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Wang, Fujii add to Asia’s medals tally

Photo Credit : Dan Vernon for World Athletics

The eighth day of the World athletics championships in Tokyo belonged to a couple of fresh faces in women’s throwing events. Two brilliant women’s champions. Ruth Chebet of Kenya and Maria Perez of Spain completed doubles while Asia had a productive day with a silver and bronze in the racewalking events.

A gold still eluded Asia. There was no medal in women’s shot put or javelin. As the legend of shot putting, Gong Lijiao made her record tenth appearance in a World championships final it would have been unrealistic to hope for a medal for the 36-year-old Chinese. She finished ninth with 18.96m. Gong had won a medal at every championship except on her debut in 2007 when she finished sixth with 18.66m. She has two gold, as many silver and four bronze medals from the World championships. Gong’s team-mate Zhang Linru finished seventh with 19.16m.

In two electrifying battles on the track, Chebet, the winner of the women’s 10,000m earlier, added the 5000m gold to her collection, while Emmanuel Wanyoni of Kenya held off defending champion Marco Arop of Canada bravely at the 800m finish that ended in a superb surge by Algerian Djamel Sedjati who took the silver.

Like Chebet, another athlete who completed a double was Spanish racewalker Maria Perez in the women’s 20km event. She was commanding in her performance in cooler weather compared to the opening day when the 35km walkers had to endure oppressive conditions. The 29-year-old Spaniards in fact completed a double double, having won both the events in the last edition also.

Perez’ victory on Saturday came in a season best 1:25:54, with Mexican Alegna Gonzalez taking the silver at 1:26:06 and the host nation’s Nanako Fujii bringing home the bronze in 1:26:13, a national record. It was the first ever medal in this event for Japan in the history of the championships.

Perez who had finished fourth in the Olympics in 2021, said she would be leaving Japan with happy memories in contrast to the disappointment she had in the Olympics.

“I have been in five World championships and this is my fourth medal. I am the happiest woman in the world,” said Perez.

“I responded well to the changes in pace.  I managed to have time to celebrate at the end.,” the Spanish woman said. She was clear of the silver winner by 12 seconds.

Fujii cheered on by the enthusiastic Japanese crowd on the one-kilometre loop and Ecuador’s Paula Torres were given the same time of 1:26:18, Gonzalez having finished 12 seconds ahead of them for the silver.

For the home crowd, however, on a day of elation, there was disappointment, too as Toshikazu Yamanishi, world record holder and two-time champion, had his hopes dashed past the 15km mark as he received a third red card for loss of contact that forced a two-minute pit stop. That was the end of his campaign as he finished 28th in 1:22:39.

“I overtook the Chinese and Spanish athletes on the last lap, but I thought I was second and accelerated to try to win a medal,” Bonfim said. He learnt at the finish that he had won the gold. He had won the silver in this event in the Olympics in 20211.

The Brazilian had ground his teeth through the final 500 metres to the finish past the Spaniard and the Chinese Wang. He could afford to go for the speed needed at the finish as he was only one red card.

Japan's  Yamanishi led for much of the second half of the race, but a two-minute time penalty ruined his chances.

“I am very disappointed,” Yamanishi said. “I wish I had been more careful during the race. I wanted to win the gold medal, so I pushed for it.”

China’s Haifeng (6th), Japan’s Kento Yoshikawa (7th) and Japan’s Satoshi Marua (9th) were among those Asians who finished among the top ten.

India’s Servin Sebastian ended at 31st place in 1:23:03 to mark his country’s campaign in the championships. India ended without a medal this time compared to the gold it had in Budapest through javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra.

It was felt at the beginning of the women’s 5000m that Faith Kipyegon, who had won the 1500m and who holds the world record at that distance, could be having a better finish in a slow race. As it turned out, Chebet, who had won the distance double in the Paris Olympics also, kicked hard on the home straight and scored over the rest clocking 14:54.36.

Kipyegon, winner of the 1500m in this meet, and the defending champion at this distance, did not have the speed to match her team-mate and friend through the last 30 metres even as Italian Nadia Battocletti came storming through in the final stages in trying to wrest the gold from the Kenyans. Kipyegon who went and picked up two Kenyan flags from country’s supporters, wrapped one around her younger rival and happily posed for the cameramen.

Battocletti who had claimed the silver in the 10,000m clocked 14:55.42. Shelby Houlihan, the American who was coming back from a doping suspension and who did much of the front-running, finished fourth in 14:57.42 while Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, the winner in 2022, came in fifth at 14:57.82.

Ecuador’s Juleisy Angulo provided the biggest surprise of the evening by taking the women’s javelin gold with a national record of 65.12m that came in the second round. No one else crossed 65 metres. Anette Sietina was another surprise, taking the silver with a personal best of 64.64m in the final round. Angulo had posted a national record of 63.25m in the qualification round.

Australian McKenzie Little who led in the opening rounds had to settle for the bronze for the second successive championships with 63.58m. Austrian Victoria Hudson who led the season lists with 67.76m and who could have been expected to be among the medals if not the favourite, finished tenth with 59.52m. Chinese Zhu Lingdan came ninth with 59.56m.

American Ana Hall won the heptathlon gold with 6888 points, ahead of Kate O’Connor of Ireland. Taliya Brooks of the US and defending champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson of Britain shared the bronze at identical 6581 points.

"This gold means so much," said Hall.  She added that she had talked to Jackie Joyner-Kersee, former champion about the Worlds and she was happy finally she had emulated the great champion. She said that she had struggled with injuries last year and could not perform up to full potential.

European champion Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands won the women’s shot put title with a  last-round throw of 20.29m.  The rest of the field including defending champion Chase Jackson of the US struggled to cross 20 metres almost throughout but Jackson came up with a final throw of 20.21m to take the silver. By then Schilder had struck 20.29m. Maddison-Lee Wesche of New Zealand, Olympic silver medallist led from the start but had to settle for bronze eventually.

Wanyoni looked likely to lose the 800m final as Arop and Sedjati made it a great contest in the end. Arop with his big strides, and Sedjati, with his speed over the last 50 metres, could not, however, edge the Kenyan who had come into these championships as the favourite. Wanyoni clocked 1:41.86, Sedjati 1:41.90 and Arop 1:41.95. The rest of the field came under 1:43.

As it often happens, there was no dearth of drama in the relays. First US failed to come through the men’s 4x400m relay, being impeded on the exchange by Zambia that put them well behind in the race, eventually leading to their sixth place. Zambia was disqualified for impeding the US and Kenyan teams and technical officials ordered a re-run between the US and Kenya on Sunday. The US won to go through to the final. It will start in lane 1. South Africa which failed to make  the men’s 4x100m final was allowed a re-run all on its own on another protest, but on Sunday it failed to qualify in the re-run.

Then, Jamaica, hot favourite for the men’s 4x100m relay, failed to complete a baton exchange on the anchor between Ryiem Forde and Kishane Thompson. It was a stunning upset for the team that had two individual medallists in its line-up including champion Oblique Seville.

Abderrahman Samba anchored the Qatari team into the final of the men’s 4x400m relay. The team clocked a national record of 3:00.15.

The American women’s team easily qualified in first in the women’s 4x100 and 4x400 relay heats. Ghana clocked a national record of 37.79s in winning a men’s 4x100 heat. Britain failed to make the women’s 4x400m final.

Advancing to the men’s discus final for Sunday were defending champion Daniel Stahl along with 2022 champion Kristjan Ceh and world-record holder Mykolas Alekna.