Bol bounces back from tough fall
Dutch standout wins women's 400 hurdles by large margin in World Champs five days after crashing to track on anchor leg of relay
Now that’s more like it.
After falling to the track in the final meters of the mixed-sex 1,600-meter relay on the first night of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Femke Bol of the Netherlands rolled to an expected victory in the women’s 400-meter hurdles on Thursday.
Bol’s victory came about 15 minutes after Antonio Watson of Jamaica had won the men’s 400, and his gold-medal performance occurred about 15 minutes after countrywoman Danielle Williams’s upset victory in the 100 hurdles gave her her second World title and first in eight years.
It also came five days after Bol fell to the track in the mixed-sex 1,600-meter relay as she was trying to hold off U.S. anchor runner Alexis Holmes in the final 10 meters of the race.
The 23-year-old Bol, who lowered the world indoor 400 record to 49.26 seconds in February, had received the baton ahead of Holmes for the anchor leg. But instead of pulling away from the American in the final home straightaway as many would have expected, Holmes began to eat into Bol’s lead and she was inches behind her Dutch counterpart with 10 meters left in the race.
Sensing that, a tiring Bol began to lean forward in an effort to get to the finish line and in the process, her spikes appeared to catch on the track and caused her to fall with five meters left in the race. Although she was able to get up quickly and cross the finish line in third place, she and her team were disqualified because Bol no longer had the baton in her hand when she completed the race.
"It wasn't easy to forget what happened in the final meters of the mixed relay but my team was around me and they put me at my ease," Bol was quoted as saying in a post on sports.yahoo.com. "I knew that 400 hurdles would be a chance to show up and I was confident.
"I felt the strength to do it. I really enjoy competing here in Budapest and that also helped me to get my focus back."
After Bol had cruised to times of 53.39 and 52.95 in her qualifying heat and semifinal on Monday and Tuesday, she got off to a good start in the final and ran what she later characterized as the fastest first half of a race she has ever run.
Yet it was Anna Cockrell of the U.S., running in lane 9, who led the race for the first five flights of hurdles before Bol began to take control of things midway through the second turn.
She entered the home straight away with a two- or three-meter lead over second-place Cockrell before she began to pull away.
Shamier Little of the U.S. had pulled even with Rushell Clayton of Jamaica in the battle for second place going over the 10th — and final — barrier of the race. But Bol really extended her advantage on the run-in to the finish and crossed the line in 51.70 seconds.
Little finished second in 52.80 — matching the silver medal she won in the 2015 World Championships in Beijing — a hundredth of a second ahead of Clayton’s personal best of 52.81. Kemi Adekoya of Bahrain placed fourth in an Asian record of 53.09 and Cockrell finished fifth in a personal best of 53.34.
Bol’s time was the second fastest of her career and the eighth fastest in history. It was also just the ninth time a woman has run under 52 seconds in the 400 hurdles.
“I took the first few hurdles fast and then I could run my rhythm,” said Bol, who finished second in the World Championships last year and third in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. “I have just had the best first 200 meters ever… I can say that this was a very good season."
Bol, who also ran a leg during a heat of the mixed 1,600 relay last Saturday, has now run five 400-meter races during these championships. And assuming she is healthy, there is a very good chance she will run in a heat of the women’s 1,600 relay on Saturday and — if the Netherlands advances as expected — in the final on Sunday.
In addition to the women’s 400 hurdles and 100 hurdles, and the men’s 400, the evening program of the meet also included finals in the men’s long jump, which was won by Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, and in the women’s hammer throw, in which Camryn Rogers of Canada placed first.
The men’s and women’s 35-kilometer walking events were held in the morning and Spain’s Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez were victorious after winning their respective 20-kilometer walking races on the first and second day of the championships.
Heading into the meet, the women’s 100 hurdles had been billed as a showdown between Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, defending champion and world-record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, and Americans Nia Ali and Keni Harrison, who entered the championships with the two fastest times in the world this year at 12.30 and 12.31, respectively.
The 29-year-old Williams was regarded as a likely finalist, but winning a medal seemed like a reach for her.
Nothing that happened in the first two rounds seemed to indicate that she would win the gold medal on Thursday. She posted the sixth fastest time in the first round on Tuesday with a season best of 12.51, and she had advanced to the final on time after she finished third in her semifinal in 12.50 on Wednesday.
However, she got off to a very good start in the final while running in lane two and had a clear lead over the field by the fifth flight of 10 hurdles before holding off the hard-charging and previously unbeaten Camacho-Quinn for the victory, 12.43 to 12.44.
Keni Harrison of the U.S., who had gone against conventional wisdom by running all-out in her heat and semifinal while recording times of 12.24 and 12.33, respectively, finished third in 12.46. She was followed by Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas in 12.52, Ackera Nugent of Jamaica in 12.61, and Amusan in 12.62.
Ali, the 2019 champion, had experienced a revival of sorts this season, but she hit the first hurdle fairly hard and never recovered as she finished eighth in 12.78.
