All-around: Damian Warner is the new king of athletes. After World Champion Niklas Kaul (Mainz) was injured, the 31-year-old Canadian won Olympic gold in the decathlon with an outstanding 9018 points, silver went to world record holder Kevin Mayer (8726 / France). The Australian Ashley Moloney (8649) secured bronze. At the end of the first day of competition, Kaul had to give up over 400 m due to a foot injury. “I’ll have to save the goal of the Olympic medal for Paris,” said the 23-year-old with a view to the 2024 Games in France. Kai Kazmirek (LG Rhein-Wied) took 14th place (8126).
Like Kaul, Carolin Schäfer had long hoped for a medal in the heptathlon, but at the beginning of the second day after a weak 5.78 meters in the long jump, the former vice world champion’s dream fell through. In the end, the woman from Frankfurt came in seventh with 6419 points. As in Rio five years ago, gold went to Nafissatou Thiam (6791 points / Belgium) ahead of the two Dutch women Anouk Vetter (6689) and Emma Oosterwegel (6590).
Decathlete Warner improved the previous Olympic record of Roman Sebrle and Ashton Eaton by 125 points. After Mayer, Eaton and Sebrle, he is also only the fourth decathlete in history to break the magical 9000 point mark.
400 Meter: World champion Steven Gardiner (Bahamas) is now also Olympic champion in the 400 m. The 25-year-old prevailed in the Tokyo final in 43.85 seconds, as at the 2019 World Cup in Doha, ahead of the Colombian Anthony Jose Zambrano (44.08). Kirani James (Grenada) won bronze in the classic race over the stadium lap nine years after his Olympic victory in London (44.19).
The South African Wayde van Niekerk, who won gold in Rio in 2016 in a world record time of 43.03 seconds, was eliminated in the semi-finals in Tokyo. The German starter Marvin Schlegel (Chemnitz) said goodbye in the run-up.
Pole vault: American pole vaulter Katie Nageotte won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. The 30-year-old surprisingly prevailed with 4.90 m ahead of world champion Anselika Sidorowa (ROC / 4.85). Bronze went to the Briton Holly Bradshaw (4.85). London Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi (Greece / 4.80) only came in fourth. Former runner-up European champion Lisa Ryzih (Ludwigshafen) canceled her start in Tokyo at short notice due to back problems.
Nageotte had previously only participated in a single global outdoor championship, at the 2019 World Cup in Doha she was seventh. Top favorite Sidorova was the only jumper to take all heights up to 4.85 m in the first attempt, but then lost her safety. After the competition, the 30-year-old wept bitter tears. For the team of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) it was the first athletics medal in Japan. The Russian Athletics Federation has been suspended since the end of 2015 because of the doping scandal in the country.
The world association World Athletics has approved up to ten “neutral” athletes from Russia for the Olympics. These start for the ROC team after Russia was banned from the Olympic Games and World Championships for four years by the World Anti-Doping Agency for manipulating doping data. The international sports court CAS had halved the ban on two years.
20 kilometers of walking: Christopher Linke from Potsdam missed the longed-for Olympic medal for the 20 kilometers of walking. The fifth in the World Cup was unable to crown his race to catch up on the final laps, but finished fifth as well as in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. Left reached the goal after 1:21:50 hours. Gold went to Massimo Stano from Italy (1:21:05) ahead of the Japanese Ikeda Koki (+0: 09) and Yamanishi Toshikazu (+0: 23). Stano even bowed to his approaching pursuers at the finish. Leo Köpp from Berlin came in 22nd, Nils Brembach from Potsdam landed in 28th.
“That was a bigger heat battle than I had hoped and thought. I came here as the 50th with my time, now I’m fifth, so of course I can be satisfied,” said Linke on ZDF. His minimum goal was to be in the top eight. In the end he was 22 seconds short of Toshikazu, who won bronze. “Of course I still dream of a medal. I was able to really, really bite out of the back. It was mentally incredibly tough today.” The walking medal fights had been relocated from Tokyo to Sapporo in northern Japan for climatic reasons. At 31 degrees outside temperature and 63 percent humidity at the start, the 20 laps developed into welding work.
