By K. P. Mohan
Asia’s two world champions, high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim and woman shot putter Gong Lijiao expectedly coasted through to the finals of their events as the athletics programme at the Olympics opened at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Friday.
Barshim led a batch of high jumpers through to the August 1 final in high jump with 2.28m, two centimetres short of his season best. Thirteen jumpers made it through to the final at 2.28m including all the favourites. Also through were two Russian athletes competing as Authorized Neutral Athletes (ANA), Mikhail Akimenko and Ilya Ivanyuk, American JuVaughn Harrison and Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus among others, with the same height.
Gong Lijiao, season leader in shot put, needed just one throw of 19.46m to go through to Sunday’s final. The automatic qualification was kept at 18.80m. Joining her in number two place was team-mate Song Jiayuan with 19.23m. The latter needed a second throw after fouling her first. The third Chinese, Gao Yang had her season best at 18.80m to make it a good beginning for the Chinese trio.
Among others, two-time Olympic champion New Zealander Valerie Adams (18.83m) and American Raven Saunders (19.22m) also went through to the final.
In the only final held on the opening day of athletics, the men’s 10,000 metres, won by Ethiopian Salemon Barega (27:43.22), Japanese Akira Aizawa, World University Games half marathon champion in 2019, and Tatsuko Ito finished 17th and 22nd respectively. Aizawa timed a season best 28:18.37 while Ito clocked 29:01.31.
One Japanese who utilized the occasion to post a national record was steeplechaser Ryuji Miura. The 19-year-old Japanese who earlier this season had recorded a time of 8:15.99, National record and National under-20 record, today clocked 8:09.92 to come second behind Ethiopian Lamecha Girma in the 3000m steeplechase qualifiers for the final on August 2. “I’m very surprised by my record today but I could achieve my goal to go to [the] final race. So I’m very happy [and] pleased with that result,” said Miura.
“The race was very similar to the preliminary races. I could run well until 2000 metres today, and the last 400 metres I could run very well so it was a very good day and a good race today, “the Japanese added.
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India’s Avinash Sable, a 26-year-old Armyman, was another steeplechaser to register a National record this day, clocking 8:18.12 but failing to make the cut for the final by just one place as a “best loser”. Sable was afflicted by Covid-19 earlier this year and his fitness could have been in some doubt, but he showed no signs of discomfort in clocking an impressive time. This is his fifth National record since 2018.
Qatar’s Asian Games champion and World championships medallist Abderrahman Samba led the qualifiers into the semifinals of the 400m hurdles in a time of 48.38s. Samba was flawless through the home straight and finished strongly. Others making it into the next round included world record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway (48.65s), Alison Dos Santos of Brazil (48.42s) and Rai Benjamin of the US (48.60s).
Japanese Hiromu Yamauchi also made it into the semifinals of the 400m hurdles with a third place in heat 2 in a timing of 49.21 seconds.
The women’s 100m heats that featured some fast timings in keeping with the trend this season, saw Chinese Ge Manqi (11.20s) going through to the next round as a “fastest loser”. Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.84s) and Elaine Thompson (10.82s) were among the qualifiers but the surprise was provided by veteran Marie-Josee Talou of Ivory Coast with an Area record of 10.78s.
Indian Dutee Chand, hoping to make at least the semifinals, was eliminated in the heats of the 100m, finishing seventh in her heat with a timing of 11.54s. Chinese Wei Yongli (11.48s) and Liang Xiaojing (11.40s) also went out in the first round.
Iranian Ehsan Hadadi, 2012 Olympic silver medallist, two-time Asian Games champion and Asian record holder (69.32m in 2008) in discus could manage only 58.98m today in the qualification round and went out. The 36-year-old Iranian had been down with Covid-19 last year but seemed to be on his way back to competitive trim when, as per reports, he suffered a spinal injury while training in the US recently. Swede Daniel Stahl was the lone competitor to cross the automatic qualification of 66.00 metres.
Former Olympic champion Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan could manage only 13.69m in the qualification round of women’s triple jump and went out. Team-mate Mariya Ovchinnikova (13.34m) and Uzbek Roksana Khudoyarova (13.02m) also joined her outside the qualification bracket.
Wang Chunyu of China (2:00.05) was through to the next round in the women’s 800m while Sri Lankan Nimali Waliwarsha (2:10.23) failed to cross the opening heat.
India which finished among the top eight in the mixed 4x400m relay at the 2019 World championships to qualify for the final, ended up last in their heats to be eliminated. The disqualification of the American team in the other heat was the talking point as the mixed event made its Olympic debut.
