The men's high jump was a great competition with a moving finale. Both Tamberi and Barshim reached 2.37 m without having lost any attempt. Nedasekau also reached the same height but he had two missed tries and since everyone missed out at 2.39 m (there were 6 jumpers going for that height) Tamberi and Barshim tied at the first place. And then they looked at each other and decided that there wouldn't be a jump-off: they would share the gold medal.
It was a great moment for both jumpers but even more so for Tamberi who was the favourite for the Rio Olympics but got injured just before the Games. I was really shocked when I read the comments of Isinbayeva on the decision of the two athletes not to break the tie. She was really critical saying that she did not know "if it is possible according to the rules for two athletes to agree [not to break the tie]". And she added "in technical disciplines there should be a fight until the very end". This is totally ridiculous. There is no rule which obliges the athletes to jump: if they declare that they feel some pain and cannot jump that's it. So Isinbayeva should have kept her disparaging comments to herself.
Women's high jump was another great moment. M. Lasitskene had missed the 2016 Olympics since Russia was not allowed to participate. She had dominated women's high jump winning World and european titles but the olympic medal was missing from her collection. But, Lasitskene was not in great shape in the months leading to the Games and she had given everybody a scare in the qualifiers needing three tries at 1.95 m that gave access to the final. And the final did not start well for her. She had to take three jumps at 1.96, two at 1.98 and two at 2.00 m. N. Mcdermott was leading at this point having jumped 2.00 m at her first try, a point at which I. Gerashchenko had exited). Y. Mahuchikh, the pre-competition favourite, was not in her best day, having taken two tries at 1.96, three at 1.98 and two at 2.00 m. At that point the medals were decided with Lasitskene and Mahuchikh tying at second place. And then Lasitskene disrupted the event: she passed 2.02 m at the first try, taking the lead. McDermott needed two tries and Mahuchikh having missed once decided to continue at 2.04 m. And Lasitskene passed that height at her second try. Mahuchikh missed twice and was definitely third while McDermott had a great third try but she grazed the bar and it fell.
Lasitskene was Olympic champion. And it is the first time I saw her expressing her feelings beyond a token smile for the photo. Incredible though it may sound, she did cry after her victory.
The men's pole vault was a bizarre competition with S. Kendricks sidelined (having tested positive just before the Games), R. Lavillenie injured and P. Lisek in a definitely off year. Seven athletes were still present in the competition at 5.80 m With A. Duplantis, E. Karalis and K. Lightfoot sharing the first place. And then T. Braz had a lucky jump at 5.87 m which was enough to secure him the third place. C. Nilsen went on to with silver with 5.97 m and Duplantis having jumped over 6.02 was alone at the competition. He could have decided to take a jump at 6.07 m breaking the olympic record but opted to go for the world record at 6.19 m. He had a fantastic attempt (his first) where it looked as if the bar would stay (unfortunately it didn't). Karalis finished fourth in his first olympic appearance but, oh, how I would have liked to see him come back with an olympic medal.
The final of the women's pole vault took place without S. Morris who could not get past the qualifiers. She did hurt herself when her pole snapped but I am not convinced that she was in the greatest of shapes. The final did not start great for K. Stefanidi: she need three tries at the initial, 4.50 m, height. (In fact, the same was true for the future winner, K. Nageotte). Then the bar was raised to 4.70 m, a good 20 cm higher! Most jumpers including Kyriakopoulou, Peinado, Silva, Bengtsson etc. exited at that height. Stefanidi, again, had to jump thrice in order to pass that height. Nageotte and Bradshaw need two tries and only Sidorova cleared the height at the first attempt. Then Bradshaw succeeded at 4.85 m (together with Nageotte and Sidorova) leaving Stefanidi out of the medals. Stefanidi let two tries for 4.90 m (but they were unsuccessful) and Nageotte went over that height at her second try. Sidorova had one attempt left and she raised the bar at 4.95 m but she could not make it and Nageotte was the winner. That was the first time I saw Sidorova cry: she is usually quite cold not expressing any feeling but losing the olympic title that was hers up to the very last moment was apparently too much for her.
