Five things to look forward to at the Paris Olympics on Thursday 8 August

Some of the biggest names in the sport will be vying for gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Thursday 8 August.

Five finals will take place during the evening session, but the first four events of the heptathlon will be spread throughout the day, while the 4x100m heats take place in the morning alongside women’s shot put qualifying. There are also repechage rounds for the women’s 100m hurdles and men’s 800m, and in the evening there are women’s 1500m semifinals.

But about those five finals…

 

McLaughlin-Levrone vs Bol

It’s one of the most highly anticipated clashes of the Games. Defending Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin, drawn in lane five, takes on world champion Femke Bol, drawn in lane six, in the women’s 400m hurdles final.

They have raced against each other just four times in the past with McLaughlin-Levrone getting the better of Bol every time. Three of those races resulted in a world record, and their last clash was more than two years ago at the 2022 World Championships, where McLaughlin won in a world record of 50.68 and Bol was a distant second in 52.27.

Since then, though, Bol has lowered her PB to 50.95 and won the world title in Budapest. She will also be brimming with confidence following her 47.9 split to anchor the Netherlands to gold in the mixed 4x400m.

McLaughlin-Levrone won’t be short of confidence either though, especially not after lowering her world record to 50.65 to win the US title earlier this year.

Three other women in the final – Anna Cockrell, Rushell Clayton and Jasmine Jones – have broken 53 seconds this year. The battle for medals will be fierce and fast.

 

Lyles goes for gold No.2

Having won the title over his less favoured distance of 100m earlier in the Games, USA’s Noah Lyles will feel far more at home when he lines up for the 200m final.

Or at least, he would have done had Letsile Tebogo not ended his winning streak that started back in August 2021 and spanned 26 races, heats and finals. Tebogo won the second semifinal in an easy looking 19.96 ahead of three-time world champion Lyles (20.08), setting up a mouth-watering rematch in the final.

Lyles' US teammates Kenny Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton won the other two semifinals and will challenge for medals in the final.

 

Chopra looking for a repeat of Tokyo

Neeraj Chopra’s javelin victory at the Tokyo Games three years ago was one of the big stories of the Games. He earned India’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics and instantly became a huge star in his home country.

Fast forward to 2024, and Chopra goes into these Games not only as the defending champion but also as the reigning world champion. He impressed in the qualifying round by throwing 89.34m – the seventh-best throw in Olympic history.

But Jakub Vadlejch is an incredibly consistent championship performer and is desperate to win a global title. Two-time world champion Anderson Peters is also a danger in a championship arena.

 

Holloway hoping for gold

Grant Holloway has been the world’s leading sprint hurdler for the past five years, winning five world titles during that time – three outdoors and two indoors. The one glaring omission from his medal collection is Olympic gold.

He had to settle for silver in Tokyo three years ago, but the US sprint hurdler is a man on a mission here in Paris, as shown by his 13.01 run in the heats and his 12.98 semifinal win.

Jamaica’s Orlando Bennett was second fastest in the semifinals, clocking a PB of 13.09 to win his race ahead of USA’s Daniel Roberts. There was another Jamaica-USA finish in the second semifinal, won by Rasheed Broadbell (13.21) from Freddie Crittenden (13.23).

Defending champion Hansle Parchment and Japanese record-holder Rachid Muratake also advanced as time qualifiers.

 

Two global champions clash in the long jump

Like Chopra in the javelin, German long jumper Malaika Mihambo is another defending champion who’ll start as the marginal favourite in her event.

Mihambo recently won the European title with a world-leading 7.22m, the second-best jump of her career. Her form dipped slightly in the weeks that followed as she recovered from illness, but she looked like a possible medal contender in qualifying as she pulled out a 6.86m effort on her third try.

Tara Davis-Woodhall has jumped beyond seven metres in all of her finals since February this year. She heads to Paris undefeated this year indoors and out, and with an outright PB of 7.18m.

Italy’s Larissa Iapichino has this year displayed the kind of form to suggest she’ll be a medal contender in the Olympic final, but there are several other women who could challenge.

 

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