Today (well about two months ago today!), we are on our way to our one premium Olympic event - Track & Field, also known by its Olympic name: Athletics. This will be the third day in a row where we've taken the same route to a different venue: Metro from General Osório to Central then the Santa Cruz train to the De Dentro station and then a short walk to the stadium.
This is the first day of Athletics and we expected a big crowd; instead, this is what what we see:
We're not sure why - maybe it is the Brazilian aversion to mornings, the light rain that is falling, or the facts that this session has only one final: the women's 10 km and no Brazilians are expected to figure prominently in the results. Our seats are located on the end of the stadium away from the finish line for most of the events. But that's okay as there is plenty to see. We are just under the end of the roof and the breeze is toward us so we are getting a little damp. Most of the seats around us are empty as people move further back under the roof.
At the far end of the stadium the session begins with qualifying for the men's discus. This is broken up into two groups A and B. Group A are the athletes with the longest throws in the current season and they go first. Here is Gerd Kanter from Estonia making a throw:
At the far end of the stadium the session begins with qualifying for the men's discus. This is broken up into two groups A and B. Group A are the athletes with the longest throws in the current season and they go first. Here is Gerd Kanter from Estonia making a throw:
Each of these rather large humans (Gerd is 1.95 m[6'5"], 125 kg [276 lbs]) gets three tries to reach the qualifying distance of 65.5 m (214'11"). They throw from inside a huge cage. This is to protect the spectators in case someone lets go either too soon or too late, although this is much more of a risk during the hammer throw. It is really hard for us to follow who is throwing and what the results are because an official with a GPS-on-a-stick has to run out, find the place where the discus hits and record the distance. Usually the distance is displayed while someone else is throwing. But occasionally, one of the stadium scoreboards lists the current best throws. We notice Polish athlete Piotr Malachowski throws 65.89 m and Austrian Lukas Weisshiadinger throws 65.86 m, both on their second throws. At that point, they are done for the day because they've qualified for the finals. Everyone else stays for all three throws to try to qualify for one of the other 10 spots in the finals.
In the meantime, a bunch of women walk out onto the track to our right where high hurdles are set up:
Sean takes one look at Uzbekistan's Ekaterina Voronina and exclaims "she's got better abs than I have!". These very fit young women are competitors in the heptathlon and are here to compete in the first of seven events held over a two-day period: the 100 m high hurdles. They will also compete in the high jump later in this session. While these athletes are theoretically competing against each other, they are really competing against the clock (or ruler). The faster (or further) they go, the more points they get. Voronina finishes last in the first heat in a time of 15.21 seconds. This is good for 814 points. The top athletes in heptathlon want to get at least 1000 points per event so the first place finisher in this heat, Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas from Hungary, is quite happy with her time of 13.79 seconds good for 1008 points.
It is common at the Olympics to see some of the athletes wearing one or more pieces of kinesio tape used to support injuries or weak areas. Grit Sadeiko from Estonia comes out to warm up for the second heat with four pieces of kinesio tape on her lower back, one on her left leg and a larger wrap above her left knee. Uh oh, this looks like a train wreck about to happen! But it is understandable; the Olympics are only once every four years so even if you are banged up and might have skipped a lesser competition, the tendency is to tape yourself up and go out and try to compete. Two hurdles into her heat, Grit pulls up with what looks like a blown hamstring:
This is too bad. But it says something about the will of these athletes that they go out there and try to compete when their bodies are saying no way. Grit is only 27, so we hope that she will get another try in Tokyo in 2020. This would be her 4th Olympics!
The rest of the hurdles goes more or less as expected. Defending gold medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill from Great Britain sets the fastest time at 12.84 seconds good for 1149 points and a great start on her bid to repeat. Right behind her are Akela Jones from Barbados (13.00/1124 pts), Nadine Visser from the Netherlands (13.02/1121 pts) and Kendell Williams from the US (13.04/1118 pts). But there are 24 athletes with at least 1000 points so it will be some time before we figure out who the real contenders are.
