McLaughlin destroys WR, golden De Grasse, Warner at break-neck pace
Call me bias, but once the decathlon starts, I’m all eyes. Day 6 of track and field began today at the Tokyo Olympics, and excitement was galore.
If you think yesterday was exciting, it might have just gotten surpassed.
Event Roundup
Women
Heptathlon day 1
400m semifinals
1500m semifinal
*Steeplechase final
*400m Hurdles final
Men
Decathlon day 1
Javelin qualifying
110m hurdles semifinal
*200m final
*800m final
*Hammer throw final
Heptathlon (Day 1)
The first day of the women’s heptathlon saw an anticipated matchup between American world-leader Annie Kunz and the reigning gold and silver world championship medalists, Great Britain's Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Belgian Nafissatou Thiam.
In the 100m hurdles, KJT stole her heat with a very respectable 13.27 while Thiam finished 14th with 13.54. Kunz was well in contention until around the 6th or 7th barrier where she nearly tripped but was able to hold her balance and finish in 13.49. American Kendell Williams won the event with 12.97 seconds, and teammate Erica Bougard was fourth with 13.14.
Thiam came back in a flash with an impressive season’s best 1.92m (6 ft 3-1/2 in) clearance to overtake the next two competitors. Bougard and KJT each jumped 1.86m (6 ft 1 in), with Kunz finishing over 1.80m (5 ft 10-3/4 in).
In the shot put, Annie Kunz delivered big with a massive 15.15m (49 ft 8-1/4 in). A little shy of her personal best, but 2021 has been a big year for her in this event. Kunz ended up second behind Benin’s Odile Ahouanwanou who took the event with a toss of 15.45m (50 ft 8-1/4 in). Anouk Vetter from the Netherlands finished in second with 15.29m (50 ft 1-3/4 in).
In the heptathlon’s final event of the day, Spain’s Maria Vincente stole the show with a 23.50 200m dash. Noor Vidts of Belgium, Vetter, and Ahouanwanou finished not too far off, all with sub-24-second sprints. Sadly, KJT pulled up with an Achilles injury about midway through the 200m on the curve coming home. Likely, remnants of an injury she revealed she suffered nearly 9 months ago.
At the end of day one, the 28-year-old Anouk Vetter from the Netherlands has a narrow lead over Vidts and Thiam. Annie Kunz lies in 4th, 51 points back from Thiam.
Women’s 400m (Semifinals)
When every athlete who qualified had to run under 50 seconds to do it, you know that final is going to be a fast, hard fight.
Allyson Felix just keeps getting better with each round. This time, running a season’s best 49.81 to showcase her speed. Because she’s now 35 years of age, she qualifies as a masters athlete, and sets another world masters record with that time.
Jamaica’s Stephenie McPherson runs the fastest qualifying time of 49.34 edging out the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino at 49.38.
Defending Olympic champion of the Bahamas, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, was 4th overall in 49.60.
American Quanera Hayes also qualifies, while the 2019 World Championships fourth-place, Wadeline Jonathas wasn’t able to break 50 to slip in with her two compatriots.
Women’s 1500m (Semifinals)
As usual, Sifan Hassan conserved her energy throughout the race and used her speed to push to the front and punch her ticket to the final. She crossed the line in 4:00.23 and sets herself up for a chance at gold number two of her quest for the triple crown.
Defending Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon isn’t going to make it easy for her one bit. She dusted the field with a 3:56.80 which would have won every Olympic final since 1992. Her speed dragged along four other athletes under four minutes as well.
American Elle Purrier St. Pierre finished in eighth while Heather Maclean was eliminated. Cory McGee was later advanced to the final by officials after Winny Chebet of Kenya and she tripped over each other mid-race.
Women’s Steeplechase (Final)
It came down to the last half a lap, where American Courtney Frerichs and Ugandan athlete Peruth Chemutai battled it out for gold.
Frerichs took to the front and pushed the pace with about four laps to go and wasn’t overtaken until Chemutai made her move with a little over 200m to go.
Chemutai was able to hold off the American record-holder for a huge personal best of 9:01.45, and national record to boot.
