Star athletes shine at World Championships (Intro Roundup)

World champions Dafine Schippers and Pawel Fajdek defended their titles on Day 8 of the competition at the London world championships here.

Dutch woman Schippers clocked a season best 22.05 seconds to retain the women's 200m title and Poland's Fajdek clinched his third consecutive world hammer throw title with an attempt of 79.81 meters on Friday night, reports Xinhua news agency.

"It's great, especially with a gold medal, I am very pleased. My secret is enjoying the sport and enjoying my racing. I feel a little bit nervous starting out, but I'm a final runner and I'm grateful for the experience now it's over," Schippers said.

Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Cote d'Ivoire took the 200m silver following her second finish in the 100m with a time of 22.08 seconds. Shaunae Miller-Uibo was third with 22.15.

In a championships full of surprises, Fajdek produced the three best throws of the final pushing Valeriy Pronkin, competing under a neutral banner, into second place in the men's hammer throw with a last round throw of 78.16m while Fajdek's teammate Wojciech Nowicki claimed his fourth major bronze medal with 78.03m.

For American Brittney Reese, it was the chance to regain the women's long jump title and she did not waste it, winning in 7.02m after she bagged the gold medal three times in a row between 2009 and 2013.

Reese said she will dedicate the victory to her late grandfather.

"It has been an emotional few weeks for me after my grandfather passed away two weeks ago. But I was doing this for him and I know he would have been cheering for me. I'm a stronger person than I probably think I am. It has shown me mentally at my best.

"I am feeling great right now and as far as I am concerned, I'll be continuing on to Tokyo 2020. I'm not done yet, I can assure you," she said.

Darya Klishina, one of the Russian athletes competing as an authorised neutral athlete, took silver in the women's long jump with her season's best attempt of 7 meters while another American Tianna Bartoletta finished third with 6.97.

"I was waiting many years (for the 7m mark). I wanted to show this result in an Olympic Games, but I did not have a chance with the whole situation around me.

"Now it was the right time, at a world championships, to jump this," Klishina said.

She is the only Russian who was allowed to compete in athletics at the Rio Olympics as the entire Russian athletics team was banned amid a raging doping controversy.

"I was enjoying this championships and it was without any nerves -- for the first time in my life. It was good for me and I could be focused on just my result," she said.

In the women's 3,000m steeplechase, Olympic bronze medallist Emma Coburn of the United States cut nearly four seconds off the championships record en route to winning in 9:02.58, beating the previous Championships record of 9:06.57 set by Russia's Yekaterina Volkova back in 2007.

The 26-year-old Coburn waited patiently behind world record holder Ruth Jebet of Bahrain and three Kenyan athletes, including defending champion Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi, for most of the race, before charging for the lead together with her teammate Courtney Frerichs in the final lap.

Frerichs took the silver medal in 9:03.77, which is a personal best for the 24-year-old. And the bronze medal went to Jepkemoi with a clocking of 9:04.03.

Jepkemoi's compatriot Celliphine Chepteek Chespol clocked a world under-20 record of 9:15.04 to finish sixth.

--IANS

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