American Noah Lyles, with his gold in the 100 metres with a personal best (9.79), and Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, winner in the high jump, brought the Stade de France to its feet with two outstanding performances that earned them entry into the Olympus of great Olympic champions.
Lyles, just as he did last year at the World Championships in Budapest, once again proved that he is the fastest man in the world. This time he brought the audience to their feet at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games athletics evening by participating in one of the most eagerly awaited Olympic finals, winning the gold medal by just five thousandths of a second over the young Jamaican sprinter Kishane Thompson, who hoped to snatch the throne from his rival, just like his compatriot, the also American Fred Kerley, who came third.
The 27-year-old sprinter from Florida went into the final knowing that the nearly 80,000 spectators who packed the Stade de France were watching him and he responded by putting on a show before the race, encouraging the crowd, beating his chest and making gestures of complicity with the stands.
Mahuchikh, queen of the high jump
The other great star of the day was Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who will always be associated with Paris. On July 7, 2024, she broke the world high jump record at the Charlety Stadium in the Diamond League, which had been in place for 37 years, since 1987, when the Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova reached 2.09 meters in Rome.
A month later, on the other side of the city, to the north, the Ukrainian was crowned Olympic champion at the Stade de France with a more modest mark, two metres.
This time the mark was not important, the key was to leave the competition with the gold hanging on her back and that is what the Ukrainian did, who, despite having already secured victory with two metres, tried to clear the bar by 2.04 metres, something she did not achieve.
Rivalry day
Another of the great moments of the day was in the women’s 400 metres hurdles with the particular duel between the Dutch Femke Bol and the American Sydney McLaughlin, who started their participation in the distance without any problems.
They did not face each other as it was the first round but both showed their credentials on the track. Bol and McLaughlin, both 24 years old, although the American will turn 25 on the eve of the final, are two of the best international sprinters of today.
McLaughlin, world record holder for the distance (50.65), has never lost a race to the Dutchwoman, who now appears to be the only rival who can take the gold from her in Paris, having also lowered that mark by 51 seconds with 50.95 in La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland) on July 14, 2024.
One of the most important events in track and field, the 1,500 metres, delighted the nearly eighty thousand people who attended the Stade de France.
The semi-finals saw the clash between two athletes who have a rivalry that goes beyond the track: the British Josh Kerr and the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The two shared the semi-final series and the Nordic was the fastest to complete the task, as he stopped the clock at 3:32.38, just eight hundredths less than the Scot.
A possible surprise
In the final, another contender to surprise both of them is the American Yared Nuguse, who is looking for his share of the spotlight (3:31.72), as is the case with his compatriot Hobss Kessler (3:31.97) and the British Neil Gourley (3:32.11).
In the first round of the 400 metres, the two main contenders for Olympic gold, Britain’s Mathew Hudson-Smith and America’s Quincy Hall, had no trouble making it through to the semi-finals, where Michael Norman will also be competing, surprising everyone with his best time of the season (44.10), being the fastest of all the competitors.
One of the athletes who received the most applause from the stands at the Stade de France was Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, runner-up at Tokyo 2020, winner of her 800m semi-final series with the best time (1:56.86) and who hopes to take the throne of the distance from the world champion, Kenyan Mary Moora, with whom she will meet in the final.
Alfred will seek another golden prize
The first round of the 200-metre semi-finals was held in the morning, with Saint Lucian Julien Alfred, who had been crowned Olympic champion in the 100 metres the day before, as the star and most feared rival.
Also making it to the semi-finals in the 110m hurdles were the American Grant Holloway, Olympic champion in Tokyo, who recorded 13.01, the fastest, and the Jamaican Hansle Parchment, runner-up in the Japanese city and who in Paris qualified in the first round on time (13.43).
Among the semi-finalists is the Spaniard Quique Llopis, European runner-up, who finished second in his series with 13.28, only behind the Japanese Rachid Muratake (13.22).
In the women’s 3,000m steeplechase, all the medal hopefuls, including Kenyans Beatrice Chepkoech and Faith Cherotich, Ugandan Peruth Chemutai and Ethiopian Lomi Muleta, made it to the final, which will also include Spain’s Irene Sánchez Escribano making her Olympic debut.
Paris / EFE
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2024-08-05 06:58:08
