By John Salvado
Nothing that happened in the women's 100m hurdles in Beijing will have dented Sally Pearson's confidence that she can successfully defend her Olympic title next year in Rio.
Jamaican Danielle Williams was a deserved winner of the world championships title on Friday night in a personal best of 12.57 seconds.
Cut above: Jamaica's Danielle Williams, No. 5, crosses the finish line to win the women's 100m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing.Credit: David J. Phillip
At 22 she will likely only get faster.
But the winning time was still the slowest in any world or Olympic final in the past decade.
It paled in comparison with Pearson's gold-medal efforts of 12.28 at the 2011 world championships and 12.35 at the London Olympics.
The Australian's silver-medal time of 12.50 in the world champs final two years ago in Moscow would also have been comfortably good enough for gold this time around.
The five-strong US women's sprint hurdling squad had a shocker.
Beijing 2008 Olympic gold medallist Dawn Harper-Nelson crashed out in the semi-finals, with highly rated Kendra Harrison disqualified at the same stage.
Defending champion Brianna Rollins was fourth in the final and Sharika Nelvis - who tops the 2015 rankings - was last as the Americans went without a medal in this event at world championships level for only the second time since 1999.
"How does that song go again? `I wasn't expecting that' well done to the finalists in the women's 100m hurdles," tweeted Pearson.
The final in Beijing might not have been particularly fast - but it was close, with less than a 10th of a second separating the first five placegetters.
German Cindy Roleder (12.59) and Alina Talay from Belarus (12.66) were surprise minor medallists.
Australian Michelle Jenneke was eliminated at the semi-final stage in a time of 13.01 - one hundredth of a second faster than her heat run.
Pearson set her best time this year of 12.59 in Brisbane in March before breaking her wrist just as the northern hemisphere summer season was getting under way.
Revenge in Rio 2016 can't come quickly enough.
AAP