Mondo Duplantis at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis retained his pole vault title in masterly fashion before bringing a tumultuous evening programme in a packed Stade de France to an ear-splitting conclusion at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games on Monday (5).
Following an Olympic record clearance of 6.10m, he went on to set his ninth consecutive world record, clearing 6.25m at his third attempt.
After golds had been earned with equal certainty by Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson in the women’s 800m and Valarie Allman of the US in the women’s discus, the 24-year-old Swede sent the Paris 2024 crowd away with memories to be cherished.
It was hardly a surprise to see his yellow-shirted form clear the latest steep challenge he has set for himself before he went to embrace his girlfriend Desire Inglander and was engulfed in congratulations from others including his father Greg, a 4.80m pole vaulter in his time, and mother Helena.
There was a turn-up in the other final, however, as the women’s 5000m title went neither to Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon nor Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, both of whom had sought to combine victory here with success in other Olympic events.
Kipyegon, the world and Olympic 1500m champion who came through an earlier clash with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, looked as if she had done enough, but she was overhauled in the final 30 metres by her compatriot Beatrice Chebet. Kipyegon was initially disqualified for her mid-race tussle but was later reinstated. Behind them, Hassan got the bronze.
Chebet, 24, will now seek her own Paris 2024 double as she contests Thursday’s 10,000m, an event in which she set a world record of 28:54.14 a couple of months ago.
Duplantis saw off all opposition with a clearance of 6.00m, with his old nemesis Sam Kendricks of the US, perhaps fired by his unhappy memories of being unable to compete while at the Tokyo Games because of a positive Covid test, claiming a silver to add to his Rio 2016 bronze.
Bronze in Paris went to a highly delighted Emmanouil Karalis of Greece, who cleared 5.90m.
Hodgkinson, Olympic 800m silver medallist at the Tokyo Games and at the two subsequent World Athletics Championships, finally earned the gold with a perfectly controlled race that saw her finish comfortably clear in 1:56.72 ahead of Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma. Duguma took silver in a personal best of 1:57.15 ahead of the Kenyan who had beaten Hodgkinson to the 2022 Commonwealth title and last year’s world title in Budapest, Mary Moraa, who got bronze in 1:57.42.
The Tokyo Olympic champion, Hodgkinson’s contemporary Athing Mu who claimed world bronze last year, was unable to defend her title after falling in the US trials, but Hodgkinson arrived in Paris knowing that her British record of 1:54.61 at the London Diamond League meeting was faster than her US rival’s best.
Allman produced five throws superior to anything her rivals could match in the discus, the best of them 69.50m.
Silver went to China’s 30-year-old Feng Bin, world champion in 2022 and world bronze medallist last year, who secured a podium place in her second Olympic appearance with a best of 67.51m.
Croatia’s 34-year-old Sandra Elkasevic, a seven-time European champion and Olympic gold medallist at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Games, also reached that mark but took bronze through the Chinese thrower’s superior second-best throw.
There had been a huge ovation for the 45-year-old French discus thrower Melina Robert-Michon, who had raised her game to reach the final at her seventh Olympics, matching the record number of appearances for a woman in track and field.
Having established himself as the Olympic 100m champion, Noah Lyles of the US set about winning his personal marquee event of the 200m with a technically smooth heat run, coming home in 20.19 ahead of Canada’s defending champion Andre De Grasse, who clocked 20.30.
The joy that Lyles showed at the 100m medal ceremony after the final track action was intense as he took the gold from around his neck and held it high in the air.
Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, sixth in the 100m final in a national record of 9.86, looked composed as he won his 200m heat in 20.10, easing down.
Ahead of Wednesday’s semifinals, Tokyo silver medallist Kenny Bednarek was fastest qualifier in 19.96. South Africa’s 32-year-old Wayde van Niekerk, who set the world 400m record of 43.03 from the outside lane at the Rio 2016 Games before wrecking his knee playing a charity rugby match a year later, has recovered his fortunes since, finishing fifth and seventh over 400m at the respective 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships, and he earned one of the three 200m qualifying places in his heat with a time of 20.42.
Women’s Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred, seeking to add the 200m gold, is a step ahead of Lyles in the process and won her semifinal in 21.98 from Nigeria’s Favour Ofili, who clocked 22.05.
USA’s Gabby Thomas registered her presence as a serious gold contender as she won in 21.86, with Britain’s 2019 world champion Dina Asher-Smith claiming the second automatic qualifying place in 22.31.
Asher-Smith’s teammate Daryll Neita, fourth in the 100m final, earned the second spot in the last semifinal in 22.24 behind the 22.12 of the United States’ Brittany Brown.
Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali, seeking to become the first man to win back-to-back Olympic 3000m steeplechase titles since the 1932 Los Angeles Games, took the first step as he won his heat to earn his place in tomorrow’s final.
El Bakkali’s time of 8:17.90 was the sixth fastest behind the times of the five qualifiers in the fastest heat, won in 8:10.62 by his teammate Mohamed Tindouft.
Ethiopia’s 23-year-old Lamecha Girma, who set the world record of 7:52.11 at last year’s Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris, won his heat in 8:23.89 and now has the opportunity to win his first global gold after finishing one place behind El Bakkali in Tokyo and also collecting three world silvers.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
For all the latest results, statistics and coverage during the Paris 2024 Olympics, join Inside Track today for free.
