STATS (By Ken Nakamura)
200m: Dafne Schippers astounded with a European record and championships record of 21.63 to win, putting her third on the world all-time list. It is the fastest time ever run in August and a Chinese all-comers record. Her gold is the first medal the Netherlands have won in the women’s event. Elaine Thompson ran 21.66 for silver, the fastest second place finisher of all-time in all competitions. Also setting a new world best-mark-for-place was Dina Asher Smith in 5th with a British record of 22.07 (and fastest ever by 19 years old). Incredibly, the best marks for place in world championships history were set for places 1st to 8th. Bronze medalist Veronica Campbell Brown won her fourth world medal in this event, tying Allyson Felix’s medal haul, but still trailing Merlene Ottey’s 6.
Dec: Ashton Eaton sped to a 45.00 clocking in the decathlon 400m, demolishing the decathlon world best of 45.68, which was held by Bill Toomey since the 1968 Olympics.
LJ: Tianna Bartoletta of the USA won her second long jump gold, 10 years after her first as Madison. This matched the record long span between wins of Heike Drechsler who won in 1983 and 1993. Shara Proctor nearly had gold, but her silver was still the first ever medal for Great Britain in the women’s event.
100mH: Danielle Williams won the gold but had just 0.02 to spare ahead of the silver medalist, the smallest winning margin in championships history. Cindy Roleder of Germany and Alina Talay of Belarus both surprised by winning medals in the 100mH final. They became the first athletes from their respective countries to win world medals in this event, although the GDR have won medals in the past.
110mH: Sergey Shubenkov of Germany became the second European champion to win the world 110mH title, Colin Jackson of Great Britain being the first. Only three men have run faster than his 12.98 at the world championships. In silver, Hansle Parchment won Jamaica’s first world medal in this event. Fourth European for sub 13 (before Jackson, Martinot-Lagarde, Doucoure).
1500m: 2013 world medalist Johan Cronje of South Africa did not make it through to the final, his 3:36.59 is the fastest ever to not make the final at a world championships. Kenya’s Manangoi ran 3:35.00 to win his semi-final, the second fastest semi time in the history of the World Championships.
HJ: Majd Eddin Ghazal of Syria, JaCorian Duffield of the USA and Andriy Protsenko cleared 229 but still didn’t qualify for the final. That height would have made the final at every previous world championships. The previous highest non-qualifying height was 228.
