Not What Was Expected

After just 4 of 10 days, have you gotten the sense this World Championship is giving us NOT what was expected---almost across the board??
Jenn Suhr No Heights!
Usain Bolt finishes third!
Mo Farah is forced to actually run FAST to win!

But wait, you ain't seen nothing yet!!
The shocks continue!

But not in the Heptathlon!
There, Nafissatou Thiam continues her dominance and rise in this risky event!
(Risky because there's 7 chances to fail, not just one!)

Nadine Visser was the only woman to run the 100H under 13 seconds, her 12.85 giving her a lead of 26 points over Kendell Williams, coming off a long and super successful 4 years of Collegiate experience.
Carolin Schafer was 3rd with her 13.09, with Anouk Vetter down 69 points, Katerina Johnson-Thompson at 1075.
Thiam was off by 103 points!

But she's an excellent High Jumper, so her 6-4.75 put her in front with 2215 points, 8 over Yorgelis Rodriguez, 50 over Schafer, 127 ahead of Visser, 162 over KJT, while Vetter and Williams were now about 200 down!
Laura Ikauniece-Admidina was already a DNF!
A real all-arounder, Thiam threw the Shot 49-9.25, again winning an event, and expanding her lead to 72 over Schafer, 123 over Rodriguez, 201 ahead of Vetter, while Visser was now off by 274 points!!
KJT was even worse--now down 342 points!!
But the Brit ran the only sub-23 second 200, her 22.86 moving her into 4th, down 198 now!
Schafer led the 1st day with 4036, with Thiam having 4014.
Rodriguez was 3rd, with Vetter 5th!
Williams was feeling her long season, and was out of it, 350 points off the lead!

KJT got a good LJ--21-6.25, but Thiam beat her by a half-inch, putting her 199 ahead of the Brit, with Schafer just 3 points ahead in 2nd!
Vetter remained in 5th, with Rodriguez 45 points ahead of her!
Thiam was on target for Gold, but NOT for 7000 points!

Vetter got off a serious JT, her 191-7 a full 14 feet 8 inches farther than Thiam's 176-11.
This was enough to move Vetter to 3rd, just 3 points below Schafer--but they were about 175 points down!
KJT was now 5th, 415 points below Thiam, with Rodriguez in 4th!
One of the "no-names"--Xenia Krizsan--had the fastest 800--2:07.17--but even though KJT also ran a solid time (2:08.27), and finished 13 seconds ahead of Thiam, it was Nafi's 2:21.42 that gave her her winning total of 6784!
Schafer was 2nd with 6696, with Vetter another 60 down, although the latter broke her own National Record of the Netherlands!!
Rodriguez's 6594 in 4th also broke her own National Record of Cuba!
KJT was 5th with 6558, but Ivana Dadic's 6417 in 6th broke her own National Record of Austria!!
Visser was 7th, while Williams ended in 12th, the top American!

The Marathons weren't fast, but were fun to watch, especially the Women's race!
Geoff Kirui sped up after a 66 minute 1st half, his 62:27 finish giving him 2:08:27, and a gap of 1:22 over Silver winner, Tamirat Tola!
Alphonce Simbu won Bronze with his 2:09:51, just 2 seconds back of Tola!
Callum Hawkins made the many British fans happy, taking 4th in 2:10:17 in his initial 26.2 race!
He led part of the way!

Another Brit, Aly Dixon, led the Women for over half the race, taking the lead early, and building as much as a 32 second gap over a pack of about 15, which included all of the "players"---Edna Kiplagat, Shure Demise, Mare Dibaba--and Rose Chelimo and Amy Cragg!
Serena Burla also stuck with the pack for awhile before falling back!

The half was reached in about 1:14:10, so a move by one of the Africans was expected at any moment--a possible 4:50 mile!!
We watched and waited--and waited and watched--but the surge never happened!!
The group lost a few,  but at 30K, there were still close to a dozen left in contention!
Various of the group led---if moving a foot or 2 in front can be called leading!--and even Cragg took her turn in front!
But when would "the break" come?

