IN ONE of the top-billed and most anticipated finals of the 14th IAAF World Championships, and just hours after Milnathort’s Laura Adam had performed heroically on the same track, Kinross-shire’s Eilidh Child narrowly missed a medal in a classic women’s 400m hurdles final.
Child, who this year has twice broken the Scottish national record, finished strongly in fifth in 54.86. But if she had replicated anything close to her season’s best of 54.22, she would have taken bronze.
In the same race there was sad news for Britain as medal-hope Perri Shakes-Drayton clattered a barrier and trailed across the line in seventh place, with the gold going to the pre-race favourite Zuzana Hejnova of the Czech Republic in 52.83.
Drawn in lane eight and unable to see the race inside her, 26-year-old Child struggled to stay in contention and was run down by several girls. But it came together on the home straight and she finished strongly on the run-in for a very creditable fifth place.
“It was just a messy race,” she said. “If I’d run how I’ve been running then I would have got on that podium, but that’s just the way championships go. The times just kind of go out the window when that happens.
“It was all right, I’m happy enough, but I’ll reflect on it better in the morning. It’s the third big race in four days and sometimes the legs haven’t got it in them.”
The Pitreavie AC star thought her chance of a medal was blown on the back straight.
“I lost my strides approaching the third hurdle and was just fighting to catch up after that. I lost time and a bit of momentum and I’m annoyed about it.
“In the semi I struggled on the home straight and out there it was the back straight, while the home straight was really good. So If I can just combine the two…”
She said she hopes to follow the pattern set by her Bath-based training partner and former world champion Dai Greene.
“He was seventh in Berlin. Then in the next year he went on and won the Europeans and the Commonwealths. So I’m like, ‘Right, I’ll win the European and Commonwealths next year.’ Then the following year he won the worlds, so I’ll win the worlds!’ That’s the plan I’ll follow in Dai’s footsteps.”
As for Londoner Shakes-Drayton, she must have thought last night that she might follow in Sally Gunnell’s footsteps.
It is almost 20 years to the day since Gunnell won the world 400m hurdles title in Stuttgart in a then world record of 52.74.
Instead, the 24-year-old sustained an injury to her left knee after the first hurdle and finished in seventh in 56.25. In tears and pain, she was hugged and consoled by Child.
Scotland’s Jamie Bowie was given a start in the heats of the men’s 4×400 relay and the Inverness Harrier, a surprise GB selection, rose to the occasion.
Led off by Conrad Williams (45.3 secs), there was nothing in it until Michael Bingham (45.6) handed a two-metre second-leg deficit to Bowie, with a strong Jamaican team ranked second in the world in the lead.
The 24-year-old Highlander (44.8) set off and matched the leader stride for stride, coming alongside him in the home straight for a smooth changeover to Martyn Rooney (44.8), who crossed the line behind the Jamaican anchorman in second place in 3:00.50.
Bowie, who works as an athletics development officer for East Lothian and trains at Pitreavie in Dunfermline, was delighted to be involved.
“It was good, it was really good,” he said. “It was my first senior international and it’s the world championships as well, so I came in not expecting a run. I did some really good training in Barcelona at our holding camp and here I am on third leg in the heat!
“I’m quite happy with that one today. I’m here to learn and it’s been a great experience. It’s been pretty phenomenal.”
Despite his fast 44.8 split, Bowie was quite relaxed over team selection for tonight’s final.
“I want the strongest team to go in, and if that means I have to step aside and Nigel (Levine, the British champion,) comes in, then that’s what we need to do. A 4x400m is not about individuals, it’s about a group of athletes. So I’m just happy that we go in with the best team possible to that final.”
Later, Robbie Grabarz, who won bronze for Britain at the 2012 Olympics, exited the men’s high jump final in eighth place, failing three times to clear 2.32 metres. Gold went to the Ukraine’s Bohdan Bonda-renko who soared over 2.41m before electrifying the crowd with three attempts at a new world record of 2.46.
Jodie Williams was in a hot semi-final of the women’s 200m and could finish only seventh in 23.21. A showdown between two sprinting greats, Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, now awaits in the final.
The last event of the evening the women’s 1500m final saw British champion Hannah England run the best race of her season to finish just out of the medals in fourth.