The Final Days

This post includes ALL the events not yet covered, contrary to earlier stated plans!
The shocks & the IAAF's "dirty business" were already dealt with!
Beginning with the Decathlon, to the last of the Relays, it's all here!

So have we found the next Ashton Eaton?
If we have, he doesn't come from the United States!
When Canadian Damian Warner ran the fastest 100, the "End of an Era" talk began!
His 975 points had him 7 ahead of the "next generation" Freimuth, as Rico was 2nd with 968!
Kevin Mayer, a Frenchman, was 4th, with US hope (against hope!) Trey Hardee tied for 5th with Serbia's Mihail Dudas at 917 points!
This was a good field, from many nations!

Freimuth, son of Uwe (his 1984 score of 8792 still 10th A-T World!), took over the lead after the LJ!
His 1898 points led Warner by 3.
But also at 1895 was Karl Saluri!
Mayer remained 4th with 1869, 18 ahead of Kai Kazmirek!
Hardee was now 6th with 1847!
Leonel Suarez was already a DNF!

Mayer moved ahead of Freimuth after the SP, 2703 to 2678, with Hardee now in 3rd, seeming, um, hardy!!
Warner and Kazmirek were now 6th and 8th!
But Kazmirek led the HJ with a 6-11, and pulled into 2nd, his 3472 points now 109 below Mayer's 3581.
Freimuth also had 3472, while Hardee had 31 less!
Grenadan Kurt Felix's 3436 were now 24 ahead of Warner, who stayed in 6th!

Kazmirek had the fastest 400 (47.19--Where was Eaton with his 45.00 PR??), so pulled to within 57 points of Mayer's 1st day leading total of 4478!
Freimuth, Warner, and Hardee held the next 3 spots, 60 to 108 points out of the Silver position!

A little anecdote about Maicel Uibo, who was way down the chart in 25th place!
He's married to sprint Queen Shaunae Miller!
So someone tweeted that it's too bad Shaunae couldn't replace Maicel in the Dec 400, as her PR is 0.70 faster than her husband's!!

Warner opened the 2nd day with a 13.63 in the 110H , pulling him into 3rd, just 7 points behind Freimuth's 5377, who was 2nd to Mayer's 5485!
Hardee, however, was now OUT of the game, as he crashed an early hurdle!!
(He announced his retirement later!!)
Freimuth's 167-10 DT led all others, and he was now just 24 points out of 1st, behind Mayer's 6296!
There was a little buzz about whether Mayer could reach 9000 points!!
Oleksiy Kasyanov had 6045 points, and had risen to the 3rd spot, 15 ahead of Kazmirek, and 40 more than Warner, who stood 5th!

Mayer "vaulted" into a lead of 116 points over Freimuth, 7237 to 7121, with Kazmirek's 7021 the only other score with 7000 or more points!
Kazyanov and Warner were in 4th and 5th, more than 100 points out of the medals!
Uibo, having a poor Dec, No Heighted, and was gone!
Estonia's Janek Oiglane, who had meandered in the top dozen or so throughout, led the JT with a heave of 235-4, which pulled him into 4th, but 110 points behind Kazmirek's 7796!
Mayer's dreams of a 9000 pointer had vanished, but he still had 8067, 173 more than Freimuth!

And Mayer did win, with 8768 points!
The young Freimuth took Silver with 8564, while Kazmirek held 3rd with 8488!
Oiglane's 8371 beat Warner's 8309 for 4th!

The sprint Relay heats saw the US team hang onto the baton, both Men and Women scoring wins, respective times of 37.70 and 41.84.
Great Britain thrilled the home crowd with 2nds of 37.76 and 41.93!
In the Women's heat, Switzerland's 3rd place time of 42.50 nipped their National Record by 0.01!!
They remain 16th A-T Nation!
Germany's 42.34 beat Jamaica's 42.50 (sans ET!!) in the 2nd Heat!
But with Usain Bolt running in the 2nd Heat for the Jam's, they won with 37.95, France 2nd in 38.03!
The Bahamas had a lousy day, DNF'ing the Women's race, and being DQ'ed from the Men's!!

