by Stuart Weir
Reece Prescod, photo by PhotoRun.net
We asked Stuart Weir to update us on how the hometeam, Team GB, is doing in lovely World Championships from August 4-13, 2017. Here is his update through day 3.
Two days into the championships what is the state of the host nation? Mo Farah won the first gold medal of the championships in the men’s 10,000. That remains the only GB medal but a number of other athletes have kept themselves in medal contention.
All four British women in the in the 1500m made the semi-finals with only the two Lauras, Weightman and Muir reaching Monday’s final. Muir said: “It was a really tough semi-final so I’m just glad to have got through it. That [field] was really strong, that could have easily been a final so I was really happy. I kept glancing up at the screen to check the gap because I didn’t want to waste too much energy but at the same time I know the likes of Semenya and Dibaba were behind me as well as the Polish athlete Angelika Cichocka, all very strong sprinters, so I just thought I want to keep out of harm’s way and have a little bit up my sleeve if they came running past”.
Reece Prescod, an athlete most of us had hardly heard of a year ago, came seventh in 10.17, having run 10.03 in the heat and said afterwards: “I’m just taking it step by step – I train hard, work hard and do all the right things. I just hope in the years to come I’ll just get better and better. I just want to be the best I can be. This is the start of my career really.” CJ Ujah was agonizingly ninth fastest in 10.12 to miss out on an 8 man final by 2 hundredths of a second. Ujah said: “I don’t know what really went wrong. I guess I didn’t quite have the zip today but that’s how things go. It was hard not to make another final by so little a margin, especially in front of your home crowd”.
Pole vaulter, Holly Bradshaw,is in today’s final. (Holly Bradshaw finished sixth at 4.65m, event won by Ektaterina Stefanidi, 4.91m NR).
The three women in the 100 metres, Asha Philip, Desiree Henry and Daryll Neita run in today’s semi-final. (Daryll Neita was 4th in semi 1, in 11.16, Desiree Henry was 5th in 11.24 in semi 2, and Asha Phillip was 7th in semi 3 in 11.19).
It was a mixed day for Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the Heptathlon. A 1.98 high-jumper, she failed at 1.86 but ran a storming 200 metres to finish the day in fourth place with three events to go. On day 2, even with a strong LJ, good for KJT javelin and a fine 2:08.10 for 800 meters, Katerina Johnson-Thompson finished fifth place in a very competitive heptathlon.
Finally I can report another and well deserved medal for GB.Jo Pavey was finally awarded the 10.000m bronze medal from the 2007 World Championship that she was cheated out of at the time.
