Osaka 2007 - HIGHLIGHTS, Day 4

Simply put, Janeth Jepkosgei ran the race of the championships so far, the standout performance of the fourth day of competition at Nagai Stadium.

Jepkosgei's gun-to-tape display of brilliance

The elegant Kenyan tore a page from the Filbert Bayi manual of Front-Running, photocopied it, crumpled the pages into a ball, and bounced them off the heads of her opponents. They didn’t have time to peruse the script, they were just trying to keep up. Multiple World champion, Maria Mutola of Mozambique stepped off the track, beaten with 80m to run. The much-vaunted Russians, Olga Kotlyarova and Svetlana Klyuka and inveterate front-runner herself, Sviatlana Usovitch of Belarus never got near; while rank outsiders, Hasna Benhassi of Morocco and Mayte Martinez of Spain picked up the pieces, of silver and bronze. And were glad to do so. Because they ran in the shadow of the bravest of the brave, someone unafraid to run from the front, and win.

Alberto Juantorena, no mean two-lap man himself said he thought that Jepkosgei had run far too fast, with her 1.56.17 in the semis. Big Al was wrong. And no one could say they hadn’t been warned, because Jepkosgei gave a repeat performance – 26.58 at 200 metres, which would not have disgraced a men’s race; 56.16 at 400 metres, slowing to 1.26.19, before maintaining it, but effectively going away from her pursuers to victory in a world leading  time of 1.56.04.

Kipruto leads Kenyan Steeplechase sweep, first since 1997

The first to congratulate her were her three colleagues who had taken the medals in the 3000m Steeplechase ten minutes earlier. So, what’s new, you might ask? Quite a bit. The steeplechase tends to lack a bit of drama without Saif Saaeed Shaheen aka Stephen Cherono (out injured), but his former Kenyan colleagues put on a great show last night. Just seeing the bald, and almost inevitable statistic of one-two-three for the men from the Great Rift Valley gives no indication of the multiple lead changes, stumbles (Ezekiel Kemboi), and accidents (Ali Ahmed Al-Amri of Saudi Arabia ran full tilt into a barrier).

The Kenyan trio gave their opponents plenty of opportunity to lead, and even threaten to win. But when it came to the last 300 metres, they were the only men in it. Brimin Kipruto reversed the result of the 2004 Olympic Games, when he tore past Athens champion, Ezekiel Kemboi to win gold and relegated Kemboi to silver. Richard Mateelong, world number three last year, cemented that position with bronze.

Some other good news. Despite the bruising and stitches after his horrific accident in the heats, Günther Weidlinger of Austria was so determined to watch the final ‘live’ that he was a very welcome spectator in the stadium.

Clement holds off Sanchez in 400m Hurdles

When Kerron Clement learns to clear all ten hurdles in the ‘quarter’ without stuttering, the world record of Kevin Young (46.78sec) could well go. Clement was past the Olympic and former two-time World champion, Felix Sanchez, in the lane outside him by halfway, and had a ten metre lead into the ninth. That’s when he started to vacillate, but he had so much leeway, and a fast pick-up off the tenth that he was able to cruise home in 47.61, still well outside his career best of 47.24 from 2005. Sanchez of the Dominican Republic held on for a season's best of 48.01 to win silver, and Marek Plawgo of Poland did what he has been threatening to do this week, set another national record, which he did with 48.12 to win bronze.

Just three jumps to defence for Isinbayeva

The only drama in the women's Pole Vault came when Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia failed her first attempt at 4.80m. That took about 15 minutes to rectify, while her remaining opponents all failed. A second time clearance proved good enough for victory, and she had two good attempts at a would-be World record of 5.02m. But she brought the best out of Katerina Badurova. The Czech set a National record of 5.75m in second place, and former champion, Russian Svetlana Feofanova, took bronze at the same height. Incidentally, we mentioned earlier in the week that 400m hurdler Jana Pittman (Rawlinson) and Valerie Vili, the Shot champion, were the only women to have won IAAF world titles at youth, junior and senior level. After her 100m victory, Veronica Campbell too joined that elite club, and in the long list of Isinbayeva’s achievements, we neglected to note her completing her collection in 2005.

Kanter unseats Alekna

In contrast, another ‘unbeatable’ got, well... beaten. Gerd Kanter, silver medallist in Helsinki in the Discus Throw, won Estonia’s second ever gold, winning with a throw of 68.94m which was not remotely threatened after he launched it in round three. Except by his own final throw, which was ten centimetres shorter. Robert Harting of Germany won silver with 66.68m, and Rutger Smith of The Netherlands was overjoyed to win bronze (66.42). The biggest casualty of the championships so far – and that includes Asafa Powell – was Virgilius Alekna. The Lithuanian came into the championships as double Olympic and World champion, following his 17th successive victory over 70 metres, and with 37 consecutive wins. He finished fourth, with 65.24m.

Lebedeva leads Russian Long Jump sweep

The Russians emulated the Kenyan steeplechasers, when Tatyana Lebedeva led a one-two-three in the Long Jump. Lebedeva’s victory was almost as expected as Isinbayeva’s in the vault. And it was almost perfunctory, which is to take nothing away from Lebedeva. She took the lead with a 7.03m leap on her second attempt, repeated the distance on the third, fouled the fourth, did 6.98m on her fifth, and called it a night, when she saw that her opponents could not respond. She is husbanding her resources for the Triple Jump qualifying 12 hours later, on Wednesday morning. But her colleagues, Lyudmila Kolchanova and Tatyana Kotova tried hard to make her jump again. They both improved on their final leaps, with 6.92m for Kolchanova to take silver, and Kotova jumping a season’s best of 6.90m to win bronze.