By K. P. Mohan
Italian Massimo Stano spoilt the Japanese party at Sapporo today. The 29-year-old Italian pulled away on the last kilometre in the men’s 20km walk to take the gold ahead of two Japanese, Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yamanishi, who claimed the silver and bronze respectively.
This was expected to be an event in which Asia could dominate considering its record in the last Olympics as well as the 2019 World championships. Wang Zhen and Cai Zelin had made it a one-two for China at the last Olympics in Rio while Yamanishi had won the gold in the Doha World championships.
Today, when the start for the Asians looked to take the anticipated course with Chinese Wang Kaihua taking an early lead along with Indian Sandeep Kumar, the portents looked likely to favour the Asians. Though the temperatures were soaring into 31 degrees at the start, a cooler weather in the second half provided some relief to the racewalkers.
The hot weather expected during this time of the year in Tokyo had forced the organisers to shift the venue to the cooler climes of Sapporo in 2019. Though cooler than Tokyo the temperatures were, however, more than expected in the city around 800km away from the Capital.
The walkers managed admirably, spraying water at each opportunity over their heads and body to keep themselves cool. Past the 8km mark, Kumar, who would eventually finish 23rd started falling back while Wang kept up the pace with Yamanishi, Stano and Ikeda following. Seven men remained in the leading bunch at the 16km mark but past 17km Stano, Yamanishi and Ikeda started pulling away leaving Wang and company to sort out the placings at the back.
Stano and Ikeda pulled further away a little later, leaving Yamanishi to do the catching up. Stano finished strongly through the final kilometre leaving Ikeda nine seconds behind and Yamanishi a further 14 seconds adrift.
“For now, this is like a dream – and I don’t want to wake up,” said the Italian who did not have a major championship placing under his name until this day.
Ikeda admitted Stano was too strong over the final stages. He was happy that Japan opened its athletics medal tally with his silver and Yamanishi’s bronze.
“I am the first medallist in athletics (for Japan), but this is thanks to the whole of Japan athletics team, said 23-year-old Ikeda, who was sixth at the World championships in Doha.
“They created a good atmosphere for everybody and to also contribute to that atmosphere. I am happy for that,”said Ikeda.
“The first half of the race was hot, especially the first 10 minutes, but it was getting cooler and cooler. I prepared well for the heat for the past one year, so I was able to keep calm”, the silver winner said.
“He (Stano) was better than me, I got my next goal (silver)”.
Yamanishi said that Stano and Ikeda were stronger than him and he did not have enough of reserves to take them on.
“Personally, for team Japan we aimed for the gold and this is really frustrating that I could not get the gold” said Yamanishi.
Wang Kaihua was seventh in 1:22:03 while team-mate Zhang Jun was eighth in 1:22.16.
Other prominent Asian placings were: Cai Zelin of China (26th in 1:26:39), Eiki Takahashi of Japan (32nd in 1:27:29), Choe Byeongkwang of Korea (37th in 1:28:12) and Georgiy Sheiko of Kazakhstan (39th in 1:28:38).
China swells tally
In the morning session in Tokyo, where the main athletics events are being held, China added to its medals tally through Zhu Yaming in triple jump. This made it three for China so far, women’s shot put gold by Gong Lijiao and women’s hammer silver by Wang Zheng having come earlier.
Zhu, Asian champion in 2017 and Asian silver medallist in 2019, had a personal best 17.57m on his fifth attempt while taking the silver behind Portugal’s Cuba-born Pedro Pichardo (17.98m). Hugues Fabricie Zango of Burkina Faso took the bronze with 17.47m.
Four of Zhu’s jumps were over 17.0 metres while Pichardo had his best in the third. His first two were identical 17.61m. He fouled his fourth, passed the fifth and fouled again on his last jump.
“I was quite smooth in the qualification and I was not expecting to have such high intensity in the final. In the first round I wanted to have a stable score and in the second I wanted to adjust some minor points from my first jump but after second (17.41m) I was kind of lost,” said the Chinese.
Zhu said that on the fourth he changed his rhythm but got his best on his fifth only. “My training was good this year and I believed I could get a better score in this competition. I was very confident. After my first jump my coach helped me a lot and encouraged me”, added Zhu.
Zhu’s team-mate Fang Yaoqing was eighth with 17.01m. American Will Claye, one of the favourites for a medal ended up fourth with 17.44m.
This was China’s second medal in successive Games. Dong Bin had won the bronze in the Rio Games with a jump of 17.58m, while Christian Taylor, the American who was absent here due to injury, had won the gold and Claye the silver.
Crouser wins shot put gold
In a repeat of the Rio Olympics placings in the men’s shot put contest, Ryan Crouser of the US (23.30m), Joe Kovacs of the US (22.65m) and Tom Walsh of New Zealand (22.47m) shared the medals in yet another high volage contest reminiscent of their battle in the Doha World championships.
Crouser, unbeaten this season and on a 22-metre throwing spree was just even centimetres short of his world record eventually. He had almost clinched the issue on his second throw which measured 22.93m. At Doha in 2019, Kovacs had edged Crouser by one centimetre on his last throw (22.91m).
Hansle Parchment of Jamaica caused an upset in the men’s 110m hurdles final, beating firm favourite Grant Holloway of the US 13.04s to 13.09s. Parchment inched ahead during the last 20 metres as the American tightened up. Ronald Levy of Jamacia (13.10s) took the bronze.
Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas retained his men’s 400m title ahead of Anthony Jose Zambrano of Columbia at 43.85s to 44.08s. Former Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada who seemed to have the race sewn up coming into the home straight, lagged over the final 50 metres when Gardiner and Zambrano showed better capacity to slow down the deceleration. James won the bronze in 44.19s.
American Katie Nageotte (4.90m) won the women’s pole vault title while Chinese Xu Huiqin finished eighth in the event with 4.50m.
Canadian Damian Warner posted a national record and world lead of 9018 points to win the decathlon gold pushing behind world record holder Kevin Mayer (8726) into second place. Australian Ashley Moloney was third with 8649.
In heptathlon, defending champion Nafissatou Thiam of Belgium won the heptathlon title with a world leading 6791 points. Dutchwomen Anouk Vetter (6689) and Emma Oosterwegel (6590) took the minor medals. Vetter bettered her country’s national record while Oosterwegel had a personal best.
The Chinese men won the second heat in the 4x100m relay heats clocking 37.92s. Jamaica took the other in 37.82s. Japan also qualified in heat one, coming third in 38.16s.
The surprise of the men’s shorter relay heats was the elimination of the American quartet which came sixth in second heat in 38.10s.
USA however led the qualifiers in the women’s 4x400m relay heats with a world-leading time of 3:20.86.
