Tokyo, Japan – Jamaica’s Navasky Anderson continued his history-making journey at the Tokyo World Athletics Championship with another outstanding performance. Anderson, who ran a personal best (1:43.72) in the semifinal to become the first Jamaican to make a World Championship final, shaved almost a second off that mark when he ran 1:42.76 to set a new national record.
Despite finishing out of the medals, his seventh place was a credible performance, given that no one, except Anderson and his coaches, foresaw him making the final.
Anderson came into the homestraight in fourth position after employing an excellent strategy to stay with the leading pack, which included the Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Canada’s Marco Arop, the defending champion and his former training partner.
It became a sprint to the finish thereafter, and Anderson, despite his best efforts, did not have the leg speed to keep pace. Wanyonyi added the world title to his Olympic crown after flying to a new championship record of 1:41.86. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati switched to beast mode to move from sixth to clinch silver in a season’s best 1:41.90 ahead of Arop, who ran a season’s best 1:41.95 for bronze.
“Definitely for me, I think it was a superb performance,” said Anderson. “I’m grateful for my performance, 1:42.76. I knew I had it in me; I knew I could run with these guys. I did not want to sell myself short; I knew that I was already one of the best in the world coming out here. I was ranked number 8 already; it didn’t make sense for me to settle for that,” he reasoned.
He added, “I wanted to give myself the opportunity to go out there and fight for a medal. I didn’t know if I was going to pull it off; it was a risky situation, but I came off with 1:42.76, and I can say I gave it my all. I left it on the track, and I’m grateful for that performance.’