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Aug 03, 2023

Bol hauls Dutch to 4x400m relay gold in final act of World Championships

Femke Bol concluded the World Athletics Championships here with a stunning anchor leg to carry The Netherlands to women's 4x400 metres relay victory, and Ukraine won their first gold through Yaroslava

Femke Bol concluded the World Athletics Championships here with a stunning anchor leg to carry The Netherlands to women's 4x400 metres relay victory, and Ukraine won their first gold through Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women's high jump.

Bol overturned a huge deficit to Jamaica and Britain on the final lap to sprint to a sensational victory in a world-leading 3min 20.72sec with team-mates Eveline Saalberg, Lieke Klaver and Cathelijn Peeters.

It was a sweet moment for Bol, who also won women's 400m hurdles gold in Budapest, and ensured she came full circle after a fall as she looked set to take the Dutch to mixed 4x400m relay victory on the opening night.

Jamaica were second with a season's best 3:20.88, and Britain took third in 3:21.04.

Almost simultaneously, Ukraine won their first gold of the World Championships through Olympic bronze medallist Mahuchikh, who was the only athlete to clear 2.01 metres and upgraded the silvers she had won in Doha in 2019 and Eugene last year.

Defending champion Eleanor Patterson of Australia earned silver with a first-time clearance at 1.99m, and compatriot Nicola Olyslagers completed the podium by clearing the same mark at the second attempt.

Kenya's Mary Moraa won a thrilling women's 800 metres final among the other highlights of the final night.

She improved last year's bronze to gold in a personal best 1:56.03, denying the world leader Keely Hodgkinson of Britain who finished second in 1:56.34 and defending world and Olympic champion Athing Mu of the United States who was third in 1:56.61.

Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen put his shock men's 1500m defeat to Britain's Josh Kerr behind him with an impressive defence of his 5,000m title, posting a time of 13:11.30 to deny Spain's Mohamed Katir by just 0.14sec.

Jacob Krop of Kenya completed the top three in 13:12.28.

A world-leading time of 8:54.29 helped Bahrain's Winfred Yavi to win the women's 3,000m steeplechase, pulling clear of Kenya's Beatrice Chepkoech on the final lap to triumph by 4.69.

Faith Cherotich doubled Kenya's presence on the podium in 9:00.69.

The US were the other winners on the track, taking their gold medal tally for the Championships up to 12 with a fourth relay success in the men's 4x400m.

Quincy Hall, Vernon Norwood, Justin Robinson and Rai Benjamin dominated the race and crossed the finish line in 2:57.31.

After it was revealed French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra had summoned French Athletics Federation leaders to a meeting on Tuesday (August 29) to explain their disappointing performance in Budapest less than one year before their home Olympics in Paris, the country won its first medal of the Championships.

They took silver in 2:58.45, with bronze going to Britain in 2:58.71.

Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra was the other winner on the final night, providing a first gold medal for India with an 88.17 metres throw on his second attempt in the men's javelin.

Pakistan's Arshad Nadeem produced a season's best 87.82m for silver, and an 86.67m from Jakub Vadlejch on his fifth attempt took bronze for the Czech Republic, relegating Germany's Julian Weber to fourth with 85.79m to ensure his country finished without a medal.

Afterwards, the World Athletics flag was passed from Budapest to the host of the next World Championships Tokyo, which is set to stage the event in 2025.

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Patrick Burke is a reporter at insidethegames.biz, having joined the team in 2021. He started out as the programme editor for local non-league football club Cammell Laird 1907 in 2014 at the age of 15, and went on to serve as the club's media officer for six years, all on a voluntary basis. He studied history at the University of Sheffield from 2017, graduating with a first-class honours degree in 2020 where his dissertation was on the People's Olympiad in Barcelona in 1936. Whilst at Sheffield, Burke was sports editor and then deputy editor of Forge Press, one of the United Kingdom’s leading student newspapers. Burke spent a summer studying at Waseda University in Tokyo in 2018, and during sixth form travelled to Sierra Leone on an immersion retreat as well as the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.