N. Lyles was the male sprint star of these championships with (count them) three gold medals: he won the 100 m with 9.83 s, the 200 m with 19.52 s and anchored the US relay (37.38 s). Don't ask me about his time in the relay. The "race analysis" offered by World Athletics is a joke. We are transported back to the era of manual time-keeping. The only thing that figures in the race analysis is the final time. No splits, no relative positions, no nothing. What a shame!
Anyhow, the 100 m saw the world and the olympic champions (F. Kerley and M. Jacobs) exiting in the semis. But they did not go home empty-handed since they participated in the relays that won gold and silver respectively. L. Tebogo was the revelation of the championships. At just 20 years of age he won silver in the 100 m and bronze in the 200 m. In the latter he was beaten by someone even younger than himself, E. Knighton who is shaping up to become the heir of Lyles. The final of the 200 m was run with 9 athletes, A. Hudson getting a bye, after being injured in a collision of the car transporting the athletes to the stadium.
O. Seville is the new name for Jamaica, and I will keep an eye open for him in he future. He barely missed a medal in the 100 m but secured a bronze one in the relay. For Z. Hughes the exact opposite situation prevailed. He got the bronze medal in the 100 m but finished 4th in the 200 m and again 4th with the UK team in the relay.
S. Jackson is the greatest female sprinter today. Still she had to go home with only one gold and two silver medals. Just before the start of the women's 100 m final I was looking at the two jamaicans, Jackson and Fraser-Pryce, the sure-fire medalists, and then the tv turned to S. Richardson. She had managed to make the final not on place but on time (just as E. Swoboda and D. Asher-Smith as I explained in a recent article of mine). And my first thought was that she was capable of anything. Ten seconds later we had the proof, as she won the 100 m with panache in 10.65 s. I was impressed by J. Alfred whom I was seeing for the first time. She finished 5th in the 100 m and 4th in the 200 m: she is definitely someone to follow in the next years. G. Thomas was back in shape this year, finishing second behind S.Jackson, while S. Richardson gleaned another medal, a bronze, in the 200 m, dipping under 22 seconds. However the queen of the 200 m is S. Jackson who, with 21.41 s, is just 7/100 s off Flo-Jo's haunted world record.
The women's 4x100 m relay was a most exciting race. The US team had, for once, excellent relay exchanges and when it came to the last one they were 2 m ahead of the jamaican team. Jackson could not catch Richardson and the US won 41.03 to 41.21 s. Everybody expected the team of Côte d'Ivoire to be on the podium after a great African record of 41.90 s in the semis. Unfortunately they managed to fumble the second exchange, with TaLou stumbling and falling, precipitating Gbaï to the ground.
The women's 400 m was marked by absences: McLaughlin was injured just before the championships, just as S. Eid Naser (back from a two year ban for whereabout failures), while F. Bol was concentrating on the hurdles. Add to this that S. Miller-Uibo had given birth to her first child on April 20 and it became immediately clear that M. Paulino was the number one favourite of the event. (Miller-Uibo being the reigning champion was present in Budapest, but exited in the heats with a quite respectable season best of 52.65 s, which she improved to 51.83 s two weeks later). The main disappointment of this championship was B. Wilson who finished last in her heat with 53.87 s. She had had a great season up to that point, with 9 races under-50 and a second place in the US Trials, beaten only by S. McLaughlin. She holds the US indoor record for 400 m with 49.48 s. I had spotted her last year in the final of the 400 m hurdles and was expecting her to shine in Budapest. Unfortunately her flat 400 m time there was even worse than her personal best in the hurdles (53.08 s).
Behind Paulino 48.76 s, Kaczmarek confirmed her excellent shape this year winning silver, and S. Williams was once again bronze medalist. I was impressed by R. Adeleke and C. Bolingo: they are both candidates for a place of next year's European podium. L. Klaver had a great season but managed once again to miss out when it counted. Running too fast the first half of the race, she ran out of steam in the final stretch. Fortunately she could redeem herself in the 4x400 m relay.
S. Gardiner won easily his heat and was the favourite for the men's 400 m gold medal. Unfortunately in the middle of the semi-final he fell on the track clutching his thigh. W. Van Niekerk barely made the final, while K. James did not look as if he could add one more medal to his collection. That left just M. Hudson-Smith who, in his semi-final, with 44.26 s improved the European record of Schoenlebe that had stood for 36(!) years, and A. Watson who had the fastest time, 44.13 s, in the semis. In the final Watson prevailed thanks to a blistering finish, Hudson-Smith contenting himself with silver. K. James was disqualified for lane violation and what I find ridiculous is that on the photo-finish the corresponding vertical green line has been erased. In case you are wondering, his time was 44.52 s. (And James showed that he still has his place among the 400 m superstars by winning th Diamond League final a few weeks later). Van Niekerk finished last. Given his 44.08 s season's best in July, one could have expected something better.
The consolation of the US quarter-milers came in the 4x400 m relay where they won easily with 2:57.31 (not a time to write home about).
The mixed 4x400 m relay was a gripping event with the Netherlands leading most of the way, Holmes, the anchoring US runner, catching Bol on the final stretch. And while they were battling it out, at less than 20 m from the finish line, for no apparent reason, Bol tripped and fell. The US won with a world record 3:08.80.
Usually it's the men's 4x100 m US team the one that fumbles the exchanges, and gets disqualified. This time it was the women's 4x400 m team who got disqualified. I do not know what would have happened if the americans were present in the final but, who cares, the race was breath-taking as it was. The Dutch team was at first position after the second exchange (thanks to a sub-49 relay by Klaver) and was third after the third exchange, trailing Jamaica and the UK. However Bol was unbeatable and this time she crossed the line first with a most impressive finish and a sub-49 split.
K. Harrison ran a world-leading 12.24 s in the heats and went on to win her semi with 12.33 s. J. Camacho-Quinn responded with 12.41 s while both N. Ali and T. Amusan did not look as if they were going to offer great resistance. D. Kambundji made the final having the best time of non-automatic qualifiers, together with the 2015 world champion D. Williams. And, to the amazement of everybody, it was the latter, running in lane 1, who piped Camacho-Quinn and Harrison on the line, adding a second world title to her collection.
H. Parchment had deprived G. Holloway of the olympic title in the 110 m hurdles, but he was not able to stop him from winning a third world title. He took his vengeance two weeks later in a Diamond League race where he won with 12.96 s the very same time of Holloway in Budapest.
Coming to Budapest, and in the absence of McLaughlin, F. Bol was the undisputed favourite for the women's 400 m hurdles. D. Muhammad is past her prime (and in fact she could not make it to the final, exiting in the semis) while S. Little has never beaten Bol (at least in the last two-three years). The final was uneventful with Bol winning easily in 51.70 s, Little securing the silver medal but just barely, since R. Clayton finished very strongly almost catching her, 52.80 to 52.81 s.
Reigning world champion A. Dos Santos was injured earlier this year and thus K. Warholm (who was injured last year) had one fewer opponent to fear. In the end he won easily with 46.89 s, the surprise coming from K. McMaster who beat R. Benjamin for the silver medal, and who went on to beat Warholm, one week later, in the Zürich Diamond League race. (R. Benjamin won a late revenge by beating both Warholm and McMaster at the Diamon League final). The one athlete I am going to keep an eye open for is R. Clarke who at 19 years of age managed to finish 4th beating the reigning world champion, after having run an U20 world record of 47.34 in the semis. The men's 400 m hurdles is always an exciting event and I will, in a near future, publish a special article on the topic.
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