World championships: Olympics champions falter on day of upsets

EUGENE (USA), July 20

Karsten Warholm’s hopes of winning a third straight World Championships title were dashed while Britain’s Jake Wightman felled reigning Olympics 1,500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen on a day of upsets on Tuesday.

Kristjan Ceh dethroned Olympics champion and 2019 winner Daniel Stahl in the discus final and Eleanor Patterson outdid Yaroslava Mahuchikh to win women’s high jump gold.

Norwegian Olympics champion Warholm, who tore his hamstring at the Rabat Diamond League meet in June, struggled down the final metres of the 400m hurdles to finish seventh as Brazilian Alison dos Santos took gold in 46.29 seconds.

In the 1,500m, Wightman took a surprise gold as he beat hot favourite Ingebrigtsen, with his father Geoff calling him home as the Hayward Field stadium announcer. “That’s my son and he’s world champion,” Geoff told the crowd. — Reuters