DPA/Beijing


Allyson Felix was dreading Friday evening because she admitted it would be hard to watch the 200 metres final at the World Championships which she has won three times in the past.
Felix had fancied going for a 200m/400m double as in 2011 but the Beijing schedule had forced her to chose one distance, and she had reluctantly picked the 400m because she felt it was time to move up.
The decision was certainly not wrong as she captured her first big event gold over the full stadium lap in a personal best 49.26 seconds on Thursday, for her ninth world title overall.
But despite the big success, Felix found it hard to not be in her pet event 200m she had competed in at all Worlds since her debut 12 years ago.
“It’s weird. It’s bitter. It’ll be hard to watch. It’s going to be a fantastic race, there’s a lot of talent in there,” she said.
Felix now hopes for a schedule change at next year’s Rio Olympics to be able to do both distances, and has received some encouraging signals from Olympic supremo Thomas Bach over it.
But she was also more than happy with the 400m gold after silver two years ago, naming it “a huge blessing”.
“I felt like I was finally able to put together what I needed to do to execute,” she said.
Felix now has a Worlds tally of 9-1-1 overall and can add to it on the weekend as she is set to compete in both relays, the 4x100m and 4x400m.
Further success there could allow her to leave Beijing level on a record 11 golds with Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt, who has 10 after his 200m win on Thursday and the 4x100m relay still to come.
Felix’ big win was overshadowed by the sheer presence of Bolt on the night and his 200m win, and that also applied to another memorable American win on Thursday, from triple jumper Christian Tayler.
Gradually improving through the rounds in an epic duel with Cuba’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo and narrowly leading by eight centimetres at the time,
Olympic champion Taylor unleashed a monster jump of 18.21m in the second last jump of the competition.
It was the second best hop, skip and jump effort ever, just eight centimetres shy of Jonathan Edwards’ world record 18.29m from 1995.
But Taylor was not assured of success until Pichardo—the season leader until then with 18.08m—had torn down the runway for his final attempt which ended at 17.73m for silver.
“I knew I couldn’t celebrate too much because Pichardo had one more jump. For everything to line up at the world championships is what it’s all about,” Taylor said.
“I didn’t know I’d jump 18.21, but I’m almost at a loss for words,” he added.