Sophie Dokter upset the odds to win the pentathlon title at the world indoor athletics championships at the weekend in a late flurry of medals for the Dutch team.
Dokter set a new national Dutch record of 4,888 points in the Polish city of Torun, surpassing the mark set by Nadine Broersen when she won the title back in 2014.
The 23-year-old from Groningen set the foundations for her win with a personal best time in the 60 metres hurdles of 8.19 seconds, and built a lead with strong performances in the high jump and long jump.
Despite a disappointing shot put, she started the last event, the 800 metes, with a lead that gave her a cushion of more than seven seconds over the American favourite, Anna Hall.
The world heptathlon champion could only make up six of them, leaving her 28 points behind Dokter in the final standings, while Ireland’s Kate O’Connor took the bronze medal.
“I knew Anna could run very fast and make up the difference over 800 metres, but I had a good margin,” said Dokter.
“When I got out of bed this morning I really wasn’t thinking about winning. It’s bizarre, I still can’t believe it.”
Visser silver
Minutes later the Dutch had another medal as Nadine Visser took silver at the 60m hurdles, finishing behind Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas, who won the event for the third year in a row.
The women’s 4x400m relay team claimed silver behind the USA, but the men were just edged out, finishing 0.06 seconds behind Jamaica in fourth place. The US won the gold medal ahead of Belgium.
Lieke Klaver led off the women’s team and won her second medal of the championships, after taking bronze behind home favourite Natalia Bukowiecka in the individual 400m on Saturday.
Despite the absence of stars such as Femke Bol and Sifan Hassan, the Netherlands finished the championships in seventh place in the medal table with one gold medal, two silver and one bronze.
The USA topped the table with 18 medals, five of them gold; no other nation won more than five medals.
