Stahl and Poland take home gold, Jamaica sweeps
Day 2 got underway and it’s led me to believe there are some crazy things to come. We’ll discuss what unfolded and how the results paint an exciting picture ahead of more events tomorrow. We had a jampacked day of athletics and three event finals, so let’s get poppin’!
Today’s event roundup
Women
400m hurdles first round
100m hurdles first round
Discus qualifying round
800m semifinal
*100m semifinal and final
Men
800m first round
Pole Vault qualifying round
100m prelim and first round
Long Jump qualifying round
*Discus final
*Mixed 4x400m Relay final
Women’s 400m Hurdles (First round)
Both the current and former world record holders from the United States, Dalilah Muhammad (53.97) and Sydney McLaughlin (54.65) made it through round one of the 400m hurdles with ease. The Netherlands superstar Femke Bol had no problem getting herself into the semifinal either, cruising to a 54.43 just behind Anna Ryzhykova of Ukraine in the overall heat winner standings.
American Anna Cockrell also found herself a qualifying spot running 55.37 for a big ‘Q’.
Women’s 100m Hurdles (First round)
All three American women advanced to the semifinals on Sunday, including the world record holder, Keni Harrison (12.74). It’s unlikely that this time around, we’ll have a repeat of the American sweep we got to enjoy back in 2016, but we can surely hope that’s the case.
The one woman that can really stand in the way of that is the current world leader representing Puerto Rico, University of Kentucky standout, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. She ran a blistering 12.41, not too far off her personal best of 12.32 that she set earlier this year.
Megan Tapper of Jamaica, Nadine Visser of Nederlands, and Tiffany Porter of Great Britain all make it to the next round.
Women’s Discus (Qualifying round)
American Valarie Allman made easy work of the qualifying round in discus today with a first attempt throw of 66.42m (217’11”). That was enough to take the furthest throw of the day ahead of two-time defending Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia who also won her group with a throw of 63.75m (209’2”). Both classy ladies gave a little dance for the audience.
Finishing second in the overall standings, just behind Allman in Group B was India's Kamal Preet Kaur. Her throw was a cool 64.00m (209’11-3/4”) which is the exact mark needed for the automatic qualifier.
Neither of the other two Americans, Rachel Dincoff or Kelsey Card, were able to produce a throw over 57m or qualify for the event final.
Women’s 800m (Semifinals)
The more I watch 19-year-old Athing Mu, the more I want to see her take gold. Over the last year, if you’ve had the luxury of watching her compete through the NCAA circuit in the U.S., you have watched a teenager not only break all the records for her age group, but smash American collegiate records in the 400m, the 4x400m, the 600m, the 800m, and the 1500m.
She’s the world leader this year in the 800m and she just got quicker. In her semifinal today, she ran a 1:58.07 to advance to the final and I have to say, she looks poised to take a medal, if not the gold.
I say partly because American record-holder Ajee Wilson was unable to progress to the final, leaving a big hole to fill. That, and Mu is just looking strong right now.
Of course, American Raevyn Rogers, and Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reeki will probably not be making that easy on her, as they too, advance to the final as expected.
Women’s 100m
Semifinal
Holy hell…the semifinal round of the women’s 100m was astounding.
The top 9 times were 11.0 or better. Six of those were under eleven seconds, and four of them were under 10.8 seconds! All three Jamaican women (Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce) and Marie Josee Ta Lou blitzed the field in what will surely be an impressive final.
Thompson-Herah led the assault with a 10.73 looking quite comfortable. I can only assume she’s the one to beat, and considering she’s attempting to become only the second person in history to do a double-double (win back-to-back Olympic 100m and 200m golds), she has a little fire under her butt. Usain Bolt is the only other athlete to do so.
Perhaps the other thorn in Jamaica’s side at these games would have been Dina Asher-Smith from Great Britain. She was certainly one of the best athletes in the field and had a good chance at medalling but she pulled out of the Games due to hamstring issues. Issues she later informed were prior to competing in Tokyo but had not fully healed. She hopes to be able to perhaps help on the relays before the end of the Olympics.
Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare was slapped with a doping violation (HGH) and was removed from the rounds.
Final
Given the depth of the field and the ludicrous speeds in the semis, we expected a fast and highly contentious final. Well, we got it.
Elaine Thompson-Herah claims her first title defense and takes home the gold for Jamaica in a new Olympic record of 10.61 seconds. This breaks American great, Florence Griffith Joyner’s record (10.62) from all the way back in 1988.