Decathlon: World champion Niklas Kaul did not suffer any serious injuries when he left the Olympics in Tokyo due to injury. “The ankle was bruised over eight feet when he jumped. Thank goodness nothing tore and there was no fracture either. He needs rest now, and after a few weeks he can put full weight back on his foot,” said medical association doctor Andrew Lichtenthal after a magnetic resonance tomography on Thursday.
Medal favorite Kaul had given up on his Olympic debut on Wednesday in the race over 400 meters after the half. Because of a foot injury that the Mainer sustained in the high jump, he was no longer able to take part in the competition. “If you have to give up because of an injury in your first Olympic participation after two best performances in the first four disciplines, then it is extremely bitter. The fact that the injury happens while jumping over a best performance naturally also creates a rollercoaster of emotions”, said Kaul. “I have to process that now and give my body the necessary rest. When the foot is fully resilient again, training for the World Championships in Eugene and the European Championships in Munich begins,” he said. “I’ll have to save the goal of the Olympic medal for Paris.”
On Thursday evening (local time) he wanted to keep his fingers crossed for his all-rounder competitors in the stadium. The 23-year-old was promising in the medal race after four disciplines in which he achieved personal bests in the long jump (7.36 meters) and in the high jump (2.11 meters).
High jump: The European Championship third Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch from Tübingen has moved into the Olympic high jump final. The 30-year-old jumped the 1.95 m required for direct qualification for the decision on Saturday (12.35 p.m. CEST) in the second attempt. So far this year, young meat had not exceeded 1.90. The German champion Imke Onnen (Hanover), however, was eliminated with 1.86 m.
Sprint relay: The German sprinters confidently reached the final over 4×100 m and can even quietly hope for the first medal for a German relay in 33 years. Rebekka Haase (Wetzlar), Alexandra Burghardt (Burghausen), Tatjana Pinto (Paderborn) and Gina Lückenkemper (Berlin) won their run in 42.00 seconds on Thursday morning and achieved the third-best time. “There is still a lot of air during the changes, otherwise it was an optimal start,” said Pinto on ZDF after the race in the roaring heat in the morning. “In the block I thought my hands would burn,” said Haase, who started running.
The fastest in the final on Friday (3.30 p.m. CEST), Great Britain (41.55) moved into the first run ahead of the USA (41.90). Jamaica, which spared Tokyo’s double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and the 100 m runner-up Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, made it to the final after some problems when changing as third in the first run (42.15). The last German medal so far won the East German season with silver in 1988 in Seoul.
The German men’s relay also reached the final on Friday (3:50 p.m. CEST). Julian Reus (Erfurt), Joshua Hartmann (Cologne) Deniz Almas (Wolfsburg) and Lucas Ansah-Preprah (Hamburg) came in fourth in the second run in 38.06 seconds, but slipped into the second place as one of two other teams with the best time Final run.
Shot put: World record holder Ryan Crouser from the USA won Olympic gold in the shot put in Tokyo, as he did in Rio in 2016, and presented a memorable demonstration of power. The 28-year-old prevailed on Thursday with a huge 23.30 m and an unbelievable series. With each of his six strokes, he exceeded the Olympic record that he himself had set five years ago with 22.52 m. Crouser only missed his own world record by seven centimeters in the last round. His thrusts until then: 22.83 – 22.93 – 22.86 – 22.74 – 22.54. Silver went to world champion Joe Kovacs, who, like in Rio, made the US one-two perfect.
With his 22.65 m he would have won gold at all of the previous summer games. Bronze in an absolutely high-class competition went to New Zealander Tomas Walsh (22.47). At the end of June, Crouser had improved the almost three decades old record of his compatriot Randy Barnes by 25 centimeters in the US eliminations with 23.37 m. A German shot putter was not at the start in Tokyo. The two-time world champion David Storl did not contest a competition this season due to injury problems.
Obstacles: The Jamaican Hansle Parchment surprisingly won Olympic gold over the 110 meter hurdles. The 31-year-old prevailed on Thursday on the last meters in 13.04 seconds ahead of world champion Grant Holloway from the USA (13.09). Parchments compatriot Ronald Levy took bronze in 13.10 seconds. Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Jamaican Omar McLeod won gold. Parchment, on the other hand, sprinted to bronze in London in 2012. The European Championship fourth Georg Traber from Tübingen was eliminated in Tokyo in the preliminary run.
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