While the hurdles are still going on, the competitors in the women's shot put come out to warm up. The A group is qualifying directly in front of us while the B group is off to our left. All of them will be trying to reach the automatic qualifying distance of 18.40 m (60'4"). Four women: Valerie Adams from New Zealand (the two-time defending gold medalist), Christina Schwanitz from Germany, Lijiao Gong from China and Anita Marton from Hungary qualify on their first throws, put their sweatsuits back on and sit down to watch the rest of the competition. We're concentrating on the two Americans. Here is Raven Saunders:
The rest of the hurdles goes more or less as expected. Defending gold medalist Jessica Ennis-Hill from Great Britain sets the fastest time at 12.84 seconds good for 1149 points and a great start on her bid to repeat. Right behind her are Akela Jones from Barbados (13.00/1124 pts), Nadine Visser from the Netherlands (13.02/1121 pts) and Kendell Williams from the US (13.04/1118 pts). But there are 24 athletes with at least 1000 points so it will be some time before we figure out who the real contenders are.
While the hurdles are still going on, the competitors in the women's shot put come out to warm up. The A group is qualifying directly in front of us while the B group is off to our left. All of them will be trying to reach the automatic qualifying distance of 18.40 m (60'4"). Four women: Valerie Adams from New Zealand (the two-time defending gold medalist), Christina Schwanitz from Germany, Lijiao Gong from China and Anita Marton from Hungary qualify on their first throws, put their sweatsuits back on and sit down to watch the rest of the competition. We're concentrating on the two Americans. Here is Raven Saunders:
Raven is a "spinner". That is, she spins around several times before throwing in a way that is similar to the discus. This is a relatively new technique that is based on the idea that if you are spinning, you're less likely to go outside the ring on your throw. This doesn't help Raven on her first throw as she fouls anyway. But on her second try, she throws 18.83 m (61'9") to automatically qualify for the finals.
Next up is Michelle Carter:
Next up is Michelle Carter:
Raven looks large, but she is "only" 1.66 m (5'5"), 108 kg (238 lbs). Michelle is truly a large woman: 1.76 m (5'9") 136 kg (300 lbs). She came by this size naturally as her father Michael (6'2"/285 lbs) won the silver medal in the shot put at the 1984 Summer Olympics in LA and then went on to play for the San Francisco 49ers for 9 years. Both father and daughter set national high school records in the shot so she's got a lot of genetics in her favor. In track lingo, Michelle is a "glider" meaning that instead of spinning, she will take a couple short steps directly across the ring and throw. And throw she does. After a disappointing first throw of 17.95 m (58'11"), she uncorks a beauty on her second try. Her throw of 19.01 m (62'4") easily qualifies for the finals.
None of the other women reach the automatic qualifying distance, but the few Brazilians in the stands cheer loudly when it is announced that Geisa Arcanjo qualifies for the finals with her season's best first throw of 18.27 m (59'11").
With the Heptathlon 100 m hurdles out of the way, it is time from the preliminaries in the Men's 800 m. In this competition, the three fastest athletes from each of the 7 heats along with the 3 with the next fastest times will qualify for the semi-finals. There seems to be two types of runners in these races - those with enough endurance to maintain their pace for the entire race and the "kickers" who try to avoid using up their lower level of endurance long enough that they can kick into a much higher speed near the end of the race. This combination produces a number of strange races. In the first heat, Boris Berian of the US:
With the Heptathlon 100 m hurdles out of the way, it is time from the preliminaries in the Men's 800 m. In this competition, the three fastest athletes from each of the 7 heats along with the 3 with the next fastest times will qualify for the semi-finals. There seems to be two types of runners in these races - those with enough endurance to maintain their pace for the entire race and the "kickers" who try to avoid using up their lower level of endurance long enough that they can kick into a much higher speed near the end of the race. This combination produces a number of strange races. In the first heat, Boris Berian of the US:
decides that the only way he is going to qualify is to go out hard and try to neutralize the kickers. He led his heat for perhaps 700 m before Ayanleh Souleiman from Djibouti and Amel Tuka from Bosnia blow past him. Boris hangs on for 3rd and qualifies for the semi-finals. The third heat features David Rudisha from Kenya:
Rudisha, the current world record holder and defending gold medalist, does not want to risk getting tripped up by the pack so he goes to the front and stays there the whole race. His wins his heat in a time of 1:45.09 and is a good 0.3 to 0.4 seconds faster than anyone else in all 7 heats despite looking like he was out for a morning stroll in the park.
