The day 5 of the "Eugene World championships" was not good for Africa, whose harvest remains blocked at 6 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze medals. Indeed, Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang completely missed their topic in the 1500m final. Tipped to play the big roles, they finally finished respectively in 6th and 7th place in an event won to everyone's surprise by the British Jake Wightman (3'29''23) ahead of Norwegian Jacob Ingebrigtsen (3:29.47) and the Spanish of Moroccan origin, Mohamed (3'29''90). He ran the race of his life by winning ahead of Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen, the defending world champion, Cheruiyot and the best performer of the season, Kipsang. Eugene was for Africa the failure of a generation which could not fructify the legacy left by the elders like Hicham El Guerrouj and other specialists in the 1500 m.
For the other finals of the day, Africa had no representative. The winners were, for men, Brazilian Dos Santos (46''29 in 4OO m Hurdles), Kristjan Ceh from Slovenia (71m13 in Discus) and in women, Australia’s Eleanor Patterson (2.02m in the High jump).
For lack of medals, Africa can be satisfied with the excellent performances of two sprinters who competed in the semi-finals of the men's and women's 200m. Thus, South Africa’s Luxolo Adams will be the only African who will run the men's 200m final during the night from Thursday to Friday July 22. Finishing 4th in heat 2 during the semi-finals on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday July 20, the South Africa’s sprinter managed to qualify thanks to his time (20''09). The six other Africans who competing in this event were all eliminated.
Like with men, Africa will have to rely on only one representative in the women's 200m final. The 25-year-old Niger’s athlete, Aminatou Seyni, was, indeed, the only African to manage to qualify for the final in all three heats. She finished second in heat 1, with a time of 22.04. Highly expected during these semi-finals, Gambia’s Gina Bass and Namibia’s Béatrice Masinligi have both disappointed. The former could but finish sixth in Heat 1 with a time of 22.71. As for Béatrice Masinligi, she came last in heat 2 with a time of 24.78.
Five Africans will compete today in the final of 3000m steeplechase women and South Africa’s Zeney Van Der Walt in the semi-final of 400m hurdles women. On the men's side, South Africa’s Wayde VAN NIEKERK and Botswana’s Isaac Makwala will compete in the men’s semi-finals of the 400m.
Program of the day
Wednesday July 20 (Thursday GMT)
10:20 p.m.: javelin qualifications women
11:25 p.m.: Women's 5,000 m heats
12:20 a.m.: Men's 800m heats
01:15 a.m.: Women's 400m hurdles semi-finals
1:30 a.m.: Ladies discus final
01:45 a.m.: Women's 400m semi-finals
2:15 am: Men's 400m semi-finals
2:45 a.m.: women’s 3,000m steeplechase final