Kiplagat finally took the reins, but Chelimo then went ahead, with Cragg lagging about 20 meters back!
Then SHE surged, but not enough to take the lead.
Kiplagat tried again, but the race was past the 40K mark now, and the serious business of WINNING took control!
Chelimo was off by 5 meters, and seemed out of it, with Cragg now back 30 meters, battling Florence Daniel!!
Then the little Kenyan sprinted--or Kiplagat faded (Take your pick!)--and went into last 400 sprint mode--and the race for Gold was over!
Chelimo's time was 2:27:11.

But also sprinting that last 400 was Cragg!!
She passed Daniel, and almost nipped Kiplagat at the line, with both getting the same 2:27:18!!
The winner of the 2016 Olympic Trials Marathon had taken the first medal by an American since the 1983 WC's!!

After we witnessed that "SMH" moment when Usain Bolt lost, we looked to Elaine Thompson to right the Jamaican ship in her Century race!
(See my earlier post for the Women's 100 Heats results!)

The Semi's saw several fast times, with the expected winners!
Marie Josee Ta Lou took Semi One with her 10.87 PR, with Dafne Schippers running 10.98 in 2nd!
ET won the 2nd, her 10.84 looking relatively easy!
Rosangela Santos surprised in 2nd, her 10.91 being the new National Record of Brazil!!
Tori Bowie took Semi 3 with 10.91, Murielle Ahoure 2nd in 10.99.

Gina Luckenkemper, Blessing Okagbare, Ewe Swoboda, and Ducks Ariana Washington and Deajah Stevens all didn't advance!

A few hours later, Ta Lou blasted from the blocks, taking an immediate lead, with Bowie also starting good.
Thompson lagged, but with her powerful finish, she could afford it!
Schippers, in Lane 9, also was behind, but she too has a strong end-game!

While the large Jamaican contingent in the stands were cheering ET home, it was Bowie who was closing the gap on Ta Lou, who still had a good lead with 30 to go!
Thompson was almost forgotten--nowhere near her 10.70 form--and Ta Lou was looking straight ahead, while Bowie sprinted hard!
At the line, Bowie dipped like a Pro, while Ta Lou stayed erect, no lean!
THAT was the difference, with Bowie getting 10.85, and Ta Lou 10.86--although there probably was just thousandths of a second difference!!
Jamaica's 2 Giants had lost, with ET not even getting a medal of any kind!!
Schippers took 3rd in 10.96, with Ahoure and Thompson both getting 10.98's in 4th and 5th!!

The Women's PV had already experienced the shock of that NH by Jenn Suhr!
The Final SORT OF played out like the Rio PV!
Ekaterina Stefanidi won, with Sandi Morris taking Silver, and a youngster winning the Bronze!
Only this time, it wasn't the New Zealander, Eliza McCartney, who was out of it at an early height!

Morris opened at 14-7.25, and made that height, plus 14-11 and 15-3 on 1st attempts!
That's when Stefanidi entered, also clearing 15-3 on her 1st!
Both cleared 15-7 on initial effort also!
Nineteen year old Robelys Peinado cleared 15-3 and got the Bronze!
This tied her own National Record of Venezuela!!
Also clearing 15-3 were Yarisley Silva, Lisa Ryzih, Holly Bradshaw, and Alysha Newman, but they all had more misses than Peinado!

Morris missed her 1st try at 15-9.75, while Kat made it over!
This caused Morris to pass to 16-0.50, the next height.
She missed her two remaining attempts, while Stefanidi made it on her 2nd!
She thus became the 6th Woman to PV 16 feet or more OUTdoors!!
She then raised the bar to 16-5.50, but missed her 3 tries!
She broke her own National Record of Greece, and moved from 7th A-T World, tied with 1 other, to 4th!!

The Men had their Q round for the PV!
All the names made it, but 2 Americans--Chris Nilsen and Andrew Irwin--didn't, although Nilsen ended in 13th!!
Mondo Duplantis will be facing the best in the World at Age 17!!

The 110H saw few surprises on the road to the Final!
With just Ronald Levy failing to move on, the Heats were won by Omar McLeod (13.23), Devon Allen (13.26), Aries Merritt (13.16), Andrew Pozzi (13.28), and Orlando Ortega (13.37).
McLeod had the fastest Semi, his 13.10 beating the 13.17 of Darien Garfield, and the 13.22 of Russian Sergey Shubenkov!
Harris, Allen, and Pozzi didn't make it through!

The Gold went to McLeod, his 13.04 a full tenth faster than Shubenkov, while Hungary's Balazs Baji was 3rd in 13.28!

More Heats and/or Semi's took place over the past two days!
In the Men's 3000SC Heats, Evan Jager had the fastest time, his 8:20.36 taking Heat 2.
Soufiane ElBakkali (8:22.60), and a seemingly healthy Consesius Kipruto (8:23.80) took the others!
Not moving on were Brimin Kipruto, Hillary Bor, and 16 year old Jakub Ingebrigtsen, who ran his 2nd-ever Steeple in 8:34.88, about 8 seconds off his PR!!

The Men's Heats in the 400H saw 2017's fastest--Kyron McMaster--DQ'ed for a lane violation!!
Michael Stigler was also DQ'ed, but don't know why!
Javier Culson just didn't run fast enough!!
Fastest time was Yasmine Copello's 49.13!

The Semi's were faster, with the first won by Kerron Clement in 48.35.
Karsten Warholm was 2nd in 48.43!
TJ Holmes took the 2nd race in 49.12, while Abderahman Sambu ran 48.75 to take the 3rd!
Eric Futch was 3rd in the last Semi, but his 49.30 wasn't fast enough to Qualify on time!!
Jamaica's Jaheel Hyde also was a non-Q!

The Women's 400 Heats and Semi's saw most of the Same Old, Same Old move on, but also saw an exciting NEW name emerge---and I mean EMERGE!!!
Allyson Felix cruised Heat One in 52.44, the slowest winner!
Shaunae Miller-Uibo ran the fastest, her 50.47 taking the next race!
Zambia's Kabenge Mupopo (?!!) took the 3rd in 51.09, with Quanera Hayes (51.43), and Chrisann Gordon (51.14) taking Numbers 5 & 6.
The Fourth Heat was won by Bahrainian (with apparently some Nigerian blood) Sabwa Naser, her time of 50.57 a PR--AND a National Record!!
Phyllis Francis and Novlene Williams-Mills ran respective times of 50.94 and 51.00 behind Naser!
(In Heat 6, Kendell Ellis was a non-Qualifier!)

The 1st Semi was won by SMU (NOT the University, just Shaunae Miller-Uibo's name shortened!!) in 50.36.
Quanera Hayes took 3rd, but her 50.71 was too slow to Q for the Final!
Francis and Mupopo went 1-2 in Semi 3, times of 50.37 and 50.60.
Gordon and Veteran Amantle Montsho failed to move on, Montsho a mere shadow of her former 49.33 self!!

The 2nd Semi winner was the young Naser, born May 23, 1998!
Her 50.08 finished 0.04 ahead of the comfortable-looking Felix, while NWM finished in 50.67, also moving on!
Naser broke her own National Record of Bahrain!!
As a 16 year old, she ran 52.74.
In 2015, her PR's were 11.70, 23.03, and 51.39.
She improved in the 400 to 50.88 last year at Age 18!
And now this!!
Could make for a VERY interesting Final!!

This is already VERY LONG, but I want to finish these past 2 days, so please stay with me!
Lots of GREAT stuff to come!!
I'll finish the rest in chronological order!

