Melnichenko soars to world heptathlon title
Print Edition
Ganna Melnichenko of Ukraine won the heptathlon gold medal at the world championships yesterday for her first major title.
Melnichenko finished just behind closest rival Brianne Theisen Eaton of Canada in the final 800-meter race, but it was enough to protect her lead. Theisen Eaton earned the silver and Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands took the bronze.
Melnichenko collected 6,586 points, while Theisen Eaton had 6,530 and Schippers had 6,477, a Dutch record.
Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and defending champion Tatyana Chernova both are injured and missed the championships.
Theisen Eaton’s husband, Ashton Eaton, won the decathlon on Sunday. The two were married last month.
Meanwhile, Olympic champion Robert Harting of Germany won his third straight discus world championship title, beating Piotr Malachowski of Poland for gold in Moscow.
Harting threw 69.11 meters and held off Malachowski, who finished with 68.38. Gerd Kanter of Estonia, the 2008 Olympic champion and 2007 world champion, took bronze with 65.19.
Malachowski had ended Harting’s winning streak at 35 meets early in the season but the German still came up big at the most important moment of the season. In a traditional ritual, Harting ripped his shirt apart in celebration of the gold.
Earlier in the day, thinking she had already won the gold medal, Elena Lashmanova came to almost a complete stop.
Inside the Luzhniki Stadium with one lap to go in the women’s 20-kilometer walk, Lashmanova briefly paused but soon got moving again and held on to first place to lead a Russian 1-2.
“The judges didn’t really explain to us that we should do one lap before the home straight and finish, and that is why I stopped,” said Lashmanova, the London Olympic champion and world record holder. “But I quickly understood I should keep going.”
Lashmanova held off teammate Anisya Kirdyapkina with a final burst of speed to give Russia a sweep of the gold medals in the 20K events after Aleksandr Ivanov won the men’s race.
Russians have won seven of the eight women’s 20K walks since the event was added to the program at the 1999 worlds in Sevilla.
Russia even had eyes on a sweep yesterday but Vera Sokolova was disqualified with about 500 meters to go, leaving Liu Hong of China to take bronze.
“It could have been the three of us on the podium,” Lashmanova said.
Because of the walks, the host has moved up the medal standings into second place with five overall and two gold, right behind the United States with six overall and three gold.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
