Yeargin delighted her preparation gamble paid off with bronze medal
Scot helps relay team to third place as Hodgkinson claims silver on final day of championship
NICOLE YEARGIN claims the tough call to shake up her old routine has paid off after helping the British team sign off at the world athletics championships in Oregon with bronze in the women’s 4x400 metres relay.
With Keely Hodgkinson claiming 800m silver earlier on the final night, it took the UK’s tally to seven medals with the Fifer joining fellow Scots Jake Wightman and Laura Muir with a shiny souvenir from the showpiece.
Taking over on the second leg from Victoria Ohuruogu, Yeargin brilliantly clung onto the powerful Americans and Jamaicans to briefly propel Jessie Knight into second at the penultimate changeover.
It was left to Laviai Nielsen to eventually secure third place in 3:22.64 as Sydney McLaughlin rounded off a dominant championships for the hosts with her second gold and a healthy margin over Jamaica.
But US-based Yeargin, who has yet to land a sponsor since turning pro, believes her first major medal proves she is learning her trade.
The 24-year-old said: “I worked all season for this – the hardships, the coaching changes. It’s nice to come home with a medal this time. The biggest thing I changed was my diet and my preparations. I’ve always believed in myself. It’s just the little things behind the curtain that I had to change up this year and it’s paid off.
“I was so excited to keep us in the race. I was really right there. My split of 50.1 was my fastest split. It felt really easy. I was more tired in the heats. And I’m very excited that I kept us in the race and was right behind two dominant teams.
“Last year, with Olympic Games being my first major championships, I DQ’d out.
But here, I made it to the (individual) semi-finals. I got a medal in the relay. And it’s proved to me that we came out with a fight.”
She is due to arrive back in the UK today with the stragglers of the British team splitting up into their separate home nation camps for the Commonwealth Games.
Fifth-ranked from the worlds among the 400m runners bound for Birmingham, Yeargin senses an opportunity to make a name for herself in Scotland colours.
“My coach and I, we’ve been preparing for Commonwealths to be like a worlds,” she said. “Commonwealth is really that time to shine in a sense. And it’s just one of those opportunities – publicity, money-wise, everything – to just kill it.”
Hodgkinson believes she is edging closer to ruling the world after losing out on the 800m title by eight-hundredths of a second. In a repeat of their 1-2 from last summer’s Olympic Games, she was denied by American Athing Mu who held her ground in a punishing sprint between the pair to win in 1:56.30.
But in this fascinating battle that’s set to run and run, the Englishwoman sees the chance of future supremacy.
Hodgkinson said: “I thought I could get her in the last 100m. I went to the inside but the gap was there. I ran to the line and
I am happy with world silver. I got so close, but it is what it is. We have the world champs again next year. I am proud of myself to give myself a chance out there. I believe in myself. Athing is a great athlete. We are both 20 and have many years ahead of us. We’ll meet on a world podium again.”
She will be the hot favourite for gold at the Commonwealths now, ahead of Scottish rival Jemma Reekie who missed out on this final.
But Hodgkinson said: “You have to give everything. The world championships are tiring physically and mentally, but this what I love to do. I have to get mentally ready for Birmingham.”
Elsewhere, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis raised his own men’s pole vault record to 6.21m to claim his first outdoor world title and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen gained some redemption for his loss to Wightman in the 1500m by striking gold over 5000m.
While Nigeria’s Tobi Amuson took the women’s 100m hurdles crown with a windassisted mark of 12.06 secs after setting a world record of 12.12 in her semi-final. British number one Cindy Sember was fifth.