6 August 2017
Session 4 ticketed at: 43,860
Session 5 ticketed at: 48,400
For the first time in IAAF World Championship history, both the men’s and women’s marathons will take place on the same day today. Starting and finishing alongside Tower Bridge, the course also boasts to be the only IAAF World Championship event to see athletes cross the line beside a World Heritage Site.
Spectators will be treated to the first ever purpose-built Marathon Spectator Area, built within the famous moat of the Tower of London. 1,700 fans will have the unique opportunity to witness the first time medals have been awarded outside the main athletics stadium for a World Championship event, with free access to the non-ticketed ceremonies.
The marathon course is a loop course, which will consist of four 10km loops on closed roads, giving spectators a free and intimate view of the world’s best athletes on multiple occasions across the entire route.
Starting at Tower Bridge, the course heads west along Victoria Embankment towards another iconic London landmark, the Houses of Parliament, then back alongside the edge of the River Thames to take in the sights of the City including St Paul’s Cathedral, The Guildhall and the Bank of England. All points offer great viewing for spectators.
H: 23°C
L: 14°C
It will be a cool but bright start to the day. It will then stay dry with sunny spells, and will feel pleasantly warm in the sunshine with light winds.
The evening built towards the men’s 100m final, which saw Justin Gatlin dip just two hundredths of a second ahead of USA teammate Christian Coleman for gold. In the final 100m of his career, Usain Bolt was just one hundredth behind, finishing third.
Almaz Ayana ran a world leading 30:16:32 minutes to take the women’s 10,000m title, the first women’s medal of the Championships. Ethiopian teammate Tirunesh Dibaba took silver and Agnes Jebet Tirop bronze.
A big personal best in the second round saw Lithuania’s Andrius Gudzius win the men’s discus. Daniel Stahl took silver, just 2cm behind, and Mason Finley of the USA took bronze.
South Africa were another nation celebrating double success as Luvo Manyonga won men’s long jump gold and teammate Ruswahl Samaai bronze with America Jarrion Lawson taking silver in between.
Britain’s Laura Muir cruised into the women’s 1500m final alongside all three medallists from the 2015 World Championships Genzebe Dibaba, Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan.
The men’s 400m saw Wayde van Niekerk smoothly through to the semi-finals alongside a quick Isaac Makwala of Botswana. Germany’s Carolin Schafer leads the heptathlon by 22 points over Olympic champion Nafi Thiam after four events.
There was further joy for Germany in the women’s 100m heats as 20-year-old Gina Luckenkemper clocked a 10.95 seconds personal best, the only athlete to dip under eleven seconds.
Thijmen Kupers was quickest to qualify for the men’s 800m semi-finals. In the throws, Malwina Kopron needed one effort to make the women’s hammer final in first as did Brit Sophie Hitchon for third. In the men’s shot put qualification New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh was comfortable best. In the women’s triple jump Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova was first in qualifying.
A host of track events see early rounds run this morning. The men’s 3000m steeplechase (10:05), an event in which the current world lead is American Evan Jager, the men’s 400m hurdles (11:05) featuring Kerron Clement and Kyron McMaster and the women’s 400m heats (11:55) starring Allyson Felix all go at the starter’s pistol before lunchtime.
This morning sees qualifiers for the men’s pole vault (10:40) featuring world record holder Renaud Lavillenie while the women’s final featuring a dominant Katerina Stefanidi takes place in the evening at (19:00).
Two sessions of the women’s javelin qualifiers are set to take place ahead of a Tuesday evening final at 19:05 and 20:30 with world record holder Barbora Spotakova hoping to add to her medal collection.
The women’s heptathlon concludes with Carolin Schafer entering the remaining field events this morning (long jump 10:00 and javelin 11:45 and 13:00) in first place followed closely by Olympic champion Nafi Thiam. The event will conclude with the iconic 800m at 20:40.
After the men’s 100m on day two, day three is the turn of the women’s 100m semi-finals (19:10) and final (21:50) with Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper the quickest from the heats.
The men’s shot put is one of four medal events on day three and begins at 20:35, led by Kiwi Tomas Walsh. Other track action includes the men’s 110m hurdles heats at 13:15 and semi-finals at 20:10. The men’s 800m semi-finals start at 21:15 and the men’s 400m semi-finals begin at 19:40.
Outside the track the men’s and the women’s marathons historically take place on the same day, the men’s kicking off at 10:55 and the women’s at 14:00. Both marathons start and finish at Tower Bridge and feature six Brits in total.
“I never did athletics until I was around 27, 28 years-old. I came and watched Usain Bolt here in 2012 and that just made me want to go in to athletics.
“I was playing football before that – trials at professional clubs. The first day I stepped on the track the coach told me ‘you’re not an athlete and you’ll never be an athlete’ and look at me now.”
– Dwayne Cowan (GBR), Men’s 400m heats
Javaher Sondh
Photo Assistant
Age 34
From Southall, London
Fun Fact:
Jahaver used to love watching Paula Radcliffe compete and thinks that today’s marathon is a great way to see London at its best.
