Nafissatou Thiam at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
History beckons Belgium’s 29-year-old Nafissatou Thiam in the Stade de France tonight (9) after a morning session at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games that leaves her in a position to earn a record third Olympic heptathlon title.
Although she only managed to better the performance of Britain’s overnight leader, world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, by one centimetre in the opening long jump – 6.41m to 6.40m – Thiam moved into a commanding lead after the javelin.
Meanwhile, Letsile Tebogo, newly installed as 200m champion, ran an inspired opening leg to help Botswana to reach tomorrow’s 4x400m final as fastest qualifiers.
Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo in the 4x400m heats in Paris (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
Johnson-Thompson, who held a 45-point lead going into the penultimate discipline, had set a season’s best of 45.49m in the first group to throw, close to her personal best of 46.14m.
But Thiam, in the second group, moved ahead by 121 points thanks to a throw of 54.04m, marking the close of the morning’s competition with a big smile and raised arms. Now only the 800m stands between her and becoming only the second woman to win three Olympics in the same athletics discipline after Polish hammer thrower Anita Wlodarczyk.
Johnson-Thompson’s first long jump effort turned into a run-through, after which she smacked herself liberally in the face before moving across to receive the wise counsel of coach Aston Moore.
After a safety-first 6.04m, and knowing she needed more to maintain her challenge, she produced a final effort of 6.40m, just one centimetre shy of Thiam’s best.
The Belgian had one more jump to make a difference – but registered 6.41m again.
Johnson-Thompson, whose effort was joint fifth with that of Belgium’s Noor Vidts, thus retained her overnight lead with 5030 as Thiam gained just three more points on her to total 4985 in second place going into the penultimate test of the javelin. Vidts was third on 4926 from Annik Kalin of Switzerland on 4870.
All is changed now, however, as they head towards the concluding two laps of the track with Thiam on 5924, Johnson-Thompson on 5803, Kalin on 5694 and Vidts on 5689.
The Briton, who set a personal best of 2:05.63 in securing a second world title in Budapest, now needs to run more than eight seconds faster than her Belgian rival – who lowered her own 800m personal best to 2:11.79 in winning a third European title two months ago.
The morning after the night before’s triumph, Tebogo was at his blocks with a baton in his hand ready to run the first leg for Botswana’s 4x400m team.
With a 300m world best of 30.69 to his credit, and a 400m PB of 44.29 set in March, the prospects of Tebogo giving his team a good start were better than good, and he didn’t disappoint as a 44.33 leg set Botswana on the way to becoming fastest qualifiers for tomorrow’s final in 2:57.76. Britain, for whom individual silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith clocked a second-leg split of 43.87, was second fastest in 2:58.88.
At the age of 16, Quincy Wilson became the United States’ youngest male track Olympian, a record previously held by their 1500m and mile legend Jim Ryun, who was 17 at the Tokyo 1964 Olympics.
But the youngster had a torrid time running the lonely first leg of the men’s 4x400m, a task that became all the more challenging for the rapidly diminishing presence of the newly established Olympic 200m champion Tebogo two lanes outside him.
Having taken the baton from a runner half his age, 32-year-old Vernon Norwood found himself a distant seventh, but he managed to bridge the gap with a split of 43.54 and the not-to-be-thought-of option of failing to qualify was avoided at the last as Christopher Bailey claimed the third qualifying place ahead of Japan, who nevertheless advanced as minor qualifiers with a national record of 2:59.48.
“It was an amazing moment,” Wilson said. “I had a great team on my side through the whole thing. I wasn't 100% myself, but my team came out here and did it for me.”
On whether it has sunk in that he competed at the Olympic Games, he added: “It hasn’t but when I get home, I'll probably soak it all in then. The goal was to be able to get the baton around. It’s just going to be motivation for me to come back and give my team a better chance.”
Norwood added: “I was in the moment, watching a 16-year-old running in the Olympics, making history. I was very proud of him. And I'm just looking at him and like, 'oh, snap back in and let me get the stick and get it going'.
"But I'm super proud of him to come out here and show his grit for us, for the United States and put us in a good position to go for the gold.”
All the big guns fired to good effect in the men’s 800m semifinals, where Kenya’s 20-year-old world silver medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi was fastest qualifier for tomorrow’s final in 1:43.32.
Wanyonyi’s personal best of 1:41.58 at the Stade Charlety in Paris on last month put him fourth on the all-time list – but he is only second in this year’s world list behind the Algerian who clocked 1:41.46 at the Monaco Diamond League meeting, Djamel Sedjati, who won his heat in 1:45.08.
French hope Gabriel Tual, European champion and third on this season’s list after following Wanyonyi home in Paris in 1:41.61, set the stadium at a roar as he took the second automatic qualifying place in his heat behind Canada’s world champion Marco Arop.
Bryce Hoppel of the United States; Britain’s Max Burgin, who set a personal best of 1:43.50; Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui, fourth in this year’s list with 1:42.04; and Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela were the other qualifiers for what promises to be a gripping final.
There was similar home intensity for the third of the women’s 100m hurdles semifinals, which featured European champion Cyrena Samba-Mayela.
Cyrena Samba-Mayela and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in 100m hurdles action in Paris (© Mattia Ozbot)
Having recovered her health and form after an untimely bout of Covid, the 23-year-old, who had to scratch from her Tokyo Olympics heat after injuring a hamstring in warm-up, was one of the two non-automatic qualifiers for a final where her training partner, Puerto Rico’s defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, was second fastest qualifier in 12.35 behind the 12.34 clocked by Alaysha Johnson of the United States.
The Bahamas’ world indoor record-holder Devynne Charlton made the cut, but Nigeria’s world outdoor record-holder and 2022 world champion Tobi Amusan missed out by one place.
The United States women’s 4x400m team moved through to their final tomorrow in more of a standard fashion than their men’s team, posting the fastest time of 3:21.44, spurred by a second leg split of 49.30 from Shamier Little. Britain were second fastest in 3:24.72, with the hugely supported hosts clocking the third best time of 3:24.73.
Sharlene Mawdsley recorded a final-leg split of 49.65 to earn Ireland the third automatic qualifying place in their heat behind Jamaica and the Netherlands, having taken over the baton a couple of metres shy of the leading three.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
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