Kambundji surprises again
Swiss sprinter wins second title at 60 meters in World Indoor Champs
For the second time in three years, Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland upset the form charts in winning the women’s 60-meter dash in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Saturday.
After not looking particularly sharp in her qualifying heat and semifinal earlier in the day, the 32-year-old Kambundji got off to a solid start in the final, started to make up ground on pre-race pick Zaynab Dosso of Italy at the midway point of the race and then overtook her in the last five meters of the contest.
Kambundji’s winning time of 7.04 seconds left her two hundredths of a second in front of Dosso (7.06), who just held off Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg (7.07) for the silver medal.
Ewa Swoboda of Poland finished fourth in 7.09, followed by Amy Hunt of Great Britain in 7.11
Although Dosso had edged Kambundji, 7.01-7.02, in winning the European title 13 days earlier, Dosso looked to be the class of the field entering the final as she had posted the fastest times in the heats and semifinals with clockings of 7.09 and 7.07.
Swoboda had posted the second-fastest times in each round with efforts of 7.16 in the first round and 7.11 in the semifinals.
Kambundji had placed first in her heat in 7.20 when a top three finish automatically advanced sprinters to the semifinals. But she finished second in a super-tight semifinal in which she, first-place van der Weken and third-place Zoe Hobbs of New Zealand all ran 7.12.
“I'm really happy, really relieved,” Kambundji said in a World Athletics post. “This was a lot like the Europeans. Zaynab was also coming from that, and I knew she was going to be fast.
“This means a lot, for this title to come at this stage of my career. I see it with other sprinters, with the older sprinters – they are also motivating me a lot to see that they're still running PBs, and running really fast at 35, 36 years old. It shows me that my best time can still be ahead of me.”
Dosso, whose 7.01 clocking in the European championships was the fastest in the world this year, said in the World Athletics post that she was disappointed with her start in the final. Nonetheless, she was out ahead of Kambundji, but was unable to hold her off in the final stages of the race.
It’s also possible that she was unaware of the charge of the Swiss sprinter as Dosso was running in lane three, with van der Weken directly to her right. Kambundji was another two lanes over from there.
When Kambundji won her first global title in 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, her semifinal time of 7.08 had left her back of Swoboda and Mikiah Brisco of the U.S., who each ran 7.03, and Marybeth Sant-Price of the U.S., who clocked 7.05.
However, she won the final in a Swiss record of 6.96 while running out of lane eight. Brisco finished second in 6.99, with Sant-Price, Swoboda, and Jamaicans Briana Williams and Shericka Jackson each running 7.04 while finishing in third through sixth place.
In addition to the 60, finals were also contested in the 400 and 3,000 meters on Saturday, as well as in the pole vault and triple jump in the women’s portion of the meet.
Semifinals were also run in the 800.
Amber Anning of Great Britain won a thrilling homestretch duel in the 400, while Freweyni Hailu of Ethiopia was victorious in the 3,000, Marie-Julie Bonnin of France took the pole vault, and Leyanis Perez Hernandez led Cuba to a 1-2 finish in the triple jump.
Anning looked to be the class of the 400 field after she had run an incredibly easy-looking 50.79 in her heat on Friday.
However, she lost a lot of momentum in the final on Saturday when she and Alexis Holmes of the U.S. made contact with each other as they were heading into the first turn of the second lap.
Holmes, the bronze medalist in last year’s meet in Glasgow, Scotland, was in the inside of lane one when the contact occurred, but she did not appear to be as adversely affected by the bumping as was Anning.
The Brit was able to regroup some down the backstretch, but her chances of winning looked to be slim as she trailed Holmes around the final turn. However, she began to slowly make up ground on the American heading down the home straightaway and she overtook her in the last five meters of the race to record a 50.60-50.63 victory.
European champion Henriette Jaeger of Norway finished third in 50.92, with Martina Weil of Chile fourth in 51.78.
Anning had won a qualifying heat in the European championships, but she had been disqualified for a lane violation.
“It feels amazing,” she said in a bbc.com/sport post. “It wasn’t the cleanest race but the goal was to get my first individual title. I wasn’t sure [I’d won]. I thought I just got there but I needed to make sure I didn’t see a disqualification. It was just a sigh of relief.
“After what happened at the Europeans, to come here and win is just an amazing feeling.”
Hailu’s victory in the 3,000 gave her a medal in each of the last three World indoor championships as she had placed second in the 800 in 2022 and won the 1,500 last year.
