World Champs Day 4 wrap and Day 5 Preview

Most pundits had predicted that the race would be taken out fast with the objective of running the legs out of the South African, but the exact opposite happened with the versatile Scot Laura Muir holding the field for the first kilometer, clocking 65.34 at 400, and 2:17.11 for 800m.

 Semenya, who ran most of the race in the second lans, was content to hover in eighth and ninth position and was caught off-guard by Sifan Hassan who blasted to the front with 600m to go.

There was a massive task to be faced as the South African had only managed to gain three places as she came off the final bend.

Hassan, Faith Kipyegon, and Muir were locked in battle up front, until a final 200m of 28 seconds saw Semenya clawing her way to the front.

 The combination of momentum and the line dip saw the South African tumbling to the ground, but not before she seized the bronze from Muir, who lost the medal by 0.07 seconds.

Most pundits had predicted that the race would be taken out fast with the objective of running the legs out of the South African, but the exact opposite happened with the versatile Scot Laura Muir holding the field for the first kilometer, clocking 65.34 at 400, and 2:17.11 for 800m. 

Semenya, who ran most of the race in the second lans, was content to hover in eighth and ninth position and was caught off-guard by Sifan Hassan who blasted to the front with 600m to go.

There was a massive task to be faced as the South African had only managed to gain three places as she came off the final bend.

Hassan, Faith Kipyegon, and Muir were locked in battle up front, until a final 200m of 28 seconds saw Semenya clawing her way to the front. The combination of momentum and the line dip saw the South African tumbling to the ground, but not before she seized the bronze from Muir, who lost the medal by 0.07 seconds.

Kipyegon added the World Gold to her Olympic and Commonwealth titles in 4:02.59, with American Jennifer Simpson a surprise silver, (4:02.76), and Semenya 4:02.90.

For full Caster Semenya interview & video  - www.coachnorrie.co.za

Mens 200m 

The evening commenced with all three South African 200m sprinters making it to the semi final, but ended with only two getting through to Tuesdays Semi finals.

Excitement turned to despair for Clarence Munyai, who had clocked 20.19 in his first world championships and had, he thought, secured a 3rd place that would put him into the semi finals.

Unaware of what was to follow, he shared his enjoyment and belief that he could make it through to the final, and in particular how proud he was that three South Africans had made it into the 200m semi final.

However, soon after leaving the mixed zone, the 19 year old was formally disqualified. Munyai together with Aaron Brown on his inside, were adjudged to have run outside their lanes resulting in disqualification after the initial results had been posted.

Although both team managements lodged protests, these were rejected by the appeals board.

Akani Simbine, who made the 100m final on Saturday night, returned to action in the sixth of the 200m heats. .

The 23 year old was drawn in the seventh lane inside American Isiah Young, potentially the faster man in the field.

The South African ran a controlled race around the bend and looked to be enjoying his race to finish behind Young in 20.26 just 0.07 seconds adrift of the American.

The hip impingement that had hampered Simbine earlier in the week is receiving attention and he does not feel this will be a problem in getting into the final.

Wayde van Neikerk made light work of his qualification which saw him in lane 7 inside from Britains Danny Talbot, who he has competed against for around seven years.

Having caught up the lane stagger coming off the bend, van Neikerk looked out to Talbot, smiled, and ran shoulder to shoulder with him to the finish to record 20.16, and pull the British athlete to a new PB, 0.04 seconds faster than he started the race.

There was nothing to be seen between Van Neikerk and Talbot, but timing to 1/1000th of a second gave Van Neikerk the nod.

Talbot was clearly confident following the PB, and talked about the incident with the South African.

400m hurdles heats

Wanda Nel had a good qualifying run in her 400m hurdle heat, despite losing focus and rhythm over the final three barriers when she upped the tempo to close the gap on heat winner Kori Carter, who clocked 54.99. Nel was second in 55.47.

Tuesday 8 August:

South Africans in action:

20:30 200m Heats – Justine Palframan

21:35 400m hurdles semi final Wenda Nel

22:50 400m Final Wayde van Neikerk.