Untouchable Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas on Monday led a raft of familiar faces to glory when she claimed her third straight triple jump title at the World Athletics Championships.
Day four of action at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, saw experience count as multiple gold medalists from the Tokyo Olympics followed up on their efforts in the Japanese capital with more podium-topping.
“This is my third consecutive world [outdoor] title, it still hasn’t sunk in yet,” said Rojas, who had been hoping to better her world record, but was frustrated by wind affecting her run-up.
Photo: Reuters
“I wanted a longer jump, but I am happy to return to this beautiful stadium, to see the crowd,” she said.
Rojas was among three female two-time Olympic champions to strike gold in Eugene.
Belgium’s Nafi Thiam earlier claimed a last-gasp victory in the heptathlon over Dutch rival Anouk Vetter, while imperious Faith Kipyegon of Kenya won her second 1,500m title.
Photo: AFP
Not to be left out, there were two male champions from the Tokyo Games who triumphed.
Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar won a thriller of a high jump competition for his third world title.
“Winning for the third time has never been done before. For me that’s a great stat,” he said.
“I always say to myself, ‘How do you want to be remembered?’ I want to do great things, I want to be the high jumper that does stuff that sticks in history,” he said. “I’ve done that today so I’m really happy about it.”
There was more gold for the Arab world in the shape of Morocco’s Soufiane El-Bakkali, the Olympic champion producing a tactical masterclass as he brought an end to Kenya’s 15-year dominance of the 3,000m steeplechase.
However, the evening session began with all eyes on the track as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, fresh from winning a record fifth world 100m title on Sunday, went in round one of the 200m.
She had to fix her wig halfway through the heat as she suffered a surprise defeat to Niger’s Aminatou Seyni.
The incident occurred as the Jamaican flew around the bend and felt her electric turquoise wig slipping, forcing her to reach her right arm upward and take a second or so to adjust it.
However she still finished in 22.26 seconds, easily qualifying for yesterday’s semi-final.
Afterward, she said that it was one of 10 wigs she has packed in a bag to Eugene.
“I had my hair done, colored from home, and I packed them,” she said. “I had different hair stylists here install them for me. This one I actually did myself.”
Joining the 35-year-old, a world 200m champion in 2013, in the semi-finals will be her two teammates who helped snatch an unprecedented cleansweep of the 100m podium for Jamaica on Sunday.
Shericka Jackson, who has the quickest time this season of 21.55 seconds, and four-time Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, a world silver medalist over 200m in 2015, are still both seeking their first individual world titles.
Meanwhile, newly crowned world 100m champion Fred Kerley led a fresh strikeforce of US sprinters into the semi-finals of the men’s 200m.
Kerley won his heat in 20.17 seconds to raise the prospect of another US cleansweep, after the sprint all-rounder led Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell home in the blue riband event.
In the absence of that duo, it was the turn of the Americans who finished second, third and fourth in the 200m at last year’s Tokyo Olympics — Kenneth Bednarek, world champion Noah Lyles and 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton — to take to the track.
Meanwhile, four more members of Japan’s team have tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of infections to 15, the Japan Association of Athletics Federations said yesterday.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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