Schippers shatters European record

BEIJING — Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers smashed a European record which has stood since the 1970s as she won world 200m gold with an electrifying run at the World Championships Friday. The 100m silver-medalist ran 21.63sec, the fourth fastest time in history, as she lunged at the line to beat Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, who clocked a personal best of 21.66sec. It was a remarkable win for Schippers, 23, who eclipsed the European record of 21.71sec set by Marita Koch in 1979 and matched by fellow East German Heike Drechsler in 1986. Only Americans Marion Jones and world record-holder Florence Griffith-Joyner have run the 200m faster than Schippers, who won hepathlon bronze at the Moscow worlds two years ago. Two-time Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who previously won the world title in Daegu in 2011, claimed bronze in 21.97sec. With Thompson on her inside, Schippers was chasing shadows coming off the bend in lane six and realizing the Jamaican was marginally ahead of her, the Dutch athlete plugged away down the final straight. Schippers caught the Jamaican and produced a savage dip at the line for victory before celebrating with family members in the stands. Sergey Shubenkov ran a Russian record to win 110m hurdles gold, storming down the track in 12.98 seconds. Hansle Parchment of Jamaica was second in 13.03 and Olympic champion and world record holder Aries Merritt claimed bronze in 13.04 seconds. American Merritt will have a kidney transplant in Arizona next week. Defending champion David Oliver of the United States hit three of his first four hurdles and was never in the race, finishing seventh in 13.33 seconds. Danielle Williams won the 100m hurdles in 12.57 seconds that didn’t feature an American in the top three. The 22-year-old Jamaican held off Cindy Roleder of Germany, who won silver in 12.59. Alina Talay took bronze in a Belarus record 12.66. Defending champion Brianna Rollins of the US was fourth in 12.67, 0.01 ahead of European champion Tiffany Porter of Britain. Dawn Harper-Nelson, the 2008 Olympic champion, crashed in the semifinals. Tianna Bartoletta won her second long jump world title, 10 years after her first. The American took the lead for the first time in the final when she jumped 7.14 meters with her last attempt. Shara Proctor of Britain took silver with a best mark of 7.07 meters, and Ivana Spanovic of Serbia was third at 7.01. Bartoletta also won the world title in 2005. China won its first gold medal here with Liu Hong winning in the women’s 20-km walk. Liu won in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 45 seconds, finishing only steps ahead of teammate Lu Xiuzhi. Lyudmyla Olyanovska of Ukraine won the bronze medal, 28 seconds behind Liu. Liu, who set the world record in the event in June, has a silver and two bronze medals from the previous three world championships. Italian teammates Eleonora Giorgi and Elisa Rigaudo were in third place at the mid-point of the race but were both disqualified after receiving three warnings for lifting both feet off the ground at the same time. Ashton Eaton set a world record in the decathlon’s 400-meter race, winning his last event of the day in 45.00 seconds. That gave him 4,703 points overall after five events, a lead of 173 over Damian Warner of Canada. The defending Olympic and world champion opened the competition with a championship decathlon record in the 100 when he won his heat in 10.23 seconds. He maintained his lead through the long jump, shot put and high jump and extended it with a commanding finish in the 400. Warner is second with 4,530 points and Rico Freimuth of Germany is in third with 4,406. Eaton and Bill Toomey shared the previous 400 record of 45.68. — Agencies