Seven of the top 10 times were recorded by athletes in these two heats. With the top of the race out of the way, it was time to see who else would qualify. The luckiest guy in the entire competition had to be Girodano Benedetti from Italy:
In heat 5, Benedetti found himself in a race full of kickers. No one wanted to take the lead because it takes more energy to lead than to follow and kickers always tend to come from behind. So they snoozed through the first lap with everyone saying "you lead" "no, you lead". Benedetti reluctantly took the lead. He was eventually passed by two other runners, but did manage to finish 3rd to qualify for the semi-finals. This is despite the fact that his time of 1:49:40 was slower than all but 12 of the finishers. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
Once the 800 m was finished, it was time to start the high jump portion of the heptathlon. This takes place at the other end of the stadium and it is really hard to see what was going on unless I am looking through the viewfinder of my camera with the 400 mm lens. Each athlete chooses their opening height. This is a sort of strategy because each athlete can realistically make perhaps 6 or 7 successful jumps before they run out of energy so based on what height they think that they should be able to jump, they start at some lower distance to give themselves enough time to warm up, but not so much lower that they'll have no energy left by the time they get to their target height. The result is that you get huge differences in starting heights. Evelis Aguilar from Colombia and Sofia Yfantidou from Greece start at 1.56 m (5'1") while Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium doesn't start until 1.83 m (6'0").
The women get part way through the high jump and then have to stop for the beginning of the premier event of the session: the women's 10 km. I've run dozens of 10 km races so I am pretty sure that today's conditions of cool with light drizzle are almost perfect conditions. Sure enough, a lead group consisting of Alice Nawowuna from Kenya, Almaz Ayana from Ethiopia, Yasmin Can from Turkey (but who was born in Kenya), Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya, Betsy Saina from Kenya, Gelete Burka from Ethiopia, Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia and...Molly Huddle from the US took off like they were shot out of a gun:
It was incredible to see how fast they opened up time on a very large chase pack:
By 4 km, the lead group was already ahead by about half a lap! At the other end of the spectrum is Marisol Romero from Mexico:
Marisol is 33 years old and has a personal best of 31:46:43, but she is clearly not in that kind of shape right now. She runs basically alone for the first 7 laps until the East African (+1) freight train blows past to lap her.
We find ourselves rooting for Huddle to hang onto the East Africans for as long as she can and for Marisol to catch at least one person. Meanwhile Nawowona continues her insane pace. I know that the Ethiopians Ayana and Dibaba both have much faster 5 km times so maybe Nawowona is just trying to take the strength out of their kicks. One thing is for sure: the pace is absolutely shredding both the lead pack and the chasers into small groups spread out over the entire track. It is really hard to follow who is winning, but somewhere just after 5 km, Ayana from Ethiopia moves into the lead followed by Cheruiyot, Dibaba and Nawowuna. Huddle has fallen off the pace, but she has also picked off Burka to move into 7th place. Romero has now been passed a second time and has moved up one place when Ekaterina Tunguskova from Uzbekistan fell and could not continue.
By 8 km, it was clear that if Ayana:
finishes the race, she will win. It is only by how much. Around the same time, Huddle moved passed Can into 6th place and Romero got lapped a third time. The crowd was screaming at this point because Ayana is well under the pace of Wang Junxia's 23 year old world record.
As she crossed the finish line, the scoreboard shows the time 29:17:45 and the words that everyone wanted to see WORLD RECORD! Ayana has lowered the world record by nearly 15 seconds. This is amazing because previously, no woman has come within 22 seconds of Wang's record during those 23 years. It should also be noted that Wang when she retired confessed that she was taking part in a state organized doping program at the time she set the record. This is the real downside in current professional sports - when an unbelievable performance is delivered, the first question is "Is she clean?" This is a real issue for Ayana because the Ethiopian doping control program has a 0 rating (on a 10 scale) from the World Anti-doping Agency. Second place goes to Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya and third place goes to Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia.
But whatever happens to Ayana and her record, I am thrilled with the results. You'll recall in an earlier blog that I said that what makes me come to the Olympics is the chance to see someone perform so well that they are shocked at what they've done. Well, this race is a bonanza in that regard. The first 13 finishers and 18 overall set personal bests. 8 athletes set national records. That includes Molly Huddle, who finished 6th in a time of 30:13:17, a time that sets a personal best, a national best and a North American best!
As for Marisol Romero, she picked up one more place when Juliet Chekwel from Uganda dropped out in the last km to finish 35th in a time of 35:33:03. While that was well off her best time and over 6 minutes behind Ayana, I'd like to point out that her time is nearly 7 minutes faster than my best time.
