Emma Jackson (City of Stoke) ran brilliantly to finish fifth in her 800m semi final in a new personal best of 1:59.77 at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, on Friday 2 September.

As Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei led the field through a quick first 200 metres Emma sat off the pace with eventual winner Mariya Savinova of Russia a few metres adrift of the rest of the field.  As Jepkosgei went through the bell in 56.53 Emma and Savinova were back in contention having run a more even paced 400 metres.  As they went down the back straight for the final time Emma started to make her through the field followed by Savinova who passed her at around the 600 metre point.  As Savinova continued her charge to take the win in 1:58.45 ahead of Jepkosgei in 1:58.50, Emma ran strongly down the home straight secure fifth place.

Emma said: “I'm really pleased. I know I haven't got to the final but I'm so pleased to get a personal best.  It’s what I came here to do.  It was an amazing quality of race and it could have been a world final in itself.  It was amazing to be out there.  I kept my cool, I ran it at my pace, not other people’s.  I felt I finally ran for me and I felt I ran a lot better than in my heat.”

Commenting on Emma’s semi-final Dame Kelly said: “That was an excellent performance from Emma, I really don’t think she could have run the race any better.  She didn’t go with the fast early pace which meant that she was able to finish strongly and was rewarded with a personal best to cap an excellent breakthrough season for her.  When I set up ‘On Camp with Kelly’ in 2004, with the support of Aviva, my aim was to help talented young middle distance athletes make the transition to being successful senior athletes and it is fantastic to see support from the initiative helping Emma to do that.  Congratulations to her and her coach Alan Morris.”

Emma was drawn in a tough heat on Thursday to qualify for the semi final which featured five athletes with quicker personal bests than her including 2011 World leader Mariya Savinova of Russia and defending champion Caster Semenya of South Africa.  Emma competed well to finish fifth in 2:01.17 and go through to the next round as the quickest of the fastest losers.

Drawn in lane one, Emma came through on the inside to lead at the break alongside Alice Schmidt of the USA, a position she held as they went through the bell in just under 60 seconds.  As Schmidt began to pull away down the back straight Emma was passed by Semenya and Savinova and then by former World Youth champion Cherono Koech from Kenya around the final bend and found herself in fifth position.  She finished strongly down the home straight but couldn’t find a way through the wall of four athletes in front of her and had to settle for fifth behind winner Savinova in 2:01.01, Semenya who clocked the same time, Koech in 2:01.03 and Schmidt in 2:01.11.

After her heat Emma said: “I’m really disappointed.  I could have got fourth but I got blocked off, I made a tactical error.  I felt fine and am really gutted I couldn’t get into fourth, I just couldn’t get round the bodies.  I really hope I’m through and I will run a much better tactical race in the semis.”

Click here for full results on the IAAF website


Photo Mark Shearman