Her victory on Saturday came after the early pace was mild. Olympic 1,500 silver medalist Jessica Hull of Australia led the field through the first kilometer in 2:53.80 and Nozomi Tanaka of Japan was in the lead when she reached two kilometers in 5:54.49.
The lead pack still consisted of nine women with three laps left in the race, but things had stretched out a lap later as Hull was leading Hailu and American Shelby Houlihan was the closest runner still giving chase.
It was a two-runner battle for first place when Hailu took the bell lap ahead of Hull, But the Ethiopian began to pull away from the Australian down the backstretch and around the curve and she crossed the finish line in 8:37.21.
Houlihan nipped Hull for the silver medal just before the finish line as she ran 8:38.26 to Hull’s 8:38.28.
Whittni Morgan of the U.S. finished fourth in 8:39.18, followed by Birke Haylom of Ethiopia in 8:39.28.
“To win this event, I prepared myself strongly, and I feel very happy that I won the race,” Hailu said in a World Athletics post. “I was sick at home just before coming to Nanjing, so I stayed at the back to conserve myself before making my push. I'm healthy now, and I came here to win.
“Last year I won the 1500m, now I've won the 3000m, and I'm so happy about that. I try my best, and God helped me with the rest. I don't know how I will celebrate – my happiness is beyond me.”
In the pole vault, Bonnin cleared 4.75 meters (15-7) to tie the French record.
Tina Sutej of Slovenia, Angelica Moser of Switzerland, and defending champion Molly Caudery of Great Britain all cleared 4.70 (15-5). But Caudery finished fourth because she needed two tries to make that height.
Sutej and European champion Moser each made it on their first attempts, but Sutej won the silver medal because she had fewer total misses that Moser.
Bonnin cleared her opening height of 4.45 (14-7¼), but she found herself in sixth place after needing three tries to get over 4.60 (15-1). However, she moved into a tie for second with Moser — and behind Sutej — when they both made 4.70 (15-5) on their first attempts.
After Caudery fell to fourth place when she needed two attempts to clear 4.70, there was a delay of 30 minutes or perhaps longer as some technical work needed to be done on one of the standards.
After the competition resumed, all four vaulters missed their first attempts at 4.75 (15-7). But Bonnin cleared that height on her second attempt and Sutej, Moser, and Caudery all missed their remaining jumps.
Caudery appeared to have been high enough to clear 4.75 on her second attempt, but she might have knocked the bar off when she started to celebrate her clearance while she was still over the bar.
With her victory in hand, Bonnin missed all three of her attempts at 4.80 (15-9), although she came close to clearing the bar on her second try.
“I cannot believe it. It's like a dream,” she said in a World Athletics post. ““I feel like we were there for a medal, but not the gold. There were many good girls here who I expected to be in great shape.
“We weren't sure that we were going to jump here two months ago. We didn't expect it to go this well, but we tried, and I'm so proud that we made the right choice. The medal (at the European Indoor Championships) was so relieving. I came here knowing nobody will be upset if I don't do something good. But it was so relieving.”
Like Andy Diaz Hernandez of Italy in the men’s triple jump on Friday, Perez Hernandez got off a big jump in the first round of the women’s event on Saturday and did not record another mark after that.
Nonetheless, she won the gold medal by more than a foot as her yearly world-leading effort of 14.93 (48-11¾) left her well ahead of compatriot Liadagmis Povea, who had a best of 14.57 (47-9¾).
Ana Peleteiro-Compaore of Spain finished third at 14.29 (46-10¾), followed by defending champion Thea LaFond of Dominica at 14.18 (46-6¼) and Maja Askag of Sweden at 14.01 (45-11¾).
After her big opener, Perez Hernandez fouled in the second round, passed in the third, fouled in the fourth, and passed on her final two attempts.
“I didn't really expect this result, and to be able to win with a single jump of 14.93m,” she said in a World Athletics post. “My goal was to improve my mark from last year's World Indoor Championships, so I am really pleased with my performance today. The more rivals out there, the better for achieving better results.
“In fact, some of my best performances happened when Yulimar (Rojas) was also competing. But soon she'll be back (after injury) and will bring that emotion that she always brings with her.”
In the two semifinals of the women’s 800, defending champion Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia won the first heat in 2:03.85 and Audrey Werro of Switzerland took the second in 2:01.11.
The top three finishers in each semifinal advanced to the final.
You can click here for an event schedule for the meet, as well as results.