Previous 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships Coverage

Lots of US athletes kicked things off in the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships on Friday but very few were in events that would reach the final. One who was is Ryan Whiting in the shot put. Whiting grabbed the gold medal for the US to get them off to a great start. More gold medals are sure to follow the rest of the weekend, but first here’s a more detailed recap of all of Friday’s action.

Women’s High Jump

Inika McPherson came very close to moving on to the final of the women’s high jump as she cleared the same 1.92m as the final two qualifiers. The problem for McPherson was that she needed two tries on both 1.92m and 1.88m so she ended up 12th.

Women’s 400m

Two Americans started the day off in the women’s 400m heats and both advanced to the semifinals. In the semifinals Francena McCorory won her heat while Joanna Atkins took third in her’s. Both of those finishes were good enough to advance to Saturday’s final.

Men’s Shot Put

In the men’s shot put Ryan Whiting got the qualification round off to a great start by throwing 20.75m on the first attempt. That automatically qualified him for the final. Kurt Roberts faulted on his first two attempts and managed 20.17m on his third attempt but wasn’t able to qualify for the final. In the final Whiting was in second after two throws but went on top on the fourth attempt by hitting 22.05m. That distance held up as he won the gold over David Storl of Germany.

Men’s 400m

In the men’s 400m heats both David Verburg and Kyle Clemons won their heats to move into the semifinals. Both took care of business and advanced to the final with Clemons second in his heat and Verburg third in his. They will both be racing for medals in the 400m final on Saturday.

Women’s 3000m

 

The women’s 3000m was a good example of how different heats can give you different results. Shannon Rowbury was fourth in her heat and within a second of the heat winner while Gabrielle Grunewald was over five seconds behind her heat winner in sixth. Who was faster overall? You gussed it, of course it was Grunewald whose time would have been second best in the other heat.

Women’s Pentathlon

Sharon Day-Monroe was the only American in the women’s pentathlon and she started it off by finishing fourth in the 60m hurdles leaving her 70 points behind the leader after the first event. In the second event, the high jump, Day-Monroe got stalled on 1.87m and finished on the same height as three other athletes. She was still fourth after two events but the gap was now 141 points to first.

In the third event, the shot put, Day-Monroe finished second with a throw of 14.95 and picked up some ground on the leaders as she moved into second but was still 116 points behind the leader. That comeback didn’t last long as the long jump resulted in a seventh place finish and the gap increased to 187 points putting her out of reach and knocking her down to fourth place.

In the final event Day-Monroe tried to rally back into medal position and won the 800m by 0.27 seconds. Still it wasn’t quick enough as she ended up finishing fourth by just 6 points.

Men’s Heptathlon

Ashton Eaton started his bid to break the world record again in the heptathlon on Friday with the first four events. He started things off great by winning the 60m race and the long jump to get to 2012 points after two events and lead the second place competitor by 142 points.

The final two events of the day, the shot put and the high jump, weren’t as kind for him with fourth and third place finishes. Eaton now only leads by 70 points going into the final day of the heptathlon competition.

You can see in the standings how Andrei Krauchanka was able to wrack up nearly a 150 point margin over Eaton in the high jump, just as Eaton had done to him in the 60m.

Men’s 1500m

Lopez Lomong missed out on a chance to qualify for the men’s 1500m finals as he finished fourth in a heat that was too slow to qualify anyone outside of the top two. Will Leer did advance in third in his heat as he finished over 10 seconds quicker than Lomong. Leer will be racing in the 1500m final on Saturday.

Women’s 800m

The women’s 800m heats are very merit driven. Only the winner of each individual heat plus the next three fastest get into the final. That means if you don’t finish with a good time you probably aren’t going through. That burned Ajee Wilson on Friday as she finished fourth in her heat and wasn’t nearly quick enough to grab a spot based on her time. Chanelle Price was nearly two seconds quicker and advanced despite finishing second in her heat. Wilson will go for the medals in the final on Sunday.

Men’s 800m

There won’t be any men going for the 800m medals as both Erik Sowinski and Nick Symmonds were eliminated on Friday. Symmonds was the quicker of the two and closer to qualifying but both finished fourth in their heats which made it really hard to be quick enough to advance.

