Old timers claim gold at World Athletics Championships

Dafne Schippers led from the starting pistol to the finish to retain her World 200 metres title in London.The Dutch favourite had to use every inch of her strength to hold off the challenge of Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who also took silver in the 100 metres.Schippers, who took bronze in that race, ran a season’s best of 22.05 seconds.Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith came fourth, losing out on bronze to Shaunee Miller-Uibo by just seven hundredths of a second.“The first 100 metres I cannot see anybody because I am in lane six. I ran by myself and in the end I saw (Marie-Josée) Ta Lou and saw I Would have to fight until the line and I did that,” Schippers said.A thrilling women’s long jump final saw American Brittney Reese win her fourth world title. Only six centimetres separated the top four competitors.Reese finished ahead of Darya Klishina, competing as a neutral athlete after the Russian federation was banned over state-sponsored doping.“This runway is remarkably fast. It’s really really fast and the crowd were great. Every time you have the crowd behind you there’s always going to be great jumps. I love coming here and I’ll be back,” Reese said afterwards.In the hammer competition, Pawel Fajdek became the first man to win three successive world championship titles.It was sweet revenge for the 28-year-old Pole after surprisingly he flopped in the last two Olympics.“I know it that I have done something special. After Rio (where he finished 17th), I was waiting one year for this and I do what I should. It’s amazing,” he said.After a poor start, Fadjek produced the three biggest throws of the night to see off the challenge of Russian Valeriy Pronkin and fellow Pole Wojciech Nowicki. His delight at the finish was there for all to see as he spread his 120 kg frame across the hammer circle.

Old timers claim gold at World Athletics Championships

Dafne Schippers in the 200m, Brittney Reese in the long jump, and Pawel Fajdek in the hammer: three previous World title holders won gold again on Friday night in London.

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