The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Scot takes fourth in men’s marathon
Scotland’s Callum Hawkins said he was relishing the chance to battle Sir Mo Farah in the marathon from next year after finishing fourth at the World Championships in London.
The 25-year-old, ninth at last year’s Olympics in Rio, clocked a personal best of two hours 10 minutes and 17 seconds as he crossed the finish line at Tower Bridge 26 seconds off bronze.
Kenya’s Geoffrey Kirui won in 2hr 8min 27sec.
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola claimed silver and Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania took bronze.
Rose Chelimo, the Kenyan who now competes for Bahrain, took gold in the women’s event in 2:27:11. Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat of Kenya took silver, with Amy Cragg of the US taking bronze.
Katarina JohnsonThompson missed out on a heptathlon medal on what was a day to forget for British athletes.
The 24-year-old was tipped to make the podium in London but could not recover from an awful high jump on Saturday and finished fifth.
She was 240 points adrift of third-placed Anouk Vetter going into the 800m last night after five events and needed an unlikely result which never happened.
Gold went to Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium with 6,784 points, with Carolin Schafer of Germany (6,696) taking silver.
Johnson-Thompson fell 18cm short of her high jump personal best on Saturday and, despite coming second in the long jump, never looked likely to mount a stunning comeback.
She was the biggest casualty last night as none of the British athletes made their finals in the evening session, to pile the pressure on Laura Muir to win a medal in the 1,500m final today.
Johnson-Thompson clocked two minutes 08.10 seconds in the 800m to come second to record a total of 6,558 points.
London 2012 heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill collected her 2011 World Championships gold medal – denied her at the time by Russian drug cheat Tatyana Chernova – yesterday before Johnson-Thompson finished.
The 31-year-old offered to help her former team-mate and feels Johnson-Thompson will stick with her decision to train in France, rather than opt to link up with EnnisHill’s former coach Toni Minichiello.
Their was bitter disappointment for Andrew Pozzi, the European Indoor 60m hurdle champion, who failed to make the 110m hurdles final.
Elsewhere, the women’s sprinters of Asha Philip, Desiree Henry and Daryll Neita failed to reach the 100m semi-final.
Matthew Hudson-Smith ran a season’s best in the 400m but also did not progress, while Holly Bradshaw missed out on a medal in the pole vault.
Scotland’s Guy Learmonth failed to qualify for the 800m final after finishing fifth in his semi-final.
Meanwhile, America’s Tori Bowie won the women’s 100m gold from Marie-Josee Ta Lou, with Dafne Schippers in bronze.
Olympic champion Elaine Thompson only managed to finish fifth.