Jemima Montag went to extreme lengths to be ready for the 20km walk in Doha
When an event starts at midnight in an attempt to beat the heat, you know it is going to be hot. And after her top 10 finish in the 20km walk, young gun Jemima Montag reveals her wild preparations.
Sport
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sport. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Heat chambers, saunas, spas in Mexico, Cairns and Italy were all part of Jemima Montag’s unusual preparation to cope with Doha’s extreme conditions for the 20km walk.
The training and planning paid off for the 21-year-old Melbourne University student who finished 10th in her world championships debut.
Montag not only had to overcome the crazy heat - the race started at midnight - but she also had a stumble five minutes into the race.
Stream sport from all over the world on KAYO SPORTS. Live & On-Demand on your TV, computer, mobile or tablet. Get your 14 day free trial >
“I’m known for falling over flat ground, especially in airports for some reason,” she explained.
“My coach often jokes ‘Jem, you’re literally paid to be a walker and you can’t walk on flat ground’. I just fall over nothing.
“I was just trying to bring my foot through really low but also in those first five to 10 laps it was so packed and I just went down.”
Montag recovered to stay with the main group for the first half of the race before the three Chinese walkers exploded away to claim the trifecta - the first time a country has swept the medals in the event.
Olympic champion and world record holder Hong Liu took the world title in 1hr32.53sec from Shenjie Qieyang (1:33.10sec) with Liujing Yang third (1:33.17sec).
Montag finished four minutes back clocking 1:36.54sec while fellow Australian Katie Hayward was disqualified inside the first half-hour of the race.
There wasn’t the same carnage as in the women’s marathon where 28 competitors pulled out with just three walkers failing to finish the course.
Montag, who won last year’s Commonwealth Games title, described the conditions as like “being in a sauna”.
“We’ve been preparing really thoroughly for the heat all year including passive heat in saunas and spas, chasing the heat in places like Mexico and Cairns and Italy,” she said.
“So thanks to the expertise around me I was really well prepared. I’m really grateful for that because it did ease the pain a little.
“It was really different to any race I’ve done before, it was really one about patience and holding back rather than chasing, chasing, chasing.”
FELIX GIVES WORLD CHAMPS ITS HERO MOMENT
When the world championships desperately needed a hero and a feel good story, it was again Allyson Felix to the rescue.
The US track and field icon produced a record-breaking performance in the newest event of the championships, the 4x400m mixed relay.
Felix won her 12th world championships gold medal which saw her go past fellow icon Usain Bolt on the medal tally.
Doha is the 33-year-old’s ninth straight world championships and she has now accumulated more world championship and Olympic honours than any other track and field athlete in history.
The latest gold takes her tally to an incredible 26 medals, a dazzling haul that includes six Olympic golds and 12 world championship crowns.
Felix, who gave birth to her first child, Camryn, in November last year, ran the second leg of the relay which the USA won in a world record time of 3min 09.34sec.
“It’s so special to have my daughter here watching means the world to me. It’s been a crazy year for me,” she said.
Felix made the world championships team solely in the relay pool after placing sixth in the 400m at the US trials in July.
Next year she’s hoping to go to her fifth Olympics and break Michael Johnson‘s record as the oldest Olympic 400m medallist.
There was another familiar face on the dais in the women’s 100m with pocket rocket Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce winning her fourth world title.
It was the Jamaican superstar’s eighth world championships gold medal to go with her two Olympic golds.
MORE SPORT
‘Distraught’ champion’s heartbreak at World Athletics Championships
Suffering Amanda Spratt survives torrid test for bronze at world titles
Fraser-Pryce, 32, produced her customary brilliant start and was never in danger to reclaim her title as the world’s fastest woman, clocking 10.71sec.
Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith claimed silver in 10.83sec with the Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lo winning bronze (10.90sec).
Best bets: Queanbeyan and Scone
Looking for a winner at Scone or Queanbeyan today? Shayne O’Cass has you covered with his tips.
The ‘final straw’ moment that broke Seibold
Anthony Seibold says the pressures of coaching the NRL’s flagship club had taken a toll on him and his family as well as slanderous rumour mongering as he opened up on his Brisbane exit.