the morning, a packed Bird’s Nest saw China sweep gold and silver in the women’s 20k walk.
In tactics likely to be replicated in the men’s 50k walk final tonight where Rob Heffernan defends his Moscow 2013 crown for Ireland, the Chinese duo of Liu Hong and Lu Xiuzhi hit the front early on and stayed there.
Step for step they remained alongside each other, with Liu taking the victory inside the Olympic Stadium, and Lu acting almost like a cycling domestique in remaining one step behind her, not challenging for the gold.
Both recorded 1 hour 27 minutes 45 seconds, with Ukraine’s Lyudmila Olyanovska taking the bronze.
Ashton Eaton holds a dominant lead after the opening day of the decathlon, amassing a lead of 173 points over Canada’s Damian Warner – 4703 to 4530 - with German athletes third, fourth and fifth in the form of Rico Freimuth, Kai Kazmirek and Michael Schrader.
But the nation looks likely to make a night of it tonight when Heffernan toes the line in search of a third major Championship medal.
The 2013 world champion will have Irish company in the form of Brendan Boyce and Alex Wright of Leevale.
Heffernan has a season’s best of 3:48:44, but the three Chinese athletes in the field have all been faster in 2015 – Yu Wei, Zhang Lin and Wu Qianlong, and all three have set their lifetime bests this year.