I have already written a separate article on men's long jump. The women's long jump was, just like the men's one, decided on the last jump. I. Spanovic jumped 7.00 m in the qualifiers but could not go beyond 6.91 m in the final ending just outside the medals (a slight disappointment for me who is an unconditional Spanovic fan). E. Brume was leading with 6.97 m up to the 5th jump when B. Reese who had already jumped 6.97 m improved her second best jump to 6.95 m taking the first place. But in the last jump M. Mihambo who had a best of 6.95 m up to that point had a 7.00 m jump clinching the gold medal. T. Davis who had jumped 7.14 m in spring and 7.04 m in the US Trials was 6th with 6.84 m. J. Sawyers, another athlete I follow, improved her PB this season to 6.90 m and jumping 6.80 m in the final obtained the 8th place (just as in Rio).
I have written time and again on the style of Y. Rojas which I find awful to look at. However in Tokyo I detected a slight progress: her second jump in no more just a perfunctorily executed step but something that (remotely) resembles a skip. Saying that she dominated the competition is an understatement. Three out of her four valid jumps would have sufficed for the victory. She had a humongous foul over 15.80 m and in her final attempt she jumped a world record 15.67 m. Since her style has started improving I believe that 16 m can be a reasonable objective for her. I. Pedroso, Rojas' coach, had a double success since his second athlete, A. Peleteiro obtained the bronze medal with 14.87 m. In between was an athlete I appreciate a lot, P. Mamona, who joined the 15 club, with a jump at 15.01 m, obtaining the silver medal. The Tokyo Olympics were most probably the swan's song for the great champion C. Ibargüen. She managed to make it to the final but then she could not go beyond a 10th place. I was really disappointed by V. Papachristou. Not only did she have an abysmal performance, her attitude was that of someone who does not care any longer.
The men's triple jump was a hidden (indirect) vengeance. Eight years ago at the Moscow, 2013, World Championships, T. Tamgho beat P. Pichardo (jumping for Cuba at that time) in the final 18.04 to 17.68 m. Tamgho has put an end to his career due to repeated injuries and is now a coach. His most brilliant disciple is H.F. Zango who was participating in the olympic final. And Pichardo, who now participates under the colours of Portugal, did beat Zango roundly 17.98 m to 17.47 m (Zango obtaining in fact the bronze medal). And, to tell the truth, after having seen the qualifiers, where Zango managed barely to qualify at the 12th position, I was not expecting him to raise to the challenge and go for a medal in the final. Perhaps we'll have to wait for the Paris Olympics in order to see the (last?) act of the drama.
Dame V. Adams participated in her fifth Olympics. Coming back from serious injuries and after giving birth to her second child, she managed to be in shape just in time for the Tokyo Olympics obtaining her fourth medal, this time a bronze, with 19.62 m. The women's shot put was won by L. Gong with 20.58 m followed by R. Saunders 19.79. Saunders created a sensation by protesting on the olympic stand, crossing her arms over her head. As she explained later she did this in order to shout our for all the black people and those of the LGBTQ community. Podium demonstrations are forbidden at the Tokyo Olympics and the IOC confirmed that they "looking into" the incident. But my estimate is that she will not receive anything beyond a token reprimand.
R. Crouser is a class of his own. He appears to have at last mastered his technique. In an interview he pointed out that "there have been very few tall shot putters who threw with rotation so I didn't really have a model to copy. But I came up with a technique that's kind of my own and which works well for me". The fact is that he has substantially progressed while the two other Rio and Doha medallists, J. Kovacs and T. Walsh have just maintained their level. Crouser flirted with the world record unleashing a huge 23.30 m at his last throw. Kovacs was second with 22.66 m and Walsh third with 22.47 m.