The Finals of the 4X100's were interesting!
The US used a quartet of Aliyah Brown, Allyson Felix, Morolake Akinosun, and Tori Bowie!
And good hand-offs (as well as raw speed!) brought them to a decisive win in 41.82 over Great Britain's 42.12!
Jamaica--without ET!--was 3rd in 42.19!

Brazil and the Netherlands got Place records in 7th and 8th!

The British Men shocked the Americans---AND themselves and the sold-out crowd!!--when they beat the US, 37.47 to 37.52.
Minus the booing, some blamed Justin Gatlin, as maybe age slowed him a bit!
The Brits got their National Record, which moved them from 6th A-T Nation to 3rd!!
The US got the consolation prize, their time becoming the best 2nd Place mark!!
Japan took 3rd!

Oh yes, I almost forgot!!
Usain Bolt ran the anchor, but badly cramped about halfway down the straight, hopped a couple of steps, then did a really dandy somersault, finally walking off the track after a long and distinguished career!!
(No injury--just a cramp!)

The 4X400 Heats saw more thrills and spills!
The US Women, led by Shakima Wimbley's 3rd leg of 49.20 (!!), finished more than 3 seconds ahead of the Brits, 3:21.66 to 3:24.74!
The Bahamas DNF'ed here as well!!
Botswana's 3:26.90 finished 3rd, a National Record!!
But they missed my World DDD list by 0.01 seconds!!
Jamaica won Heat 2 in 3:23.64!

Spain's 3:01.72 won the Men's initial Heat, 0.06 in front of Poland!
Then the vaunted US squad blasted a 2:59.23 to take the next race, 0.12 ahead of Trinidad and Tobago!!
The US 4-some was Wil London, Bryshon Nellum, Michael Cherry, and Tony McQuay!
Belgium's 2:59.47 was 3rd!

The Women's HJ Final could be called "The L's Rule!", as the 3 medalist's last names all began with the 12th letter (of the English alphabet!!).
Vashti Cunningham was off her game, her 6-3.50 placing her 10th, with the heavily skin-decorated Inika McPherson also getting that height, in 9th!

Russian Mariya Lasitskene cleared 7 heights on 1st attempts, finally missing once at 6-6.25!
Young Yuliia Levchenko also cleared her first 6 heights on 1st try!
But 6-7 came on her 2nd!
That tied the Age 20 record!!
Kamila Licwinko's best of 6-6.25 gave her the Bronze!
Lasitskene (nee Kuchina) went on to top the bar at 6-8, but she missed her 3 tries at 6-9.75!!

Sally Pearson--who badly fractured her wrist two years ago--returned renewed and refreshed!!
Speeding over every hurdle cleanly, she powered to a 100H win of 12.59!!

She beat another veteran, Dawn Harper-Nelson, whose 12.63 might have surprised a few of her younger compatriots, who maybe thought DHN's best days were in the past!
Pam Dutkiewicz, who really emerged INdoors this year, took the Bronze in 12.72 over WR holder Kendra Harrison's 12.74!
Also timed at 12.74 was Christina Manning!
Alina Talay, Nadine Visser, and Nia Ali all timed in the early 12.80's, in 6th, 7th, and 8th places!
Not quite the USA sweep being talked about on the T&FN Message Board prior to the race!

The Men's JT, which had seen monster throws of well over 300 feet earlier this year by Thomas Rohler and Johannes Vetter, was a let down of sorts, as the winning marks were about 10 feet less!
And Rohler was NOT one of the medalists!!

Vetter won, his 294-11 just 7 inches farther than Jakub Vadlejch's 294-4!!
The latter became 17th A-T World!!
Petr Frydrych also finished ahead of Rohler, his 289-9 just 2 inches ahead of the German!
Tero Pitkamaki's 285-3 was 5th, in a pretty deep field!
In fact, Andreas Hofmann's 275-6 became the best 8th Place mark!!

