Day 6 IAAF World Champs: Portia's disqualification stands, Camille Buscomb qualifies for 5000m final & Maddison Wesche in women's shot put
In the women’s 5000m Camille Buscomb took full advantage of her invitation to the event from the IAAF, setting a huge PB
of 15:02.19 with a powerful final lap to place 5th in her heat and automatically qualify for the 5000m final. Camille’s
previous best time in the event was 15:19.81.
Camille said she wasn’t sure if she was going to make it through, but thought there was a chance. “As the race went on I
just tried to keep controlled the whole way. It matters what happens on the line, not two laps out.”
“It was pretty messy. There were a lot of girls and the pace wasn’t quite fast enough so everyone was it in. There was
lots of jostling and clipping heels but I was just trying to stay relaxed for as long as possible, because I knew to get
top you have to finish really strong. My goal was to have energy with three laps to go because I knew that I had to
basically kick, because if I couldn’t kick I would get passed and I would not be in the top five.”
Camille will compete in the final at 8.25am NZT on Sunday.
Maddison-Lee Wesche made her IAAF World Championship debut in the women’s shot put. The U20 World Champion with a
personal best of 18.32m, needed to throw 18.40m to automatically qualify for the final or finish in the top 12.
The 20-year-old Aucklander threw 16.55m in the first round and said she felt good after her second round throw of 17.22m
but a no-throw in the third moved her out of contention for the final, placing Maddison 25th overall.
“It was intense out there, exciting, I felt really good coming into it. Wasn’t my best throws and not what I was after
but we’ve got some things to learn from today.”
“I was capable of doing it all and it just didn’t pay off today.” Next up for Maddison is the domestic New Zealand
season.
The protest against Portia Bing’s disqualification was unsuccessful so she will not be competing in the 400m semi-final.
Portia was disqualified for her trail leg not clearing the first hurdle.
Notes:
• Audio of interviews with Maddison and Camille available here.
• Photos of New Zealand athletes are available here (photo credit: Alisha Lovrich)
• Competing on Day 7 (Oct 4 NZT) will be Tom Walsh (Group A, 5.20am) and Jacko Gill (Group B, 6.40am) in the shot
put qualifying.
ends