The Q round for the Women's JT saw Americans Kara Winger and Ariana Ince fail to advance!
Huihui Lyu of China led the Q's with her 221-9, breaking the National Record!!
It makes her 11th A-T World!!
Martina Ratej was 2nd with 215-4.
All the Usual Suspects advanced!

The Men's 400 Semi's saw Steven Gardiner shoot forward to a PR of 43.89, breaking his own National Record of the Bahamas by a whopping 0.37 seconds!!
It makes him 13th A-T World!!
He won't be 22 until September 12th!!
Nathon Allen finished 2nd in a fast 44.19, also a big PR!
Fred Kerley looked like he'd had a long Collegiate year, taking 3rd in 44.51.

The 2nd Semi saw a Jenn Suhr-type shock!!
LaShawn Merritt did NOT Q for the Final!!
In fact, his 45.52 finished just 7th (!!) behind Wayde Van Niekerk's 44.22, and Baboloki Thebe's 44.33!!
He was never in the race!!

Isaac Makwala took Semi 3 in 44.30, with 2nd going to 24 year old Jamaican Damish Gaye's 44.55!!
I should mention here that Makwala--and an unknown number of other athletes!--suffered food poisoning at their hotel, and had to withdraw from the rest of the meet!!
Or at least that's what I'm assuming, having suffered food poisoning myself a couple of years ago!!
Will let you know of any further news on this!!

The Men's SP--thought to be one of THE best events of the meet--turned into a virtual yawner!!
Especially when it began to look as if favored Ryan Crouser was having one of those days!!
He never unwound, and ended 6th, not even reaching 70 feet!!
Joe Kovacs was a bit better, but even he was having problems, his best of 71-0.75 coming in Round 3.
NOT having problems was Kiwi Tom Walsh, with all 6 of his throws measuring at least 70-1.75, with his winner being 72-3.50--though a few inches shy of his Qualifying mark!!
(See the previous post!!)
BTW, Stipe Zunic took the Bronze with his 70-5 toss!
Konrad Bukowiecki was only 8th, while David Storl finished in 10th!!

The Men's 800 Semi's were slow, but still cutthroat!!
Adam Kszczot took the first in 1:46.24, Brandon McBride the 2nd in 1:45.53, and Kipyegon Bett the last one in 1:45.02!
Looking good in 2nd places were Nijel Amos, Great Britain's 21 year old Kyle Langford, and Mohammed Aman!!
Out of the final were Donavan Brazier and Drew Windle of the US, and the nominal favorite, Emmanuel Korir, who faded on the last straight--maybe yet another victim of a long Collegiate year!!
Oh, yes, forgot to mention he's going Pro, but said he'll continue to train at UTEP!!
(Wonder if his selling price went DOWN here!!)

The Men's 200 Heats lacked the Pizzazz of the 100, lacking the HUGE presence(s) of Mr's Bolt, Gatlin, Andre DeGrasse, and Christian Coleman!!
That left the Heats to be won by Yohan Blake (20.39), Jereem Richards (20.05), WVN (20.16)--with Britain's Daniel Talbot getting the same time, the two of them doing the smiling "stare-down" first employed by DeGrasse and Bolt in Rio--Ramil Guliyev (also 20.16), Sydney Siame (whose 20.29 is the National Record of Zambia!!), Isaiah Young (20.19), and Nathaneel Mitchell-Blake (20.08)!

Alonzo Edward and Warren Weir didn't advance--with Weir soon after announcing he's retiring!!

The Men's TJ Q round saw the 4th American--Donald Scott--and the injured Max Hess failing to move on!
Chris Benard led the Q's with his 56-5.50!

