Lafond claims gold at world indoor triple jump, Charlton cruises to win
The second gold of the morning session went the way of New Zealand as Hamish Kerr claimed the men’s high jump title with 2.31 metres
Dominican Thea Lafond won the women’s triple jump at the world indoors championships in Glasgow on Sunday, the third and final day of competition.
Lafond managed a best of 15.01 metres in her second effort, the sole competitor to go over the 15m mark.
She then passed on her four remaining chances to jump as the field failed to come close to her leading mark.
Cuban Leyanis Perez Hernandez took silver with a best of 14.90m, with Spain’s Ana Peleteirocompaore claiming bronze (14.75m). Lafond said the victory seemed “absolutely surreal”.
The second gold of the morning session went the way of New Zealand as Hamish Kerr claimed the men’s high jump title with 2.31 metres.
American Shelby Mcewen took silver with 2.28m on countabck from defending champion Sanghyeok Woo of South Korea.
Defending 60m hurdles champion Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, fresh from a world record of 7.68sec at last month’s Millrose Games in New York, had earlier cruised into the semi-finals.
She timed 7.93 seconds to win her heat, with the semis set for 1940 GMT and the final at 2100 later Sunday.
Also qualifying was France’s reigning champion Cyrena Samba-mayela.
Femke Bol, fresh from seting a world record when winning the 400m on Saturday, was then on hand to deliver an impresive anchor leg to ensure that the Netherlands women’s quartet qualified for the final of the 4x400m relay, set for 2030 GMT.
Earlier, record-seting Femke Bol proved unstoppable and Grant Holloway extended his 10-year win streak at a high-octane second day of the world indoor championships in Glasgow on Saturday that also featured double British gold.
Bol once again stole the show, the two-time world 400m hurdles champion betering her own world indoor record to 49.17 seconds to win the 400m, leading from gun to tape in an exceptional display of running.
Norway’s Karsten Warholm, like Bol an elite hurdler seeking a pre-paris Games workout over the 400m flat, was undone by hard-charging Belgian Alexander Doom.
But the Norwegian, the world record holder, three-time outdoor champion and Olympic gold medallist in the 400m hurdles, was not too upset by the result.
Holloway made no mistake in the 60m hurdles, an event in which he has remarkably not lost since he was 16, stretching over 74 races.
He matched his own championship record of 7.29sec for a totally dominant victory.
There was a particularly British, and notably Scotish, tang to the evening session, with Molly Caudrey, Josh Kerr and Laura Muir guaranteeing a raucous home welcome at a packed-out Emirates Arena.
Caudrey and Kerr came good, winning the women’s pole vault and men’s 3000m to help set the stage for a thrilling night of track and field.
It climaxed with Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred reeling in fast-starting Pole Ewa Swoboda for gold in the women’s 60m.
Alfred clocked 6.98sec, two-hundredths ahead of Swoboda, with Italy’s Zaynab Dosso taking bronze (7.05).
There was a shock in the women’s 3000m as American Elle St. Pierre dug deep to outsprint massive Ethiopian favourite Gudaf Tsegay down the home stretch for victory in 8min 20.87sec to shater, by 13sec, the championship record set by Dutchwoman Elly Van Hulst in Budapest in 1989.
Tsegay, a global medal winner over multiple distances and 5,000m world record holder, accelerated away with two laps to go, taking Kenya’s Beatrice Chepkoech and St. Pierre with her, not thinking that the later had the legs to outdo her for gold.
While Muir had to be happy with fith, world outdoor 1500m champion Kerr timed his run to perfection to win the men’s 3000m in 7:42.98, with American Yared Nuguse taking silver and Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega bronze.