Two Relays and Two Marathons
Close Epic Olympics in Grand Style
by Mark Cullen
writing from Seattle
Great Britain’s Georgia Bell - the revelation of the year - was 3rd in a national record 3:52.61, while Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji found out what it’s like to run 3:52.75 and not medal.
Faith Kipyegon made some history of her own, and this time it was winning her third consecutive Olympic 1500m title. Former Oregon Duck Jessica Hull finished very well over the last 100m, and especially the last 50 when she moved into silver medal position and was not to be denied.
Good thing Hull had established herself so well. Bell had a finish reminiscent of Yared Nuguse’s in the men’s 1500, and Hull hung on for silver while Bell’s fast last 400 netted her bronze and almost silver. It’s what I’d call an outstanding bell lap.
*It’s not often that I’d call a men’s 5,000m championship race at this level a jog in the park, but if not that, it was certainly a stroll that played directly into Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s hands.
A dawdling pace with a closely bunched pack for much of the race, when it came time to kick, no one could match him.
With 2 laps to go, Ethiopia led 1-2-3. With one, it was Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet in the lead. Ingebrigtsen surged past him, and when Ingebrigtsen had 80 meters to go, Grant Fisher (US) had 110m left. In fact, at that point, Fisher was 7th passing into 6th, and Kenya’s patient Ronald Kwemoi joined the race for the medals at last.
Down the homestretch, Ingebrigtsen’s lead and speed were unassailable, and he won in 13:13.66. Kwemoi held on for silver in 13:15.04, and Fisher sped by three runners in the last 35m to win his second bronze of the meet, only .09 behind Kwemoi.
Mysteriously, the Ethiopians who had seemed so strong with 2 laps to go finished 5-6-14, though Biniam Mihary in 6th place gets a pass as he’s only 17 years old.
Kitaguchi threw her golden winner in the first round and that let most of the competitive air out of the room. After World bronze in ’22 and gold in ’23, this had the feeling of a well-earned coronation.
In what we hope is not a changing of the guard, Kelsey-Lee Barber (Aus), two-time World and Olympic bronze medalist, and European Champion Christin Hussong (Ger), did not advance to the final. Props to surprise 2016 Olympic Champion Sara Kolak (CRO), who finished 4th today. It’s no longer a surprise when she throws this well.
*There would be no tie this time. The men’s high jump seemed destined for a repeat of 2021, when Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) famously agreed to tie for Olympic gold.
This competition had the makings of a repeat of that instant classic. With New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr and US’s Shelby McEwen tied for first and the competition concluded for everyone else (and with Barshim the bronze medal winner at (2.34/7-8)), the time came at 2.36 (7-8¾) for Kerr and McEwen to decide what to do. Share the gold or jump off for first and second?
Jump off it was, and after going up and then down when neither cleared the initial tie-breaking height of 2.38 (7-9¾), in the end it was a clearance by Hamish at 2.34 that finally broke the tie. Gold was his. Hamish, the 2024 World Indoor champion, tied an area record for Oceania, while McEwen in second set a personal best of 2.36 (he cleared 2.36 on the way up and missed during the tiebreaker on the way down).
Tamberi, who had been quite ill and had been in the hospital that week (and, it’s widely reported, the morning of the competition), was out early at a modest for him 2.22 (7 3¼) in 11th place.
*The men’s 800m had a familiar ring to it. The 2012 Olympic race is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever run, led by David Rudisha’s world record 1:40.91. The top 5 broke 1:43 and all 8 finalists broke 1:44.
In Paris, Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya just missed Rudisha’s world record while winning in a PB 1:41.19 today. Canada’s Marco Arop missed winning by 1/100th of a second in 1:41.20. Wanyonyi and Arop used opposite strategies as Wanyonyi was first to the bell while Arop was last.
Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati won bronze in 1:41.50, and US’s Bryce Hoppel set an American Record of 1:41.67 in 4th. It’s remarkable to consider that Hoppel ran 1:41.67 and did not medal.
But for Rudisha’s world record in 2012, today places 2-8 were faster than their counterparts in Rudisha’s epic race.
*Women’s 100m hurdles With Masai Russell’s US Olympic Trials win, you could just see her coming.
And when two-time World champion Danielle Williams and World record holder Tobi Amusan (NGR) failed to make the final, the door was open wider than many expected it to be.
Nonetheless, the women’s 100m hurdles final was, as always, one of the deepest to make. While two of the heavy favorites were out, the defending champion was in. Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn was now a favorite to repeat.
In an exceedingly close race – close competitions were a hallmark of these Games – the top 3 finished within 3/100 of a second of each other in 12.33, 12.34, and 12.36.
Russell had the perfect lean on the single day she needed it most, and she emerged as Olympic champion.
France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela has won both gold and silver indoors at 60m, but had not yet proved herself over the longer (100m) outdoor distance. Today she all but mastered the extra 40m, as she fell 1/100 of a second short of an Olympic title. Still, she was a very unexpected wearer of silver at the end of the day. Camacho-Quinn was savvy enough to put herself on the podium once again, this time in third.
Nadine Visser (NED, 12.43) and Grace Stark (US, 12.43) rounded out the top 5, all five of whom finished within 1/10 of a second of each other. Shuffle that deck of cards 10 times and see how often it comes out the same.
