IAAF World Athletics Championships 2017: Christian Taylor bids to break 22-year-old triple jump world record

Day 6 at IAAF World Championships 2017 saw its fair share of surprises and records being broken. A bronze medal in 400 metres proved to be a bittersweet consolation for US track legend Allyson Felix as she drew level with Jamaicans Merlene Ottey and Usain Bolt on having won 14 world championships medals. In pouring rain, Felix’s unheralded teammate Phyllis Francis ripped up the form book to claim a shock gold, with Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser taking silver just ahead of Felix. It also saw 21-year-old Norwegian Karsten Warholm win his first major title as he stunned favourites Kerron Clement and Yasmani Copello in the 400-metre hurdles. [caption id=“attachment_3914483” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Christian Taylor in action during IAAF World Championships in London. AP[/caption] As we look forward to Thursday’s night’s action, let’s take a closer look at some of the key events and athletes on Day 7. Men’s triple jump final American Christian Taylor bids to achieve his last goal in the event by breaking British great Jonathan Edwards’s 22-year-old world record of 18.29 metres. Taylor has posted the second and fourth best ever marks and is determined to get there so he can then move on to the 400 metres. “Get the world record? Why not here?” said Taylor after qualifying with his first jump. “I made that promise to myself. I hope it is my time. I am staying optimistic. I am chasing that number more than you could ever know.” Women’s 400 metres hurdles final The United States will hope that another of their Olympic champions Dalilah Muhammad will also add world gold to her titles. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs so I’m just pleased I could qualify like that,” said the 27-year-old. Her main opposition could well come from the two-time defending champion Czech Zuzana Hejnova whilst British team captain Eilidh Doyle will hope the home roars of the packed stadium can at the every least carry her into a medal finish. Women’s 5000 metres heats For someone who was running her first race of the season Almaz Ayana did pretty well…running away with the 10,000m title by nearly a minute from a star-studded field. Now she turns her attention to the title she is defending and even with her legendary compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba opposing her the latter suggested that silver in the 10k was more than satisfactory given she is now focusing on the marathon so this could be way too short for her. Britain’s Laura Muir could be an interesting contender if she has got over the disappointment of just being run out of the medals in the 1500m. Men’s 200m final Wayde van Niekerk scraped into the final after finishing an underwhelming third in his semi-final in pouring rain just 24 hours after winning 400m gold. The 25-year-old always knew the world 200/400m double was going to be a tough ask. That was also complicated after Botswana’s Isaac Makwala managed to qualify having been given the chance to run a solo time-trial, having served a 48-hour quarantine period after being diagnosed with the norovirus bug. Women’s 200m semi-finals Defending world champion Dafne Schippers, bronze medallist in the 100m, will seek to advance smoothly to the final. The Dutchwoman, whose chances of overall success were boosted by the withdrawal of newly-crowned 100m champion Tori Bowie, will more than likely be challenged by Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who narrowly missed out on a medal in the blue riband event. With inputs from AFP