Dafne Schippers stretched out on the track and she just did not want to get up. It was as though she was absorbing every single second of what she had just achieved.
Two years on from being a bronze medal-winning heptathlete at the IAAF World Championships and four days after being a 100m silver medallist, she was now the golden girl of the 200m.
But there was more.
As she triumphed in 21.63, Schippers broke the long-standing European record of 21.71, held jointly by Marita Koch (1979) and Heike Drechsler (1986) and it was the first Dutch triumph in a sprint event at an outdoor world event since Fanny Blankers-Koen and her golden success at the London Olympic Games in 1948.
"I cannot believe it," said Schippers. "What a championship it has been for me."
Schippers’ run took her to third on the all-time world list with a championship record as she beat Jamaicans Elaine Thompson (21.66) and Veronica Campbell-Brown (21.97) with Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith fifth in 22.07, breaking Kathy Cook’s national record of 22.10 that had stood for 31 years.
Less than a year out from the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam, the Netherlands now have one of the biggest stars in world sport, a sprinter who won double European gold last summer in Zurich and is now one of the favourites for Olympic glory next summer too.
She ran what proved the perfect race, not starting as fast as might have been expected but with so much left as she came through to overtake Thompson and snatch the most amazing victory.
POS | ATHLETE | COUNTRY | MARK |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Dafne SCHIPPERS | NED | 21.63 |
2 | Elaine THOMPSON | JAM | 21.66 |
3 | Veronica CAMPBELL-BROWN | JAM | 21.97 |