2013

2013 IAAF World Outdoor Championships Moscow, Russia August 10-18 Photo: Andrew McClanahan@PhotoRun vicath1111@aol.com 631-741-1865 www.photorun.NET

USA Track & Field – News – Merritt retakes 400m crown in four-medal night for Team USA

By GRR 0

MOSCOW — In perhaps the most dominant performance to date at the 2013 IAAF World Championships, LaShawn Merritt crushed the field in the men’s 400 meters to lead a four-medal night for a surging Team USA Tuesday at Luzhniki Stadium. Nick Symmonds, Jenn Suhr and Tony McQuay all contributed silver medals to bring Team USA’s medal total to 10 (4 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze).

The World Championships boast nearly 50 hours of television coverage in the U.S. with broadcasts airing during all nine days of competition. View the complete broadcast schedule here.

Read the recap of the Tuesday morning session here.

Magnificent Merritt
Running in lane 6, Merritt (Norfolk, Va.) went out briskly with Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada just inside him in lane 5 and American McQuay (Gainesville, Fla.) in lane 4. James followed Merritt’s fast start, with McQuay in tow. James looked to close the gap on Merritt slightly at the 200m mark, but faded on the turn as the strength of Merritt took over. The 2008 Olympic gold medalist and 2009 world champion charged down the homestretch, winning in 43.74 seconds – a personal best and .01 faster than his previous best of 43.75 from his gold-medal run in Beijing. McQuay was second in a personal-best 44.40, and Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic was third in was 44.52. James faded to seventh in 44.99. It marked a strong comeback for Team USA, going 1-2 in Moscow just one year after having no finalists at the Olympic Games.

Symmonds (Springfield, Ore.) gave the U.S. men their best-ever finish in the men’s 800m, running an aggressive and gutsy race to take the silver and give the U.S. their first 800 medal since 1997. Compatriot Duane Solomon (Los Angeles, Calif.) led the pack through the first lap at 50.28, with Symmonds on his shoulder – an atypical position for the historically late-charging Oregonian. As Solomon faded in the homestretch, Symmonds surged and was in the lead coming home. He was overtaken in the final meters by Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia, with Aman finishing in 1:43.31 to Symmonds’ season-best time of 1:43.55. Ayanleh Souleiman of Djibouti was third in 1:43.75, with Solomon sixth in 1:44.42.

Women’s vault battle
A loud and unabashedly partisan crowd made the women’s pole vault the featured event of the night, pitting world record holder Elena Isinbayeva of Russia against the Olympic gold medalist, Jenn Suhr, and Olympic silver medalist, Yarisley Silva of Cuba.

Suhr (Churchill, N.Y.) cleared her opening height of 4.55m/14-11 on her first try, and then scaled 4.75m/15-7 on the first attempt to take sole possession of first place. When Isinbayeva cleared 4.82m/15-9.75 on her second attempt, Suhr had to do the same to retake the lead while Silva cleared on her last attempt. At 4.89m/16-0.5, Isinbaeva cleared her first attempt and Suhr and Silva failed to clear, claiming silver and bronze, respectively.

In the women's heptathlon, Sharon Day (Manhattan, Kan.) clipped more than two seconds off her personal best in the 800m with a 2:08.94 that pushed her up to sixth overall with 6407 points, her best finish in three trips to the World Championships. Erica Bougard (Byhalia, Miss.) ran 2:13.72 and ended 24th with 5829, and Bettie Wade (Grand Rapids, Mich.) was 27th with 5768 points after running the 800m in 2:20.87. Ganna Melnichenko of the Ukraine captured gold with 6584 points while Brianne Theisen Eaton of Canada claimed silver with a score of 6530

Americans roll into finals
All eyes were on the women’s 1500m semifinals, which saw teenager Mary Cain (Bronxville, N.Y.) become the youngest finalist ever in the event, placing fourth in the first semi in 4:05.21 to automatically advance to Thursday’s final. Reigning world champion Jenny Simpson (Boulder, Colo.), was third at 4:05.79 in semifinal two to also advance. Sarah Brown (Knoxville, Tenn.), finished 10th in that heat at 4:12.16 and did not advance.

Reigning world champion Lashinda Demus (Los Angeles, Calif.) and U.S. champion Dalilah Muhammad (Bayside, N.Y.) both finished second in their semifinals of the 400m hurdles to advance automatically to the final on Thursday. Muhammad clocked 54.08 in the first semifinal, while Demus finished at 54.22 in the second semi. Christine Spence was eighth in the first section at 58.35 and did not advance.

