Where did it go wrong for the US in Beijing?
THE US totalled six gold medals for the nine-day meet, finishing third in those standings, one behind Jamaica and Kenya. It’s the lowest finish for the US in the gold-medal standings at a single World Championships.
It was projected that the US would break its previous high for Worlds medals (26). Two days before Worlds began, an influential track and field source predicted the US would finish with 31.
The outcome in Beijing was far different.
The US earned zero gold medals in men’s individual track events at a Worlds or Olympics for the first time. It earned one gold medal in women’s track events, Allyson Felix in the 400m.
At these last global championships for track and field before next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the US fell short of many expectations, including a forecast by the trade publication Track & Field News that predicted the Americans would win 31 medals here. Veterans were doing most of the medal winning, with four of the US’s five individual golds going to athletes who have already been world or Olympic champions.
Some rookies made the medal podium, including shot-put gold medallist Joe Kovacs; Shamier Little and Cassandra Tate, who went 2-3 in the women’s 400-metre hurdles; and sprinter Trayvon Bromell, who tied for third in the men’s 100.
In the four hurdles events the US earned only three with Dawn Harper-Nelson and Keni Harrison (100m hurdles) and Bershawn Jackson and Johnny Dutch (400m hurdles) failing to make their finals. Hurdler Ronnie Ash false-started in his heat of then 110m hurdles, while perennial medallist David Oliver finished down the track in the final. Coming into Beijing, the 18 fastest times in the world this year were recorded by five American women.
Trey Hardee and Brittany Reese, both former world champions, pulled out of the decathlon and long jump, respectively, with injuries. The U.S. was felled elsewhere by disqualifications, clipped hurdles and false starts.
Americans fared worse in the distance races. The US earned one medal of any colour in individual races longer than 400 metres — Emily Infeld’s surprise bronze in the 10,000m.
Past Olympic and Worlds medallists Matthew Centrowitz, Leo Manzano, Galen Rupp, Brenda Martinez, Jenny Simpson and Shalane Flanagan missed the podium. As did Evan Jager and Emma Coburn, who were supposed to end US steeplechase medal droughts. No US man or woman has won Olympic gold in a track event longer than 400m since Dave Wottle’s 800m title while wearing a cap at Munich 1972.
Francena McCorory, who had the world’s three fastest 400m times this year going into Worlds, was passed on the final straightaway by Jamaican anchor Novlene Williams-Mills, who was diagnosed with breast cancer two months before she ran in the 2012 Olympics.
Other nations are also getting stronger. Kenya and Jamaica had never before topped a world championships medal table. Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands became the first non-American or Jamaican woman to win the 200 in 12 years. She also took silver in the 100.
