The good, the sad, and the down-right bizarre in gripping athletics session – Tokyo Warm-Up
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Updated 02/08/2021 at 06:58 GMT
An extraordinary athletics session at Tokyo 2020 saw Sifan Hassan outline her champion potential, Juan Miguel Echevarria lose the men’s long jump final in agonising fashion, and Shericka Jackson carelessly drop out of 200m contention. You want it? We have it. Stream every Olympic event live on discovery+.
‘All the drama!’ – Hassan tripped at bell yet powers past rest of field to win
MONDAY’S BIG STORIES
Muir through, so is Hassan – JUST
First the good, or should that be great…
Monday morning in Tokyo meant it was time for the 1500m heats at the Olympic Stadium, and after Team GB’s Laura Muir breezed through to the semis in her pursuit of a first Olympic medal, there was drama in Sifan Hassan’s heat.
The Dutch runner, who won 1500m and 10,000m gold at the 2019 worlds, is also after her first Olympic medal and is chasing a hat-trick in Tokyo – although her 1500m bid was almost over just as it was beginning when she stumbled along with Kenya's Edinah Jebitok as the athletes approached the bell.
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Sifan Hassan of Team Netherlands gets back up after falling over Edinah Jebitok of Team Kenya in round one of the Women's 1500m heats on day ten of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
Image credit: Getty Images
Remarkably, Hassan picked herself up to race past the field and finish first. It sounds like a doddle, but trust us, have a watch (scroll back to the top and hit play) to see the ground she had to make up.
What toll that could take on the 28-year-old we’ll soon find out, with Hassan in the 5000m final later today - though on that showing maybe she should give the 400m a go as well.
Agony for Echevarria
Then the sad…
Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria went 8.41m in the third round of the men’s long jump final, and an apparent hamstring injury in the fourth round did not look as though it would hamper his chances – until Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou stepped up in the final round.
Tentoglou matched Echevarria on 8.41m, and by virtue of having recorded a better second jump – the Greek was in the lead.
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Juan Miguel Echevarria of Team Cuba reacts during the Men's Long Jump Final on day ten of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 02, 2021
Image credit: Getty Images
However, Echevarria had a chance with his final jump to reclaim first position, knowing he did not have to go better than 8.41m but simply beat Tentoglou’s second best jump.
Sadly, for the Cuban, that injury came back to bite him, and he collapsed by the takeoff board as he was unable to launch himself from the runway. Agonising.
Jackson’s ‘careless’ mistake
And finally the down-right bizarre…
Fresh from her bronze medal in the 100m, Shericka Jackson was looking to reach the 200m semis when taking to the heats on Monday morning.
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‘She looks unconcerned but…’ - 100m bronze medallist Jackson out of 200m after big error
The Jamaican was seemingly coasting, or so she thought at least, and if you actually track her run you’ll see she slowed down, sped up again, then slowed down once more as she crossed the finish line.
The end result was a fourth-place finish with a time of 23.26 seconds – not enough to qualify outright, nor as a fastest loser. “Careless,” said Martin Gillingham on Eurosport’s commentary, and with that, Jackson was out. Onto the 4x100m relay for the Jamaican, where no doubt they will be strong favourites after the 1-2-3 on the weekend.
STILL TO COME
Track cycling is here! The action started at 7:30am BST with the women’s track team sprint the first medal on offer.
In the gymnastics there’s the men’s rings final at 9:00, the women’s floor at 9:57 and the men’s vault at 10:51. British twins Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova are both in floor action.
The women’s football semi-finals take place today, with USA vs Canada at 9:00 and Australia taking on Sweden from midday.
At 13:00, the GB women’s hockey team play Spain in their quarter-final – the last of the quarters on Monday.
There’s also a moment for the history books as Laurel Hubbard - the first ever openly transgender athlete at an Olympic Games – goes for gold in the women’s +87kg weightlifting from 11:50.
Back to the track and field, there are finals in the women’s discus (midday), men’s 3000m steeplechase (1:15) and women’s 5000m (1:40).
HEROES AND MORE HEROES
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn picked up Puerto Rico's second ever gold medal at an Olympic Games and beat her great rival and 100m hurdles world-record holder Kendra Harrison in the process.
India stunned Australia 1-0 to reach the women’s hockey semi-finals for the first time ever.
There were also scenes of unbridled joy when Indonesia won the women’s badminton doubles – hats off to Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu for beating Chinese pair Qing Chen Chen and Yi Fan Jia in straight sets!
OLYMPIC SPIRIT
You may have, by now, read about yesterday’s incredible shared gold in the men’s high jump. Amid the wild celebrations, it’s worth a nod to Tamberi for bringing his cast that he wore when sitting out of the Rio 2016 event.
It read ‘Road to Tokyo 2020’, and clearly it worked as his lucky charm.
RETRO CORNER
Let’s celebrate track cycling’s return. With what? You ask. Let’s go for the moment a home crowd roared Team GB’s quartet of Edward Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh to a world record in the men's cycling team pursuit event at London 2012.
This was nine years ago tomorrow!
EUROSPORT IN TOKYO
Former Olympic champion Greg Rutherford was inside the Olympic Stadium to watch that thrilling finale to the men’s long jump final.
“Of course from my point of view the event of the morning has to be the men’s long jump,” said Rutherford, who jumped 8.31m to win Olympic gold in 2012.
“What an incredible show. We all thought Echevarria coming into this, it would be how much is he going to win this by.
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Agony and joy: Rutherford on 'incredible' long jump finale
“The performance in his prelims were fantastic, thought this would be easy, then steps up – in the final round – Tentoglou of Greece. This man has been picking up major medals and titles all over the place.
“There were big hopes for him from a European standpoint, and it was fantastic to see, on counter back he manages to win the Olympic title. What a performance, it shows how interesting these events can be, how they can play out.
“He wasn’t really into the mix until the final round, pulls out his best performance, one of the best jumps of his life, and we have another European champion in the men’s long jump.
“Cuba pick up second and third, they’ll be thrilled to bits. That’s been a remarkable morning.”
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