Women's Heptathlon

Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands improved her personal best to 5967 points to become the first Dutchwoman ever to win the women’s Heptathlon World junior gold medal.

Schippers improved in five of the seven events she completed in the two-day competition and in fact only the High Jump left her trailing and losing ground.

She was the best performer in the 100m Hurdles, 200m, and Long Jump but it was her superb 23.41 closing off the opening day which gave her a lead she wouldn’t relinquish today.

Going into the 800m, Schippers held an 86 points margin over Sara Gambetta of Germany who was the only athlete temporarily taking the lead from the Dutchwoman after the High Jump and Shot Put events.

The race for bronze was the most interesting Grete Sadeiko of Estonia standing at 4827 going into the last event with a margin of only 2 points over Helga Margret Thorsteinsdottir of Iceland and 14 points over Laura Ikauniece of Latvia. Tilia Udelhoven, the second string German was also in close contention with 4806 points.

Thorsteinsdottir decided to take all the risks and set out fast in the 800, eventually the Icelander was rewarded for her brave efforts albeit only just. Sadeiko could feel the medal slipping off her hands and desperately sprinted in an attempt to catch up with Thorsteinsdottir and although she did improve her personal best to 2:16.08 she was still 27 hundredths of a second off her Nordic rival.

After a long wait the scoreboard flashed the official results, Thorsteinsdottir scored 3 points more than Sadeiko in the 800, the bronze medal was hers by the smallest of margins: 1 point.

Schippers meanwhile concluded her 2-lap final effort in 2:18.57 with Gambetta further back in 2:26.93. At this stage it mattered little as both had already secured gold and silver respectively.