I said at the onset that the shocks in this meet were over!
Not quite!
In the Men's 5000, the pace went out in the usual "This is a gift for Sir Mo!" style!
Pat Tiernan tried to liven things up a little, taking the lead over the middle 2K, but the time at 4K was still a piddly 11:09.67!!
The "gift" was being wrapped, and the ribbon prepared!

Then the MoBot struck, and struck hard!
His final K was a real blazer--2:22.03!!
Only problem was, Muktar Edris ran HIS last 1000 in 2:21.04!!
Enough to give HIM the gift, 13:32.79 over Mo's 13:33.22!!
The King is dead, long live the King!!

Paul Chelimo was too far back when he began his kick, his 2:21.84 last K, while also faster than Mo's, left him 0.03 seconds shy of the Silver!!
Yomif Kejelcha wasn't far behind, his 13:33.51 taking 4th!

Justyn Knight, recently of Syracuse U, took a decent 9th, while Tiernan's brave run had him fade to 11th!!

Let me finish my report on the last morning's Walks!
(You've already read my post on the Women's 50K, right?  Right???)

Those Oldies but Goodies---tra la la!!
Yes, two 39 year olds had VERY good strolls over the Men's 50 kilometer route!!
Yohan Deniz--returning to shape after a car accident earlier this year (!!), blasted the 2nd best time EVER, his winning 3:33:12 just 39 seconds behind his WR!!
And he did it all by himself!!
His 1st half was reached in 1:48:24!
Then he started Walking--adding a 1:44:48 for a strong negative split race!!
It's also the World Championships Meet Record!!

A pair of Japanese--Hirooki Arai and Kai Kobayashi, took the other medals, their times just 2 seconds apart, but Arai's 3:41:17 a full 8:05 behind Deniz!!
That other 39 year old youngster--the Legendary Irishman Robert Heffernan--took 8th with his 3:44:41.
Canadian Eric Dunfee was 15th!
National Records went to Hungary's Mate Helebrand's 3:43:56, and to New Zealand's Quentin Rew's 3:46:29!

The Women's 20K Walk was a battle royal among Maria Gonzalez, Antonella Palmisano, and Jiaja Yang!
Yang's 1:26:18 finally prevailed (by ONE second!!) over the Mexican, while the Italian took 3rd in 1:26:36!
With the medals going to a Chinese, a Mexican, and an Italian, I commented (on the T&FN Message Board) that those were my 3 favorite food groups!!
LOL

Yang's splits were 44:10 and 42:08!!
South American women nabbed the main National Records--
Erica De Sena's 1:26:59 getting Brazil's
Sandra Arenas's 1:28:10 nabbing Colombia's
Kimberly Garcia's 1:29:13 getting Peru's NR!

Maria Michta-Coffey Walked 1:32:14 in 25th, while Miranda Melville finished 33rd with her 1:34:47.

Eder Aravalo of Colombia won the Men's 20K, his 1:18:53 the new National Record!
Russian Sergei Shirobokov was next in 1:18:55.
Getting NR's in 3rd and 4th were Caia Bonfirm of Brazil, and Lebogang Shange of South Africa, with respective times of 1:19:04 and 1:19:18!
Australia's Dane Bird Smith, finished 6th in 1:19:28, a PR!
Great Britain's Tom Bosworth, who led part of the race, was red carded out!

Mutaz Barshim took swipes at a height of 2.40 (7-10.50) in the HJ, but missed!
His 7-8.50 was, however, more than enough to give him the Gold!
As in the Women's HJ, a 20 year old took Silver, he being Russia's Danyil Lysenko, his height being 7-7.25!
Syria got a rare medal, as Majd Ghazel's 7-6 took Bronze!
Bogdan Bondarenko--co-favorite for Gold--ended in 9th, just behind the US's Bryan McBride!