2016 bronze medalist and 2017 world champion, Emma Coburn, couldn’t seem to make the move with Frerichs when she pushed the pace, but hit a barrier and fell over the lane rail, and was disqualified for a lane infringement. This was certainly not how most thought it would play out for one of the favorites.
Adding further to the pain of the steeple, world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya seemed a non-factor for most of the race. Her final time of 9:16.33 was well off what we tend to expect from the only woman to have ever run under 8:50, let alone 8:45.
Women’s 400m Hurdles (Final)
Oh…my…GOD!
Last night’s epic 400m hurdles race on the men’s side had me pacing for ten minutes with my jaw on the floor. Tonight’s race on the women’s side was undoubtedly going to be special as well.
Anytime Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad race it’s always fire.
In typical fashion, Muhammad stormed out to an early lead for the most part through 250m, but McLaughlin was never more than a split second behind. As we know, McLaughlin has the better flat speed and is dangerous if given enough time.
Both were virtually neck and neck over the final hurdle when McLaughlin edged ahead and took the gold from the former world record-holder and defending Olympic champion.
It wasn’t just that she won, but as with the men’s race, she crushed her own world record by nearly half a second in a time of 51.46. Muhammad also broke the world record by another 0.32 seconds for a personal best. The world record has now been broken 4 times between the two women who now own six of the top 10 times in history.
Let’s not forget about who took third. Femke Bol from the Netherlands came into the race as the fourth fastest woman in the event’s history. Well, she left tonight as the third-fastest woman ever, just shy of breaking the 52-second barrier in a staggering 52.03 seconds.
Between Bol, McLaughlin, and Muhammad, just how far can this event be pushed? Bol and McLaughlin are both only 21 years of age.
Decathlon (Day 1)
Canadian Damian Warner of Canada, the world leader, and three-time world medalist, started the meet off hot with a new Olympic 100m decathlon best of 10.12 tying his own world decathlon best. This resulted in a score of 1066 points for the first event.
Australia’s Ashley Moloney finished in second with a new personal best of 10.34. American Zach Ziemek was in fourth with 10.55.
Continuing his dominance on the day, Warner rocketed out to another Olympic decathlon best in the long jump with another leading performance of 8.24m (27 ft 1/4 in). This jump was only 4cm shy of his personal best and national record 8.28m.
No one was even close. His teammate, Canada’s Pierce LePage was second with a leap of 7.65m (25 ft 1 in). Belgium’s Thomas van der Plaetsen was all over the airways after attempting to take a jump and seemingly slipping on the board and twisting his ankle. He was escorted out of the stadium in a wheelchair.
Heading into the shot put, a relatively weak event for Warner, he threw a season’s best 14.80m (48 ft 6-1/2 in) for 11th while Vitaliy Zhuk of Belarus launched one out to 16.23m (53 ft 3 in) for the win and 865 points. American Garrett Scantling was second with 15.59m (51 ft 1-3/4 in).
In the high jump, the top two spots were filled by Ash Moloney of Australia and Germany’s Niklas Kaul who both cleared a personal best of 2.11m (6 ft 11 in). World record-holder, Kevin Mayer of France was third with 2.08m (6 ft 9-3/4 in). Warner was 8th with 2.02m (6 ft 7-1/2 in).
The first day of competition ended with blazing times from Moloney and Lepage — 46.29 and 46.92 respectively. Warner was third with 47.48 and finishes with a halftime point total of 4722. Will he be the fourth man to break 9000 points?
Men’s Javelin (Qualifying)
The second furthest thrower ever, and substantial world leader from Germany, Johannes Vetter, gave us all a little bit of a scare when his first two throws were decently short of the automatic qualifying mark in today’s qualifying round.
Thankfully, Vetter was able to put together a third-round throw of 85.64m (280 ft 11-1/2 in) to get himself into the final.
India’s hope for their very first track and field medal since 1900, Neeraj Chopra, topped the round with an 86.65m (284 ft 3-1/4 in).
American Curtis Thompson was unable to throw beyond 79m and compatriot Michael Shuey couldn’t get a mark to qualify.
