Chase Jackson Hits On Sixth Round To Move Into Silver; U.S. Gets Three Relays Through, Men's 4x400 Faces Kenya in Morning Run-Off; Shelby Houlihan Fourth In 5,000

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Logan Hannigan-Downs Photos

INTERVIEWS

TOKYO – Anna Hall’s ascension to a global gold medal in the women’s heptathlon may not have happened as quickly as she might have hoped, but on Saturday night at Japan National Stadium she got there.

With the victory all but assured before the seventh and final event, the 800 meters, Hall was able to soak in the moment and celebrate her achievement after scoring 6,888 points.

Hall became the first American to win the World Championships heptathlon since Jackie Joyner-Kersee did it in 1993 and it came after paying her dues. Hall took the bronze in 2022 and the silver in 2023. Last year at the Olympics, she was fifth.

“This represents such a long and hard journey, two surgeries in the past four years, tough losses, heartbreak, kind of losing my love for the sport for a little bit, getting it back," Hall said. "It really represents all of that. So many people had to speak into me for this to happen. This is really just a testament to them."

Hall led the competition from the second event through the seventh. She capped it by winning the 800, one of her strongest events, in 2:06.08. 

Taliyah Brooks of the U.S. was holding onto third place going into the final event and knew she had to stay within five seconds of Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson to take bronze. 

Thompson-Johnson, the 2019 and 2023 champion, finished the 800 in 2:07.38. Brooks got to the line in 2:13.17. 

That produced identical final scores of 6,581 points, behind Hall and Ireland's Kate O'Connor (6,714 points). 

For the first time in World Championships history, it was a tie for bronze. 

"It's cool to share the bronze with KJT. That's someone that most heptathletes have looked up to for a very long time," Brooks said. "I'm proud of my Day 2. I'm glad that it came down to the 800 and I was able to do what needs to be done."

Brooks was fifth after the first day but got the second day started with a massive 6.79m personal best in the long jump. It was a mark that would have placed fifth in the women's long jump last week. 

It's the first time the U.S. has won two medals in the heptathlon since 1987. 

Chase Jackson Takes Silver

It was a long day for the women's shot putters, who faced an early morning wake-up call for the qualifying round at 10 a.m. and then, for the finalists, the championship began at 7:54 p.m. 

It took a toll on the quality of the throws. 

In the first five full rounds of the competition there was only one 20-meter throw. 

Things got more interesting in the sixth round, when Jessica Schilder of The Netherlands threw 20.29m. 

Chase Jackson tried to respond with a big effort on her final attempt and came up eight centimeters short, with 20.21m.

Schilder and Jackson both passed New Zealand's Maddison-Lee Wesche, who threw 20.06m in the first round. Wesche got the bronze. 

"I saw Jess throw far and I thought, last one best one, just go," said Jackson, who said she was dealing with back pain. "If you strain your back, you've got months off, it's going to be fine."

Canada's Sarah Mitton was fourth with 19.81m.

Emmanual Wanyonyi Breaks Championship Record In 800

The men's 800 meters came down to a three-man battle of wills between Kenya's Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Djamel Sedjati of Algeria and Marco Arop of Canada. 

They were practically side by side with 25 meters to go and Wanyonyi was able to get to the line first in a championship-record time of 1:41.86. 

Sedjati got silver in 1:41.90 and Arop took bronze with 1:41.95. 

Beatrice Chebet Edges Faith Kipyegon For 5,000 Title

Kenyan stars Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon, two of the four fastest women of all-time, ran to the gold and silver medals in the women's 5,000 meters final. 

Chebet, who broke the world record at the Prefontaine Classic when she ran 13:58.06 for history's first sub-14 clocking, capped her season in style by defeating Kipyegon, the defending champion and four-time winner of the 1,500. 

Chebet won the sit-and-kick race in 14:54.38 with Kipyegon next in 14:55.07 for her eighth World Championships medal, all of them gold or silver.

Chasing after the two of them, Italy's Nadia Battocletti took the bronze with 14:55.42. 

American Shelby Houlihan found herself in the lead for all but two laps of the race and she finished a strong fourth in 14:57.42, one spot ahead of Ethiopia's Guday Tsegay, the former world record holder and second-fastest woman of all-time. 

Houlihan's fourth was the best ever by an American and Josette Andrews of the U.S. was sixth. 

Relay Madness

The relays continued to be an adventure for sprint powers Jamaica and the United States.

In the 4x400 relay prelims, the U.S. didn’t put enough firepower in the lineup and finished sixth in the first heat.

However, Zambia was disqualified for interfering with both the United States and Kenya. After hours of deliberation, it was announced late Saturday that the U.S. and Kenya had been extended a lifeline. 

The U.S, and Kenya will have a run-off on Sunday morning at 10:40 a.m. Tokyo time. (9:40 p.m. Saturday EST). 

The teams will have to use the same lineups and run in the same lanes as the prelim. The U.S. used a lineup of Bryce Deadmon, Demarius Smith, Christopher Bailey and Jenoah McKiver. 

The U.S. men's 4x100 advanced safely with Christian Coleman, Ronnie Baker, Trayvon Bromell and T'Mars McCallum handing the prelim duty.

Jamaica, which had two medalists in the men’s 100 meters, couldn’t get the stick around in the prelim, thanks to a messy exchange to between Ryiem Forde and Kishane Thompson.

The U.S. women had no problems making it into Sunday’s finals in both relays. Sha'Carri Richardson took the baton from Kayla White to anchor the women's 4x100. Britton Wilson handled the anchor leg for the women's 4x400. 

Botswana, with three men’s 400 meters finalists plus Letsile Tebogo, is the big favorite in the men’s 4x400. The team ran 2:57.68 for the fastest time in the prelims. 

Decathlon

American Kyle Garland enjoyed a good first day in the decathlon and has 4,707 points through five events. He won the shot put with 17.02m, was second-fastest it the 100 (10.51) and also second in the high jump (2.11m).

Sander Skotheim of Norway (4,543), Ayden Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico (4,487) and Leo Neugebauer of Germany (4,455) are the next in line at the midway point. 

Women's Javelin 

South America broke through with a gold medal in the women's javelin. Ecuador's Juleisy Angulo, making her World Championships debut, broke her national record with 65.12m on her second attempt and that stood up as the winner. 

She is the first South American, male or female, to win a World Championship javelin title. 

Anete Sietina from Latvia got a big final throw in round six to move into the silver medal spot, throwing 64.64m. 

McKenzie Little of Australia finished third with 63.58m for her second consecutive bronze medal.