This week’s newsletter is all about rounding-up all the big news, action and results from the Tokyo Olympics. We’ve covered all the biggest stories in the main section, with a summary of the other key final resulsts and upsets at the end, in date order.
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400m Hurdles is my new favourite event
This Olympic games always promised to deliver some of the most outstanding races in the history of the 400m Hurdles, but never did we quite imagine that it would be this good. The report on the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles races sit atop this week’s newsletters becuase, particularly in the men’s race, fans and viewers, the World over, were treated to quite possibly the greatest athletic performances ever seen.
What I am about to write, does not feel quite normal. Rai Benjamin of the USA, ran 46.17 and didn’t win. Having never previously broken Kevin Young’s 1992 world record of 46.78, not only did he surpass that time, he also broke Karsten Warholm’s previous world record, set only a few weeks ago in Oslo of 46.70. In fact, Brazilian Alison Dos Santos became the 3rd fastest 400m hurdler in history with a run of 46.72 to take bronze. Quite astonishing.
The plaudits, though, must go to the indomitable Karsten Warholm. His time, 45.94, is a time previously unfathomable and was faster than the winner of the 400m flat at this year’s British Championships (Niclas Baker ran 46.05 for a PB). With 100 to go, it was clearly a fast race, but there was no doubt about it, Benjamin had run the top bend a tad better than Warholm and was right on his heels. The next 100m of hurdling was a demonstration of raw power, speed and hurdling intelligence as Warholm pulled away towards the end to win in an astonishing wold record time that, unless he or possibly Benjamin beats, is likely to hold for many many years.
To give you some context, his 45.94 equates to a 100m world record of … and a sub 2 hour marathon world record. People will debate forever but for us, its goes down in the pantheon of the great all time moments as the best performance in the history of athletics in the best race in athletics hisory. Truly remarkable. Karsten Warholm, the best ever.
Syd the Kid does a Karsten
I told you 400m hurdles is my favourite event. Just like the men’s event, the prospect of Femke Bol, Dalilah Muhammed and, world record holder, Sydney McLaughlin racing each other in the 400m hurdles final was hugely exciting. Running so well in Europe and on the Diamond League circuit, we knew Bol was going to be competitive but the real question was whether she was going to be able to beat the 2 Americans who have been trading blows all season.
As ever, Muhammed went out quickly. As did McLaughlin who was up on Bol as they emerged out of the first 100m. Predictably Muhammed slowed and Bol picked it up a bit and acted as a perfect pacer for McLaughlin who, on entering the home straight, was just a stride behind Muhammed, with Bol 2 strides back. That slower pace in the first 200m meant she had a bit extra in the legs to open up the stride before checking her pace slightly into the last hurdle so she could power away to the line more efficiently. Just like Warholm had done 24 hours previous.
Once again, the watching public, mostly on TV were treated to a new world record with McLaughin smashing her previous best time to win in 51.46, whilst Muhammad also broke the previous world record, running 51.58. Bol settled for a fantastic third in a new European record 52.03.
Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson shine in women’s 800m
Athing Mu. What can you say about the athlete from New Jersey, USA? She’s truly incredible. At 19, she’s the Olympic 800m Champion in a blistering time of 1:55.21, which in all honesty looked easy. She was in her own race, frankly and despite some magical performances I’ll mention in a moment, she never once looked under threat, never once looked like she got out of 4th gear. She’s some talent and right now, looks set to become the greatest 800m runner in history.
Unsurprisingly, for us British fans, our focus was on the other 19 year old in the race, Keely Hodgkinson who smashed the British record, running an insane 1:55.88 to knock nearly 2 seconds off her PB. She ran such an intelligent race, positioning herself perfectly with 120m to go, with enough space to get on the outside of Jemma Reekie, knowing that she would have the speed. Mu was too far ahead at this stage but the maner in which Hodgkinson dominated the rest of the athletes highlights that Mu and Hodgkinson are now the women to beat and represent the future of the women’s 800m.
In a brave run, Jemma Reekie was narrowly beaten into fourth by a late surge from Raeyvn Rogers.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Until now.
Most of the athletics world would have been delighted to see Andre De Grasse, finally win a gold at the Olympics with a scintillating run in the final of the men’s 200m. He ran a Canadian record time of 19.62. The fastest by any man who is not from either the USA or Jamaica.
Hitherto the man who comes third (including in this year’s 100m), he’s finally got the top spot, pushing favourite Noah Lyles down into 3rd, with Lyle’s compatriot Kenny Bednarek taking silver.