The Women's TJ Final saw the lead bounce (Pun not intended, but it works!!  LOL) back and forth between Caterine Ibarguen and Yulimar Rojos--making for a thrilling competition!
Ibarguen led Round 1, 48-1.75 to Rojas's 47-9.
Olga Rypakova would eventually take the Bronze with her 48-5.50, but she measured 47-5 in the initial round!
Rojas moved ahead in the 2nd Round, hitting 48-7.50, while Ibarguen improved to 48-2.50!
More changes in the 3rd, with Ibarguen now leading, 48-10 to Rojas's 48-8!!
The 4th Round stayed the same, but the 5th moved Rojas to the lead with her eventual winning mark of 48-11.
Ibarguen could reach just 48-3.25!
Round six was Caterine's final stance--and she made it a good one!
But her 48-10 only matched her best, missing the Gold by an inch!!
WHEW!!

Another sweaty event was the Women's Hammer Throw!!
Might we see THE upset of the meet---Okay, so Bolt's and ET's losses probably claim that title!!--with WR holder Anita Wlodarczyk maybe NOT even making the final eight??!!
After 2 Rounds, she was just 7th, with a few Women good enough to maybe pass her, and keep her from her final 3 throws!!
She moved up to 6th in Round 3, however, saving her from DOOM!!
Finally, in Round 4, her moving parts got some grease, and she was able to hit 253-11, which gave her a small (but not dominant!!) lead of 4 feet and 8 inches over Zheng Wang's 249-3..
Melania Kopron was 3rd with 245-3, while Wenxiu Zhang was 4th with 244-6!!
AW added 20 inches to her leader, ending with a FAR below average mark of 255-7!!
DeAnna Price ended in 9th!

The Women's 400H Heats ALMOST saw another BIG fail for Shamier Little!!
In the 3rd Heat, she was leading off the last turn, but then literally smashed a hurdle--the hurdle actually breaking!!--recovered, only to hit another one--but recovered again, taking 3rd in 56.18, but making it through on time!!
The Heats were won by Delilah Muhammed, Zuzana Hejnova, Ristananna Tracey, Kori Carter, and Lea Sprunger!

FINALLY (!!!), there was the Women's 1500 Final!!
With one of the strongest fields of 12 ever, this had the makings of a race that might make you forget some of the shocks that have dotted this meet so far!!
And yes, there were some---but NOT with the times run!!
Not in the same league as Matthew Centrowitz's Rio crawler, it still didn't come close to the wished for/hoped for/dreamed of/expected (??) Record-setting times talked about pre-race!
Even British pundits were saying Laura Muir would make sure it was fast--it being the only way to maybe blunt the fierce kicks of the Africans--which included one of the "unnamed"!!

And Muir DID move things along, but her 65.31 opener was maybe 2 or 3 seconds slower than needed!
And when she then went into MoBot the Slough (or Slouch!!) mode with a 71.77 second lap, we had the entire pack right there, with Jenny Simpson on the rail in 4th, while Genzebe Dibaba was playing Caboose---but maybe NOT playing!!
Sifan Hassan finally revved things up, running the 3rd 400 in under 62 seconds, the 1200 mark reached in 3:18.93.
Everyone was already making moves to position themselves for the final sprint!
The "unnamed"'eds Manly-appearing body lumbered forward also, which made the others turn the screws a little tighter as they rounded the last curve!
On the straight, Hassan and Faith Kipyegon were shoulder to shoulder, until Hassan started falling back!
Muir was in a full-out sprint--the mostly British crowd on their feet and screaming for their Home Fave--and was almost in lane 2.
Hassan also had moved right, leaving the curb rail space with a gap!
Just as Emily Infeld had taken the same route to the Bronze medal in the Beijing WC 10000, so did the BEAST named Jennifer Simpson!
Except after passing Hassan, she also overtook Muir and the "unnamed", ending her race as the Silver medal winner!!
While this blog does NOT recognize the times or places of the "3 unnamed", the "official" folks do!!
Thus, Muir was SKUNKED out of a medal by someone who does NOT belong in an all-WOMAN's race!!!
Kipyegon's winning time was 4:02.59, while Simpson ran her final 400 in a reported 58.2, her time being 4:02.76!
As for Dibaba---she ran 4:06.72--and finished LAST!!!

Thanks for staying with me, and see you in a couple of days!!