By AA Correspondent
Mondo Duplantis set his ninth world record as he took his second Olympic pole-vault title at the Stade de France, St. Denis, on Monday (Aug 5).
The 24-year-old Swede soared to 6.25m to add one centimetre to his previous record set at Xiamen Diamond League in China in April this year.
Asia and the Philippines were heart-broken as World Championship silver medallist Ernest John Obiena failed to medal this time. He was tied at 5.90m with Emmanouil Karalis and on countback, the Greek won the bronze. American Sam Kendricks who had to be confined to the hotel in Tokyo because of Covid-19 infection in 2021, took the silver at 5.95m.
There was some cheer for China and Asia as Feng Bin, the 2022 World champion in discus, claimed the silver behind American Valerie Allman who retained the title she won in Tokyo.
Briton Keely Hodgkinson won her first Olympic title, outsprinting the field in the final stretch in the 800 metres to clock a fine 1:56.72. Tokyo winner Athing Mu of the US could not qualify from the home trials, taking a tumble on the back-straight in an unfortunate incident that ruined her chances and thus Hodgkinson was tipped as the odds-on favourite.
In a controversy-ridden women’s 5000m, in which World record-holder in the 5000m, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya was first disqualified for obstruction and then re-instated, world record-holder in the 10,000m, Beatrice Chebet won, Kipyegon had the silver and defending champion Sifan Hasan of the Netherlands the bronze.
Allman was the favourite going into this Olympics in discus. She had two marks over 70.0m this season, had a personal best of 71.46m and had an unbeaten record. However, starting with a foul put the 29-year-old American at a slight disadvantage as Feng Bin opened with 66.33m.
The suspense, if any, lasted only till the second round where Allman produced a throw of 68.74m, swivelling around and shouting as she sent the disc flying. She stretched her lead to 69.21m in the final round by which time the medals were already decided.
Feng Bin went up to 67.51m in the third round to tie with Croatia’s two-time Olympic champion Sandra Elkasevic (nee Perkovic) who had come up with the same distance a round earlier. A better second mark for the Chinese (67.25m to 64.25m) clinched the silver for her in her first Olympic success. Elkasevic fouled four of her attempts.
Feng Bin had finished 17th in the qualification round in Tokyo and had an eighth-place finish in 2016. She had a season best of 67.89m in winning the Bislett Games in Oslo in May.
Elkasevic, also a two-time world champion, had her season best and a success at the global level after a barren 2023. She had won the European championship this year.
“I really focus on my life, my training,” the 30-year-old Feng told a Chinese new agency. “You can only see my six throws on the field but in order to throw six times very well, I devote 365 days a year, maybe 100 or even 200 throws a day, so I can achieve my level.”
Allman’s joy knew no bounds as she hugged support personnel and friends in the stands “I wanted to embrace the crowd, I wanted to embrace this moment of being at the Olympics and giving it my all,” Allman was quoted as saying. “And to end with a throw with the whole crowd engaged right there, that’s one of those moments I’ll remember forever.”
There could not have been any doubts about Duplantis winning the pole-vault gold. As has become his habit at almost every major meet, he also goes for the world record. He had the title in his grasp at 6.00m but went for 6.10m where Kendricks failed on all three attempts, and then asked for the world record at 6.25m.
He failed twice to begin with, but with the packed crowd still encouraging him, he went for that mark a third time and succeeded, a moment that would bring up a huge roar of cheer.
“I haven’t processed how fantastic that moment was,” Duplantis told the media. “What can I say? I just broke a world record at the Olympics, the biggest possible stage for a pole vaulter. The biggest dream since I was a kid was to break the world record at the Olympics, and I’ve been able to do that in front of the most ridiculous crowd I’ve ever competed in front of.” He praised the crowd for its encouragement and patience.
After starting at 5.70m, Duplantis cleared every subsequent height on his first attempt before failing twice at the world-record height. He had set the previous world mark of 6.24m in April this year. He now has four outdoor world records and five indoor ones and a winning streak of 16 finals beginning with the World championships in Budapest last year. Eleven of those came this year.
Keely Hodgkinson had been winning silver medals in global championships, but not the gold. On Monday, she fulfilled her dream by winning the gold in the women’s 800 metres.
Hodgkinson was the favourite going into the final, having set a personal best of 1:54.61 in winning the London Diamond League last month. She had remained unbeaten in the two-lap event this season, clocking sub-two-minute timings in all races except one heat in the European championships in Rome.
She took command of the race into the first lap, leading the runners with an opening lap of 58.30. There was some challenge on the back straight as the runners stepped up the pace, with Kenyan world champion Mary Moraa and world indoor champion Tsige Duruguma of Ethiopia keeping close contact.
Hodkinson knew what she had to do with 200 metres to go. Step up the pace, and that is what she did with Moraa not in any mood to give up the pursuit. Onto the home straight the two were almost together but the Briton had kept something in reserve and sprinted away with about 80 metres to the line.
“I’ve worked so hard over the past year and you could see how much it meant to me as I crossed the line,” said Hodgkinson, the third British woman to win the Olympic 800m.
Beatrice Chebet won the 5000m on her Olympic debut. Though she had been world record holder in the 10,000m, world cross-country champion and world champion on the road, the Kenyan had not made her appearance in an Olympics.
As it turned out, she had the reserves on the home straight in a tightly-contested 5000m among the Kenyans, Ethiopians and double Olympic champion Sifan Hassan to pull off a victory at the expense of the better-known Kipyegon.
Kipyegon was initially disqualified in a tussle with Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay but quickly re-instated as was to be expected. The bronze winner, Hassan, who was to be adjudged the second-placed runner for a brief period, later commented that Tsegay had the habit of pushing, recalling her own fall at the World championships.
Chebet won in 14:26.17, Kipyegon was second at 14:229.60 and Hassan took third with 14:30.61.
In the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles, Qatar’s Aberrahman Samba progressed with a third -place in his heat in 48.35s. Those who failed included China’s Xie Zhiyu (49.90s), Japan’s Daiki Ogawa (50.21s), Kaito Tsutsue (50.50) and Ken Toyode (53.62s). Qatar’s Ismail Douda Abakar and Taipei’s Peng Ming-Yang did not finish their heats.
Those who finished in the hurdles races will get another chance through the repechage rounds.
In the women’s 400m hurdles repechage, China’s Mo Jiadie qualified winning her heat with a personal best 54.75s. Filipino Lauren Hoffman (58.28s) went out.
In women’s 200m repechage, Li Yuting of China finished 12th overall in 23.24s while Kazakhstan’s Olga Saffronova was eliminated as she finished sixth in her heat with 23.70s.
