Record for Cherotich and surprise gold for Nader in Tokyo
TOKYO Faith Cherotich and Isaac Nader strode into the international spotlight, while Katie Moon and Mattia Furlani added to their global gold medal hauls on day five of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Kenya’s Cherotich, bronze medallist at the last World Championships and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, ran a championship record to get gold this time, while Portugal’s Nader secured a surprise victory in the men’s 1500m.
USA’s Moon retained her pole vault title with a last-gasp clearance and Italy’s Furlani became the youngest ever men’s world long jump champion.
Cherotich takes leap of faith
Cherotich upstaged world and Olympic champion Winfred Yavi to win the women’s 3000m steeplechase.
The 21-year-old, already a two-time global bronze medallist, tracked Yavi for most of the race, but started to kick with half a lap to go. Flying over the final water jump, she propelled herself into the lead.
Cherotich sprinted away to win in a championship record of 8:51.59, finishing almost five seconds clear of Yavi (8:56.46). Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew took bronze in a PB of 8:58.86.
Results: 1 Faith Cherotich (KEN) 8:51.59 CR, 2 Winfred Yavi (BRN) 8:56.46, 3 Sembo Almayew (ETH) 8:58.86 PB
Nader surprises his rivals
Nader also timed his finish to perfection to take a surprise men’s 1500m win.
All eyes were on the past two world champions – Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman – and medal hope Niels Laros in the early stages. But on the penultimate lap, Kerr was struck by a leg injury.
Wightman took the lead with 200m to go and appeared to be on his way to victory, just about holding off the rest of the pack. But Nader emerged from the group in the closing stages to take victory by 0.02 in 3:34.10.
Wightman secured silver in 3:34.12 and Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot got bronze in 3:34.25.
Results: 1 Isaac Nader (POR) 3:34.10, 2 Jake Wightman (GBR) 3:34.12, 3 Reynold Cheruiyot (KEN) 3:34.25
Moon retains pole vault title
Katie Moon clinched her third consecutive world pole vault title with a last-gasp clearance of 4.90m.
She had been locked in battle with her US compatriot Sandi Morris up to that point. After Moon managed that season’s best height on her third and final attempt, Morris took a chance and moved the bar to 4.95m, with one attempt remaining.
But it was a bar too far and so Morris secured a fourth World Championships silver medal since her first in 2017. Moon went on to have one attempt at 5.01m and then called it a day, her crown secured.
Bronze went to Slovenia’s Tina Sutej on 4.80m.
Results: 1 Katie Moon (USA) 4.90m, 2 Sandi Morris (USA) 4.85m, 3 Tina Sutej (SLO) 4.80m
Furlani flies to first outdoor global gold
Furlani added the outdoor world long jump crown to the world indoor title he claimed in Nanjing in March, soaring 8.39m.
In doing so, he becomes the youngest winner of this event at the World Athletics Championships.
The 20-year-old managed his eventual winning mark in the fifth round to leap ahead of Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle, who had jumped 8.34m to equal his season’s best in the fourth round. That remained his best of the competition and so Gayle secured silver with a distance just a single centimetre farther than Shi Yuhao of China’s leap from the second round for bronze.
Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer was just three centimetres off that to narrowly miss out on a medal.
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