World's 2019 report: field events

M. Barshim was, together with Samba, the great hope of Qatar for a gold medal. But as in the case of Samba an injury early in the season did not allow a great optimism, in particular since his comeback at the end of August was rather disappointing, with an unheard-of (for him) 2.20. Still he managed to be in top shape for the World's and rewarded us with a fantastic contest. Already at the qualifiers he passed 2.29 without missing a height, qualifiers which saw many well known jumpers eliminated (Bondarenko, Przybylko, Ghazal,...). 

Barshim victorious

In the final Barshim had to fight the two russians, Akimenko and Ivanyuk, who both registered PB with 2.35. Barshim was flawless till 2.33 where he scared us by missing twice before succeeding on the third try. Then, together with the two russians, he passed 2.35 on his first try, but this was just enough for silver. And then Barshim showed that he is really the best high-jumper today, passing over 2.37, which proved too high for the russians (and the byelorussian Nedasekau, who finished 4th). Barshim is my favourite for next year's Olympics, provided he is injury free. 

Mahuchikh who improved the WJR twice

M. Lasitskene was the uncontested favourite of the women's high jump and did win in the end. But it was not a trivial thing. The event started in a quite tame way (Lasitskene started at 1.84 like all the others). Demireva went out at 1.89, a rather disappointing height for a 2 m jumper. Five athletes were still present when the bar was raised to 2 m (in fact 6 since Demidik had reserved her last attempt for this height). Licwinko had to contend herself with 1.98 but Levchenko, Mahuchikh and Cunningham succeeded (and, of course, Lasitskene).  The next height proved fatal for Levchenko and Cunningham, the latter obtaining the bronze medal on countback. Mahuchikh went on to register a World Junior Record with 2.02. But the surprise came at the next height where after Lasitskene had succeeded on the first attempt, Mahuchikh succeeded on the third try improving her just established record. It took 8 jumps for Lasitskene to secure the gold medal, while Mahuchikh needed 14 for silver.

The photo below is obviously not the one from the World's but I chose it because one can see Lasitskene celebrating with the russian flag for the first time after four years. I have already stated my opinion on punishing the authorised neutral athletes by depriving them of their national flag (and anthem).

Lasitskene at the World Military Games, 

together with Herashchenko and Levchenko

Both pole vault events were exciting ones. This started already with men's qualifiers which saw the elimination of olympic champion and World Record holder R. Lavillenie, world champion P. Wojciechowski, world indoor champion K. Filippidis and the talented E. Karalis. In the final, the height of 5.80 was the decisive one. Only three athletes managed to jump over it: S. Kendricks, A. Duplantis and P. Lisek. B.K. Lita Baehre was finally 4th ahead of olympic champion T. Graz, 5th, while world champion R. Holzdeppe and V. Lavillenie (the younger brother) shared the 6th position, all of them with 5.70. At the next height, 5.87, Duplantis and Lisek passed at the 2nd try while Kendricks need a third one. He recovered passing 5.92 on his first attempt while Duplantis needed three. Lisek tried once and he left the remaining two for 5.97 where he failed. At 5.97 Duplantis passed on the third attempt and was for a brief moment first, till Kendricks managed also to pass on his third attempt. Both failed at 6.02 and thus Kendricks won on countback because Duplantis had one more failure (at 5.87 and 5.92) compared to those of Kendricks. What an event!

The three medalists of pole vault.

Their friendly attitude won them a place in the fair-play short-list

Women's pole vault was the only hope for a greek medal. And in fact K. Stefanidi delivered although it was not of the colour she is accustomed to. 

The award ceremony for women's pole vault

The organisers had put the qualifying height at 4.60. But this was without counting on the progress of the discipline: as it turned out, 17 athletes obtained their qualification to the final. The latter was a quite demanding one as the opening height was 4.50 (all but J. Suhr started at this height) going immediately after to 4.70. N. Kyriakopoulou was among the ones who did not make it to the latter height. The next height was 4.80 and it saw the elimination, among others of K. Nageotte, R. Peinado, olympic champion J. Suhr and world champion Y. Silva. A. Bengtsson, whom I am following for quite a few years, was attempting a third jump at 4.80 when her pole broke. 

A. Bengtsson broke her pole while attempting 4.80

According to the rules she could retry, but she did not have a pole adapted to this height. So N. Guillon-Romarin lent her her pole and Bengtsson passed, finishing 6th of the event! A. Newman and H. Bradshaw were 5th and 4th respectively, with the same height. After 4.85 there were only three jumpers (in fact four, since Bradshaw had reserved one last jump to the higher height, one she did not pass). Stefanidi was 3rd having passed 4.85 on her second try and failing at 4.90 once (and at 4.95 twice). Sidorova and Morris passed 4.90 at their first attempt and, while we thought that we were heading for a barrage, Sidorova managed to pass 4.95 on her third try. (Sidorova is a better technician while Morris is faster and stronger, but, when the bar is really high, the technique does count). Morris was encouraging Sidorova all along which resulted in her being proposed for the fair-play award.

