IAAF World Athletics Championships

Two Morpeth Harriers were very much in competitive action at the first day
of the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Beijing, China,
in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In the first round heats of the Women’s 1500m,
Laura Weightman managed to qualify for Sunday’s Semi Finals,
when finishing sixth in the third heat, in a time of 4m06.13s.
Weightman’s Great Britain colleague Laura Muir of Dundee,
also managed qualification, when she finished
second in the first heat in 4m05.53s.

After crossing the finish line Weightman unfortunately
took a nasty tumble, as a result of catching a spike on the track,
and suffered a graze to her forehead just above her right eye,
hopefully she will recover in time before lining up in her semi final,
as the fifteenth fastest qualifier  in the competition overall.

Morpeth Harriers other representative was
Marathon runner Serod Batochir of Mongolia,
who has a best of around 2hrs08mins for the distance.
Batochir may have paid the penalty however here,
because some early enthusiasm saw him go
to the front before 10mile had been completed.

However after his few moments of glory, which were captured
in full by TV coverage, he eventually drifted back into the pack,
and then went off the pace to finish a disappointing 38th,
in an equally disappointing 2hrs32m09s.
The event was won by Eritrea’s Ghirmay Ghebreslassie
in a time of 2hrs12m28s,
the youngest ever winner of the event.

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