Anthonique Strachan of Bahamas celebrates after winning the gold medal on the Women's 100 metres Final on the day two of the 14th IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona (© Getty Images)
old Anthonique Strachan became the first woman since Veronica Campbell back in 2000 to achieve the 100m/200m sprint double at the IAAF World Junior Championships.
The Bahamian who had set a World Junior leading 11.20 to win the shorter sprint 2 days ago, sliced 17 hundredths of a second off her personal best to improve the Championships record to 22.53, a time which is also the fastest by any junior in the world this year.
Strachan was head and shoulders above the rest of the field taking the win by 62 hundredths of a second, the biggest ever winning margin in the history of the event. Yet the photo finish was needed, although not to determine the winner, as the US pair of Olivia Ekpone and Dezerea Bryant were both timed at 23.15, a PB for the former who was also given the nod for silver.
Drawn in lane 6, Strachan benefitted from the explosive start of the diminutive Bryant on her outside but it didn’t take long before she sped past her North American rival. Coming into the home straight Strachan put daylight between herself and Bryant with Desiree Henry of Great Britain, only just 16 years of age and the World Youth champion from Lille 2011, running from lane 4 just behind.
While Strachan was in a class of her own ahead of the field, the battle for the minor medals was fiercer with each stride, the strongest surge coming from Ekpone in lane 5. The 2 Americans dipped to the line and grabbed the remaining medals while Henry faded to fourth in 23.34.
Janet Amponsah (23.41) in fifth, Imke Vervaet (23.47) in sixth and Dina Asher-Smith in seventh also set personal best times.
Before the 200m final, Strachan had stepped on the track to anchor her team’s 4x100m relay heat but as it turned out she never actually got to run the race as her team-mate Rashan Brown pulled a hamstring in the final bend.
It was a well-deserved redemption for the Bahamian sprinter who put her country in current fifth in the medal table.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
The Bahamian who had set a World Junior leading 11.20 to win the shorter sprint 2 days ago, sliced 17 hundredths of a second off her personal best to improve the Championships record to 22.53, a time which is also the fastest by any junior in the world this year.
Strachan was head and shoulders above the rest of the field taking the win by 62 hundredths of a second, the biggest ever winning margin in the history of the event. Yet the photo finish was needed, although not to determine the winner, as the US pair of Olivia Ekpone and Dezerea Bryant were both timed at 23.15, a PB for the former who was also given the nod for silver.
Drawn in lane 6, Strachan benefitted from the explosive start of the diminutive Bryant on her outside but it didn’t take long before she sped past her North American rival. Coming into the home straight Strachan put daylight between herself and Bryant with Desiree Henry of Great Britain, only just 16 years of age and the World Youth champion from Lille 2011, running from lane 4 just behind.
While Strachan was in a class of her own ahead of the field, the battle for the minor medals was fiercer with each stride, the strongest surge coming from Ekpone in lane 5. The 2 Americans dipped to the line and grabbed the remaining medals while Henry faded to fourth in 23.34.
Janet Amponsah (23.41) in fifth, Imke Vervaet (23.47) in sixth and Dina Asher-Smith in seventh also set personal best times.
Before the 200m final, Strachan had stepped on the track to anchor her team’s 4x100m relay heat but as it turned out she never actually got to run the race as her team-mate Rashan Brown pulled a hamstring in the final bend.
It was a well-deserved redemption for the Bahamian sprinter who put her country in current fifth in the medal table.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
