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.Shubenkov cannot believe it
Sergey Shubenkov, the double European champion, is now the world champion after the run of his life in Beijing today.
Drawn in lane seven, Shubenkov did not make the best of starts but the rest was magnificent as he powered to gold in a Russian record of 12.98, smashing his old time of 13.06.
He looked to the skies at the finish as though he could not believe it.
Second was Hansle Parchment, of Jamaica, in 13.03, with American Aries Merritt, just a few days before having a kidney transplant, third in 13.04.
Shubenkov, 24, has become such a brilliant championship performer over the past six years, since winning silver at the European juniors in Novi Sad.
In 2011 he won gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships before becoming European champion in Helsinki 2012, a title he retained in Zurich 12 months ago.
After world bronze in Moscow 2013, he was simply electric in a race where Merritt led before Shubenkov came through in the second half with a run where he was never going to be overtaken.
Europe had much to celebrate too in the final race of the day, the 100m hurdles, as Germany’s Cindy Roleder ran a personal best (12.59) for silver and Belarusian Alina Talay (12.66) broke the national record in third as Jamaican Danielle Williams (12.57) triumphed.
The two Europeans were ecstatic at the finish as they embraced when the scoreboard flashed up their times.
Britain’s European champion Tiffany Porter (12.68) had led at halfway and finished fifth due to a poor finish.
Proctor so close to gold
Britain’s Shara Proctor looked set for gold in the long jump as she led (7.07m) going into the final round before American Tianna Bartoletta leaped 7.14m to overtake her.
But she was still all smiles after breaking her own national record by nine centimetres in a superb competition where Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic took her national mark from 6.91m in qualifying to 7.01m today – a distance she jumped twice.
It brought her bronze for the second world championships in a row and for a long time looked like it might be gold.
Spanovic set the standard with that 7.01m in the first round before Proctor’s jump in the third round changed the order until Bartoletta’s response.
Olyanovska walks her way to bronze
Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Olyanovska had one of the best days of her career as she won bronze in the 20km walk.
Olyanovska, the European silver medallist, was left delighted with her brilliant performance as she finished third in 1:28.13 as China’s Hing Liu beat her teammate Xiuzhi Lu in a thrilling finish with both being given the same time of 1:27.45.
Anezka Drahotova, of the Czech Republic, had been the first European to make an impression in the early stages but as she dropped off, Olyanovska moved closer to the leaders.
In the final 5km she edged even nearer before making her move for a podium spot.
Olyanovska’s teammate Bohdan Bondarenko, the defending champion, went over 2.31m at the first attempt to book his place in the high jump final. He started at 2.22m, passed at 2.26m, had one failure at 2.29m before the height needed to ensure progress.
Freimuth looks good on day one
Germany’s Rico Freimuth is third after the first day of the decathlon, where he maintained outstanding consistency, with 4406 points as America's Ashton Eaton (4703) leads from Canada’s Damian Warner (4530).
Freimuth was third after the opening event, the 100m, as he ran 10.51 with Eaton setting the early standard (10.23) before the long jump where his German teammate Michael Schrader (7.71m) was second overall.
Eaton (7.88m) once more had the best jump with Freimuth in eighth (7.51) and the leading European in fourth at this stage (1910) from Eaton (2070).
Freimuth then banked top points from the shot put with 15.50m from the second round which saw him move back into third (2730) as Eaton led (2830) from Warner (2747).
Estonia’s Maicel Uibo and Belgium’s Thomas van der Plaetsen shared first place in the fourth event, the high jump, with 2.13m to score 925 points but Freimuth remained the best European overall.
He dropped back to fourth, after a best of 1.95m, with 3488 from Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov (3434) and fellow German Kai Kazmirek (3434) as Eaton led with 3643.
Kazmirek (46.83) was second best in the day’s final event, the 400m, which Eaton dominated with a world decathlon best (45.00) with Freimuth seventh overall (47.30).
In the women’s javelin, European champion Barbora Spotakova (65.02m), of the Czech Republic, and Germany’s defending champion Christina Obergfoll (64.10m) both eased into the final.