This places Thompson-Herah in a tie for the second-fastest 100m ever run, which is also held by Flo-Jo. The third-fastest woman ever, and your Tokyo 2020 silver medalist, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran a spectacular 10.74 to out lean compatriot Shericka Jackson who closed in 10.76 seconds.
Jamaica completes the 100m dash sweep and takes home three well-earned, and impressive, medals.
Ta Lou (10.91) finishes a disheartening fourth for the second time, and American Teahna Daniels finishes 7th with an 11.02.
Men’s 800m (First round)
Two giant names are missing from the Olympics for the men’s 800m, and they will absolutely be missed. Current world record holder and two-time defending Olympic champion David Rudisha and reigning world champion, American Donavan Brazier, who fell short in the U.S. Olympic Trials last month. But don’t let that trick you into thinking it’s going to be any less quick or exciting.
In the opening round today, Kenyan Ferguson Rotich threw down the fastest time outside an Olympic final ever. Clocking a staggering 1:43.75 and pulling everyone in his heat with him. Peter Bol of Australia set a new Oceanian record of 1:44.13.
Elliot Giles, the second-fastest indoor 800m runner in history broke into the 1:45 barrier to qualify for the next round. Among other big names to advance were Nijel Amos, the American youngster, Isaiah Jewett, Emmanuel Kipkurui Korir, Rio’s bronze medalist from the U.S., Clayton Murphy, and teammate Bryce Hoppel.
Men’s Pole Vault (Qualifying round)
None of the staples were missing from the list of those advancing to the final in pole vault today, that is, except two-time world champion Sam Kendricks from the U.S. Kendricks, unfortunately, tested positive for COVID-19 just a few days ago and had to be removed from the start list.
Sam nearly always contends for the gold at championship events, so it’s a hard loss for the Americans and for the sport this time around, but leaves an opening for others to step up.
Aside from Kendricks, the world record-holder Mondo Duplantis from Sweden, former world record holder and London Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie from France, and the defending Olympic champion from Brazil, Thiago Braz, all sailed through to the final.
KC Lightfoot and Chris Nilsen from the United States join the rest of the cast over 5.75m (18’10-1/4”).
American Matthew Ludwig cleared 5.50m, but it was not high enough of a bar to advance. He was flown in last minute to replace Kendricks — a tough set of circumstances to overcome and compete well.
Men’s 100m (Prelim and first round)
Canadian Andre de Grasse, France’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, American Fred Kerley, and Nigerian Enoch Adegoke all move on to the semifinal with sub-10 second performances.
We had our first big scare as world leader Trayvon Bromell, who has been nearly unbeatable all year on his comeback tour, places fourth and had to wait to see if he made it in on time. Thankfully, he did. His time of 10.05 wasn’t crazy fast, but I expected a bit more push to get into the top spot and cruise on.
Men’s Long Jump (Qualifying round)
World indoor champion, Juan Miguel Echevarria from Cuba opened up the round with an astounding 8.50m jump. As the broadcasters pointed out, that jump would have won the last three Olympic Games. Rounding out the top five to qualify were 2021 world leader, Grecian Miltidais Tentoglou, Japan’s Yuki Hashioka, reigning world champion Tajay Gayle from Jamaica, and the U.S. double-event stud, JuVaughn Harrison.
Men’s Discus (Final)
Reigning world champion Daniel Stahl, did not disappoint and takes another Olympic gold home to Sweden with a second-round throw of 68.90m (226’1/2”).
Joining him on the podium is fellow Swede Simon Pettersson with a throw of 67.39m (221’1”) to clinch the silver. Rounding out the medals is Austrian Lukas Weisshaidinger with 67.07m (220’1/2”).
American Sam Mattis was able to finish in 8th place with a modest throw of 63.88m (209’7”).
Mixed 4X400m Relay (Final)
A disappointing race for the world record U.S. team as they finish in the bronze medal position, just unable to hold off the home stretch charges of Poland and the Dominican Republic.
The U.S. did not run Alyson Felix on the finals team as most expected they would but still ran a solid 3:10.22, missing silver by 0.01 seconds as Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic out leaned Vernon Norwood.
Kajetan Duszynski from Poland ran an incredible final leg and pulled strongly away from the contention the last 50m. Poland took home their first gold with a 3:09.87, missing the world record by about half a second.
