U.S. dominates relays, Ingebrigtsen sets record, Chopra pops for gold
The final day of track and field, day nine, kicked off today in Tokyo. We’ve had one hell of a ride, and a whirlwind of results, both unexpected and wildly more exciting than even anticipated.
With a day full of finals, we end our five years of enthusiastic waiting, with this.
Event Roundup
Women
High Jump final
10,000m final
4x400m relay final
Men
Javelin final
1500m final
4x400m relay final
Women’s High Jump (Final)
Three-time reigning world champion, Maria Lasitskene of the Russian Olympic Committee, burst into tears after Australia’s Nicola McDermott missed her final attempt at 2.02m (6 ft 7-1/2 in) making it a first-time Olympic gold for Lasitskene.
She was able to clear a season’s best 2.04m (6 ft 8-1/4 in) on her second attempt at the height.
Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the 2019 World Championship silver medal winner, pounced over a season’s best 2.00m (6 ft 6-3/4 in) for bronze. Mahuchikh is actually the world junior record-holder with 2.04m.
American Vashti Cunningham made easy work of the lower heights and seemed to struggle at 1.98m. After missing twice, she opted to skip and take her remaining attempt at 2.00m to stay in contention. Albeit a decent jump, she would leave the competition with a best of 1.96m (6 ft 5 in) and a tie for sixth.
Women’s 10,000m (Final)
She did it again. The Netherlands Sifan Hassan took home her second gold of these Olympic Games. Tonight, she did it in the 10000m.
In a time of 29:55.32, she was able to edge out and outkick Bahrain’s Kalkidan Gezahegne, Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, and Kenyan Hellen Obiri. It wasn’t easy.
Gidey was the woman most dangerous in the event. She currently holds both the 5000m and 10000m world records of which she ran in 2020 and 2021 respectively. In fact, she was the one who broke Hassan’s record in the 10000m just two days after she had initially set it. Today, though, she hauled in the bronze with a 30:01.72 run.
Obiri was a very close fourth. She’s always dangerous. She’s the reigning two-time world champion, and two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5000m, so you know she has some wheels. She closes out her 2020 Games with a time of 30:24.27.
But in a little bit of a surprise finish, the 30-year-old Gezahegne pulls out the silver medal, less than a second behind Hassan, with her first medal and Bahrain’s first and only of the Tokyo Games. Her time of 29:56.18 was only a few seconds from her personal best in the event.
Hassan goes back home with two golds and a bronze. She wasn’t able to take the triple crown, but I don’t think anyone is going to fault her given the number of races she had to run and the level of competition chasing her down.
Emily Sisson was the only American to crack the top ten, finishing in tenth with 31:09.58.
Women’s 4X400m Relay (Final)
Late last night, United States Track and Field (USATF) announced its final relay card for the women’s 4x400m and showed Sydney McLaughlin, Allyson Felix, Dalilah Muhammad, and Athing Mu. How the hell did I forget about Mu last night when listing my finals picks?!
Mu is the fastest in the field for the U.S. this year and the newly-minted 800m Olympic Champion, but you can forgive me I hope.
With a team like that, everyone had “world record” dripping from their lips. At least, it was within the realm of possibility.
The world record stands at 3:15.17, which is held by the now-defunct Soviet Union from all the way back in 1988. Well, it still stands, but it was one hell of an impressive race and time.
The United States ran three very solid opening legs before handing off to Mu. Each woman ran below 50.0 aside from McLaughlin who started. She ran a 50.2 honest 400m dash split with no lead off and coming out of the blocks. She handed off first and the team never relinquished their lead.
The moment Mu received the handoff, there wasn’t a chance in all hell she was going to get run down, and with the lead she had, it was sealed. She crossed the line in a 48.4 split by herself and a 3:16.85, nearly 4 seconds ahead of silver. The fifth-fastest time ever. The U.S. takes its seventh Olympic title in a row.
Poland takes silver (3:20.53) over Jamaica in third (3:21.24) with Team Canada nearly overtaking them at the end.
We saw Felix take the handoff in what will likely be the very last race of her historic career. In doing so, she took home her eleventh Olympic medal, surpassing Carl Lewis as the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete to have lived.
Who will fill Felix’s spot on that 4x400m at the World Championships or next Olympics? There are already two world record holders, and Athing Mu who just might put some pressure on two world records herself.
Men’s Javelin (Final)
What an amazing day for the country of India and Neeraj Chopra. India hasn’t won an Olympic gold medal since the second modern Olympic Games back in 1900 and has never won gold.
That all changed today when Chopra launched a second-round throw out to 87.58m (287 ft 4 in). He knew it was a good one immediately, walking away with his hands up, not even watching as the javelin flew towards its final resting place.
Chopra came into the finals having led the qualifying rounds, and only needed his very first throw of the finals (87.03m) to ultimately take his historic medal. He continues his near three-year undefeated streak in the best way possible.
Fellow countrymen Jakub Vadlejch and Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic captured silver and bronze 86.67m (284 ft 4 in) and 85.44m (280 ft 3-3/4 in).
2017 world champion and second furthest thrower ever, Germany’s Johannes Vetter, was unable to move into the final three throws after only producing a first-round throw of 82.52m (270 ft 8-3/4 in) for ninth.
Though Vetter was the favorite going into the Games, he admitted to reporters:
“I’ve been struggling a little bit with my technique for a couple of weeks and I am trying to fix it on to Saturday.”
Men’s 1500m (Final)
This freakin’ guy.
It went as I had originally called it, but I wasn’t sure what the time would be. Twenty-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway took the gold away from Timothy Cheruiyot in an Olympic record time of 3:28.32.
This also marks the first time Ingebrigtsen has beaten Cheruiyot in a head-to-head race. It’s been close on several occasions, but what a perfect place to finally pull out the win.
Cheruiyot was in the lead most of the way while you could tell Ingebrigtsen was waiting for his time to strike with great forethought. With about 170m to go, he made his move around Cheruiyot and shot off the curve with a lead he would not give back. Opening up about seven or eight meters at the line.
Cheruiyot would hold on for silver in 3:29.01 but nearly got out leaned by Great Britain’s Josh Kerr who captured bronze in 3:29.05. Yes, only 0.04 seconds between the two.
American Cole Hocker, another twenty-year-old phenom out of the University of Oregon, ran a personal-best 3:31.40 to dip under both the old Olympic record and the one Kipsang set in the prelims as well, finishing in sixth. This kid is going to be something special — he has shown all year he already is.
Men’s 4X400m Relay (Final)
The men and the women continued their dominance in the 4x400m and in wonderful fashion. After the women ran a stellar time to capture gold, the men were on track to try and take gold themselves.
The relay was set up with Michael Cherry as the lead-off, Michael Norman, Bryce Deadmon, and Rai Benjamin as the anchor. An incredible team much like the women.
Where the U.S. used to be near untouchable over the four-lap relay, the world is starting to catch up, and it showed today. The Botswana, Netherlands, and Poland were right there on the United States’ heels for 3/4 of the race.
It wasn’t until Benjamin received the baton in the last exchange that Americans pulled away and found some breathing room.
Benjamin ran an incredible 43.36 split to the tune of 2:55.70, just missing the Olympic record.
The Netherlands ran a superb relay that fought back after the first two exchanges and a beautifully times lean at the end to take silver with a time of 2:57.18.
They were able to edge out Team Botwana who had a little falter on the second leg where Baboloki Thebe stepped off the track for a moment but was able to recompose himself and stay in the race. They finished with the bronze in 2:57.27.
