Belarus' Marina Arzamasova, left, Canada's Melissa Bishop, middle, and Kenya's Eunice Jepkoech Sum compete in a women’s 800-metre semi-final at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing on Aug. 27.David J. Phillip/The Associated Press
Melissa Bishop glanced over her shoulder at the scoreboard one final time Thursday night, as if to make sure she'd read it correctly.
Then, moments after making history in the women's 800 metres, she switched her focus fully to Saturday night, and the final at the world track and field championships.
The 27-year-old from Eganville, Ont., shattered Diane Cummins's 14-year-old Canadian record, racing to a blistering time of 1 minute 57.52 seconds in a tactically perfect race. It was the fastest time of the night out of three semi-finals.
"I need to call Diane. I'm very excited," she said of her friend and long-time Canadian middle-distance star.
Bishop didn't have long to soak in the excitement. She spoke to reporters for 90 seconds before being whisked away by Athletics Canada staff to cool down.
"I need to prepare; it's coming up quick, not a whole lot of time, so its all exciting and really fun, but I need to look forward to the next two days," she said.
Cummins set her mark, 1:58.39, in Rieti, Italy, in 2001.
Bishop is peaking at just the right time after a rocky start to her season. She had a torn abdominal muscle in the fall that wiped out her indoor season, then suffered an ankle injury in May that sidelined her for nearly a month.
She rebounded in spectacular fashion to win the 800 at the Pan American Games last month in Toronto. The picture of her crossing the finish line, with arms outstretched and a massive grin, will be one of the most enduring images of those Games.
In Beijing, Bishop was in second spot with about 200 metres to go and appeared as if she might get boxed in. But a path opened up down the home stretch, and she sailed through to a victory in her semi.
"I didn't see [the time] until it came up on the screen, but obviously I was more than impressed and excited," she said. "We've been sitting on this for so long; it was about getting in the right race."
Cummins cheered Bishop on from her home in Missoula, Mont.
"I am so happy for Melissa," she told The Canadian Press. "We became friends toward the end of my career and I know Melissa to be a sweet, caring, honest person who works her butt off. She is keeping the women's 800 metres alive.
"I love her to bits and am so happy she is achieving these great results that she and her coach Dennis [Fairall] thoroughly deserve."
Cummins, who was fifth at the 2001 world championships, dominated the distance in Canada for the better part of a decade and then retired last year at the age of 40.
"Honestly, yes, it sucks my record has been broken," Cummins said. "But the fact that it's Melissa doing the breaking trumps that 10-fold. So proud and excited for her."
Fiona Benson of Dawson Creek, B.C., finished fifth in her heat Thursday and didn't advance. But her time of 1:59.59 was a personal best, capping a remarkable season for the 23-year-old that has seen her time improve by a whopping nine seconds.
"With how fast everything has changed, I've just been taking it one race at a time," she said. "I didn't really have any long-term plans coming in, then I ran that 2:02 [she opened the season with a seven-second personal best of 2:01.58], and it's been 'go out and have fun at the track' and see what I can do."
She can't say for sure what has made the difference. She graduated recently from Trinity Western University, where she said she was a "middle-of-the-road decent university athlete, but that was it."
"And then," she added, "I don't know, I graduated and started working and running, and that's pretty much all I did. So I don't know if it was just that extra time to concentrate."
Canada collected four medals in the opening two days of the world championships, and after three relatively quiet days, the battle for medals is about to heat up.
One of the team's top hopes is Christabel Nettey, ranked No. 2 in the world in long jump. The 24-year-old from Surrey, B.C., qualified for the final, jumping 6.79 metres on her third of three jumps in Thursday morning's preliminary round. It was the fourth-best jump in qualifying.
Ivana Spanovic was the top qualifier with 6.91.
Charles Philibert-Thiboutot advanced to the semi-finals in the men's 1,500. The 24-year-old from Quebec City was seventh in his heat in 3:39.72.
"I felt like I had a great race strategically, stayed top-five, top-six the whole way," Philibert-Thiboutot said. "With 300 to go, I kind of got boxed in and the French guy stumbled in front of me, kind of cut my stride when I was starting to sprint.
"But I was able to overcome that … thankfully it was enough to go through."