Korir, Pichardo add world titles to Olympic crowns

AFP

Eugene, July 25 : Kenya's Emmanuel Korir and Pedro Pichardo of Portugal added world titles to their respective Olympic crowns on Saturday, but there was injury heartbreak for Canada's Damian Warner in the decathlon.

Two other gold medallists from last year's Tokyo Games had a mixed bag, Indian Neeraj Chopra having to content himself with silver in the men's javelin, but Dutch runner Sifan Hassan leaving Eugene medal-less after finishing sixth in the women's 5000m.

The 4x100m relays saw the US women beat a loaded Jamaican team featuring individual sprint champions Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, to win gold, but a Canadian team anchored by Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse beat the favoured US men's team into silver.

Korir produced a trademark kick from 200 metres out to win the men's 800m in 1min 43.71sec, well ahead of Algerian Djamel Sedjati with silver and Canada's Marco Arop bronze.

Pichardo was imperious in the triple jump, all but tying up the competition when he went out to 17.95 metres on his first attempt. In the absence of American multiple global medal winner Christian Taylor, world and Olympic bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso claimed silver 40cm off Pichardo, while China's Yaming Zhu took bronze.

Warner, also a winner in Tokyo, was in full control of the decathlon after four of the first day's five events, but he pulled up injured a quarter into the 400m.

He was left lying on the track clutching his left hamstring.

Puerto Rico's Ayden Owens-Delermew is now installed as the overnight leader, with the second day of action comprising the 110m hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500m.

Grenada's Peters retained his javelin throw title with a best of 90.54 metres on his sixth and final attempt for victory, having dominated the competition throughout.

Olympic champ Chopra took silver with 88.13m, while Czech Jakub Vadlejch claimed bronze (88.09).

There was also no mercy shown in the women's 5000m, where Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay surged down the home straight to win in 14:46.29 ahead of Kenya's Beatrice Chebet and another Ethiopian, Dawit Seymour.

Olympic champion Hassan could only finish sixth, meaning she will depart Oregon not having made the podium in either the 5,000 or 10,000m.