I'll give it a shot! Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo becomes instant hurdler
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Belgium's Jolien Maliga Boumkwo in action during the women's 100m hurdles.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KRAKOW – Talk about taking one for the team.
Belgian shot putter Jolien Boumkwo suddenly had to become an expert in the 100m hurdles at the European Athletics Team Championships on Saturday to avoid her side being disqualified.
Boumkwo clocked 32.81sec, finishing last in the race in Chorzow, Poland won by Spain’s Teresa Errandonea in 13.22sec after stepping in at the last moment to replace injured compatriot Anne Zagre, a specialist in the discipline.
No other hurdler in the Belgian team was available and in the event of a no-show, Belgium would have been disqualified.
“My team is the most important thing for me,” said Boumkwo, 29.
She had to step over the hurdles rather than jump but finished with a huge smile having secured vital points for her struggling team.
“I couldn’t let it happen to lose by one point. That’s why I considered taking part in 100m hurdles.”
On Friday, Boumkwo, who is also Belgian hammer throw champion, had finished seventh in the shot put competition played out as part of the European Games.
After 25 of 37 events and with just Sunday left on the programme, Belgium are 16th and last and face relegation to the second division.
Meanwhile, hurdles queen Sydney McLaughlin’s experiment in the 400m flat appeared to be paying off on Saturday, when she cruised to victory at the NYC Grand Prix in 49.51 seconds, while Noah Lyles showed no loss of form to thrash the 200m field.
McLaughlin wrested the lead at the halfway point from United States teammate and 200m Olympic bronze medallist Gabby Thomas, who was second in 50.29. Jamaican Charokee Young took third in 51.02.
“The flat is definitely harder in my opinion. It’s hard to kind of figure out your cadence mid-race. At least with hurdles, I kind of know where I’m at. It’s a different kind of pain but the challenging good one,” McLaughlin, 23, said.
She took a huge chunk out of her own 400m hurdles world record last year to win the World Championship in 50.68 and become the first woman to break the 51-second barrier in the event.
On the same night, she eyed new territory, saying she was considering a foray into the 400m. She was second in her 400m season debut at the Paris Diamond League in June and said she had deployed a new technique to achieve her personal best at the New York meet.
“Compared to the Diamond League race in Paris, I went out a little more conservatively to kind of feel the back end a little bit better. I did a good job of that,” she said. “Some things to clean up, but a PR is a PR.”
Later at Icahn Stadium, Lyles exploded off the blocks and never ceded the lead to cross the finish in 19.83 and tie retired great Usain Bolt’s record for the most sub-20-second finishes in the 200m.
Issam Asinga of Suriname was second in 20.25 and American Elijah Morrow third in 20.30.
“The main reason I came out here was to make sure that I get up to top speed today. Especially in that first 100. I was really proud of that moment,” said Lyles, who retained his 200m world crown in a US sweep last year.
“A little bit of hitch coming off the turn but nothing to be worried about.”
The ebullient Olympic bronze medallist rolled through the Big Apple less than two weeks before the US trials kick off on July 6 in Eugene, Oregon. The World Championships begin in Budapest on Aug. 19.
American Olympic and world champion Athing Mu cruised to another win in the women’s 800m while Briton Zharnel Hughes broke a three-decade-old British record to win the men’s 100m in 9.83 seconds. AFP, REUTERS
