Dawn Harper Nelson celebrates after winning silver in the women's 100-meter hurdles at the 16th IAAF World Athletics Championships at the London Stadium on Aug. 12, 2017 in London.
With four Americans competing in the final, it was 2012 Olympic champion Dawn Harper Nelson who walked away with a medal in the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the IAAF World Championships on Saturday in London.
Harper Nelson, 33, ran a season-best time of 12.63 seconds to match her qualifying time in the semifinal. She captured the silver medal behind Australia’s Sally Pearson, who won in 12.59 seconds. Pam Dutkiewicz of Germany came in third with a time of 12.72.
Harper Nelson won her heat on Friday and posted the fastest time of all four American athletes to make the final.
"I'm so excited right now," said Harper Nelson. "For me, I stood there and thought, 'You have to bring hardware home for the U.S.' I said, 'You have to execute, it's about the mindset now. Many of these ladies can get medals, so you have to go and do it again.' Me and Sally have just battled it out for years and it's been so great to be here with her."
Harper Nelson won gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games Beijing 2008 and became the first American 100-meter hurdler to win Olympic gold and earn a medal in the next Olympics as well when she won silver at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Pearson was the Olympic gold medalist in 2012. Harper Nelson did not compete in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
"Silver tastes like gold tonight," said Harper Nelson. "I am really excited to come out of this with a medal for the U.S. At the end, I could see Sally had won and I thought 'It's me and Sally again.'"
National champion and world record holder Kendra Harrison finished fourth (12.74) and Christina Manning was fifth (12.74), separated by a millisecond, while Nia Ali was eighth (13.04).
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
Karen Rosen contributed to this report.
