My Olympic Report (2020): middle and long distance events

As soon as I saw A. Mu winning the US Trials I knew that we had a winner for the olympic 800 m. And I was right. What was less predictable at the time was the second place of K. Hodgkinson. They ran in 1:55.21 and 1:55.88 respectively and although the U20 world record of P. Jelimo (1:54.01 from 2008) still holds I am sure that both 19 year old olympic medallists have a bright future ahead of them. Reigning world champion H. Nakkayi exited at the semis together with her compatriot W. Nanyondo who, to be fair, is more of a 1500 m specialist (where she finished 7th in a season's best 3:59.80).

The men's 800 m was a tactical race won by E. Korir in 1:45.06. Throughout the race I was keeping an eye open for P. Dobek and he clinched the bronze medal. Dobek had started his career as 400 m hurdles specialist. He was a finalist of the 2015 World's and of the 2018 Europeans with a respectable 48.59 s. However today there is no future in the low hurdles unless you have a below-47 s potential. There are already four athletes at this level with a fifth not very far. So Dobek decided to switch to the 800 m. And that was a great decision. He won the european indoors over that distance, improved his PB to 1:43.73 in June and with a clever race obtained the olympic bronze. There were several disappointing performances in Tokyo, among them that of ex-world champion P.A. Bosse who exited at the semis, after having been the last to qualify on time after the heats.

T. Cheruiyot tried the same tactic as in Doha, imposing a very fast pace to the men's 1500 m. But Cheruiyot of 2021 is not the Cheruiyot of 2019 and since 2019 J. Ingebrigtsen has acquired two years worth of extra maturity. So, the result of Cheruiyot's pace was to push Ingebrigtsen to an Olympic and European record of 3:28.32. All of a sudden the world record of H. El Guerrouj looks within reach of the young norwegian prodigy.

S. Hassan had announced that after the 1500-10000 m double in the Doha, 2019, World Championships, she was going for a treble 1500-5000-10000 m in Tokyo. It sounded crazy and it was. All the more so, since the heats for the 1500 m were on the same day as the 5000 m final. And Hassan managed to further complicate the situation by a fall at 300 m from the finish line of the 1500 m. 

Well, she managed to pick herself up and she even won the heat. And the very same evening she won the 5000 m final with 14:36.79 ahead of H. Obiri, 14:38.36, and G. Tsegay 14.38.37. That was on August 2nd. On the 4th Hassan ran the 1500 m semi-final and then the final arrived on the 6th. Hassan hoped to beat F. Kipyegon just like she did in 2019 at the World's. But in 2019 Kipyegon had just come back to competition after giving birth to her son. This year Kipyegon was in top shape: she had improved her PB to 3:51.07 in July. And so when she accelerated on the back straight there was nothing Hassan could do. Kipyegon won with 3:53.11 and L. Muir managed to pass Hassan winning silver in 3:54.50. 

Hassan, 3:55.86, had to content herself with bronze. Two days later she went on to win the 10000 m in 29:55.32 in a race where the first three were ethiopians, with Hassan running for the Netherlands, K. Gezahegne (second in 29:56.18) running for Brunei, and only L. Gidey (third in 30:01.72) running for Ethiopia. F. Niyonsaba was 5th in 30:41.93 another proof that, contrary to Sir Sebastian's claims, the testosterone rules are not working.

J. Cheptegei had come to Tokyo with the objective to win 5000 and 10000 m. On the last day of the track events he did win the former, with 12:58.15, in a tactical race, which he controlled perfectly, ahead of canadian (but somalian born) M. Ahmed, 12:58.61, and american (but kenyan born) P. Chelimo in 12:59.05. However on the very first day of the athletics events he lost the 10000 m making an elementary mistake. While reaching the final lap he had let S. Barega take the lead with a few metres with the second ethiopian B. Aregawi just behind. At the bell the two ethiopians launched their attack, the two ugandans (Cheptegei was accompanied throughout the race by J. Kiplimo) but they had to first pass Aregawi. On the final stretch Barega was two-three metres ahead of Cheptegei and he managed to keep a slight advance at the finish line. The verdict was Barega first, 27:43.22, Cheptegei second, 27:43.63, and Kiplimo third 27.43.88. I think that by now Cheptegei has learned a lesson. You could see it in the 5000 m where he made sure he was a few metres ahead of everybody at the bell. He let the other runners catch up with him in the back straight but, when he entered the final stretch, nobody could follow his sprint.

