by Larry Eder
Genzebe Dibaba, photo by PhotoRun.net
Genzebe Dibaba’s last 800 meters in her gold medal winning 1,500 meters took just over 1:57. Her 5000m on Thursday morning took just over 15:20. Running well within herself, Almaz Ayana will have her hands full in the 5000 meter final.
The 100m meter hurdle heats showed just how tough getting to the final of the 100 meter hurdles really is. In the 1,500 meters, US men actually all made it through, with Robbie Andrews, Matthew Centrowitz and Leo Manzano all making it through with Asbel Kiprop. Sulieman Ayanleh, who should have been a medal contender, dropped out with a painful injury.
Here is Alex Mills’ reprise of the morning session.
On the hottest morning session of the championship so far, nearly all the event contenders overcame the gruelling conditions to breeze though the qualification rounds.
While none of the athletes had it easy, it was those competing in the women’s 5000m heats that took on the toughest task, not that it seemed to effect the capabilities of favourites Genzebe Dibaba and Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia as they took victory in the respective heats.
Ayana was particularly impressive as she proved far to strong for her rivals to take a much faster second heat in 15:09.40. Her winning margin over compatriot Sender Teferi was more than five seconds.
Despite only just taking victory in 15:20.82, after edging a four way battle to the line, Dibaba”s qualification was equally assured once she lead a five way break way with three laps to go, producing one of her trademarks injections of pace that the rest of the field couldn’t handle.
She will now have to wait until Sunday to see whether she can become the first women ever two win both 1500m and 5000m gold at a single championship.
Those races were followed up by the heats of the men’s 1500m, all of which ran along the same sit and kick accord, as best shown by reigning champion Asbel Kiprop. Running in the second heat Kiprop sat at the back of the back until 300m, to go before deciding to make his decisive move, winning in 3:38.97 ahead of Ethiopia’s Aman Wote and Olympic silver medallist Leo Manzano of the USA.
Kiprop’s time was only the 11th fastest of the morning however, with top ten all coming from the third and final heat as Silas Kiplagat edged out Abdalaati Iguider on the line winning in 3:38.13 in a race that saw 1st and 10th separated by just eight tenths of a second.
Elijah Manangoi’s started the Kenyan sweep of the heats by winning the first race in a much slower 3:42.57.
Their were three American wins out of five in the first round of the women’s 100mh with reigning champion Brianna Rollins qualifying fastest for tomorrow’s semi-final in 12.67, Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter also looked particularly impressive, winning her heat comfortably in 12.73.
In the men’s discus Jamaica’s Fredrick Dacres was one of only two men to achieve the automatic qualification standard with his throw of 65.77 the furthest of the round.
Both the women’s high and long jump competitions got underway this morning with a big shock coming in the latter as reigning champion Brittany Reese failed to qualify for the final after only jumping 6.39m to finish in 24th position overall. There was much more success for Ivana Spanovic of Serbia who topped the table with a NR 6.91 and Great Britain, who will have three women in the final for the very first time, lead by Lorraine Ugen who jumped an impressive 6.87m.
There were no such plot twists in the high jump as top seeds Anna Chicherova, Blanka Vlašic and Ruth Beita were all among the 13 women to clear the decisive height of 1.92m.
