Flying Dutchwoman Dafne Schippers breaks Jamaica sprint hold

Dafne Schippers of the Netherland (left) claims the women’s 200m gold ahead of Elaine Thompson of Jamaica at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing on Friday. She also has a silver from the 100 metres. (Source: Reuters)

Dutch flier Dafne Schippers pipped Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson by three hundredths of a second to win the women’s 200 metres at the world championships on Friday.

The former heptathlete, who won silver in the 100 metres behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on Monday, surged to the line in 21.63 seconds, the fastest time in 17 years in the half-lap sprint.

Thompson took silver in a personal best time of 21.66, while bronze went to her compatriot, twice Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who ran 21.97.

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Fraser-Pryce, the 2013 champion, decided against doubling up in Beijing, while the schedule prevented Olympic champion Allyson Felix from running 200m and 400m and she chose the longer race, winning gold on Thursday.

Earlier, Liu Hong won the women’s 20 kilometres walk to hand China its first gold medal of the world championships, as defending champion Ashton Eaton took control of the decathlon. The morning after Usain Bolt’s emphatic 200m win at the Bird’s Nest stadium, Liu gave home fans something to cheer when she headed a Chinese one-two in the walk with “little sister” Lu Xiuzhi.

The pair broke early and built up a massive lead in Beijing’s scorching morning heat, with Liu coming home for gold in one hour 27.45 minutes with Lu right behind her. Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Olyanovska took bronze, 28 seconds behind.

“There was a lot of pressure but I was confident in this mission,” said Liu, who added that she had struck a pact with Lu, her junior by seven years, not to race each other in the final kilometres.

“When we hit the front at the start I didn’t think we were going that quick but nobody followed us, so we just carried on. It’s a dream to win the gold.”

After the US medal tally was boosted on Thursday by golds from triple jumper Christian Taylor and 400m runner Allyson Felix, it was another of their star athletes who took to the Bird’s Nest on Friday in the shape of multi-discipline specialist Eaton.

The world record-holder and defending champion, also reigning Olympic and two-time world indoor champion, timed 10.23sec in the opening 100m before leaping a best of 7.88m in the long jump, both leading performances.

Eaton, whose Canadian wife Brianne Theisen Eaton claimed silver behind Jessica Ennis-Hill in the women’s heptathlon, then managed a best of 14.53m in the shot put to leave him on 2,830 points. Canadian Damian Warner sat in second with 2,747 with Germany’s Rico Freimuth third (2,730).

The evening session sees the decathletes compete in the high jump and 400m, with the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 800m all scheduled for Saturday. Elsewhere in the field, Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko and Russian Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov both missed out on advancing to the final of the high jump, to be held on the ninth and last day of competition on Sunday.

Protsenko managed 2.29m and Ukhov only 2.26 as 14 jumpers qualified. Among those successful in hot conditions was Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, the Doha-born 24-year-old who won bronze at the London Olympics before going on to claim silver at the Moscow worlds a year later and the world indoor gold in Sopot last season.

With Ukraine’s reigning world high jump champion Bohdan Bondarenko, Canadian Derek Drouin, American Erik Kynard and Chinese hope Zhang Guowei also qualifying for the final, Barshim has plenty of competition.

“I want to jump very high to please my coach and myself,” said Barshim. “I do not want to be called the king of high jump unless I get on top of the list. Until then you can call me the prince of high jump!”

Shubenkov’s record run

Russian Sergey Shubenkov after winning the men’s 110m hurdles final. (Source: Reuters)

Sergey Shubenkov ran a Russian record to win 110 metres hurdles gold at the world championships on Friday, storming down the track in 12.98 seconds. Hansle Parchment of Jamaica was second in 13.03 and Olympic champion and world record holder Aries Merritt claimed bronze in 13.04 seconds. American Merritt will have a kidney transplant in Arizona next week. Defending champion David Oliver of the United States hit three of his first four hurdles and was never in the race, finishing seventh in 13.33 seconds.

Danielle Williams won the 100m hurdles at the world championships in 12.57 seconds on Friday in a final that didn’t feature an American in the top three. The 22-year-old Jamaican held off Cindy Roleder of Germany, who won silver in 12.59. Alina Talay took bronze in a Belarus record 12.66. Defending champion Brianna Rollins of the United States was fourth in 12.67, 0.01 ahead of European champion Tiffany Porter of Britain. Sharika Nelvis, who had the fastest time of the season and was a medal contender for the United States, placed last in the final. Dawn Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic champion, crashed in the semifinals.

American champion Tianna Bartoletta became long world champion once again, snatching the gold medal with a leap of 7.14 metres in the final round. Britain’s Shara Proctor had led the competition after breaking her own national record with a 7.07m jump in the third round. She tried to respond with the last jump of the competition but the 26-year-old Anguilla-born athlete could only register a foul and had to settle for silver. The bronze medal was won by Ivana Spanovic of Serbia who took an early lead and set a national record 7.01m with her opening jump.

Bartoletta, 29, last won the world title 10 years ago.