Williams admitted in a World Athletics post that some of the favorites had been “kicking me left, right, and center” in races all season.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” she said. “I came out here knowing that I could win, but I would have to give everything I had. I still don't believe I won against such a stellar field.
“My starts have always been good. The finish is usually my problem, but I spoke to my sister yesterday and she said I need to make sure to race over all the hurdles because I wasn't going flat out through all of them. Today, I was determined to take it all the way.”
She added that “When I won in 2015 it was unbelievable, but this took a lot of hard work, a lot of years of toil and injuries, and losing my confidence and battling to get back to this stage. It's awesome. Jamaica is a proud country and we love to win. I love to win.”
The next race up on the track was the men’s 400 meters and though Watson’s victory would not have been forecast by many before the meet started, the results of the semifinals on Tuesday, had turned the final into a rather wide-open affair.
First, the 21-year-old Watson set a personal best of 44.13 seconds while winning the first semifinal while Wayde van Niekirk of South Africa, one of the co-favorites with Stephen Gardiner of the Bahamas, finished third in 44.65 and had to advance to the final on time.
Then Olympic champion Gardiner, the yearly world leader at 43.74, had pulled up with an injury in the third semifinal.
Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain, who had set a European record of 44.26 in winning the second semifinal, was in first place after the first 300 meters of the final on Thursday. But Watson started to reel him in midway down the home straightaway and he passed him with about 20 meters left in the race.
His winning time of 44.22 was slower that what he ran in the semifinals, but it gave him a clear victory over Hudson-Smith, who finished second in 44.31. It also made him the second Jamaican to win the men’s 400 in the World Championships. The first was Bert Cameron, who won the event in the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki in 1983.
Quincy Hall of the U.S., who finished third in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships on July 8, won the bronze medal with a personal best of 44.37. He was followed by U.S. teammate Vernon Norwood in 44.39.
Kirani James of Grenada, last year’s silver medalist, finished fifth in 44.52, but he was disqualified for a lane violation. When that happened, Sean Bailey of Jamaica was moved up to fifth after his 44.96 clocking.
Van Niekirk, who was attempting to win his third World title and his first since 2017, placed seventh in 45.11 after entering the meet with a season best of 44.08.
“It was a good race, although I did not execute it as coach [Glen] Mills planned,” Watson said in a World Athletics post, “In the last 50, I didn’t look at the other athletes, I was focusing on myself only.”
He then added that this has been “an amazing season for me. After winning the world youth title in 2017, it is amazing to win the gold medal at my first senior worlds."
Prior to the medal-winning performances of Williams, Watson, and Clayton, three Jamaicans placed among the top four finishers in the men’s long jump.
Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won the event when he leaped 8.52 meters (27 feet 11½ inches) on his sixth — and final — jump of the competition. But Wayne Pinnock finished second at 8.50 (27-10¾), followed by fellow Jamaicans Tajay Gayle at 8.27 (27-1¾) and Carey McLeod at 8.27 (27-1¾).
Gayle, the 2019 World champion, won the bronze medal ahead of McLeod because his second-best jump of 8.17 (26-9¾) was better that McLeod’s No. 2 mark of 7.90 (25-11).
Pinnock, the runner-up in the NCAA Championships in June behind University of Arkansas teammate McLeod, and Tentoglou had bests of 8.50 entering the sixth round. But the Jamaican was in the lead because his second-best jump of 8.40 (27-6¾) was better than Tentoglou’s No. 2 mark of 8.39 (27-6 ).
But the 25-year-old Tentoglou won the event when he leaped 8.52 on his final jump and Pinnock’s sixth jump measured 8.38 (27-6).
Tentoglou’s victory followed a 2022 season in which he won the World indoor title in March, but placed second in the World outdoor meet in July when China’s Jianan Wang went from fifth place to first with a last-round jump. Wang finished fifth at 8.05 (26-5) on Thursday.
“The only gold medal I was missing is now mine,” Tentoglou said in a World Athletics post. “I stayed calm after my first attempt of 8.50. I was sure that Pinnock had a lot to add. He is very strong and will give much more next year.
“I wanted to jump more than 8.50 and I managed to do that in the last round, but I left my foot in the sand and lost an even bigger jump. It was a great competition, a great battle, better than last year. Now I'm going to defend all my titles.”
The victory by Rogers in the women’s hammer throw on Thursday followed a stunning turn of events on Wednesday when defending World champion and yearly world leader Brooke Andersen of the U.S. failed to advance to the final.
That left returning silver medalist Rogers as the favorite and she seized the opportunity by producing the four best throws of the competition, topped by her 77.22 (253-4) effort in round one.
Americans Janee’ Kassanavoid, last year’s bronze medalist, and DeAnna Price finished second and third with bests of 76.36 (250-6) and 75.41 (247-5), followed by Hanna Skydan of Azerbaijan at 74.18 (243-4) and Silja Kosonen of Finland at 73.89 (242-5).
It was the ninth win in 11 meets for Rogers, whose only two losses came to Andersen. It was also the seventh meet in which she has thrown more than 77 meters (252-7) and her win gave Canada a sweep of the gold medals in the hammer throw as Ethan Katzberg had set a national record of 81.25 (266-7) in winning the men’s event on Sunday.
