Day 7 Recap: Dafne Schippers & Ashton Eaton Set the Track on Fire; Tianna Bartoletta Wins LJ Gold with PB on Final Attempt

By LetsRun.com
August 28, 2015

BEIJING — Night seven of the 2015 IAAF World Championships was a great day for sprinting as fans in the Bird’s Nest were treated to one of the greatest women’s 200s in history and a ridiculous 45.00 400 by Ashton Eaton, the fastest-ever in a decathlon. There was also a dramatic gold for the U.S.’s Tianna Bartoletta in the women’s long jump, and a bronze medal for Aries Merritt in the 110 hurdles four days before he’s due to have a kidney transplant. We recap it all below.

We also have longer recaps of the brutal men’s 1500 semis and Merritt’s incredible bronze medal.

Women’s 200: Dafne Schippers Wins Gold in 21.63 to Become the Third-Fastest Woman of All Time

The women’s 200 was viewed as one of the weaker events in Beijing as the two women many considered to be the best in the world, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, opted not to run the half-lap event. Maybe they’re glad they didn’t now considering that if they had run their PRs tonight, they would have finished third (Felix) and sixth (Fraser-Pryce).

It was that close for gold

Obviously we can’t make those projections, considering how fast the Bird’s Nest track is (four of the top five women set PRs), so let’s focus on what did happen: the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers ran the fourth-fastest time ever, 21.63, to win gold ahead of Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, who ran the sixth-fastest time ever, 21.66, for silver. Two-time Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica took the bronze in 21.97 as three women broke 22.00 in the same race for only the second time in history.

Behind the top three, U.S. runner-up Candyce McGrone (4th, 22.01) and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (5th, 22.07), both PR’d in times that would have won gold two years ago but couldn’t even get on the medal stand tonight.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK		Reaction Time
1	622	Dafne Schippers	NED	21.63	CR	0.149
2	520	Elaine Thompson	JAM	21.66	PB	0.195
3	508	Veronica Campbell-Brown	JAM	21.97	SB	0.142
4	900	Candyce McGrone	USA	22.01	PB	0.158
5	383	Dina Asher-Smith	GBR	22.07	NR	0.162
6	921	Jeneba Tarmoh	USA	22.31		0.150
7	197	Ivet Lalova-Collio	BUL	22.41		0.157
8	518	Sherone Simpson	JAM	22.50	SB	0.148

Here’s the new all-time performers list at 200 meters:

1. Florence Griffith-Joyner, 21.34
2. Marion Jones, 21.62
3. Dafne Schippers, 21.63
4. Merlene Ottey, 21.64
5. Elaine Thompson, 21.66

It looks like Schippers’ decision to switch to sprinting full-time was the right one. She earned a bronze medal in the heptathlon in Moscow but has topped that in both of her events in Beijing, grabbing a silver in the 100 and a gold tonight. Schippers also has the European record now, and it’s nice to see Marita Koch’s name knocked off the top of that list (Koch had the old record at 21.71).

Schippers’ victory is also the first by a white man or woman in the 100 or 200 at Worlds/Olympics since Belarus’ Yulia Nestsiarenka won the 100 at the 2004 Olympics.

19 Year Old Dina Asher-Smith Gets 5th with a PB

Only 19, Asher-Smith broke the British national record with a PB to finish fifth. She was super pleased, “Honestly, I’m really, really happy because I was in that kind of race where I gave it my all and I ran the best race I could ahve right now and it was only good enough for fifth which I can’t help but smile about.”

She was full of praise for the winner, “I can’t emphasize how amazing she is as an athlete.”

Men’s Decathlon: Ashton Eaton Runs 45.00 in the 400 and the World Record Attempt is Very Much On

Through the first four events of the decathlon, 2012 Olympic and 2013 World champ Ashton Eaton already led by 56 points over Canada’s Damian Warner, but he blew the competition wide open by running a decathlon world record of 45.00 in the 400 to close out day one. Eaton now has 4703 points, 173 clear of Warner. 2009/2011 World champ Trey Hardee of the U.S. had to withdraw after three events due to a lower back injury suffered during the long jump.

In the first event of the day, Eaton set a championship decathlon best of 10.23 in the 100 (.02 off his PB) but it was his 400 performance that was the most startling, as he ran 1.83 seconds faster than the next-best athlete and .68 of a second faster than any other athlete in history during a decathlon (the previous decathlon best was Bill Toomey’s 45.68 in the 1968 Olympics).