Elaine Thompson-Herah wins 100m and 200m gold in historic double
3 months ago, Elaine Thompson-Herah wasn’t even in the conversation for Olympic gold in either the 100m or 200m. All of the focus, quite rightly, was on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Dina Asher-Smith, Sha’Carri Richardson and, in respect of the 200m, Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
But in the weeks leading up to the Olympics, there were some signs, in Gateshead for example that Thompson-Herah was getting back to her best and wow, has she peaked at the right time. After her double-double was confirmed, winning the 100m and 200m, for the second Olympics in a row, she will no undoubtedly go down as one of the greatest in history, alongisde Florence Griffith-Joyner. Her time of 21.53 is now only 2 tenths of a second off Flo-Jo’s world record (21.34). Namibian athlete, Christine Mboma, took silver and US champion Gabby Thomas took bronze in 21.81.
In the 100m, she became the second fastest woman of all time too, running 10.61 pushing her compatriot and famed rival, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce into silver. With Shericka Jackson making it a Jamaican 1-2-3 in the 100m.
Marcell Jacobs claims Italy’s first ever sprint gold
Ever since the retirement of the great Usain Bolt, the men’s sprinting has been totally blown open and whilst going into this year’s Olympic 100m, USA star Trayvon Brommell had looked like the favourite, it would be fair to say that he had hardly been running well recently, despite running the fastest time in the world this year. He struggled throughout in Tokyo.
So it turned out as he failed to even reach the final. In what turned out to be perhaps the biggest upset of the entire games so far, former long-jumper, Marcell Jacobs who had previously only ran a PB of 10.03, won the Olympic gold in a PB time of 9.80. That Jacobs won with a modest PB of that nature and after being one of the lesser-known competers in the long-jump, is testament to the man who was born in the USA and raised in Italy.
Forza Italia
Turns out that 2021 is becoming a successful year for the boot shape country in the southern European coast, we tend to call Italy. After winning the Euro 2021 football tournament and this year’s big one, the Eurovision song contest, as well as, of course, the men’s 100m final. Italy can now add a high-jump gold medal to that list of achievements too after, in what is likely to go down as one of the moments of the games, Mutaz Barshim (Qatar) and Gianmarco Tamberi (Italy, obviously) decided to share the Olympic gold medal in the High Jump.
It all got a bit much for Tamberi who was jumping around, dancing, crying, jumping on people, kissing people and you know what who can blame him.
Having scored identical points up to the height where they both scored 3 failures, it looked like they were heading towards a jump-off until, world champion, Barshim had another idea and suggested that they share the gold medal instead. Tamberi didn’t take much persuading! I don’t think the official had actually finished saying the 3 letter word ‘yes’, before he was rolling on the floor crying in delight.
What a beautiful moment that embodies the spirit of the Olympics. Good on both of them and maybe this is something we will now see more of.
Magnificent Mondo
I am not afraid to admit that I have a small man-crush on Mondo Duplantis. The guy is incredible. For a lean man, fairly small in stature, compared to some of his competitors, his natural talent, strength, balance and poise is truly something to behold. We predicted that he would be one of the most dominant athletes at the Olympics this year and so it proved with nobody able to get even close to him.
His final 3 attempts after his gold medal had been secured was to go for the 6.19 metre world record. I am not exaggerating when I say that, he looked like he had cleared the bar by about 30 centimetres more than that on his first attempt and somehow his chest brushed the bar enough, on the way down, to knock it off the perch. It was almost like he jumped too high. His second and third attempts were not quite as convincing but still clearly demonstrated that he will break that world record very soon and is likely to set a future world record insurmountable for years to come.
With Kendricks out through covid and Lavillenie dissapointing in the competition, American athlete, Nilsen took silver, with former Olympic champion Thiago Braz, taking bronze.
Kenya continues to dominate the men’s 800m
In a very slow and underwhelming 800m final, the victor was once again from Kenya. With David Rudisha unable to defend his title thanks to persistent injuries, Emmanuel Korir grabbed the opportunity with both hands to continue the dominance of Kenyan athletes on the Olympic 800m title, winning in 1:45. The last non-Kenyan to win the Olympic title was Athens 2004.
Peter Bol of Australia did most of the work, leading the race for almost the full 800 until the last 100m where he was passed by eventual winner, Korir, silver medallist - another Kenyan - Ferguson Rotich, with Pole Patryk Dobek taking bronze.