“Ethan really set the stage out there,” Rogers said in a World Athletics post. “I feel Canada is making its presence known all across the world. Being able to win this medal for Canada means the world to me. I am so proud to represent my country on the world's stage.”
She then added that competing “in the final with such amazing and talented throwers makes this piece of history even better. It enriches the experience knowing you are among amazing people who are all aiming for the same goal. It makes me so happy to share this moment with them. This medal is a good step in the right direction. I am excited about what next year will bring. Paris will be huge.”
The victories by Martin and Perez in the men’s and women’s 35-kilometer walking events on Thursday morning gave Spain a sweep of all four walks in the World Championships.
Martin, who won the 20k walk last Saturday, won the 35-kilometer event with a national-record time of 2 hours 24 minutes 30 second to finish four seconds in front of Brian Pintado of Ecuador, who set a South American record with his performance. Masatoro Kawano of Japan placed third in 2:25:12, followed by Evan Dunfee of Canada in 2:25:28 and Christiopher Linke of Germany in a national record of 2:25:35.
Martin, who had finished fourth in the 20k walk in the Olympic Games, made a decisive move to break away from Pintado with about a kilometer left in the 35k race on Thursday.
“I am so tired,” Martin said in a World Athletics post. ““I was fourth in the Olympic Games and it was very tough to get so close to an Olympic medal, so it's wonderful now to be a double world champion in Budapest. I see Maria is first too in the women's race, so today is a great day for Spain.”
Martin’s victory came after Aurelien Quinion of France broke away from the lead pack midway through the race and he opened up a lead of 37 seconds at the 23-kilometer mark. But the chase pack began to reel him in over the next six kilometers and when he received his third red card for loss of contact with the ground, he had to sit out for a penalty of three and a half minutes.
Perez, who had won the women’s 20k walk last Sunday, won the 35k race on Thursday by more than two minutes as her meet-record time of 2:38:42 left her well ahead of defending champion Kimberly Garcia of Peru (2:40:52).
Antigoni Ntrismpioti of Greece finished third in 2:43:22, followed by Viviane Lytra of Brazil in a national record of 2:44:40 and Cristina Montesinos of Spain in 2:45:32.
Perez led Garcia by three seconds at the 20k mark in the race before widening her advantage to seven seconds at 23 kilometers and to 24 seconds at the 25k mark.
“I never could have thought it was possible to win two golds,” Perez said in a World Athletics post. “It was just too hard. But the hard work and pain paid off.”
She later added that her victory was a “huge achievement, not only for me but for the whole Spanish team. I want to enjoy this moment. I could hear the people around the course screaming my name, cheering for me. That helped me too, especially towards the end.”
In addition to the seven finals contested on Thursday, there were semifinals in the men’s and women’s 200, and in the men’s 800, as well as qualifying heats in the men’s 5,000.
All of the leading contenders advanced to the finals of the men’s and women’s 200.
Noah Lyles of the U.S., the two-time defending champion in the 200 and the recently crowned champion in the 100, won his semifinal in 19.76, with fellow Americans Kenny Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton taking the other two heats in 19.96 and 19.98, respectively.
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, the second- and third-place finishers in the 100, placed second in their respective semifinals with times of 19.97 and 20.02.
The order in which the men’s semifinals were run changed after a cart shuttling the sprinters in the first heat to the track was involved in a collision with another cart.
Lyles, who was in one of the carts involved in the collision, told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson that he was not hurt in the incident. But Andrew Hudson of Jamaica ended up with a glass fragment in his right eye.
After being attended to my doctors, Hudson finished a non-qualifying fifth in 20.38 in the semifinal won by Lyles. But meet officials later advanced him to the final as he had run the semifinal with blurred vision in his right eye.
The three semifinals of the women’s were won by Gabby Thomas of the U.S. in 21.97, Julien Alfred of St. Lucia in 22.17, and defending champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica in 22.00.
Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S., who won the women’s 100 title on Monday, finished second behind Jackson in 22.20. The other second-place finishes went to Great Britain’s Daryll Neita (22.21) and Dina Asher-Smith (22.28).
All of the leading contenders advanced to the final of the men’s 800 as the three semifinals were won by Slimane Moula of Algeria (1:43.93), Marco Arop of Canada (1:44.02), and Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya (1:43.83).
The two qualifying heats of the men’s 5,000 meters were won by Mohamed Katir of Spain in 13:35.90 and Luis Grijalva of Guatemala in 13:32.72.
Amongst the other 14 qualifiers for the final on Sunday were defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, last year’s silver medalist Jacob Krop of Kenya, last year’s bronze medalist Oscar Chelimo of Uganda, Ethiopians Hagos Gebrhiwet, Yomif Kejelcha, and Berihu Aregawi, and Canadian Mohammed Ahmed.
Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, who had won his third consecutive title in the 10,000 on Sunday, had withdrawn from his heat of the 5,000 on Wednesday due to an injury.