IAAF World Championships London 2017 Daily Update Day 10

Day 10
13 August 2017

Session 14 ticketed at: 55,520

Today marks the first ever Festival of Race Walks in IAAF World Championships history, with four races: the men’s and women’s 50km and the men’s and women’s 20km all staged.

The women’s 50km race walk is taking place for the first time ever at a Championships bringing parity with men’s events.

The races are binge staged on The Mall with Buckingham Palace used as an iconic backdrop. Like the marathon, the medal ceremonies for the walks will all take place outside of the main stadium for the first time ever.

H: 22
L: 13

The Championships will be seen off with periods of bright sunshine partnered by a light, refreshing breeze.

The men’s 4x100m relay final was full of drama as the penultimate night of the Championships came to a close. Britain took gold in a world leading time with USA second and Japan third as Usain Bolt pulled up injured on the home straight for Jamaica.

The men’s 5000m final was also a spectacle with Ethiopian Muktar Edris taking the gold ahead of the home hope Mo Farah, who in turn managed to hold American Paul Chelimo off to take silver.

In the women’s 100m hurdles final London 2012 Olympic champion Sally Pearson couldn’t believe she had taken victory ahead of Dawn Harper Nelson in second and Pamela Dutkiewicz of Germany in third.

Johannes Vetter was emotional as he sealed gold for Germany in the men’s javelin final. One of three Germans in the medal showdown, but Czech Republic took silver and bronze through Jakub Vadlejch and Petr Frydrych respectively.

Going into the evening session, Kevin Mayer had lead the decathlon and did enough to win gold. Two Germans followed in Rico Freimuth with silver and Kai Kazmirek.

The women’s high jump was the first final off and Maria Lasitskene took the gold with a jump of 2:03, Yuliia Levchenko the silver and Kamila Licwinko the bronze.

USA and Britain were on both relay medal podiums. USA took gold ahead of Britain in the women’s 4x100m relay final with Jamaica claiming bronze. The men’s and women’s 4x400m heats went off in the morning session with USA fastest through to the final in both.

The closing night of the Championships is predictably the most lucrative with the last 11 finals scheduled throughout the day. It is an early start with the Festival of Race Walks having already begun on the Mall.

The men’s and women’s 50km events, the latter a new addition to the Championship schedule, kicked off at 07:45 with French world record-holder Yohann Diniz and Portuguese world record-holder Inês Henriques among the favourites respectively.

In the men’s 20km at 14:20, Tom Bosworth will be the centre of home attention but China’s Wang Kaihua goes in as world leader. In the women’s 20km beforehand at 12:20, Chinese trio Lu Xiuzhi, Wang Na and Yang Jiayu will be ones to watch.

The evening session at the London Stadium kicks off with the men’s high jump final at 19:10 in which Mutaz Essa Barshim was the best in qualifying. The women’s discus wraps up the field events at the Championships from 19:10 with Sandra Perkovic expected to contend after leading convincing in qualifying.

The women’s 5,000m begins the last of the track action at 19:35 with Hellen Obiri out to win her first world title outdoors. The women’s 800m follows at 20:10 where Ajee Wilson, Caster Semenya and Margaret Wambui lead the battle for medals.

The men’s 1500m is the last individual final off at 20:30, Jakub Holusa the quickest qualifier before the 4x400m relays close proceedings. The women are up first at 20:55 and the men at 21:15 with the USA the nation to beat in both.

“I was in the call room and I literally started bawling my eyes out, I had so many memories coming back [she was a kit carrier at the London 2012 Olympics] and I knew my dreams were about to come true. The whole way round the crowd were keeping that adrenaline in me and I just wanted to set these girls up well.”

– Laviai Nielsen (GBR), Women’s 4x400m Relay Heats