“I thought the clock was off by a second, I swear,” Eaton told USATF. “I did 400 hurdles last year and that helped, and some 400s against some fast guys this year. The only difference is that they start moving with 200 meters to go. I PB’d a couple of weeks before I got here at 45.5 and I did that technique, so [coach] Harry [Marra] and I have been talking. He said, ‘You’ve just got to trust it, Ash, you’ll run fast.’

“No way in hell did we think I was running that fast. I thought 46-flat, maxed out. But I saw some decathletes in the heats before running some pretty good times, so long story short it is, you know me. I just go and don’t hold too much back. So, I did that with the technique and all, so it turned out something unbelievable.”

Barring a disaster tomorrow, Eaton should win gold and talk will turn to whether he can break the world record he set at the Olympic Trials three years ago. That mark is 9039 points, and he had 4728 after day 1, 25 more than he does today. So even if Eaton has the win sewn up by the 1500 (8:10 a.m. ET), there could still be drama to be had.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	Points		100 Metres	Long Jump	Shot Put	High Jump	400 Metres	110 Metres Hurdles	Discus Throw	Pole Vault	Javelin Throw	1500 Metres
1		Ashton Eaton	USA	4703	Points Mark Wind m/s	1040 10.23 -0.4	1030 7.88 0.0	760 14.52	813 2.01	1060 45.00
2		Damian Warner	CAN	4530	Points Mark Wind m/s	1020 10.31 -0.4	972 7.65 +0.2	755 14.44	840 2.04	943 47.30
3		Rico Freimuth	GER	4406	Points Mark Wind m/s	973 10.51 -0.4	937 7.51 +0.5	820 15.50	758 1.95	918 47.82
4		Kai Kazmirek	GER	4401	Points Mark Wind m/s	883 10.90 -0.2	910 7.40 +0.2	745 14.27	896 2.10	967 46.83
5		Michael Schrader	GER	4355	Points Mark Wind m/s	910 10.78 -0.4	987 7.71 +0.1	748 14.32	758 1.95	952 47.12
6		Larbi Bourrada	ALG	4345	Points Mark Wind m/s	899 10.83 -0.2	937 7.51 +0.6	712 13.73	868 2.07	929 47.60
7		Felipe dos Santos	BRA	4344	Points Mark Wind m/s	968 10.53 -0.4	945 7.54 +0.6	704 13.61	813 2.01	914 47.89
8		Kurt Felix	GRN	4338	Points Mark Wind m/s	856 11.02 -0.7	975 7.66 +1.4	791 15.02	896 2.10	820 49.89
9		Ilya Shkurenev	RUS	4338	Points Mark Wind m/s	858 11.01 -0.7	935 7.50 +0.5	734 14.09	896 2.10	915 47.88
10		Oleksiy Kasyanov	UKR	4337	Points Mark Wind m/s	922 10.73 -0.2	955 7.58 -0.1	744 14.25	813 2.01	903 48.13
11		Eelco Sintnicolaas	NED	4294	Points Mark Wind m/s	947 10.62 -0.2	935 7.50 +0.4	768 14.65	731 1.92	913 47.93
12		Jeremy Taiwo	USA	4244	Points Mark Wind m/s	847 11.06 -0.2	850 7.15 +0.3	739 14.18	896 2.10	912 47.94
13		Zach Ziemek	USA	4205	Points Mark Wind m/s	903 10.81 -0.4	952 7.57 +0.3	690 13.38	840 2.04	820 49.89
14		Adam Sebastian Helcelet	CZE	4202	Points Mark Wind m/s	841 11.09 -0.5	883 7.29 +0.6	808 15.30	840 2.04	830 49.66
15		Bastien Auzeil	FRA	4191	Points Mark Wind m/s	812 11.22 -0.7	876 7.26 +0.8	813 15.38	813 2.01	877 48.66
16		Pieter Braun	NED	4179	Points Mark Wind m/s	836 11.11 -0.7	883 7.29 +0.2	722 13.90	840 2.04	898 48.24
17		Yordani García	CUB	4161	Points Mark Wind m/s	912 10.77 -0.2	771 6.82 +0.5	761 14.54	840 2.04	877 48.67
18		Maicel Uibo	EST	4136	Points Mark Wind m/s	806 11.25 -0.5	845 7.13 +0.1	756 14.45	925 2.13	804 50.24
19		Thomas van der Plaetsen	BEL	4125	Points Mark Wind m/s	765 11.44 -0.5	915 7.42 +1.2	718 13.83	925 2.13	802 50.28
20		Jorge Ureña	ESP	4066	Points Mark Wind m/s	863 10.99 -0.7	886 7.30 +1.0	651 12.74	813 2.01	853 49.17
21		Pawel Wiesiolek	POL	4044	Points Mark Wind m/s	845 11.07 -0.7	833 7.08 +0.4	698 13.50	785 1.98	883 48.55
22		Akihiko Nakamura	JPN	4030	Points Mark Wind m/s	892 10.86 -0.4	876 7.26 +0.5	586 11.67	758 1.95	918 47.81
23		Pau Tonnesen	ESP	4024	Points Mark Wind m/s	804 11.26 -0.5	864 7.21 +0.3	712 13.74	840 2.04	804 50.24
24		Niels Pittomvils	BEL	3781	Points Mark Wind m/s	776 11.39 -0.5	781 6.86 +0.4	653 12.77	731 1.92	840 49.45
25		Janek Õiglane	EST	3769	Points Mark Wind m/s	750 11.51 -0.5	762 6.78 0.0	755 14.43	731 1.92	771 50.95
26		Keisuke Ushiro	JPN	3766	Points Mark Wind m/s	750 11.51 -0.5	750 6.73 +0.9	785 14.93	705 1.89	776 50.85
		Trey Hardee	USA	DNF	Points Mark Wind m/s	961 10.56 -0.4	886 7.30 +0.1	498 10.20	0 DNS
		Luiz Alberto de Araújo	BRA	DNF	Points Mark Wind m/s	878 10.92 -0.2	799 6.94 +0.4	780 14.84	0 DNS
		Willem Coertzen	RSA	DNF	Points Mark Wind m/s	865 10.98 -0.7	874 7.25 +0.3	713 13.75	758 1.95	0 DNS