Women’s 60m Hurdles

Both US women advanced in the 60m hurdles with Nia Ali winning her heat and Janay Deloach Soukup finishing second in hers. There was a large gap between Ali and Deloach Soukup in the heats with Ali 0.14 seconds faster. Deloach Soukup will almost certainly have to improve her time the semifinals on Saturday if she wants to reach the final. The semifinals and final will both be held on Saturday.

Men’s 60m

In the men’s 60m the US will also have two in the semifinals of an event where the margins can be razor thin. Marvin Bracy came in third in his heat but was just a hundredth of a second behind the winner. Trell Kimmons was significantly slower (.08 seconds is fairly significant in a time of 6.68) but did advance to the semifinals and that was all that really mattered. Both the semifinals and finals are held on Saturday.

Men’s Long Jump

The long jump won’t be a medal opportunity for the US this weekend as Tyron Stewart came close to advancing but just missed out to Luis Rivera of Mexico. Stewart ended up with an 8.00 from his first jump but was topped by an 8.01 on Rivera’s second jump. If you aren’t quite sure how close that is… those numbers are meters so Stewart missed out by one centimeter. Next time you see a ruler take a look at how little that is and how close this long jumping competition was at the last qualification spot.

Women’s 1500m

In the women’s 1500m both Heather Kampf and Treniere Moser finished in the top two in their heats and advanced to the final on Saturday. Kampf was second in her heat while Moser won hers but it was Kampf that was over 1.3 seconds quicker.

Men’s 3000m

The US will have two competitors in the men’s 3000m as well after both Galen Rupp and Bernard Lagat qualified in third place in their distinct heats. Both heats were really tight races with both finishing within 0.4 seconds of the race winner. Rupp and Lagat have Saturday off before racing in the 3000m final on Sunday.

Upcoming:

Another really busy day for the US at the World Championships is on tap Saturday. Ashton Eaton will be the headliner as he goes for another heptathlon win. There will be a lot more finals than the first day and a lot of events getting started as well. After it’s all done head back to WeSupportTheUS.com for coverage of the results.

Schedule:

• March 8th
  • 4 AM ET – Men’s Heptathlon – 60m Hurdles
    • Ashton Eaton
  • 4:05 AM ET – Men’s Triple Jump – Qualification
    • Chris Carter
  • 4:10 AM ET – Men’s 60m Hurdles – Heats
    • Dominic Berger
    • Omo Osaghae
  • 4:15 AM ET – Women’s Shot Put – Qualification
    • Michelle Carter
    • Jeneva McCall
  • 4:40 AM ET – Women’s 60m – Heats
    • Tianna Bartoletta
    • LaKeisha Lawson
  • 5 AM ET – Men’s Heptathlon – Pole Vault
    • Ashton Eaton
  • 5:50 AM ET – Men’s 4x400m Relay – Heats
    • Ricky Babineaux, Kind Butler, Kyle Clemons, Clayton Parros, Calvin Smith, and David Verburg
  • 6:05 AM ET – Men’s High Jump – Qualification
    • Dusty Jonas
    • Erik Kynard
  • 6:15 AM ET – Women’s Long Jump – Qualification
    • Tori Bowie
    • Tori Polk
  • 6:20 AM ET – Women’s 4x400m Relay – Heats
    • Joanna Atkins, Monica Hargrove, Natasha Hastings, Jernail Hayes, Francena McCorory, Cassandra Tate
  • 12:10 PM ET – Women’s 60m Hurdles – Semifinals
    • Nia Ali
    • Janay DeLoach Soukup
  • 12:30 PM ET – Men’s 60m – Semifinals
    • Marvin Bracy
    • Trell Kimmons
  • 12:50 PM ET – Women’s Shot Put – Final
  • 1 PM ET – Women’s 1500m – Final
    • Heather Kampf
    • Treniere Moser
  • 1:20 PM ET – Men’s Heptathlon – 100m
    • Ashton Eaton
  • 1:40 PM ET – Women’s 400m – Final
    • Joanna Atkins
    • Francena McCorory
  • 2 PM ET – Men’s 1500m – Final
    • Will Leer
  • 2:30 PM ET – Men’s 400m – Final
    • Kyle Clemons
    • David Verburg
  • 2:45 PM ET – Women’s 60m Hurdles – Final
  • 3 PM ET – Men’s 60m – Final