By K. P. Mohan
Yuki Hashioka, a 22-year-old long jumper, brought cheer to the home nation as he effortlessly crossed the qualifying round in the Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday.
Hashioka, the reigning Asian and World University Games champion, was one among the three jumpers who achieved the automatic qualification mark of 8.15m in the preliminary round with an effort of 8.17m in his first jump. Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarria opened with a season best 8.50m to set the tempo while Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou, the season leader (8.60m) joined him and Hashioka on top of the list with 8.22m.
China had a successful campaigner in Huang Changzhou who leaped to 7.96m to take overall 11th place and to make it to the final. However Chinese Gao Xinglong (7.86m) and Wang Jianan (7.81m) were among those who were eliminated. Also going out was Japanese Shoutarou Shiroyama (7.70m).
India had disappointment in the long jump qualification as their National record holder, M. Sreeshankar, finished with a poor 7.69m to be overall 25th among 31 competitors. The 22-year-old Sreeshankar had posted a personal best and Olympic qualifying mark of 8.26m earlier this season and was confident of making the final and perhaps even winning a medal.
Obiena through to pole vault final
Filipino Ernest John Obiena was among the qualifiers into the pole vault final on expected lines, clearing 5.75m, the same as ten others did. Three others were tied at 5.65m and also joined the rest making it a 14-man field. Qualifiers included world record holder Armand Duplantis of Sweden and former world record holder Renaud Lavillenie of France, who was reported to be injured earlier this month.
Obiena passed 5.30m at first, then cleared 5.50m and 5.65m on his first attempts. The 25-year-old Formia (Italy) based Filipino had two failures at 5.75m before clearing it on his third attempt to join the leaders into the final.
Among those who could not make it to the final included Huang Bokai of China (season best 5.50m), Masaki Ejima of Japan (5.30m), Seito Yamamoto of Japan (5.30m) and Jin Minsub of Korea (5.50m).
Making it to the next round of the women’s 100m hurdles was Asuka Terada of Japan with a time of 12.95s. She was fifth in the fifth heat but made it as one of the “fastest losers” for the semifinals to be held on Sunday. Team-mate Ayako Kimura (13.25s) and Chinese Chen Jiamin (13.09s) were among those who could not progress.
In the men’s 100m heats, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode, former Asian and Asian Games champion, was the best among Asians with a time of 10.02s for second place in his heat.
Chinese Su Bingtian, also a former Asian champion who has a season best of 9.98s clocked 10.05s in coming second in his heat to ensure qualification for the next round.
Disappointment was in store for the host team as Ryota Yamagata, Asian season leader with 9.95s, also National record he set in June, finished fourth in his heat with a time of 10.16s and went out. Joining him Yamagata were countrymen Shuhei Tada (10.22s) and Yuki Koike (10.22s). Indonesian Lalu Muhammad Zohri (10.26s) and Oman’s Barakat Al Harthi (10.31s).
Vietnamese Thi Lan Quach clocked a season best 55.71s for a fourth-place finish in a women’s 400m hurdles heat to make it to the next round. Bahrain’s Aminat Jamal, Asian silver medallist in 2019, was unable to make the cut.
Kamalpreet Kaur of India created quite a stir in the women’s discus qualification round by reaching the automatic qualifying mark of 64.00m to join American Valarie Allman as the only automatic qualifiers. Kaur had thrown 63.97m on her second attempt to ensure her place in the final and then extended it to 64.00m, acknowledging the cheers of the small band of Indian officials in the stands.
Two-time Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia (63.75m) and world champion Yaime Perez of Cuba (63.18m) were among the qualifiers but they were not as impressive as Allman or Kaur.
Kaur is the second Indian woman to make the discus final in Olympics, the first having been Krishna Poonia in 2012 in the London Games. India is looking for their first athletics medal in the Olympics since independence. All eyes had been focused so far on javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra but now there is a fresh hope in Kaur who threw a personal best 66.59m at home earlier this season.
In the women’s 100m, defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica retained her title in a world-leading and Olympics Record (10.61s), while leading a Jamaican sweep of the medals with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.74s) and Shericka Jackson (10.76s) coming behind her for the minor medals.
In men’s discus final, Sweden made it a one-two with favourite Daniel Stahl (68.90m) taking the gold and Simon Pettersson (67.39m) the silver.
Poland won the first 4x400m mixed relay gold in the Olympics posting a time of 3:09.87, ahead of the Dominican Republic and the US, the latter being reinstated after an initial disqualification in the heats.
