London: Dafne Schippers will get only one bite at avenging defeat in the two Olympic sprint finals last year to her bitter rival Elaine Thompson at the world athletics championships starting Friday.
The statuesque Dutch runner will not have Thompson breathing down her neck when she defends her 200m world crown, the Jamaican having opted to focus solely on the 100m until the 2020 Olympics.
But nothing would give Schippers greater pleasure than to defeat the 25-year-old Jamaican in Sunday’s final — provided of course they both make it through Saturday’s heats and the semi-finals.
Schippers, who was a top class heptathlete winning world bronze in 2013 but then switched to sprinting, saw too much of Thompson’s back in Rio finishing fifth in the 100m and runner-up in the 200m whilst a nightmare Games ended when she messed up a baton exchange in the 4x100m relay.
However, Schippers — who has had a bridge named in her honour in her home town of Utrecht — is hopeful that she can make the championships in London a far happier experience given her frosty relationship with Thompson.
“It’s very bad,” Schippers confessed to the Daily Mail in July. “I don’t know why. Maybe because we are both big talents.
“If she says ‘Hi’, I will say ‘Hi’. I am more of an easy person. With the European athletes, I can have fun with them. I am an easy person to talk to. If she won’t do that, then OK,” added the 25-year-old. — AFP
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