Andre De Grasse reacts after his 200m win at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
This was a bad night for reigning world champions.
Four of them had their Olympic hopes dashed, overtaken either by injury or other contenders.
The casualties included world 200m champion Noah Lyles, world hammer champion Pawel Fajdek, world decathlon champion Niklas Kaul and world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
On the flipside of fortune, Canada’s Andre De Grasse finally won gold, after a string of six silver and bronze medals over four global championships.
In 2016, Usain Bolt predicted before his last Olympic appearance that De Grasse would be his successor. It took five years and a roundabout route, littered with illness and injury, but he finally arrived on Wednesday (4) as the Olympic 200m champion, upsetting reigning world champion Lyles.
De Grasse revealed something of his relief afterwards, exclaiming: “I’ve been waiting for this moment."
The Canadian seemed poised to take the sprint crown from Bolt at the 2017 World Championships but tore his hamstring just weeks before the competition in London and that injury sidelined him for two seasons.
He returned tentatively in 2019 and found enough form by the 2019 World Championships to win minor medals in both the 100m (bronze) and 200m (silver behind Lyles), the identical medals that he had won in Rio.
In the 100m here he again won the bronze medal, but he finally broke out of the pattern of minor medals in the 200m.
Drawn in lane six, he tracked the USA's Kenny Bednarek through the first 100m before taking a narrow lead that he held down the straight to claim victory in 19.62, a personal best time that lifted him to eighth on the all-time list.
"I went back after the 100m and I was a little bit disappointed in myself, that I could have done better," De Grasse said. “I said: 'I gotta go and get this 200, I gotta go and get it'. I knew the Americans were going to push me, and they were going to take me to a personal best. It's been five years since I had a personal best, so it was just good to get that finally out the way."
Lyles was the only man in the field with a faster time to his name (19.50) but he has not looked at his best in Tokyo. He has made no secret of his mental health battles this year and revealed just before the Games that he had stopped taking anti-depressant medication because he thought they would affect his ability to perform in Tokyo.
Bednarek held on to claim the silver medal in a personal best of 19.68, with Lyles third in 19.74 and 17-year-old Erriyon Knighton fourth in 19.93.
Meanwhile, East Africa, the world’s foremost cradle for distance runners, finally asserted itself on night six at the Tokyo Olympic Games, as both Kenya and Uganda won their first gold medals in the stadium.
It has been a slow start for distance powerhouse Kenya, but they finally broke through in style, claiming both the gold and silver medals in the men’s 800m, extending their winning streak in this event to four in a row.
There was no clear favourite for this final and consequently none of the contenders was willing to set the pace. It was slow through the first lap as Australia’s Peter Bol was forced to the front and became the sitting duck for a sit and kick finale.
Emmanuel Korir made his move with 200m to go, bursting clear of the pack and sprinting for home. A rareity in athletics these days, Korir competes over both 400m and 800m and this race played perfectly into his strengths.
His teammate Ferguson Rotich and Poland’s Patryk Dobek responded, but not quite quickly enough, and did not have the speed to run Korir down.
Korir crossed the finish line in 1:45.06, just ahead of Rotich (1:45.23) and Dobek (1:45.39), with Bol fourth (1:45.92).
“This is a big thing for me after failing to qualify for the final in the 2017 and 2019 World Championships, but today is my day," Korir said.
History was made in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final as Peruth Chemutai sprang an upset to become the first Ugandan woman to win an Olympic medal.
With 600m to go, front-running Courtney Frerichs of the USA had a handy lead but Chemutai patiently reeled her in and took the lead with 300m to go, surging away to win in a personal best time of 9:01.45.
Frerichs held on to claim the silver medal (9:04.79) as she did at the World Championships in London four years ago.
Kenya’s 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng claimed her third consecutive Olympic medal with the bronze in 9:05.39.
It was a fine night for Polish athletics as the central Europeans claimed three medals across two events.
Wojciech Nowicki completed the hammer double for Poland, winning the gold medal with a personal best throw of 82.52m from Norway’s Elvind Henriksen (81.58m). World champion Fajdek completed the podium (81.53m) and Poland’s reputation as the home of the hammer.
Like De Grasse, Nowicki has bided his time, winning three bronze medals at the World Championships before this breakthrough victory.
“I didn’t expect to win but I was very well prepared," Nowicki said. “I tried my best and it worked out. It is amazing. It was a dream for me for the two of us to be at the podium together.”
The podiums for the decathlon and heptathlon are still taking shape after day one of the combined events, but they will not contain the reigning world champions.
In the final event of the day, Kaul did not finish the 400m, succumbing to an ankle injury, while Johnson-Thompson reinjured herself at almost the same spot on the track during the 200m.
Canadian Damian Warner leads the decathlon on 4722 points from Australia’s world U20 champion Ash Moloney (4722) and a second Canadian Pierce LePage (4529), with world record-holder Kevin Mayer sitting in fifth (4350) and needing a big second day.
In the heptathlon, Dutchwoman Anouk Vetter leads with 3968 points from Belgians Noor Vidts (3941) and Rio Olympic champion Nafi Thiam (3921).
In the evening's semifinals, the two main protagonists in the women’s 1500m, Sifan Hassan and Faith Kipyegon, took a win each to remain on course for a mouth-watering showdown on Friday.
Kipyegon was impressive, winning the first semifinal in a swift 3:56.80, dragging two of the qualifiers behind her, fourth-placed Jessica Hull (3:58.81) and fifth-placed Nozomi Tanaka (3:59.19), to national records.
Ethiopia’s Freweyni Gebreezibeher (3:57.54) and Canada’s Gabriela Debues-Stafford (3:58.28) also qualified comfortably.
Hassan, who has already won the 5000m in Tokyo and intends to contest the 10,000m on Saturday, took the opposite approach, conserving as much energy as possible before looming up on the race leaders with 200m to run and taking control of the race, qualifying in 4:00.23. Briton Laura Muir (4:00.73) and Australia’s Linden Hall (4:01.37) also progressed to the final.
The women’s 400m remains wide open after the second round.
Surprise packet Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the first qualifier (49.38) from Jamaica’s Candice McLeod (49.51). Rio Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who had intended to pursue glory in the 200m rather than the 400m this year, looked good winning the second semifinal, and Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson took the third (49.34) narrowly from the veteran Allyson Felix (49.39).
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics
