Everybody hurts, sometimes. The night after Jakob Ingebrigtsen made that clear for all to see, out-kicked for the 1500m gold at a second successive World Championships, he returned to his comfortable best, through to Sunday’s 5,000m final without appearing to hurt in the slightest.
Femke Bol, with five championship runner-up medals already to her name, made up for any of that lingering hurt by winning a first World title in the 400m hurdles, the 23 year-old Dutch woman setting the stadium alight at the climax of night six at the World Championships.
That no doubt also eased some of the pain of her face-planting at the end of the mixed 4x400m relay on the opening night. Bol made utterly sure of this one too, her peerless victory in 51.70 over a second ahead of Samier Little of the US, who won silver in 52.80
Before that, in the mad dash for the women’s sprint hurdles title, Danielle Williams came in hurting for a long while. She last won this title in 2015, only to win it back eight years later, by .01 of a second, from the inside lane, the 30-year-old Jamaican getting the better of Jasmine Camacho-Quinn from Puerto Rico, her winning time 12.43.
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Defending champion Tobi Amusan from Nigeria was sixth in 12.62, the national record time Sarah Lavin clocked in her semi-final.
Williams ended up on the flat of her back more with relief, followed shortly afterwards by Antonio Watson, also from Jamaica, his victory in the men’s 400m, in 44.22., .09 ahead of Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith.
Mark English presented the last Irish chance of an individual track finalist, lining up in the third semi-final of the 800m well aware of how tough it would be. Only the top-two were certain, and while English appeared comfortable at bell, in a fast 49.53 seconds, the second lap soon started to hurt, the last 100m particularly, and he finished seventh in 1:45.14, a season best.
Indeed two of the semi-finals were won in sub-1:44, including that one, Kenya’s Emmanual Wanyonyi clocking 1:43.83. “These guys are the world’s best for a reason,” English said. “That’s the toughest world semi I’ve ever experienced so the competition was tough, but I’m looking forward to next year. Ideally, I’d have had a few races leading into these championships but given the preparation I’ve had, I’m happy with how I performed”.
For Noah Lyles, the 100m champion looking to complete a sprint double, the hurt was a different sort, the American involved in a crash of golf-carts on route from the warm-up track before his 200m semi-final; that resulted in a reversal of the semi-final order while his injury was assessed.
Nothing to slow him down, Lyles winning in 19.76, the fastest of the lot, his second gold medal looking pretty assured; less so for Sha’Carri Richardson, second in her women’s semi-final in 22.20, Sherika Jackson from Jamaica primed it seems to defend her to title, winning in 22.00.
For Ingebrigtsen, complaining of a head cold on Wednesday night after Britain’s Josh Kerr stunned him and everyone else watching to take the 1,500m gold medal in 3:29.38 (with a 52.77 last lap), qualifying from his 5,000m heat 22 hours later proved a breeze, if not a sniff, for the young Norwegian.
Running in the first of the two heats, the top eight in each progressing, Ingebrigtsen dozed at the back of the field until two laps to go, moving up to third to finish in 13:36.21, behind Spain’s Mohammed Katir (13:35.90)
Ireland’s Brian Fay was contention until three laps to go, dropping off after the injection of pace to finish 16th in 13:42:86. “I just need to be a little bit more competitive when it comes to these races,” said the 24 year-old, “But I’ll look to use the experience and hit the two championships well next year.
“It’s a learning curve, great to be a part of such a strong field, if you’d told me that I’d run at the World championships and break the Irish 5000m record this season, then I’d have to be happy with that.”
Earlier, down at the already hot dawn city streets by the Danube, Spain’s Maria Perez and Alvaro Martin completed the first World Championship double, winning the 35km race walk to add to their 20km titles. Brendan Boyce, competing in his sixth straight World Championships, came through the field to finish 24th, cross in a season’s best time of 2:37:26, some 13 minutes down on Martin’s winning time of 2:24:30.
FRIDAY HIGHLIGHTS SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES IRISH)
9:05 – Men’s decathlon – 100m
9:10 – Men’s javelin throw – Qualification
9:20 – Women’s high jump – Qualification
9:55 – Men’s decathlon – Long jump
11:20 – Men’s decathlon – Shot put
17:30 – Men’s decathlon – High jump
18:30 – Men’s 4x100m relay – Heats
18:35 – Women’s triple jump – Final
19:00 – Women’s 4x100m relay – Heats
19:20 – Women’s javelin throw – Final
19:25 – Women’s 800m – Semi-finals
20:05 – Men’s decathlon – 400m
20:40 – Women’s 200m – Final
20:50 – Men’s 200m – Final
