Salmon falls victim to pace of 400mh final

Jamaica’s Shiann Salmon faded to eighth place in the women’s 400m hurdles final as the Netherlands’ Femke Bol lived up to her billing as pre-race favourite to land the World Championship title in Tokyo.

On a cooler night than usual Salmon began encouragingly and was on the pace of Bol and early second-place runner Anna Cockrell, from the United States, over the opening two hurdles.

Maybe it was because she had gone off too fast but the 26-year-old Olympic finalist and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Salmon began dropping back as she was overcome by the rest of the field.

Salmon recorded a time of 56.27, as the outstanding Bol went on to clock a world-leading time of 51.54.

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