By A Correspondent
It was a dramatic opening day at the World championships at Budapest on Saturday as the day wound through a stormy start to culminate in a world record in the 4x400m mixed relay.
In between, American Ryan Crouser set a championship record in shot put while Dutchwoman Sifan Hasan, going for an unprecedented treble of 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m, saw her dreams shattered around 30 metres from the finish in the 25-lap race when she stumbled and went sprawling.
The mixed relay also saw an unfortunate fall as the Netherlands anchor, Femke Bol, stumbled and fell with about five metres to go to the finish, leaving the team from the US as champion with a world record of 3:08.80. The US team of Justin Robinson, Rosey Effiong, Mathew Boling and Alexis Holmes bettered their own team’s record of 3:09.34 set in the World championships edition in Doha in 2019.
The Dutch did not finish, allowing Britain (3:11.06, national record) and the Czech Republic (3:11.98, national record) to take the minor medals.
Having come into this competition with two blood clots in his leg, Ryan Crouser, defending champion and world record holder in shot put, could have been considered not at his peak. But the big American put to rest all doubts with an opening throw of 22.63m, which he stretched to 22.98m in the second round. He could have sat down and relaxed just as the rest went through their rounds.
But Crouser is not the man to rest. He went through all his throws, and with the backing of an appreciative crowd in the last round, almost pulled off another world record. But that was not to be. His throw measured 23.51m, just five centimetres short of his record set at Westwood, California, in May this year. It was a championship record.
Italian Leonardo Fabbri claimed the silver with a personal best 22.34m that came in the third round while two-time champion Joe Kovacs of the US, won the bronze with 22.12m, just seven centimetres ahead of New Zealander Tom Walsh who was in the bronze medal position at the half-way stage.
“That was a tough one,” said Crouser as he defended his title in great style. “The last throw was testament to all the hard work and dedication over the last year.
“The last few days have been hard. With all that has happened, it was a phenomenal throw.”
Ethiopians sweep medals
Sifan Hassan looked disinterested in what was happening ahead of the pack in the women’s 10,000 much of the time. Those who might have been unfamiliar with her tactics might have wondered how she could come up from the tail-end and challenge the Ethiopians.
However, that is what the Dutchwoman did, making her move only with about 250 metres to go to the finish. Even at the 150-metre mark there could have been doubts whether Hassan or Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, the eventual gold winner, would win.
But once into the home straight, Hassan was quick to take gain the edge. Or so we thought unaware of the fight that was still left in Tsegay, the 5000m defending champion from Oregon, and an Olympic bronze winner in 2021.
As Tsegay fought hard through the final straight, Hassan looked in trouble for a moment, but recovered enough to keep herself just head. That is till the last 30 metres, when she stumbled, allowing Tsegay through.
Behind Tesgay, her team-mates, Letesenbet Gidey (31:28.16) and Ejgayeho Taye (31:28.31) took the silver and bronze, in what was the biggest upset of the opening day.
Hassan was injured but put up a brave front as she was helped across the finish line by Gidey, in a touching show of camaraderie.
“It was a good race with an amazing finish,” said Tsegay “I like 1500m and 5000m much more, but now I feel very special as I have managed to add one more world title at a different distance.”
“I am keeping my smile, but it is really hard,” said Hassan “I am disappointed. This is sport, these things happen. I just had a bad moment. I felt really strong, and I tried to push on the last lap.
The rain-affected morning session had started with the men’s 20km walk final in which the Japanese had their hopes of making it another one-two like in Oregon last year, shattered by a 29-year-old Spaniard.
Spaniard beats Japanese in 20km
Alvaro Martin, twice European champion, took off from around the 15km mark in the first event of the championships and never looked back as two Japanese hopes crashed out of medal reckoning. Toshikazu Yamanishi, aiming for his third successive gold in the World championships, and Koki Ikeda, who led up to the 14km mark, faded away in the last five kilometres.
Ikeda had set such a pace at the start that many were left behind in the race to get into the leading group. In fact, despite a yellow card, the Japanese had pushed so hard that he was left alone in front after around two kilometres. He kept up his frenetic pace after that to be in front at the half-way stage in 38:37, with only Turkey’s Salih Korkmaz looking capable of matching the Japanese pace.
The Turk went out of contention after cautions and finished 16th, a rung below Ikeda (1:19:44).
Martin, who missed the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics by a small margin, clocked a world-leading 1:17:32, followed by the 2022 bronze medalist in 20km and 35km, Perseus Karlstrom of Sweden in a National record of 1:39. At third, in another national record of 1:17:47 was Brazilian Caio Bonfim.
Yamanishi who could never get back into contention after a brief second position behind his team-mate Ikeda, finished 24th in 1:21:39, a huge disappointment for Japan 2ho had started the Oregon edition by a one-two sweep of the medals in this racewalking event.
Martin was elated as he was to be expected to be. He won the gold in front of his family at Heroes Square.
“I was fourth at the last Olympics Games, I missed the bronze which motivated me to work hard,” the 29-year-old Spaniard told reporters.
“I had an amazing race today, I did not expect to finish this fast, it is amazing. I cannot express all my feelings right now, it feels like a dream,” said Martin.
Olympic champion Massimo Stano of Italy was off-color and could not come into reckoning at any stage, eventually dropping out.
Among the Japanese, Yuta Koga (1:19:02) had the best finish for his country at 12th while Eiki Takahashi (1:20:25) was 21st. Japan had four competitors with defending champion Yamanishi getting a wild card entry.
India had three walkers in the fray, but they fare poorly. Vikash Singh (1:21:58) was 27th while Paramjeet Singh Bisht (1:24.02) was 35th. The biggest disappointment was Akashdeep Singh on whom India had high hopes. But he finished 47th and last among the walkers who managed to complete the course in rain and moderate temperatures but high humidity, which at the start climbed to 100 per cent. The temperatures varied from 19 to 21 degrees with the thunderstorm bringing them down though the humidity was taxing for the walkers.
Despite the rain it was a fiercely contested event with as many as 18 walkers finishing within 1:20. Th top three finished inside 1:18 for the first time ever at a global championship. Nine of the top-10 timings in the world lists were clocked by the racewalkers today. The second fastest man this season, Chinese Zhang Jun (1:17:38) came home in 29th position in 1:23:13.
The men’s 3000m steeplechase heats brought about an early exit of India’s Avinash Sable as he finished seventh in his heat in a slow, by his standards, 8:22.24. He said after the race that he did not know what had happened and he simply could not kick hard enough to be able to occupy a place in the first five that ensured a place in the final. The practice of having “best losers” on time has been dispensed with in these championships.
Moving up in different heats were two Japanese, Ryuji Miura (8:18.73) who came in fourth in a heat and Ryoma Aoki (8:20.54) who was fifth in his heat.
Photo 1 Credit: https://olympics.com/en/news/world-athletics-championships-2023-ryan-crouser-wins-men-s-shot-put-world-title-at-track-and-field-worlds
Photo 2 Credit: https://epaimages.com/search.pp?pictureid=11661225
Photo 3 Credit: https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a44857711/world-athletics-championships-2023-results/
