Buscomb into 5000m final
In the women’s 5000m at the world athletics championships in Doha, Camille Buscomb took full advantage of her invitation to set a huge personal best of 15:02.19.
With a powerful final lap to finish fifth in her heat she automatically qualified for the final and also for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Buscomb’s previous best time in the event was 15:19.81. She said she wasn’t sure if she was going to make it through, but thought there was a chance.
‘‘As the race went on I just tried to keep controlled the whole way. It matters what happens on the line, not two laps out,’’ she said.
‘‘It was pretty messy. There were a lot of girls and the pace wasn’t quite fast enough so everyone was it in.
‘‘There was lots of jostling and clipping heels but I was just trying to stay relaxed for as long as possible, because I knew to get top you have to finish really strong.
‘‘My goal was to have energy with three laps to go because I knew that I had to basically kick, because if I couldn’t kick I would get passed and I would not be in the top five.’’
Maddison-Lee Wesche made her world championship debut in the women’s shot put.
The U20 world champion with a personal best of 18.32m, needed to throw 18.40m to automatically qualify for the final or finish in the top 12.
The 20-year-old Aucklander threw 16.55m in the first round and said she felt good after her second round throw of 17.22m but a no-throw in the third moved her out of contention for the final, placing her 25th overall.
‘‘It was intense out there, exciting, I felt really good coming into it. Wasn’t my best throws and not what I was after but we’ve got some things to learn from today.’’
Meanwhile, the protest against Portia Bing’s disqualification was unsuccessful so she will not be competing in the 400m hurdles semifinal. Portia was disqualified for her trail leg not clearing the first hurdle.