Love it: Husband-wife win silvers in stunning night at track

ne of m could believe it. t woman who pulled off biggest upset of world championships. t woman she beat. And certainly t that second-place finisher’s husband _ decathlete Maicel Uibo, who walked away with a silver medal that was almost as big a surprise as one his wife is taking home. On a warm-and-fuzzy kind of night at track where thing went quite as expected, Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo suffered her first loss in 400 meters in more than 25 months despite shattering her personal-best time by more than half-a-second. woman who beat her was 21-year-old Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, whose time of 48.14 seconds was fastest since 1985 and third-fastest ever. When Naser crossed finish line and saw her time, her jaw dropped in a look of utter amazement _ a far cry from Miller-Uibo’s stony glare at scoreboard: How could she run 48.37 and lose?

“I still can’t believe time,” Naser said. “When I saw time, I went completely crazy. I was training so hard but I never expected to run this fast.”

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'Expecting unexpected'

But this Thursday night at Khalifa International Stadium was a night for expecting unexpected. Uibo, decathlete, certainly didn’t come out of anywhere, but neir was he at top of list of medal candidates. Since winning NCAA title competing for Georgia in 2015, he had never captured an international decathlon competition. In last world, in 2017, he didn’t finish. At Olympics in 2016, he finished 24th. He was coming off leg and shoulder injuries that had forced him to miss a big chunk of 2018-19, and that had turned his javelin throw into a crapshoot. But midway through second day of 10-event endurance test, world record holder Kevin Mayer got bounced after failing to record a mark in pole vault, while ar top contender, Lindon Victor, met a similar fate in discus throw. Meanwhile, Uibo had been slowly climbing up standings, from sixth, to fifth, to third, to first. He had a 19-point lead over eventual winner, Niklas Kaul, when he lined up for finale, 1,500-meter race. Uibo needed to hang within 3 seconds of Kaul to win gold. But Kaul’s personal best was 10 seconds faster than Uibo’s. Kaul, 21 and w youngest world champion decathlete ever, beat him by 15 seconds.

“I tried to stay with him, but he had more in tank,” Uibo said. “I had to give that up and try for second.”

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Co-bronze medalist

A few minutes earlier, Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson completed her victory in heptathlon; multi-events were held in conjunction as part of organizers’ plan to move all action to nighttime and beat heat. In or final, China’s Gong Lijiao won her second straight world shot put title and Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd took silver. That marked third field medal in se championships won by athletes from Usain Bolt’s land of sprints. Who’d have seen that coming? And speaking of unexpected, how about bronze medal that landed in lap of Orlando Ortega. Spanish hurdler had been closing gap with leaders when he got kcked off course in 110 final night before by a flailing Jamaican. Ortega spent most of Thursday in bed, thinking about what might have been. phone rang. Track officials had decided to make him co-bronze medalist. ceremony was scheduled for that evening.

“I took a taxi,” Ortega said. “I said, ‘Please drive very fast, I have a medal ceremony.’”

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He made it on time. So did Naser, who looked more like a 100-meter sprinter as she moved into homestretch and built a seven-step cushion over Miller-Uibo, who became famous in her homeland, Bahamas, when she dove across finish line to beat Allyson Felix in final of 2016 Olympics. re were such dramatics this time. “When I saw distance between us, I said, in my head, ‘I let her get too far away,’” Miller-Uibo said. “I knew I had a lot of strength coming home, but I just couldn’t get her.” All that was left was to hang out and see how Maicel would do about a half-hour later, as he dragged his exhausted legs to start of 1,500 to finish off evening. Shortly after her husband crossed, Miller-Uibo walked out and doused him with a bottle of water, n gave him a kiss. “It’s great we get to celebrate toger,” Miller-Uibo said.y train toger, too. Maicel described relationship as “competitive at times.” “It’s on and off track. Anything, really,” he said. “Sometimes we just argue about who our dogs love most.” Maybe soon, y’ll tease each or over who has prettier of those two silver medals y’re taking home. obvious answer for both husband and wife: “I do.”

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