Poland take 4x400m with world mark
Nothing’s impossible in athletics. Nothing is certain, too, however. As the jampacked crowd in the Arena Birmingham got ready for the final event on the tracks on Sunday, 24 athletes waited patiently, waiting for one final surge. The men’s 4X400m relay, slotted as the final event of the roster, was anyway billed to provide an electrifying touch to the atmosphere.
Six athletes walked up, with another 18 hoping that nothing goes wrong. The female discipline had seen as many as three appeals being presented to the jury after the Jamaican team, who had finished with silver, was ruled out. Over the next three minutes, each of the athletes challenged each other to raise the bar.
When they did cross the finishing line though, the quartet from Poland had set a new world record with a timing of 3:01.77. The USA had led until the final stretch. However, Jakub Krzewina put up a stellar show and edged past USA’s anchor Vernon Norwood in lightning speed. USA did get the silver though, with their timing of 3:01.97s, which too was inside the previous world record.
While Belgium finished third, Trinidad and Tobago ended fourth, both smashing their national records.
In the women’s 4X400m relay final, it was a reversal of roles for the USA and Poland who took gold and silver respectively Great Britain finished with a bronze to their name.
In the men’s pole vault final, it was Renaud Lavillenie of France who clinched gold in an unprecedented fashion, skipping his first two jumps of 5.45m and 5.60m before following it up with another miss at the 5.80m-mark. He cleared both 5.70m and 5.80m on his first go and only took a second attempt to go past 5.90m. USA’s Sam Kendricks then had to push the bar higher at 5.95m owing to his previous failures, which would have handed over the medal to Lavillenie anyway. However, he couldn’t match the mark.
British sprinter Andrew Pozzi sent the home fans into frenzy as he bagged the second gold for Britain, to help the nation finish fourth. Pozzi clocked a season’s best of 7.46s to just pip USA’s Jarrett Eaton in a photo-finish.
Among the other finals of the day, Serbia and Burundi climbed on to the medals tally owing to gold-medal finishes by Ivana Spanovic and Francine Niyonsaba. While the Serbian leapt 6.96m to edge past USA’s Brittney Reese and clinch pole, the 2016 Olympic silver medallist clocked 1:58.31s to bring home her nation’s first medal of the Championships.
Ethiopia dominated both the 1500m and 3000m disciplines with Yomif Kejelcha and Selemon Barega ensuring a one-two for the country in the latter event while Samuel Tefera ran to glory in the 1500m. The three podium finishes helped Ethiopia finish the championship in second place with five medals, including four gold, to their name. USA were a distant first, finishing with 18 medals — six gold, 10 silver and two bronze. The third place went to Poland.
BIRMINGHAM: