LONDON, England – Trinidad & Tobago sprinter Kelly-Ann Baptiste lined up in the women’s 100-meter final at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics for the third time in her professional career Sunday and turned in an eighth-place finish while clocking 11.09 seconds in the final event of the night at the London Stadium.
Baptiste grabbed the eighth and final spot into the final on time with a run of 11.07 (+0.8) in her semifinal heat before crossing the finish line in 11.09 (+0.1) for eighth place in the World Championship final.
American Tori Bowie edged Ivorian Marie-Josee Ta Lou for the World title in the event as she sprinted to a winning seasonal best of 10.85 with Ta Lou scoring the silver medal in 10.86 in one of the most exciting finishes of the meet to-date. Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers, the 2015 World Championship Silver Medalist in the event, added the bronze medal to her resume with a time of 10.96.
Murielle Ahoure of the Ivory Coast finished just off the medal podium in fourth place with a time of 10.98, while reigning Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica was also off the pace in fifth place at 10.98.
For Baptiste, it marked her third career finals appearance in the 100-meter dash at the World Championships after previously winning the bronze medal in her finals debut in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011 before she ran sixth two seasons ago in Beijing, China, in 2015. She remains the only woman from Trinidad & Tobago to ever medal in the 100 meters at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics.
LSU’s 2008 NCAA 100-meter champion will have another opportunity to medal at this year’s World Championships when she returns to the track for the women’s 4×100-meter relay with the preliminary round slated to run next Saturday at 4:35 a.m. CT and final to run later that day at 3:30 p.m. CT.
Sunday’s events at the London Stadium also saw Lady Tiger senior Travia Jones make her World Championships debut for Canada as she lined up in the heats of the women’s 400-meter dash. Jones clocked 54.02 in the first heat to finish in 47th place overall in the qualifying round. She will next run for Canada in the preliminary round of the women’s 4×400-meter relay on Saturday at 5:20 a.m. CT.
Great Britain’s own Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake will kick off Monday’s qualifying in the seventh heat of the men’s 200-meter dash as he makes his World Championships debut in the event. The LSU senior last set a meet record at the British Athletics Championships as he clocked a wind-legal 20.18 to earn his spot on Team GB in the event.
Reigning World Bronze Medalist Cassandra Tate of the United States also competes for the first time on Monday as the 2012 NCAA Champion runs in the second heat of the women’s 400-meter hurdles at 1:30 p.m. CT.