Reuters
Beijing, August 27: Allyson Felix of the United States won her ninth World Championships gold medal and first at 400 metres with a dominating performance at the Bird’s Nest Stadium here Thursday.
“I had to take advantage of the speed that I have and bring that to the 400,” said the 29-year-old from Los Angeles. “I wanted to control the race.”
The Olympic 200-metre champion set off by far the quickest of the eight women finalists to hold a commanding lead by 150 metres.
Off the final bend she was four metres clear of her nearest rival, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas, who could not close the gap down the final straight.
Felix’s 49.26 seconds winning time was the fastest in the world this year while Miller claimed silver in 49.67.
The bronze medal was won by Shericka Jackson, who led home Jamaican team mates in fourth (Christine Day), fifth (Stephenie McPherson) and sixth (Novlene Williams-Mills).
Moving over to the field event, American Christian Taylor produced the second-longest triple jump in history as he soared 18.21 metres to take gold in a high-quality world championship competition Thursday.
Taylor delivered the coup de grace with his sixth and final jump, landing just short of the 18.29m world record that has stood to Britain’s Jonathan Edwards since the 1995 world championships.
Jumping last, Pichardo too had his best jump in the sixth round but his silver medal-winning 17.73 seemed modest compared to what the packed stadium had just witnessed.
The bronze medal was also won by a last-round jump as Nelson Evora of Portugal, cleared 17.52 to snatch third place from Omar Craddock.