Although the crowd took a long time to pay any attention what with Ayana doing her victory lap with her country-woman Dibaba, the women's heptathlon resumed right after the end of the 10 km race. Here is a picture of Brianne Theisen-Eaton from Canada:
What is interesting about this picture is the guy in the black shirt and red hat in the upper middle of the picture. That's world record holder and defending gold medalist Ashton Eaton from the United States. He's also Brianne's husband. Ashton is thrilled that Brianne just set a season's best mark of 1.86 m (6'1") good for 1054 points. This moves her into 5th place with 2151 pts so far.
But this event really evolves into a two woman match between Katrina Johnson-Thompson from Great Britain and Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium. Katrina started at 1.80 m, made that, passed at 1.83 m then made four consecutive jumps at 1.86 m, 1.89 m, 1.92 m and 1.95 m (6'5") before missing her first try at 1.98 m. Her jump of 1.95 m set an Olympic record for the high jump in the heptathlon. Thiam, whose father is from Senegal, started at 1.83 m, and made four successful jumps before missing her first two tries at 1.95 m. But she comes through and makes her last attempt at 1.95 m:
to pull into 2nd place behind Johnson-Thompson on the basis of fewer misses. Johnson-Thompson misses on her first try at what would be a world record for the heptathlon high jump of 1.98 m (6'6"). Thiam stepped up to the line and cleared the height to set a 2nd world record for the session! Johnson-Thompson then also cleared 1.98 m on her second try to tie the record. But the finish is a little anti-climactic when but both athletes fail on their three attempts at 2.01 m. This leaves them tied with 1211 pts and keeps Johnson-Thompson narrowly in 1st place with 2264 pts to 2252 pts for Thiam.
Our final event for the day is kind of unusual. It appears that too many women qualified for the 100 m so the organizers need three heats to reduce the number of women who will compete in the standard qualifying heats. As a result, a number of women from countries that would normally never be in the spotlight get to show what they can do. Here is the start of heat 1:
It is not often when the top four finishers in a heat are from Suriname, Cook Islands, Oman and Cape Verde! Charlotte Winfield from Malta has the fastest time in 11.86 seconds. The other seven qualifiers were Cecile Bouele from Congo, Sunayna Wahi from Suriname, Husniah Zulkifli from Malaysia, Hafsatu Kamara from Sierra Leone, Patricia Taea from Cook Islands, Mazoon Al-Alawi from Oman and Sisila Seavula from Fiji. I would also be remiss if I don't report that although they didn't qualify for the first round, Lidiane Lopes from Cape Verde, Kamia Yousufi from Afghanistan (running in the track equivalent of a burka) and Kariman Abuljadayel from Saudi Arabia all set national records!
There are a group of spectators that come to each Olympics and only watch athletics. After today's session, I can certainly see the attraction! On our way out of the stadium, we see Marisol Romero stretching out her legs against a security fence. I want to walk up and tell her that I appreciated how she kept battling despite not having a great day and being passed over and over, but do not want to intrude on her privacy.
It is only early afternoon, so neither the train nor the Metro are very crowded and we get back to our hotel around 3 pm. I work on pins for a couple hours while Beth and Sean watch the Olympic coverage. We're a little tired today so we decide to go back to the Mexican place for dinner, get a quick meal and go to bed early.
Steps for the day - 7,836Seven of the top 10 times were recorded by athletes in these two heats. With the top of the race out of the way, it was time to see who else would qualify. The luckiest guy in the entire competition had to be Girodano Benedetti from Italy:
In heat 5, Benedetti found himself in a race full of kickers. No one wanted to take the lead because it takes more energy to lead than to follow and kickers always tend to come from behind. So they snoozed through the first lap with everyone saying "you lead" "no, you lead". Benedetti reluctantly took the lead. He was eventually passed by two other runners, but did manage to finish 3rd to qualify for the semi-finals. This is despite the fact that his time of 1:49:40 was slower than all but 12 of the finishers. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
Once the 800 m was finished, it was time to start the high jump portion of the heptathlon. This takes place at the other end of the stadium and it is really hard to see what was going on unless I am looking through the viewfinder of my camera with the 400 mm lens. Each athlete chooses their opening height. This is a sort of strategy because each athlete can realistically make perhaps 6 or 7 successful jumps before they run out of energy so based on what height they think that they should be able to jump, they start at some lower distance to give themselves enough time to warm up, but not so much lower that they'll have no energy left by the time they get to their target height. The result is that you get huge differences in starting heights. Evelis Aguilar from Colombia and Sofia Yfantidou from Greece start at 1.56 m (5'1") while Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium doesn't start until 1.83 m (6'0").
