HOLLAND’S DAFNE SCHIPPERS ran the fastest women’s 200m time in almost 17 years to clinch gold in a thrilling world championship final.
Schippers, 23, clocked a blistering 21.63 to beat Jamaican pair Elaine Thompson (21.66) and Veronica Campbell-Brown (21.97) in Beijing.
The time was a new world championship record and the fastest ever by a European woman, as well as the fourth-fastest on record behind only Florence Griffith-Joyner (21.34 and 21.56 in 1988) and Marion Jones (21.62 in 1998).
Schippers, who won 100m silver earlier this week, trailed Thompson slightly as the leaders rounded the bend in the Bird’s Nest.
But she finished strongest to win by three-hundredths of a second.
Schippers won bronze in the heptathlon at the 2013 world championships before deciding to focus on the sprint events, and did the 100m/200m double at the European Championships last year.
She set a new national record of 10.81 in the 100m final on Monday but it was only good enough for second place behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica.
