Running out of lane 8 and leaving the blocks dead last (0.234 reaction time), Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, the current two-time Olympic and a former World champion over 200m and 100m, respectively, had to dig deep and finish like a high-speed train to snatch the silver medal from her Caribbean rival, Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago, in the final of the women’s 100m at the World Championships in Daegu today. Red hot favorite Carmelita Jeta of the USA used her power and panache to run by earlier leaders Baptiste and Jamaica’s 2008 Olympic and 2009 World champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who stumbled on her fourth step, and streak away for gold in 10.90secs (1.4m/s headwind). Campbell-Brown’s time was a distant 10.97 while Baptiste registered 10.98 for the bronze. Fraser-Pryce was fourth in 10.99.
The race was the culmination of months of speculation over who was the better sprinter going into Worlds – the fierce catcher Jeter, who has been dominating the season in which she has clocked a world leading 10.70, or the highly experienced Campbell-Brown, who knows how to finish a race on the big stage and win. Until today, Jeter had never won a World or Olympic title but the veteran Campbell-Brown has both titles on her resume.
On the other hand, while Fraser-Pryce had been lying low this season due to injury, Baptiste was on the rise, defeating Campbell-Brown twice to put her name among the list of major contenders for the gold. See Results
High Hurdles Drama
Also lying low but coming out to present unexpected flair and drama, were a trio of veteran male hurdlers, along with rising American jock, Jason Richardson.
The highly anticipated men’s 110m hurdles final provided an extremely close battle and much post-race controversy reminiscent of the 2008 Olympic men’s 200m final in Beijing. In a rare occurrence, Cuba’s technically sound Olympic champion and world record holder Dayron Robles and Chinese star former world record holder Liu Xiang clipped hurdles as they surged down the straight.
Robles won in 13.14secs followed by Jason Richardson of the US (13.16) and Liu Xiang (13.27). However, Liu Xiang accused Robles of pulling him when he approached the ninth hurdle, which caused him to slow down. China successfully protested that Liu Xiang was impeded when Robles strayed to the edge of his lane and the pair clashed arms at each of the last two hurdles. Richardson was therefore upgraded to gold, and Liu Xiang rewarded with a silver, while Britain’s Andrew Turner (13.44) the bronze.
A counter-protest by Cuba was rejected by the Jury of Appeal.
See Results