This Thursday’s day at the Eugene World Championships in Athletics maintained the tone of surprises from the previous day, with the Kazakh Norah Jeruto winning the 3,000 meter hurdles.
The final had a curious outcome, since none of the three on the podium had international medals in the highest competitions (Olympic or World Games), but all of them set new records.
Norah Jeruto, a former athlete from Kenya, has repeatedly triumphed in Diamond League events. She missed the great result that she reached today, with 8:53:02 minutes, the third best mark in history.
The now Kazakh athlete beat the Ethiopians Werkuha Getachew and Mekides Abebe. Getachew’s 8.54.61 is a new Ethiopian record and Abede’s 8.56.08 is his personal best.
The big loser was the Ugandan Peruth Chemutai, Olympic champion, only tenth in the race.
The discus final, in this competition that runs until Sunday in the US state of Oregon, yielded the best result to date for the Portuguese delegation, with Liliana Cá sixth, with 63.99 meters.
When a duel between the Croatian Sandra Perkovic and the American Valarie Allman was expected, the 28-year-old Chinese Feng Bin intervened in the accounts, without great international results so far.
With a test of 69.12 meters, she broke her personal best by more than three meters and took the lead, well ahead of the last two Olympic champions.
Perkovic, the 2012 and 2016 champion, did not exceed 68.45 and Allman, the Tokyo 2020 champion, stayed at 68.30, to the desperation of the public in the stands, who took the American victory in this competition for granted. , as Allman is the world leader for the year with 71.46.
The great disappointment was, however, the Cuban Yaimé Pérez, champion of Doha 2019 and bronze in the Olympic Games, now only seventh.
In the 400-meter semifinals, the main note is the return to a final of the world record holder, the South African Wayde Van Niekerk, something that has not happened since 2017. Five years ago he seriously injured his knee, after being two-time world champion. and Olympic champion.
googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display(‘centro1’); });
Off the track, it was revealed that 100m world champion Fred Kerley will not be in the US 4×100 relay due to injury.
Kerley injured a quadriceps during Tuesday’s 200-meter semifinals, where he missed qualifying with what appeared to be cramps.
