Vetter had her best heptathlon ever at Hayward Field and finished at 6867 points after the seven parts. That was a big improvement on her Dutch record (6693 points).
It is the fourth medal for the Arnhem team in a major championship. She became European champion in Amsterdam in 2016, won bronze at the 2017 World Cup and especially surprised last summer with the silver medal at the Olympic Games.
Thiam led the heptathlon in Eugene from the first part, the 100 meter hurdles. Vetter climbed to second place after the third part, the shot put, and Thiam replaced the first place after the sixth part, the javelin throw.
In the closing 800 metres, her weakest track, Vetter failed to maintain her small points lead. Thiam ran the 800 meters too fast for that. The Belgian ran a personal best of 2.13.00, while Vetter got stuck at 2.20.09. In the final score, Thiam came out at 6947 points.
The American Anna Hall took the bronze medal with 6755 points. Emma Oosterwegel, Tokyo Olympic bronze winner, finished in seventh place with 6440 points, well below her personal best of 6590 points.
It was still exciting whether the 29-year-old Vetter could participate in the World Cup, because a hamstring injury occurred after the heptathlon in Götzis at the end of May. “Two weeks ago I couldn’t do speed training and I started to get a bit anxious. Training with the hurdles was also not possible, but my physio said it would be fine,” Vetter said on Sunday after the first day.
Her physio was right. Once in America, her body was free of pain and she could do everything again. Vetter even turned out to be in the shape of her life. She started the 100 meter hurdles with a solid 13.30, jumped very high (1.80), excelled with a personal best in the shot put (16.25), ran in the 200 meters to 23.73, scored a personal best in the long jump with 6.52 and the javelin threw the farthest of all to 58.29.
It came down to the 800m, the track she loathes and prefers to skip. She probably went deeper than ever, crossing the finish line 7 seconds later than Thiam, while it should have been only 1.5 seconds if she wanted to win gold.