S. El Bakkali won the 3000 m steeple, with 8:08.90, in a race where the kenyans were way below par (B. Kigen was third and A. Kibiwot 10th) and where L. Girma (second in 8:10.38) did not progress at all since his surprising silver medal at the 2019 World's. And what a  breath-taking race the one of 2019 was. Compared to Doha the Tokyo race was, at least to my eyes, underwhelming. The women's steeple race was definitely better, despite the absence of N. Jeruto, who ran a world leading 8:53.65 just after the Games beating all the olympic elite and who could not participate due to a change of allegiance. Add to this the fact that the world champion and recordwoman, B. Chepkoech, was having a so-so year and the race was wide open. In the end it was ugandan P. Chemutai who won, in 9:01.45 ahead of C. Frerichs, 9:04.79, (she would break the 9 min barrier for the US just behind Jeruto two weeks later) and 2015 world champion H. Kiyeng 9:05.39. Chepkoech finished 7th and bruneian W. Yavi a disappointing 10th, despite her most promising 9:02.64 at the end of May. 

P. Jepchirchir won the women's marathon ahead of world record holder B. Kosgei in 2:27:20 versus 2:27:36. It was a most interesting race where a group of four detached themselves quite early: the two kenyans, M. Seidel of the US and L. Salpeter from Israel. M. Seidel managed to follow the two kenyans all the way to the finish, obtaining bronze in 2:27:46. Salpeter on the other hand started having stomach pains after the 30th km and dropped out of the leading group. She walked all the way to the finish, finishing 66th, 20 minutes adrift of the winners. 

The marathon, held in Sapporo in order to avoid Tokyo stifling heat and humidity conditions, was run under a clear sky with a temperature around 28 degrees, conditions far from ideal. The athletes had to carefully hydrate themselves and tried to lower the body temperature with ice packs. I find the photo below really great. V. Mazuronak went on to finish 5th while S. Rocha had to hang on for 30th. 

E. Kipchoge is the greatest marathon runner ever. With his victory in Tokyo he joined the mythical A. Bikila (and the uncanny W. Cierpinski) in winning back to back Marathons. There was no real race in Sapporo (where the weather was somewhat more clement than during the women's marathon with a partially covered sky). When Kipchoge decided to forge ahead at around 30 km that was that. 

The two somalians A. Nageeye (running for the Netherlands) and B. Abdi (running for Belgium) had only to defeat the second kenyan, L. Cherono, in order to reach the podium. And they did just that. In the photo below you can see Nageeye urging Abdi to sprint towards the finish line which they reached in that order, 1:20 after Kipchoge who had completed his race in 2:08:38. 

Notice the 16th place of (Erythrea born) T. Gabriyesos of the refugee team. He was just two places behind the first erythrean G. Kifle (well, three if you count M. Teferi, also Erythrea born, running for Israel who finished 13th). But he was ahead of E. Ghebrehiwet, erythrean running for Italy, who finished 20th and the second erythrean Y. Ghebregergis who finished 22nd. 

For some unexplainable reason I have decided to include the 4x400 m relays in the middle distances post. (It is due perhaps to the fact that, the overall distance being practically a mile, the whole event is like a middle distance one albeit run at sprint speed). The men's US team won the 4x400 m relay in 2:55.70 ahead of the astonishing dutch team 2:57.10. Are the dutch the heirs of the belgian? The latter finished just outside the medals, behind Botswana, 2:57.88 to 2:57.27, so perhaps they haven't said their last word. The women's US team was as close as one can get to a dream-team. With S. McLaughlin, A. Felix, D. Muhammad and A. Mu (notice that there are two 400 m hurdles and one 800 m specialists in the team) they ran in 3:16.85. One has to go back 28 years in order to find a better time. The polish team was second confirming their supremacy in the old continent.

The 4x400 m mixed relay made its olympic debut in Tokyo. Poland won easily 3:09.87, with Dominican Republic (greatly improved compared to their performance in the World Relays) second 3:10.21, beating the US, 3:10.22, on the finish line. At long last the various nations have understood that there is one, and only one, optimal configuration for the mixed relay: man-woman-woman-man. (Nigeria tried a man-woman-man-woman configuration in the semis and they finished last). Notice that the US team was initially disqualified for violating a handoff rule, but, as is customary when it comes to the US, they were reinstated and went on to win a medal. And since it would be too blatant to reinstate only the US team, the team of the Dominican Republic, that was disqualified because one of its athletes  did not maintain order while awaiting the baton in the exchange zone, was also reinstated.