A day of mixed fortunes in Beijing

Five Belgians were in action on the first day of the World Athletics Championships in the Chinese capital Beijing. Abdelhadi El Hachimi finished 16th in the marathon event.

Later Michaël Bultheel made it through to the semi-final of the 400 metres hurdles with a time of 49.38 seconds.

Meanwhile, Arnaud Art did less well in the pole vault competition. His jump of 5.40 was not enough to see him through to the semi-finals of the men’s pole vaulting event.

Bashir Abdi was forced to give up in the 10,000 metres running event.

Nafi Thiam 6th after 4 disciplines

At almost the half way stage, our decathlon hopeful Nafi Thiam is 6th. She completed the 100 meters hurdles in 13.83 seconds, jumped 1.83 metres in the high jump and recorded a distance of 15.24 metres in the shot put events.

21-year-old from Brussels went on to run 200 metres in 25.28 seconds and has amassed 3795 so far.

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