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The best thing I’ve seen today – so far.
Preamble
こんにちは – kon’nichiwa – and welcome to the World Athletics Championships – night six!
And it’s another stacked session. We’ve various qualifying to enjoy – women’s 5000m featuring Faith Kipyegon, plus high jump and 800m – along with a pair of field finals – men’s javelin, women’s triple jump. But it’s the sprints that’ll really get us going.
First, we’ve the semi-finals of the women’s 2o0m, as Sherickah Jackson of Jamaica takes on a powerful American contingent led by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the surging 100m champion. Meantime, in the men’s competition, we get another look at Gout Gout, while Noah Lyles, Letsile Tebogo and Kenny Bednarek, the medal favourites, jostle for position. So far, so tantalising.
Then, after the semis of what promises to be an extremely stressful set of men’s 800m semis, just two from each heat to qualify, we’ve both 400m finals. First go the men, with Botswana’s Collen Kebinatshipi having set down a marker out of nowhere, running a world-leading time in the previous round. He had plenty left at the end, too, while South Africa’s Zakithi Nene looks equal parts graceful and strong.
But it’s the women’s 400m for which we’re really waiting, the big three way front of the rest. Mariledy Paulino, the Dominican Olympic champion, fancies herself and rightly so, but Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain have been more impressive so far, her PB of 48.14 also the fastest in the field.
Problem being, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is a genius, having moved across from the 400m hurdles for the challenge and looking like she’s been running flat all her life. She was spectacularly good in the semis, devastating her personal best by half a second while barely seeming to make contact with the track, and if she gets it going today, Marita Koch’s world record of 47.60 – one of the oldest in the book, set in 1985 – is under threat. The race may be her against the others, but it may also be her against the clock.
Action: 7.05pm local, 11.05am BST.