Still with me??
Maybe I SHOULD have done TWO posts, as I have several more events to go!!
Oh well, let's move on!!

Sandra Perkovic had to whip her Discus out 230-8 to avoid defeat by Aussie Dani Stevens!!
Stevens threw 228-6 for her National Record, smashing the old mark by Daniela Costian, dating from 1994!
Besides getting Australia's NR, she also gets the Age 29 record!!
Melina Robert-Michon took the Bronze with her 217-2, while formchart faves Yaime Perez and Denia Caballero finished 4th and 5th!

The Women's 5000 resembled one of Mo's Walkathons for a kilometer, the gang passing that point in 3:18.62.
Then Almaz Ayana took control, running a 2:48.79 2nd K, 2000 passed in 6:07.41.
She kept the pressure on, even though Helen Obiri was right there for company, their 3K hit in 8:58.05!
Ayana continued leading through another quick 1000 of 2:51.90!
The rest of the starters were far back, but still going at sub-15 pace or thereabouts!

With less than a lap to go, Obiri used her 1500 speed to sprint past Ayana, winning easily in 14:34.86, her last 4000 run at better than World Record pace!!
Ayana's time was 14:40.05, as her fade made Sifan Hassan's 14:42.73 in 3rd seem a lot closer than it was!
Laura Muir was 6th, time of 14:52.07, while Susan Krumins dipped under 15 for the 3rd time this summer!!
The Americans ended far back in 9th (Shannon Rowbury), 12th (Molly Huddle), and Shelby Houlihan 13th!!
Their times were respectable, but nowhere near their PR's!!

I HATE reporting the Women's 800 nowadays!!
How to tell the story of a WOMEN's race when 3 of the "main players" are questionable as the "fairer sex"!!
Okay, the unnamed finished 1st, 2nd, and 4th, if you believe they BELONG in the same race!!
Otherwise, Ajee Wilson won, her 1:56.65 her 2nd best time!!
Melissa Bishop--who said post-race she's tired of running 1:57's!!--ran, ahem, 1:57.68!
Angelika Cichocka was next with a PR time of 1:58.41.
Charlene Lipsey and Lynsey Sharp were also fast, respective times of 1:58.73 and 1:58.98!!

The Men's 1500 started slow, first lap in 61.
But then Elijah Manangoi and Tim Cheruiyot moved out to a 2nd lap of 56 and change!
Keeping up the pressure, they flew over the last 800 at around 1:50 speed (Don't have official splits, but they might have dipped into the 1:49's!!).
Manangoi's 3:33.61 prevailed over Cheruiyot's 3:33.99, with Filip Ingebrigtsen elbowing his way into 3rd past Spain's Adel Mechaal, who ended 4th in 3:34.71.
Nick Willis, Asbel Kiprop, and John Gregorek finished in 8th, 9th, and 10th!

As usual, the 4X400's ended the 10 days of competition!
The US Women demolished their competition---especially after beleaguered Jamaica's lead-off runner also cramped up, ending their race!!
Quanera Hayes opened with a 50.60, followed by Allyson Felix's 48.60!
Shakima Wimbley sped 49.50, while Phyllis Francis eased through in 50.32!
Their winning time was 3:19.02, almost 6 full seconds ahead of GB's 3:25.00!!
Poland was a happy 3rd in 3:25.41.

But the American Men weren't so dominant!
In fact, Trinidad & Tobago's National Record of 2:58.12 BEAT the American squad's 2:58.61!!
T & T remain 7th A-T Nation!
The British team took Bronze in 2:59.00, thrilling their multitude of fans!!
Spain also got a National Record--in 5th place--their 3:00.65 making them 21st A-T Nation!!

Thrown OFF the list was Finland's 3:01.12---which they ran back in--1972!!

And THAT is THAT!!
Savor the memories---by rereading all my posts!!--and expect a "Best & Worst" from these, um, weird WC's sometime in the next 2 or 3 days!!

See you soon!