The women's discus was contested under taxing conditions. At some time after the first throw the downpour started and the event was interrupted. I still have the images of the athletes trying to throw in the slippery throwing circle, skidding and falling. I cannot understand why it is so difficult to have self-draining throwing circles with a non-slippery coating. Anyhow, V. Allman secured her win with a 68.98 m throw at her first attempt and I must say that her throwing style is a unique combination of strength with grace. The silver medal went to an outsider, K. Pudenz, with 66.86 m and Y. Perez obtained bronze with 65.72 m. Double olympic champion S. Perkovic could not do better than 65.01 m and a fourth place. The qualifiers saw the elimination of ex-world champion D. Caballero a 70+ m thrower, as well as the world leader J. Van Klinken who threw 70.22 m in May but could do no better than 61.15 m in Tokyo.
The men's discus saw a double swedish victory. D. Stahl was first with 68.90 m, followed by S. Petterson, 67.39 m. The bronze medal went to L. Weisshaidinger with 67.07 m, while one of the pre-event favourites, 21 years old K. Ceh, finished 5th with 66.37 m. Once more I was disappointed by F. Dacres, Doha silver medallist, who was 13th in the qualifiers missing the final for a mere 2 cm. P. Malachowski, Rio silver medallist, did not make it past the qualifiers as well. I confess that I did not notice the presence of E. Hadadi, silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympics, until I started compiling this report and perusing the detailed results: he was qualified for Tokyo thanks to his 2019 results, but in Tokyo he could not do better than 58.98 m, a very poor performance indeed.
The javelin competitions were a pure let-down. M. Andrejczyk was the logical favourite for the women's event, having thrown 71.40 m in May. And then she registered the longest throw in the qualifiers with 65.24 m. Now this is a bad sign. She lad the longest throw, 67.11 m, in the qualifiers in Rio and could not do better than 4th in the final. In Tokyo things were slightly better. With 64.61 she was 2nd behind S. Liu who won the event with a, to my eyes, lucky throw of 66.34 m at her first attempt. The other Liu, Huihui, who is in my opinion the best asian javelin thrower, went home medal-less for the third Olympics in a row. The legendary B. Spotakova, could not make it this time past the qualifiers, but it was a close thing since, with 60.52 m, she ended up at the 14th position.
The men's javelin throw started in a catastrophic way. World and Olympic champions, J. Yego, A. Peters and K. Walcott found themselves out of the final. World (2015) silver medallist I. Abdelrahman was also out finishing 13th. J. Vetter gave a foretaste of what was to come needing three tries in order to qualify for the final. Ditto (as far as the foretaste is concerned) for the future champion N. Chopra who qualified with a massive 86.65 m throw on his first attempt. In the final we discovered a Vetter who had nothing to do with the 90+ m thrower. Complaining of the run-up surface that did not allow him to brake efficiently and afraid of injuring himself he had some timid throws and ended up 9th. Meanwhile Chopra took the control of the competition of his very first throw and did not relinquished it, winning with 87.68 m. The one athlete I noticed for the first time in the final was A. Nadeem of Pakistan who threw 85.16 in the qualifiers and 84.62 m in the final finishing 5th. I am going to keep an eye open for him.
There were three polish and three american throwers in the women's hammer throw. All three polish girls made the final 8 (Wlodarczyk first, Kopron 3rd and Fiodorow 7th). From the americans on D. Price made (barely) the final 8. This is probably another harmful effect of the US Trials. To tell the truth I was somewhat disappointed that G. Berry did not obtain a medal (she finished 11th). I would have been really interested to see how she would have manifested on the podium. She had said that, were she to win, she would do what she has been doing whenever the spotlight shines her way, representing the oppressed people.
A. Wlodarczyk made history by becoming the first woman to win a third consecutive olympic gold (succeeding where Perkovic failed). At this point it appears preposterous that World Athletics had never recognised officially her outstanding quality, passing her over when it came to the annual prizes. Poland had two athletes on the podium also in the men's event. However this time it was W. Nowicki who was first, P. Fajdek contenting himself with the bronze medal. Their performances were 82.52 and 81.53 m respectively. In between, in the second place was the astonishing norwegian E. Henriksen who improved his PB by almost three metres obtaining silver with 81.58 m.
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