Athletics
Steven Saunders, Senior Editor 7y

ICYMI at the World Championships -- Ayana nearly laps entire field

Olympic Sports

After the extraordinary drama of Mo Farah's 10,000-meters victory in the men's race on Friday night, it was an altogether different affair in the women's version on Saturday.

Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia raced clear of the field 10 laps into the race and her relentless pace saw her lapping all but a handful of the 33 entrants, finishing 46 seconds ahead of Tirunesh Dibaba in second.

All the more remarkable is that she had not competed at all since last year's Olympic Games, where she set a world record on her way to the gold medal.

"I couldn't compete in any races after Rio because I was very sick for the whole year," explained Ayana. "I had some problems with my leg. This injury has affected my preparations a lot, but I wasn't worried about running fast here.

"I was ready to compete at some Diamond League meetings this summer, including Monaco and Lausanne, but I cancelled my performances there as I wanted to be as well prepared for these championships as possible."

Quote of the day

Luckenkemper lights up London

While the men's 100-meter final was the main attraction on Day 2 at the IAAF World Athletics Championships, it was a pleasant if unexpected surprise to have Saturday kicked into life by another shining light.

The morning session at the London Stadium was illuminated by the shocked smile of a 20-year-old German sprinter, Gina Luckenkemper.

Racing in Heat 1 of the women's 100 meters and knowing her season's best of 11.01 seconds would almost certainly be good enough for a place in the semifinals, Luckenkemper absolutely stormed down the straight, dipping under 11 seconds for the first time in her career with a time of 10.95.

That mark was not bettered by any of the runners in the following five heats, and the skip, jump, punch of the air and hands-to-the-mouth gasp of astonishment from Luckenkemper would have befitted the winner of Sunday's final, never mind a Saturday morning heat.

"It was amazing and I'm absolutely speechless," said Luckenkemper. "It was a dream to run sub-11 inside this stadium at these championships. The atmosphere in this stadium is unreal. It really pushed me to go pretty fast."

No more Mr. Nice Guy?

The men's 400 meters promises to be one of the events of the championships, with world-record holder Wayde van Niekerk the man to beat but Isaac Makwala (Botswana) and Fred Kerley (USA) also capable of mounting a strong challenge.

You might expect there to be a rivalry between Makwala and South African Van Niekerk, but Makwala was having none of it. "Wayde van Niekerk is my brother," he said after his heat on Saturday morning. "We want to conquer the world together and make the final for Africa. He is so friendly and a lovely guy."

Not that the waiting media would have known on Saturday -- Van Niekerk marched straight past all of them and said not a word about his casual, heat-winning performance.

KJT's jinx strikes again

The heptathlon has been good to Britain in recent years, with Denise Lewis and then Jessica Ennis-Hill making the country synonymous with medals in the multidiscipline event.

So why can't it be a bit nicer to Katarina Johnson-Thompson?

The Brit entered the stadium to enormous cheers on Saturday morning, cheekily poking her tongue out at the camera and bouncing energetically to her start blocks for the 100-meter hurdles. A solid time of 13.33 in a very fast heat had her well placed going into her favourite event, the high jump.

Or at least it was her favourite event. "KJT" was confident enough to keep passing and passing and passing, with literally four seasons' worth of weather moving over the stadium before she finally entered at 1.80 meters. She cleared that with ease, sat out the next height, and then everything started to go wrong.

Her first attempt at 1.86 meters wasn't right, but her second attempt was the most telling. She clipped the bar with her heels and then looked toward her coaching team, clearly beginning to feel panic set in. Sure enough, her third attempt wasn't close and she lay on the high jump bed facedown for an age, perhaps hoping it would swallow her whole.

To put it in perspective: Johnson-Thompson's personal best is 1.98 meters. Even her season's best is 1.95. She is strong enough in the high jump to have entered the individual event at these championships. And now it had snipered her, just as three fouls in the long jump did in Beijing in 2015, and just as poor throwing did in Rio last year.

To make matters worse, Nafissatou Thiam and Yorgelis Rodriguez both went on to match the heptathlon record for high jump at the World Championships with clearances of 1.95 meters, within range for Johnson-Thompson at her best.

She did, however, finish the day in fourth place after a remarkable effort in the 200 meters.

Keeping the flame alive

There are a lot of connections to and memories of the London Olympics of 2012 at these championships, but perhaps nothing quite like the story of Desiree Henry.

She was just shy of her 17th birthday when she was one of a number of young people who helped light the Olympic flame in the opening ceremony in 2012. Four years later, she won a bronze medal as part of Team GB's 4x100 meter relay team in Rio.

She perhaps eclipsed even all of that by returning to the London Stadium on Saturday and squeezing through from the heats of the 100 meters, qualifying as the last of the fastest losers. Her time of 11.32 seconds was just .01 better than Angela Tenorio of Ecuador in the same heat.

Over before it began

Spare a thought for two female athletes whose months of toil, training and preparation for these championships disappeared within seconds on Saturday morning.

First was heptathlete Laura Ikauniece-Admidina of Latvia, who left the track in tears at the end of her first of what should have been seven events, the 100-meter hurdles. A hamstring pull two hurdles from the line put paid to her hopes of contending for a medal, and it was no surprise when it was announced around an hour later that she had had to withdraw.

Then there was the peril of a false-start elimination in the 100 meters, which befell Germany's Tatjana Pinto in Heat 5. Her reaction was admirably restrained: clasping her hands on top of her head before turning heel and walking out of the tunnel at the top of the home straight.

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