*Women’s 4x400m relay The world records that concern me the most are the leftovers from the second half of the twentieth century – the ones that reek of taint and suspicion. Whether for a faulty wind gauge (women’s 100m) or overt doping, one that has stuck in my craw is the women’s 4x400m relay. The record setting USSR team ran 3:15.17 in 1988.
I had hoped that the US all-star team of Shamier Little, Sydney McLaughlin-Verone, Gabby Thomas, and Alexis Holmes might wipe the 1988 mark off the books.
Well, almost. The US team won by a Secretariat-like margin of over 4 seconds in 3:15.27, just a tenth of a second off the world record.
The US national record was 3:15.51, and that one did fall on Sunday. Rare that first, second, and third places should all run national records. Not to mention 4th and 5th!
The Netherlands and Great Britain were 2nd and 3rd in 3:19.50 and 3:19.72, while Ireland and France were 4th and 5th in 3:19.90 and 3:21.41, respectively.
An epic, historic race of almost inconceivable depth, and even with that depth, a dominating win. Perhaps the US All-Stars will gather at the World Championships in Tokyo next year and take care of unfinished business.
*Men’s 4x400m relay Perhaps they’ll be joined there by the US men on a parallel quest. They won in Paris in 2:54.53, #2 all-time behind the US 1993 WR of 2:54.29 (a race that closed out the Stuttgart World Championships, a race I was privileged to see). As that was Worlds, this is an Olympic Record.
Botswana was 2nd in 2:54.53, just a tenth behind the US, while Great Britain took bronze in 2:55.83. The next three places also scored national records, with Japan snagging an Area record as well.
4th was Belgium (with only two Borlee brothers on the team - how many could there possibly be?!) with South Africa 5th and Japan 6th, in 2:57.75, 2:58.12, and 2:58.83, respectively.
16-year-old Quincy Wilson’s epic season went a race too far. He opened the 4x400m semi-final by running 47.27, far off his PB of 44.20. Too much was asked of this engaging kid, and he had a protector in veteran Vernon Norwood who deflected any criticism of the decision to run Wilson in the Olympics.
Gotta give the kid credit. He has gold medal social skills, and brought us all back to earth with a social media post that went viral.
It’s a selfie with Wilson holding his gold medal and the caption, “Dang, I really got school in 2 and a half weeks.”
Two 4x400m relays.
Two gold medals.
Two #2 times ever.
Imagine if the meet had ended with two world records.
*Men’s Marathon Much was made of the course, and with good reason. The much-discussed steepness of the major hill proved to be the break point for Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola – a late replacement for injured teammate Sisey Lemma.
And when I say late… Tola had only two weeks to make the mental adjustments necessary to prepare for running the Olympic marathon. The 2016 10,000m bronze medalist had made a change to road running because of his disappointment at not winning gold at 10k.
I think he’s over his disappointment now. He broke one of the greatest Olympic records, the late Sammy Wanjiru’s epic 2:06:32 run in the heat and humidity of Beijing in 2008, by six seconds.
Second was Tokyo bronze medalist Bashir Abdi (BEL) 2:06:47, who gained international attention in 2021 when he was in 3rd place in the final stretch of the marathon but in serious trouble and fading fast. His teammate, Abdi Ngeeye, slowed to encourage him to make it to the finish line, and he won a hard-fought bronze.
Today, Abdi added silver to his Tokyo bronze and crossed the line more comfortably. With his 2021 World Championship bronze from 2021, he has one of the best competitive records - 3 medals - in World/Olympic competition in the last three years.
Benson Kipruto (KEN) 2:07:00, who was only 13 seconds behind Abdi, added bronze to his three World Marathon Majors titles - at Tokyo, Chicago, and Boston – in the last three years.
The cream of the crop rose to the top in this race, and it leaves one wondering why Tola wasn’t an initial selection on the Ethiopian team.
Sad to say, Kenya’s 39-year-old Eliud Kipchoge did not finish. One of the two greatest male marathoners in history, it looks like his Olympic flame is flickering at long last.
*Women’s Marathon The International Olympic Committee gets props for scheduling the women’s marathon as the last event – the first time in Olympic history that a women’s event closed the Games. In addition, the IOC achieved its goal of having equal numbers of men and women’s competitors in these Olympic Games – for the very first time.
No one better one to receive her gold medal during Closing Ceremonies than the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who hung just off the main pack for much of the race and sped – yes, sped! – to a glorious win in an Olympic Record of 2:22:55.
Hassan and Ethiopia’s marathon world record holder, Tigst Assefa, tangled briefly close to the finish as each was attempting to run the same tangent. But Hassan’s momentum was too much for Assefa, who finished second, three seconds behind Hassan, in 2:22:58.
Kenya’s Hellen Obiri (2:23:10) and Sharon Lokedi (2:23:14 PB) finished 3rd and 4th as only 22 seconds separated the top four.
Hassan achieved a rare place in Olympic history as she won three distance running medals: bronze at 5,000m, bronze at 10,000m, and gold in the marathon – a truly stupendous achievement.
The Dutch have a cheer for their national teams and athletes: Hup, Holland! I can only imagine my Dutch mother reveling in the achievements of Sifan Hassan.
Photo by Mattia Ozbot for World Athletics
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