Given the pace of the race, Nijel Amos and Clayton Murphy will be disappointed with their 8th and 9th placed finishes and the British athletes like Elliot Giles and Oliver Dustin will rue a missed opportunity.
Hassan remans on course for historic treble
Incredible Dutch athlete, Sifan Hassan, remains on course for a historic treble after she recovered from the 1500m heats to win the 5000m comfortably. Hellen Obiri was unable to reel her in, despite her best efforts down the back straight.
Incredibly she ran a 57 second final lap to finish in 14:36.79. Tsegay took bronze.
If she can win the 1500m and the 10,000m, there’s little doubt it will go down as the greatest athletic achievement in history.
Olympic gold for Selemon Barega
In a hugely competitive men’s field in the Olympic 10,000m final, the result left a few of surprised with Barega winning in a time of 27:43.22, a modest time given the capabilities of many of the athletes running.
It got off to an odd start with Ugandan, Kissa, streaking off way ahead of the field. At one point he was close to 60m ahead of the rest of the field, entirely isolated on his own. Then, as quick as he’d come out of the blocks, with around 4km to go, he seemed to check his watch and step off the track. Whether it was a deliberate ploy by the Ugandans in order to try and tease the Ethiopians out, it failed dismally as none of the Ethiopians took the bait.
In another race where Joshua Cheptegei doesn’t look as dominate as everyone expected when he smashed the world records in 2020, Barega timed his kick to perfection, forcing the chasing pack, which included Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo round the outside. In the end, they had left too much to do and they finished in silver and bronze position respectively.
Perhaps the performance of the final though, in only his third 10,000m race ever, was Bowerman Track Club’s, USA athlete, Grant Fisher. What a talent.
Another shock in the 110m Hurdles
The sprint events seemed to have served up the biggest shocks of these games (aside from the women’s 3000m Steeplechase) and the men’s 110m hurdles was no different. World champion and clear favourite, Grant Holloway, who is undefeated all year, was just edged out on the kick from the last hurdle by Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment who won gold in 13.04.
Usually such a master tactician, Holloway was straining going into the last hurdle and Parchment capitalised, striding off the final hurdle far more powerfully to overtake Holloway at the line. Holloway took silver in 13.09, just dipping ahead of Ronald Levy of Jamaica (13.10), in a photo finish.
The high hurdles always delivers on the drama.
Other news:
Disappointment for Eilish McColgan as she failed to qualify for the women’s 5,000m final, eventually won by Hassan.
Poland took the win in the 400m Relay, causing a bit of an upset.
Rojas absolutely destroyed the 26 year old Triple Jump world record, jumping 15.67m, and with a mere 3m middle phase, it looks like she can jump further.
Cuba took a two/three in the long jump final, just out jumped in his final jump by Greece’s Tentoglu who jumped 8.41 to take gold.
Favourite Jasmine Camacho-Quinn took gold in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Soufiane Elbakkali was eventual winner of the men’s 3000m Steeplechase final. Most surprising was Getnet Wale coming 4th who has a super fast 3000m flat time. His technique let him down on the day. Maybe he should stick to the flat?
All the main contenders progress in the men’s 1500m. With only a few surprise knock-outs, including Jye Edwards, Sam Teffera and Fillip Ingebrigsten.
Much to the pain of UK fans, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, world champion, pulled up in the 200m and is now out of the Olympics with an achilles injury. Sad face emoji.
Ugandan athlete Chemutai took gold in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase in 9:01.45, incredibly Courtney Frerichs of the USA getting a silver with an incredibly brave bit of racing to break the field. Hiyven Kiyeng took third. Beatrice Chepkoech didn’t even medal.
Inexplicably, USA 4 x 100m relay team, failed to qualify for the Olympic final. Their time of 38.10 was good enough only for SIXTH. Poor handovers cost them, much to the disappointment of Carl Lewis. The sprint legend calling it “embarrassing” on Twitter.
Ryan Crouser won the shot-put gold medal in an Olympic record: 22.93 metres! He looks unstoppable. Joe Kovacs took silver.
Portugal took gold in the men’s triple jump final. Pedro Pablo Pichardo jumped 17.98m. A full 40cm ahead of the silver medallist, from China, Yaming Zhu. Hugues Fabrice Zango took bronze.
We’ll have a full round-up early next week, with all the rest of the results from the final few days of the Olympics which will include the multi-discipline events, the 1500m finals, 110m hurdles, women’s 10,000m and the Olympic marathon. Thank you for reading.