A Wild Ride to the Podium
by Mark Cullen
from Seattle
Today's men's shot put results look expected; 'normal,' if you will, for the event.
That is: Ryan Crouser first, Joe Kovacs second, and a surprise in third,
But it was a wild ride to this podium.
Hanging over the competition was the matter of Crouser’s health – his repeated serious injuries are taking a toll, as even he acknowledges. And yet he knew that what he needed more than anything was an opener right down the middle.
He’s not Ryan Crouser for nothing.
22.64 on his first throw, 22.69 on his second, 22.90 on his third, tightening the screws as he went, and the deal, essentially, was sealed.
A new contender emerged this year and was my pre-meet favorite for what would have been a collosal upset: Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri.
Even though he has a World Championship silver to his credit, he has never been consistent at that level until this spring. He even came into the meet with a season’s best a few centimeters farther than Crouser’s.
But Fabbri was off balance in the ring from the start, and things got worse when it started raining, as he threw sideways and out of the sector. He finished a creditable 5th, but left with a question of what might have been.
Jamaica, better known for speed on the track than in a throwing circle, took home a surprising bronze when Rajindra Campbell popped a 22.15 second round throw, which landed him in second place at the time.
Payton Otterdahl (US) spent much of the afternoon in the bronze medal position. However, ominously for him, Joe Kovacs and his wife and coach, Ashley, were having an animated discussion between the 5th and 6th rounds, one which Kovacs appeared not to win. He was in 4th place at the time and had one throw left on the wet and slick circle.
He exploded also with a 22.15 and into the silver medal position, which moved a disconsolate Otterdahl to 4th.
And Crouser into history as he won his third consecutive Olympic title.
*Note the scheduling of the Decathlon’s last event, the 1500m. It was tonight’s culminating event, topping even the women’s 100m final in this evening’s program at Stade de France.
The whole idea was that France’s Kevin Mayer was to have his coronation as the world’s greatest men’s athlete take place in prime time on this Saturday night.
No such luck. Instead, the injury prone two-time world champion, world record holder, and Olympic silver medalist has a thigh injury and scratched from the competition the day before it was to begin.
This opened the door for Norway’s Markus Rooth to put a generational stamp on the event as he is only 22 years old – a surprise who scored a narrow win over Germany’s Leo Neugebauer, 8796 points to 8748.
Neugebauer is a two-time NCAA decathlon champion at Texas and #6 in the world all-time. He, too, is young for the event at 24. Give him a few more years in Austin and he’ll have a German accent with a twang.
3rd was Grenada’s Lindon Victor on what was a good day for athletes from islands.
*The much anticipated women’s 100m dash featured brutal semi-finals, with only the top two in each of three semis plus the next two fastest advancing to the final. The semis telegraphed the ultimate medalists.
Melissa Richardson (US) won the first heat in 10.99 with Cote d’Ivoire’s veteran Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith second in 11.01.
The second semi gave us a closer preview of the final than Sha’Carri Richardson’s fans might have wanted, as St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred topped her, 10.84-10.89.
Alfred was commanding throughout, while Richardson let up before the finish, presumably to save herself for the final.
Most unfortunately, 37 year old Jamaican legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce did not make it through warmups and chose not to start.
In the third semi (all of you having trouble with the notion of a 3rd semi, please raise your hands; mine is up, too), Jamaica’s Tia Clayton ran 10.89, the fastest of the qualifiers.
In the final, Richardson started well; Alfred, on the other hand, exploded out of the blocks and won going away. A dominant victory: 10.72-10.87. Picking an opportune time for what may have been the race of her life, Melissa Jefferson (US) followed them onto the podium with a stellar 10.92 in 3rd.
This is what the Olympics are all about: it’s the first medal of any kind for St. Lucia. May the organizers (please) double-check the match of flag and anthem before tomorrow’s ceremony.
*And while they’re at it… would they please check for Dominica, too?!
The women’s triple jump was unlike any held the past seven or eight years; that is, superstar Yulimar Rojas was out while recovering from surgery.
So dominant has Rojas been that the golden door was open today for those for whom silver and bronze had previously been the height of their aspirations.
Veteran Thea LaFond, 30, of Dominica broke the magic 15 meter barrier and set the national record with a PB 15.02 to win the rain-soaked competition. Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts, 32, was second, while Jasmine Moore, 23, who was 10th at Worlds last summer, made a big leap up the ranks to claim bronze.
*4x400m mixed relay
With 500m to go and Holland in 4th place well behind the leading US 4x400m mixed relay team, I said to myself, “Holland wins.”
Why so sure?
Femke Bol is that good.
A lap later the positions and separation weren’t much different than they had been a lap before. But Bol had run a masterfully measured race: down went 3rd, down went 2nd; she was in complete control through the finish – unlike her World Championships face plant with 5 meters to go the year before.
How good is good? Bol’s anchor split was a phenomenal 47.93.
The Dutch missed the world record set by the US in the semis yesterday by only two one-hundredths of a second.
Unfortunately, Bol raised her arms in celebration a couple of meters from the finish line. In all likelihood, that cost the Dutch the world record and the $100,000 bonus that goes with it. That’s a whole lotta Gouda.
The throwers should at the very least have had a pause in the action and an equal opportunity for all to adapt to changing conditions. Clearly the putters who threw first in the rain were at a disadvantage when it came to having a chance to respond. It’s my understanding that the women’s triple jump was delayed for a relatively brief period of time for, presumably, the same considerations.
*Update: regarding the United States 4x400m mixed relay snafu in the semi-final round yesterday… Shamier Little, the second runner, was in the exchange zone after all… turns out that she was in the correct lane but at the end of the exchange zone, not the beginning. An official noticed and waved her to the correct position, thereby avoiding - by seconds - disaster for today’s silver medalists.
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