Women’s Long Jump: Tianna Bartoletta Claims Her Second World Championship with a Clutch 7.14-Meter Personal Best on Her Final Attempt

Ten years after earning gold as a 19-year-old in Helsinki, Tianna Bartoletta is on top of the world again thanks to a huge jump on her final attempt to snatch the win from Great Britain’s Shara Proctor. Proctor got out to 7.07 on her third jump, a British record, and it looked like that would hold up for gold until the final round, when Bartoletta capitalized on a friendly 1.4 m/s tailwind to leap a world-leading 7.14, a personal best.

“I went for it on the first jump and fouled,” Bartoletta said to USATF. “Then after that, I kind of settled down a little bit and really began to settle into every jump. I just focused on what can I do better, what can I do better. It really didn’t matter that national records are being set, people were jumping seven meters, setting personal bests — I didn’t care. It didn’t make me nervous, it didn’t add pressure. Every jump was like, okay what can you do to make this next jump.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsKO2U33zGI

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK	Wind	DETAIL	Attempt 1	Attempt 2	Attempt 3	Attempt 4	Attempt 5	Attempt 6
1	860	Tianna Bartoletta	USA	7.14	+1.2	WL	X +1.4	6.95 +1.3	6.87 +0.1	6.62 +1.3	6.94 +0.6	7.14 +1.2
2	409	Shara Proctor	GBR	7.07	+0.4	NR	X +0.2	6.87 +0.9	7.07 +0.4	7.01 +0.6	X +1.0	X +0.7
3	762	Ivana Španovic	SRB	7.01	+0.8	NR	7.01 +0.8	X +0.8	X +0.6	6.86 +0.9	6.98 +1.0	7.01 +0.6
4	221	Christabel Nettey	CAN	6.95	+0.9		6.95 +0.9	6.85 +1.0	X -0.2	6.69 +0.8	6.84 +0.9	X +1.3
5	414	Lorraine Ugen	GBR	6.85	+0.7		X +0.4	6.85 +0.7	6.73 +1.0	X +0.7	X +0.9	X +1.2
6	436	Malaika Mihambo	GER	6.79	+0.3		X -0.4	6.79 +0.3	X +0.5	X	6.60 +0.4	–
7	797	Khaddi Sagnia	SWE	6.78	+1.3	PB	X +1.3	6.67 +1.1	6.56 +0.7	6.40 -0.7	6.78 +1.3	5.05 +0.8
8	875	Janay DeLoach Soukup	USA	6.67	+0.6		6.67 +0.6	X +0.5	6.64 +1.2	6.53 +0.5	X +0.7	X +0.9
9	161	Nastassia Mironchyk – Ivanova	BLR	6.66	+0.6		6.66 +0.6	X +0.5	6.53 +0.6
10	720	Darya Klishina	RUS	6.65	+1.2		6.60 +0.6	6.65 +1.2	6.50 +0.6
11	401	Katarina Johnson-Thompson	GBR	6.63	+0.6		6.63 +1.4	X +0.9	6.63 +0.6
12	791	Erica Jarder	SWE	6.48	+0.4		X +0.8	X	6.48 +0.4

Bartoletta reflected with LRC on her long journey back to the top of the world.

