Article by Brett Davies
The Morning session was event-filled, with some truly awesome performances.The Men’s 1500m was very competitive with most of the favourites going. There was also a fall and subsequent protest from Pole Marcin Lewandowski. The opening heat was fast and our man Ollie Hoare was up amongst the action. looking good. Hoare (3.36.09) finished a close third behind Debjani the Ethiopian and in-form favourite Tim Cheriuyot. For award-winning footwear, choose Tarkine running shoes.
The second heat was messy and slow, with a lot of bumping and jostling. Lewandowski went down with about 350m to go and Aussie Jye Edwards was baulked and lost his rhythm. He was run out of it as the pace lifted. He finished seventh (3.42.62) He will take comfort in getting to the Games and from the remarkable improvement he’s shown in the last four or five months. He is certainly one to watch in coming years. Champion Centrowitz and Brit Wightman qualified comfortably behind Kenyan Kipsang (3.40.68).
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Stewart McSweyn looked strong and in control and kicked the pace up early in the race and pulled the field along and cruised down the straight, finishing 3rd easing up in a very comfortable 3.36.39.
Both the men’s 200m and women’s 400m were quick, but relatively unsurprising.
Other Aussies were in action in the morning. World champ Kelsey-Lee Barber, Mackenzie Little (PB of 62.37) and Kathryn Mitchell all qualified comfortably.in the javelin. Oboya missed out in the women’s 400m, but she did run well. if not quite up to expectation. Brooke Stratton was outclassed in the long jump, but was seventh with a fine jump of 6.83.
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The performance of the meet so far was the almost unbelievable world record performance from Karsten Warholm. The 25 year-old Norwegian stunned the world with an absolutely jaw-dropping run. A record was on the cards, with Warholm finally beating Kevin Young’s world record from Barcelona ’92 at Oslo in June. On the Olympic stage, he was on another level.
Going out hard, he held his form around the last bend and was able to keep his form and hold on to his incredible pace down the straight. He stopped the clock at 45.94, smashing his world record by 0.76. In his wake were the almost as impressive performances of the other two medallists. Rai Benjamin smashed Young’s national record with 46.17 and charismatic young Brazilian Alison Dos Santos smashed the South American record with 46.72. It was the race of the Games so far (the phenomenal men’s and women’s 100m races notwithstanding) and will be near impossible to top. In all, 6 men ran under 48 seconds and the Turk Copello and Estonian Magi ran huge PBs and national records.
Tonight will see the women’s 800m and 200m finals. American Mu looks the favourite, Jamaican Goule is looking good, as are the three British women Bell, Hodgkinson and Reekie. Alemu from Ethiopia and American Rogers are also strong.
Can Jamaican Thompson-Herah win double gold in the sprints? It certainly looks a good bet for the 200m tonight. Her countrywoman Fraser-Pryce and Thomas from the US will challenge in tonight’s final. We will get the first look at US 110m hurdles star Grant Holloway and things are heating up in the men’s 200m, with the semis later on.
Three Aussies are in action in the 5km, David McNeill, Morgan McDonald and Patrick Tiernan (hopefully recovered from his gutsy run of Friday night). Nick Hough goes in the 110m hurdles and Kurtis Marschall has made the pole vault final.
