Melissa Bishop breaks Canadian 800m record at track worlds
Mark had stood since 2001
With an outstanding surge down the final home straight, Melissa Bishop broke the Canadian women's 800-metre record in Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium Thursday to win her semifinal heat.
Bishop's time of 1 minute 57.52 seconds was exactly two seconds faster than her previous personal best and was the fastest of all qualifiers.
Her thoughts immediately turned to Diane Cummins, who had held the record at 1:58.31 since 2001, and to Saturday's final.
"I need to call Diane. I'm really excited," said the 27-year-old, who hails from Eganville, Ont. "I need to start preparing [for the final], it's coming up quick. I don't have a lot of time.
Bishop found space between Kenya's Eunice Sum and Belarus' Marina Arzamasoma and simply outmuscled the talented pair. Sum has not lost an event since the 2014 Monaco Diamond League meet.
"[Coach Denis Fairall] said to run my own race, stay calm and stay composed," Bishop said. "The race can get tense so it's important to stay in my space."
Canada's Fiona Benson also ran a tactically sound race to finish a non-qualifying fifth in her semifinal with a personal best of 1:59.59.
"A new PB. I can't complain," Benson said. "My tactics need a lot of work."
Nettey leaps into final
Despite a couple of sub-par attempts, Christabel Nettey leaped 6.79 metres on her third jump to advance to the final of the women's long jump competition. The automatic qualifying standard was 6.75m.
Nettey has enjoyed a brilliant year under the guidance of revered American coach Dan Pfaff. It was Pfaff who guided Canada's Donovan Bailey to the 1996 Olympic 100m gold medal and, more recently, Britain's Greg Rutherford to the Olympic and world long jump titles.
Nettey, from Surrey, B.C., says she doesn't feel pressure to win a medal for Canada despite the fact that her personal best (and Canadian record) 6.99m ranks her second in the world this year behind the 7.12m of American Tianna Bartoletta.
"I think I'm going to go out there and have fun and execute what I've been doing all season, and hopefully God gives it to me," she said.
Hurdlers advance
Both Canadian entrants in the women's 100m hurdles advanced to Friday's semifinals.
Nikkita Holder found her form at the right time, racing to a second-place finish in her heat in 12.86 seconds. After giving birth to a son in 2013 she has slowly come back, earning a bronze at the Pan Am Games and now making the world championship semis.
"I can't complain about 12.86. It's a good start," she said. "I've got to get faster on the first hurdle."
Phylicia George finished fifth in her heat and went through to the semis on her time of 13.03.
"My start really threw me off," said George. "So I was kind of out of it from there on.
"This hasn't be the most amazing season for me, so I'm just trying to get things back to a decent place so Rio will be good next year."
Philibert-Thiboutot survives
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot advanced to the 1,500 semifinals on time after finishing seventh in his heat in a time of 3:39.72. The first six qualified automatically.
The native of Quebec City showed tremendous tactical nuance after the race went out very slow for the first two laps before defending world and Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya wound the pace up to a flat-out sprint.
"I was expecting it to go that way," the Canadian said. "Unfortunately with 200 metres to go I kind of got boxed. A French guy stumbled in front of me and I cut my stride. I was able to hang on to seventh and thankfully it was enough to go through."
Canadians eliminated
Earlier, Nicole Sifuentes finished 11th in a 12-woman 5,000m field in 15:50.99 and once again refused to talk with reporters in the mixed zone. Earlier in the week she had also run the 1,500m, finishing a non-qualifying eighth in 4:12.82.
Khamica Bingham finished sixth in her 200m semifinal with a time of 23.03 seconds while Kim Hyacinthe was seventh in her heat in 23.07. Both said they will set their sights now on Saturday's women's 4 x100m relay heats.
Jonathan Cabral set a new personal best in the 110m hurdles with a time of 13.37 seconds. That earned him fourth place in his semifinal heat but he also did not advance.