She said, “Yeah I wasn’t doing much of anything (in the down years). I was trying to but things were so bad and I was so down and depressed and just not around very good people. My performances were just a reflection of how I felt about myself. I started to find my way back especially after I met my husand and things strated to turn around and I got more positive and more stable and more confident. You saw I made the Olympic tgeam in the 100, that was just the beginning of the confidence growing and growing and growing and every year we are like ‘what can we do now’… you’ll continue to see my develop,” she said.

Bartoletta has come a long way off the track since re-emerging on it in 2012. That year she would not speak to the press, but she was a smiling confident woman on Friday.

The full Bartoletta story has not been told (there were serious allegations against her parents and a lawsuit in 2012), but she is back on top of the track and field world.

Men’s 110 M Hurdles: Sergey Shubenkov Wins as Aries Merritt Earns Bronze Four Days Before He Undergoes a Kidney Transplant

The gold medal in the 110m hurdles went to Sergey Shubenkov of Russia in a personal best of 12.98 as he became the 20th member of the sub-13.00 club and the silver to Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment in 13.03, but the real winner on Friday night was Aries Merritt, who earned the bronze in 13.04 just four days before he undergoes surgery to receive a new kidney from his sister LaToya.

Merritt’s story is so amazing that we gave it its own article, which you can read here.

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK		Reaction Time
1	883	Sergey Shubenkov	RUS	12.98	NR	0.139
2	639	Hansle Parchment	JAM	13.03	SB	0.143
3	1046	Aries Merritt	USA	13.04	SB	0.141
4	507	Pascal Martinot-Lagarde	FRA	13.17		0.150
5	489	Dimitri Bascou	FRA	13.17		0.137
6	637	Omar McLeod	JAM	13.18		0.135
7	1051	David Oliver	USA	13.33		0.157
8	492	Garfield Darien	FRA	13.34		0.178

Women’s 100 Hurdles: Danielle Williams Wins Gold in a Race Where the Form Charts Meant Nothing

In the hurdles, it’s often the case that one athlete gets hot and steamrolls the competition all year, as Brianna Rollins did to win Worlds in 2013. Nothing like that happened in 2015.

The three medalists in tonight’s final — champion Danielle Williams of Jamaica, runner-up Cindy Roleder of Germany and third-placer Alina Talay of Belarus — entered the championships with the #12, #39 and #11 times this year, respectively. But all three picked the right time to run well (all ran PBs in the final — for Williams and Roleder, it was their second PR of the night after the semis just over two hours earlier).

Roleder’s improvement in Beijing was absurd. Though she ran 12.80 last year, she hadn’t bettered 12.92 in 2015 until her 12.86 in Thursday’s prelim. Then she ran 12.79 in the semis and 12.59 in the final.

In contrast, the event was a massive disappointment for the Americans, who held the top five places on the world list entering the championships and came home without a single medal despite four entrants. World leader Sharika Nelvis struggled out of the blocks and wound up last in the final. U.S. champ Dawn Harper-Nelson went down on hurdle #2 in the semis and didn’t qualify. NCAA champ Kendra Harrison false-started in the semis. Even American-born Brit Tiffany Porter struggled, as she closed horribly off the final hurdle to slip from medal position to fifth place. Rollins was the lone American with a solid performance, but her 12.67 was only good enough for fourth, .01 out of a medal.

It’s quite shocking that in two of the U.S.’s strongest events — the 100 hurdles and the women’s 800 — Team USA will be heading home with zero medals, and in the case of the women’s 800, zero finalists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN32W0MnUGI

POS	BIB	ATHLETE	COUNTRY	MARK		Reaction Time
1	530	Danielle Williams	JAM	12.57	PB	0.142
2	443	Cindy Roleder	GER	12.59	PB	0.145
3	164	Alina Talay	BLR	12.66	NR	0.146
4	914	Brianna Rollins	USA	12.67		0.148
5	408	Tiffany Porter	GBR	12.68		0.140
6	777	Noemi Zbären	SUI	12.95		0.165
7	532	Shermaine Williams	JAM	12.95		0.177
8	905	Sharika Nelvis	USA	13.06		0.168