Men’s 110m Hurdles (Semifinals)
After winning his heat, American Devon Allen showed he was feeling great with a little dance for the cameras. Following in the next heat, teammate and nearly unbeatable Grant Holloway, won his heat with a time of 13.13.
My one concern watching Holloway’s heat wasn’t anything in particular with him, but how easily Jamaican Hasle Parchment ran him down Holloway over the last barrier and appeared to slow down and bounce with ease through the line. He appears to be looking reserved and ready to throw down while Holloway was seemingly running with purpose.
In fact, the opening round was similar with Holloway absolutely destroying everyone as he usually does over the first 6 and then getting reeled in over the back half. Maybe I’m just being a bit cautious and perhaps Holloway is actually letting the reigns go a bit at the end as well. Either way, we’ll see if the U.S. can take home gold and silver in the final.
Joining them, as always is Ronald Levy of Jamaica and France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde. American Daniel Roberts, a personal favorite, missed the finals by one place and ended up in 9th, one one-hundredth of a second back in 13.33 seconds.
Men’s 200m (Final)
I don’t want to say outright that I saw it coming because I wasn’t sure exactly which would take the race, but Canada’s Andre de Grasse proved that he could hold his speed longer than anyone else.
De Grasse finally takes home gold, after finishing second to Usain Bolt at the 2016 Rio Olympics. If you’ve followed his story over the last few years, you’ll appreciate his victory here today. Running a stellar 19.62, De Grasse becomes the first Canadian to win an Olympic sprint gold since 1996.
After collecting two silvers and six bronzes over the last six years, he finally completes his collection.
It appeared coming off the curve that American Noah Lyles had positioned himself perfectly to bring Olympic gold back to the States to watch over his world championship gold, but it was not to be. In fact, Lyles was overcome by teammate Kenneth Bednarek in the last few strides with a time of 19.74.
Bednarek, who I assumed would be in contention along with Liberia’s Joe Fahnbulleh who has a phenomenal second half, takes home the silver for the U.S.
The 17-year-old American, Erriyon Knighton finishes in fourth place as the U.S. goes 2-3-4 with another sub-20 time with a final result of 19.93.
Men’s 800m (Final)
I honestly didn’t know what to expect with this final.
I felt as though it was likely to be a race between the Kenyan duo of Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, with a late surge to possible victory from Botswana’s Nijel Amos if he was the Amos of old and feeling good.
Instead, Amos, while certainly in a prime spot to contend on the final curve, had no response and no legs left under him to match the kick of Korir who took the gold with 1:45.06. Amos faded hard to the back of the pack, finishing with a time of 1:46.41.
The only man to match Korir’s kick was Kenyan teammate Ferguson Rotich who took silver with a fantastic last 50m in 1:45.23.
Running one of the absolute best races from start to finish was Poland’s Patryk Dobek who captures the bronze 1:45.39. Unfortunately, who couldn’t contend with the move Rotich made in the last few seconds of the race.
I think the most astonishing result of the final was American Clayton Murphy. He had no second gear from start to finish. The home stretch, usually his strength, was barren and he was joined in the back only by the hard fading Amos who finished just ahead of him. Murphy crossed the line in 1:46.53. He stayed in last place from the moment the gun went off and seemed to have absolutely nothing in his legs by the time the final began.
Men’s Hammer (Final)
As we alluded to yesterday, we thought that Poland might just take home four medals, we just didn’t know what colors. Today, we found out it is two golds and two bronzes.
Between the men and women, Poland seems just about unstoppable.
Nowicki Wojciech was able to outthrow four-time reigning world champion and fellow countryman Pawel Fajdek to capture the gold with a toss out to 82.52m (270 ft 8-3/4 in).
Fajdek ended his night with another medal, this time bronze, after a fifth-round throw of 81.53m (267 ft 5-3/4 in). Fajdek didn’t quite seem to have the extra bit of juice during the final he usually does but still accomplished another throw over 80m.
Also on his fifth-round throw, Norwegian Eivind Henriksen was capable of an 81.58m (267 ft 7-3/4 in), taking him just 5cm ahead of Fajdek for the silver.
