Osaka 2007 Day 8 - The Women's 5000 was our feature event of the day, being that our coverage is mainly middle and distance running with comment provided on other performances of significance from the other events.
Without the presence of Tirunish Dibaba, it seemed a matter of formality for Ethiopia's Meseret Defar to capture the title and so it was. I was amazed that she had the confidence to leave it to a last 200m sprint. The World Championship title joins her already captured Olympic title over the distance.
What was incredible to watch was Roman Šebrle's winning throw in the javelin, his Personal Best (PB) throw of 71.18, moved him into the lead for the first time. Till then Jamaica's Maurice Smith looked to be cruising to victory. The javelin was the 9th event of 10 and with the 1500m to follow it was all but over for the brave Smith who had the Gold wretched away from him with one throw. For Šebrle, it was strange to consider that this was his first Gold at the World Championships, after being dominant on the World scene for so long. Šebrle was in our Fantasy Team, so the win was needed, not that it would make any difference as I had 'faux paxed' with a few late transfers.
Our Athlete of the Day - Roman Šebrle, lesser athletes would have settled for the Silver.
The USA rattled off further Golds on the night by taking both 4x100m titles
Slick, smooth and superb were words which matched both performances
Allyson Felix looks to add the 4x400m Gold tomorrow
Another day and a marathon awaits
Till then
TheEd.
