It was a pretty surprising qualification for the women's hammer throw final yesterday.
Anita Włodarczyk and Brooke Anderson have made 25 of the 27 longest throws ever recorded, but neither made a successful throw. Włodarczyk hasn't failed to win a championship she's partcipated in since the 2011 World Championships, and Anderson became the third woman to make a throw longer than 80 metres earlier this year.
Włodarczyk is obviously not at her best anymore, but she has made throws this year that would have put her in to the final.
Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon had their own Tamberi/Barshim moment in the pole vault. I was happy that Kennedy didn't lose the gold, because Moon was very lucky, that she didn't push down the bar during her 4.90 clearance.
Well, more importantly, the mighty heroine Wilma Murto got the bronze! She's really come on in leaps and bounds lately, and while she's still a little bit behind the very best, she's really likable and surprisingly emotional and expressive for the famously stone-faced nation of Finland, so I'm really pleased for her.
I just wonder with two high profile shared golds in succession whether IAAF may consider rule changes around this. I remember what a wholesome moment it was with Barshim and Tamberi at Tokyo only for Michael Johnson to immediately poo-poo it with the - completely reasonable - argument that of course they'd agree to share it, because it guarantees them a gold medal. If you're in joint 1st and you go to a jump-off, the only thing that you can do is lose out by being downgraded to silver. It kind of took the gloss off it, and for me it's hard not to feel - as you mention - that Kennedy vaulted better because of Moon's fortune on that clearance. But at the end of the day it's not ski jumping, style points don't come into it, so Moon cleared that height and competition continued, so that can't - and shouldn't - be taken away from her.
I'm a big fan of Murto, but nothing had me more nervous in these championships than the hurdles. With McLaughlin not in attendance this was Bol's big chance to achieve some medals at this level; she's absolutely cleaned up all the lower level stuff like the DL, continental tours, indoor Worlds and the European Championships, but hadn't been able to get a World or Olympic title because despite now being the second fastest hurdler of all time she had the misfortune to appear at the same time as the fastest, so lots of weaker athletes relative to field than she is have had a far stronger palmarès at the World level because of competing in an era where they weren't going against the strongest athlete in the discipline of all time. Plus of course McLaughlin almost never races and even when she does it's only ever outside the USA at championships, so we hardly ever get to see her and experience her performance first-hand so she's a lot harder to build a connection to and support for for those of us outside the US.
I know she was always likely to win at a canter, and indeed she did, but after tying up in the last 100m and then the catastrophic fall in the Mixed Relay I just had that nagging doubt. I've cheered for people like Heidi Weng and Emma Johansson over the years, I know how to suffer.
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