In the men's 400m hurdle semifinals, Olympic silver medalist Michael Tinsley (Round Rock, Texas) won his semifinal in 48.31 to automatically advance to Thursday’s final. Kerron Clement (Gainesville, Fla.), the 2007 and 2009 world champion, moved on to the final after finishing third in the third heat, claiming one of the time qualifier spots with his 48.21. Bershawn Jackson (Raleigh, N.C.) fell at hurdle two in the first semifinal; just after clearing the barrier he appeared to injure himself. Jackson fought an injury after tweaking his right hamstring in practice earlier this week.

Team USA still dominates the team scoring with 127 points, 57 ahead of second place Russia.

For more information on Team USA at the IAAF World Championships, visit www.USATF.org. Live results and startlists are available at www.IAAF.org.

Read the full press release including Team USA quotes here.

Katie Branham
USA Track & Field
Marketing &Communications Manager
317-713-4672
Katie.Branham@usatf.org

Stats by Ken Nakamura

W400mH

53.52 by Hejnova is the third fastest semi time in W400mH at the World Championships

Third gold for Harting, but Riedel is still way ahead with five gold

4th medal for Harting tying Aleksa and Schult but short of six by Riedel

It was also fourth medal for Kanter

It was also second medal (second silver) for Malachowski

Heptathlon

6586 is the lowest winning score in the history of World Championships.

Previously 6651 from 1995 by Shouaa was the lowest

56 is the second lowest winning margin in the history. The lowest is 40 by JJK in 1993

109 is the lowest difference between 1st and 3rd. Previous min was 129 from 1995

Melnichenko won first gold for UKR in Heptathlon. It was also first medal for CAN and NED in Heptathlon

W1500m

4:05.36 did not make the final of W1500m.

That is the fastest time that did not make the final in the World Championships.

Previously, the fastest time that did not make the final was 4:05.72 from 1999

800m

Aman become the first World Youth medalist to win a medal at the World Championships

Symmond won first silver for the US. Previously US's best medal was bronze (twice)

The best marks for place for 3rd (tied), 4th to seventh for the World Champ 800m were set.

For ETH and DJI, these are their first medal at 800m in the World Championships.

Aman is the third to win both World Outdoor and World Indoor titles.

Previously, Kipketer and Mulaudzi won both titles.

1:43.31 is the Russian All comers record. Previous record was 1:43.76 by Laalou from 2010

Fastest time in Moskva was 1:44.06 by Kipketer from 1996

W3000mSC

KEN finally won gold at W3000mSC after 4 straight bronze.

Chemos finally won gold after two consecutive bronze

Winning margin of 0.90 sec is the smallest ever in W3000mSC at the World Championships.

Previous min was 1.07 from 2009.

The difference of 1.19 sec is the smallest ever difference between 1st and 3rd.

Previously 1.25 from 2009 was the smallest

2.41 sec is the second smallest difference between 3rd and 4th. Smallest is 0.72 sec from 2011

Chemos won record third medal in W3000mSC in the WC.

Previously Zaripova and Volkova has won two medals at this event in WC

9:11.65 is the fastest time in Moskva, but NOT the Russian All Comers record

RUS all comers record is 9:08.21 by Galkina from 2008

Previously, the fastest time in MOskva was 9:13.70 by Galkina from 2009

Chemos became the first to win both African Championships and World Championships

400m

LaShawn Merritt won record tying fourth medal in this event at the Worlds

Merrit tied MJ for the number of medals at 400m in WC.

His second gold tied Wariner for number of gold, but still far behind MJ with 4.

43.74 is the fifth fastest time in the WC 400m

0.02 sec between third and fourth is the smallest ever at 400m in WC;

previously 0.03 sec from 2003 was the smallest

US won multiple medals for the ninth time. In fact US is the only nation who won multiple medals in 400

Santos won first medal (Bronze) for DOM in 400m at WC

43.74 is the Russian all comers record.

Previously the Russian All comers record was 44.60 by Markin from 1980 & Merritt in semi

WPV

4.89 is the second highest vault in the World Championships, behind only 5.01WR from 2005

The best marks for place for WC was recorded for 2nd (4.80->4.82), 3rd (4.75->4.82) and tied for 4th and 7th.

4.82 is also tied best 3rd place in history in all competitions,

while 4.75 also tied best 4th place in history, not just WC.

Isinbayeva won record third gold in WPV at WC surpassing Dragila who has two.

Isinbayeva also won record 4th medal at WPV in WC. Feofanova and Pyrek has three medals

Silva won first medal for CUB in WPV at WC

4.65 tied highest opening height in WPV at WC. She also opened at 4.65 in 2007

4.89 is also Russian All comers record. Isinbayeva also held previous RUS all comers record of 4.80 from 2007

Stats by Ken Nakamura

author: GRR