London Wrap V

The cold weather didn’t make a ticket at day five of the IAAF World Championships any less hot. Here’s what happened on a heroic night in London.

That’s a lot of energies

This could have gone very wrong.

Luckily, Arnaud Art is OK.

Watch: https://t.co/5hhDoohb0A pic.twitter.com/4fVammEDen

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) August 8, 2017

One of the keys to success in the pole vault is not letting go of your pole. That’s easier said than done when you factor in the mechanical, kinetic, potential, surface, gravitational and elastic potential energy forces buzzing around in athletics’ most technical event. Throw in chilly London conditions – 14ºC, or 57ºF in old money – and the task becomes harder still.

So excuse poor Arnaud Art, of Belgium, for losing his grip early in the pole vault final – won by super-nice American Sam Kendricks with 5.95m – in what turned out to be his last vault. Luckily he escaped without any physical damage.

An intimate moment

In the javelin, Czech Republic’s Barbora Spotakova clinched her second world title ten years on from winning her first. After a competition defined by fantastic crowd suport, the world record holder’s celebrations were rapturous. Yet one couldn’t help feel that there were 55,000 people intruding on a rather intimate moment between her and partner Lukas, who hoisted her aloft in a manner that only your partner should.

Steeplechase > politics

It was the general election in Kenya today, but politics wasn’t the only thing on the minds of those from the east African nation. Check out this leader in Kenyan national paper The Daily Nation. 

With American Evan Jager arriving in London with the world’s fastest steeplechase time, and underlining his gold medal potential with the quickest time in the heats, there was worry among Kenyans that their domination of the event – 11 winners in the last 13 world champs – would be broken. Throw in Olympic champ Conseslus Kipruto’s clearly tetchy ankle (see photo inset from the heat) and there was potential for a national crisis.

Yet Kipruto can never be dismissed, and he unleashed a killer kick coming off the final water jump to run away from Jager and Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali to take gold. The 22-year-old even had time for his trademark wave to the crowd down the home straight, upholding Kenya’s remarkable record in this event with typical swagger.

Non, je ne regrette rien

In the Olympic 800m final last year Pierre-Ambroise Bosse stuck with the breakneck pace set by David Rudisha, only for his legs to wrap up on the home straight resulting in him finishing an agonising fourth. “I wouldn’t have run it any other way,” he said of his approach to the race a week later in Paris.

Still, when he took to the front with 250m to go tonight, it looked like he might have made the same mistake. Yet, the treacle most expected him to hit never materialised, and he held his lead to win a gold medal that few would have anticipated.

“I am a gambler, and today I just gambled. I put everything on the red, even my last Euro,” The Frenchman said after the race.

After his Rio heartbreak last year, tonight’s jackpot will be all the sweeter.

Back tomorrow

The cold conditions in London were not favourable for sprinters. Just like when he won the world title two years ago, Wayde van Niekerk was full of lactic acid after crossing the line first in the men’s 400m final. So full of lactic, in fact, that his post race interview with Iwan Thomas had to be conducted with the both laying flat on their backs.

Let’s hope it clears in time for his 200m semi tomorrow, as he attempts the Michael Johnson double.