Morris and Sidorova congratulating each other

The men's long jump was a most curious event. The big name, M. Echevarria needed just one jump at 8.40 in order to qualify for the final. J. Henderson, R. Samaal and M. Tentoglou (he was below par in the final) did qualify thanks to their last jump, while world champion L. Manyonga was far from convincing. At the last, 12th, qualifying position was a young jamaican, T. Gayle who managed to make the final thanks to a last leap of 7.89. Everybody was expecting an easy victory and a huge jump for Echevarria but things turned out quite differently. The  barely known jamaican shocked everybody with a jump at 8.46. Jefferson was unfazed and with a 8.39 at his third attempt obtained silver. Echevarria was destabilised, started with two so-so jumps, improving in the third to 8.34. And just when we were expecting him to rise to the challenge, Gayle killed the competition with an incredible 8.69. Of course, Gayle had won the Shanghai Diamond league in May with 8.20, and had jumped 8.32 in London in July but nobody, absolutely nobody, was counting him among the possible winners of the title. It will be interesting to keep an eye on him over the next years.

Gayle flying towards the gold medal

Women's long jump was the opposite of the men's one in the sense of the forecast: the big favourite did win. The great absent from this championship was I. Spanovic who had injured her Achilles tendon while competing in Berlin on September 1st. The qualifiers reserved a surprise: World and olympic champion B. Reese could not qualify for the final. (To be honest I will not be missing Reese, since I absolutely hate her total absence of style. She is jumping on pure speed and force, reminding me of M. Jones who was also jumping without an ounce of style). 

Mihambo exhuberant after her victory

In the final M. Mihambo started by jumping a good half meter back from the foul line, then fouling  and could not take the lead till the third attempt when she landed at 7.30! She backed that with two jumps over 7 m, something that nobody else could match. M. Bekh was second with 6.92 and E. Brume 3rd with 6.91. T. Bowie, the 2017 world champion over 100 m came back to her first specialty, but her 6.81 leap was only enough for 4th place.

Taylor and Zango, celebrating

In men's triple jump C. Taylor prevailed once more. The qualifiers saw the elimination of world and olympic champion N. Evora and of european indoor champion N. Babayev. Taylor scared everybody by fouling the first two attempts but then pulled himself together and managed a decent 17.42 allowing him to pursue the competition. In the end Taylor won with 17.92 and W. Clay was second (just as in 2017) with 17.74. The competition was for me an occasion to discover the burkinabé jumper (and african champion) H. Zango who, with his last, 17.66, effort, pushed P. Pichardo (17.62) out of the podium. J. Díaz, whom I consider the future of the discipline, was 8th with 17.06, not bad for a first major championship.

Rojas in Doha. (You'll need a video in order to judge her style)

Given that she came to Doha with a recent PB of 15.41, Y. Rojas was everybody's favourite. And she did not disappoint. The qualifiers saw the elimination of olympic champion O. Rypakova. I was personally glad to see that my preferred jumper, 2018 athlete of the year, C. Ibargüen, was competitive, despite her recent injuries. In the final Rojas, jumping always in her awful-to-look-at style landed a huge 15.37 at the second attempt and the strife for gold was over. The two jamaicans S. Ricketts and K. Williams were occupying the two remaining podium places with 14.92 and 14.64 till the 5th jump when Ibargüen managed a 14.73 for bronze. World champion O. Saladukha was 5th with 14.52, while european indoor champion A. Peleteiro was 6th with 14.47. It's a pity P. Papachristou injured herself in September and missed the World's. I believe that she could have made the final.

Ibargüen showed that she is always competitive

There has never been a shot put competition of such a high level. Things started already at the qualifiers where 12 athletes threw over the qualifying minimum of 20.90. As was natural, this made some victims among which one finds M. Haratyk, O'Dayne Richards and B. Bertemes. The final started with Grouser sending the shot at 22.36 and Walsh shocking everybody with a huge 22.90. The game looked as it was over at this stage. In fact Walsh, perhaps too confident, started taking risks, most probably going for a world record, and ended up fouling 3 of his next 4 throws. After the fifth throw Walsh was always first, D. Romani second with 22.53 and Crouser third with 22.36. And then on the last throw Kovacs, who was 4th up to that point, had a huge throw measured at 22.91, and taking the lead. Crouser came next and he also managed to surpass himself with 22.90 passing over Walsh in countback. Neither Romani nor Walsh could react and had to leave the first two medals to the two americans. 

The three winners of the men's shot put

The two young talents Bukowiecki and Gill were 6th and 7th separated by just one cm. And a technical remark: all 12 throwers of the final are spinners. I think that the transition is now over, and the answer to the question I asked in my post right after Rio is that the rotational style is indeed totally dominating the shot put.

Thomas-Dodd is the only spinner among the shot put medalists

Women are always more conservative than men and here the percentage of spinners is less than 50 %. But it is growing and so I expect, in some not too distant future, the rotational style to dominate the women's discipline as well. The title in Doha was won by L. Gong with 19.55, followed by D. Thomas-Dodd with 19.47 and C. Schwanitz 19.17. World indoor champion A. Marton, still recovering from her injury, was 5th with 18.86 while olympic champion M. Carter could only manage a 9th place. 

Dacres and Stahl (the typo is, obviously, not mine)

D. Stahl had lost the 2017 title for a meagre 2 cm but this time he took his revenge. He had announced his intentions already at the qualifiers with a throw at 67.88. The qualifiers saw the elimination of world champion P. Malachowski, world vice champion P. Milanov and olympic champion C. Harting. L. Weisshaidinger barely managed to qualify throwing 9 cm more than the 13th contestant, but in the final he had a great series obtaining the bronze medal with 66.82. F. Dacres took temporarily the lead at the second throw with 66.94 but Stahl responded at the third with 67.59, which was enough in order to guarantee him the victory. 

Pérez celebrating after her victory

I have always had a preference for Y. Pérez. I like her style and, although she has yet to throw beyond 70 m, I believe that she is the best discus thrower of the moment. In Doha she dominated the event taking an early lead with 68.10. When D. Caballero went beyond this with 68.44, Pérez responded with 69.17 securing the gold. S. Perkovic added another medal, this time bronze, to her collection with a throw at 66.72. The domination of these three throwers is really total with more than 3 meters separating the 3rd from the 4th. 

Caballero, Pérez and Perkovic with their medals

Olympic and world vice-champion M. Robert-Michon had a most disappointing championship: while she threw 64.02 in the qualifiers, she could only manage 59.99 in the final for a 10th place. 

A. Peters, the surprise javelin world champion

I have been keeping an eye on A. Peters, in particular after his win at the Pan American Games with 87.31. But even so I did not expect him to win in Doha. On the other hand, Walcott, when he won the olympic title in London, had shown us that everything is possible. The event started in a disastrous way for Germany, since olympic champion T. Röhler was eliminated with 79.23 and european vice-champion A. Hofmann fared not much better with 80.06. J. Weber did make it to the final (but he could not go beyond a 6th place there). So the main hope for the german fans was world champion J. Vetter who qualified with a huge 89.35 throw at his first attempt. M. Kirt was second in the qualifiers with 88.36 and Peters third with 85.34. That order was going to be reversed in the final. Peters started with 86.69, which somehow destabilised his opponents. Kirt reacted with 86.21 and Vetter with 85.37 but it turned out that they could not go beyond that. Peters had an even better throw, 86.89, in his 4th attempt and that clinched the gold medal. Olympic champion K. Walcott and world champion Y. Yego had a disappointing championship. After throwing 84.44 and 83.86 in the qualifiers, respectively, they botched the final with Walcott throwing 77.47 and Yego fouling thrice.

The women's javelin medalists.

Notice that Lü, on the right, is quite unhappy

The big favourite for women's javelin was H. Lü. She is an experienced thrower who holds the Asian record with 67.59. Moreover this year she was unbeaten since April and she started by dominating the qualifiers with 67.27. But, as always, the final is a different story. Lü took an early lead with 65.06 but in the 5th throw her compatriot Liu went beyond this with 65.88. Lü could only respond with 65.49 and while gold and silver seemed to be chinese K.L. Barber shocked everybody with a last throw at 66.56 winning gold for Australia. 

Barber on her road to glory

Multiple world and olympic champion B. Spotakova did make it to the final with a 62.15 throw but, once in there, she could only manage 59.87 for a 9th place. 

The three four men's hammer medalists

P. Fajdek won his fourth world title in a row. He took control of the event right from the qualifiers and in the final he was the only one to go beyond 80 meters. Q. Bigot was second (one of the rare french medals in this championship) with 78.19. The third place of B. Halasz created a controversy. Throwing 78.18 at his first attempt he obtained the third place in front of W. Nowicki who managed 77.69 in his last throw. And then the polish team filed a protest, supported by the video where one could see that Halasz had fouled his bronze-winning throw. However, since the judge had validated the attempt, there was no going back. A "Judgement of Solomon" solution was needed and the IAAF did not hesitate: a second bronze medal was awarded to Nowicki and everyone was happy. Eighteen year old M. Kokhan was 5th with 77.39, earning a position among my top list of young talents. 

The women's hammer medalists

Muliple olympic and world champion A. Wlodarczyk could not defend her title this time. Having undergone a left knee surgery in July she decided to end her season there and prepare herself for Tokyo. This opened the way for the american and the remaining polish throwers. But there some laughed while others weeped. B. Andersen was eliminated in the qualifiers but the greatest shock was the elimination of world bronze medalist M. Kopron , who was viewed by many as the successor of Wlodarczyk. Then in the final G. Berry fouled thrice and was not even classified. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Berry won a medal. 

Berry in Lima (reminiscing Mexico)

(When she won gold in the Lima, 2019, Pan American Games this year she raised her hand during the national anthem protesting against injustice in America "and a president who's making it worse"). In the end Poland's honour was saved By J. Fiodorow who was second with 76.35, behind D. Price, 77.54, and in front of Z. Wang, 74.76. 

Klymets, a most graceful hammer thrower

I. Klymets improved twice her personal best with 72.93 in the qualifiers and 73.56 in the final.