The women get part way through the high jump and then have to stop for the beginning of the premier event of the session: the women's 10 km. I've run dozens of 10 km races so I am pretty sure that today's conditions of cool with light drizzle are almost perfect conditions. Sure enough, a lead group consisting of Alice Nawowuna from Kenya, Almaz Ayana from Ethiopia, Yasmin Can from Turkey (but who was born in Kenya), Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya, Betsy Saina from Kenya, Gelete Burka from Ethiopia, Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia and...Molly Huddle from the US took off like they were shot out of a gun:
It was incredible to see how fast they opened up time on a very large chase pack:
By 4 km, the lead group was already ahead by about half a lap! At the other end of the spectrum is Marisol Romero from Mexico:
Marisol is 33 years old and has a personal best of 31:46:43, but she is clearly not in that kind of shape right now. She runs basically alone for the first 7 laps until the East African (+1) freight train blows past to lap her.
We find ourselves rooting for Huddle to hang onto the East Africans for as long as she can and for Marisol to catch at least one person. Meanwhile Nawowona continues her insane pace. I know that the Ethiopians Ayana and Dibaba both have much faster 5 km times so maybe Nawowona is just trying to take the strength out of their kicks. One thing is for sure: the pace is absolutely shredding both the lead pack and the chasers into small groups spread out over the entire track. It is really hard to follow who is winning, but somewhere just after 5 km, Ayana from Ethiopia moves into the lead followed by Cheruiyot, Dibaba and Nawowuna. Huddle has fallen off the pace, but she has also picked off Burka to move into 7th place. Romero has now been passed a second time and has moved up one place when Ekaterina Tunguskova from Uzbekistan fell and could not continue.
By 8 km, it was clear that if Ayana:
finishes the race, she will win. It is only by how much. Around the same time, Huddle moved passed Can into 6th place and Romero got lapped a third time. The crowd was screaming at this point because Ayana is well under the pace of Wang Junxia's 23 year old world record.
As she crossed the finish line, the scoreboard shows the time 29:17:45 and the words that everyone wanted to see WORLD RECORD! Ayana has lowered the world record by nearly 15 seconds. This is amazing because previously, no woman has come within 22 seconds of Wang's record during those 23 years. It should also be noted that Wang when she retired confessed that she was taking part in a state organized doping program at the time she set the record. This is the real downside in current professional sports - when an unbelievable performance is delivered, the first question is "Is she clean?" This is a real issue for Ayana because the Ethiopian doping control program has a 0 rating (on a 10 scale) from the World Anti-doping Agency. Second place goes to Vivian Cheruiyot from Kenya and third place goes to Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia.
But whatever happens to Ayana and her record, I am thrilled with the results. You'll recall in an earlier blog that I said that what makes me come to the Olympics is the chance to see someone perform so well that they are shocked at what they've done. Well, this race is a bonanza in that regard. The first 13 finishers and 18 overall set personal bests. 8 athletes set national records. That includes Molly Huddle, who finished 6th in a time of 30:13:17, a time that sets a personal best, a national best and a North American best!
As for Marisol Romero, she picked up one more place when Juliet Chekwel from Uganda dropped out in the last km to finish 35th in a time of 35:33:03. While that was well off her best time and over 6 minutes behind Ayana, I'd like to point out that her time is nearly 7 minutes faster than my best time.
Although the crowd took a long time to pay any attention what with Ayana doing her victory lap with her country-woman Dibaba, the women's heptathlon resumed right after the end of the 10 km race. Here is a picture of Brianne Theisen-Eaton from Canada:
What is interesting about this picture is the guy in the black shirt and red hat in the upper middle of the picture. That's world record holder and defending gold medalist Ashton Eaton from the United States. He's also Brianne's husband. Ashton is thrilled that Brianne just set a season's best mark of 1.86 m (6'1") good for 1054 points. This moves her into 5th place with 2151 pts so far.
But this event really evolves into a two woman match between Katrina Johnson-Thompson from Great Britain and Nafissatou Thiam from Belgium. Katrina started at 1.80 m, made that, passed at 1.83 m then made four consecutive jumps at 1.86 m, 1.89 m, 1.92 m and 1.95 m (6'5") before missing her first try at 1.98 m. Her jump of 1.95 m set an Olympic record for the high jump in the heptathlon. Thiam, whose father is from Senegal, started at 1.83 m, and made four successful jumps before missing her first two tries at 1.95 m. But she comes through and makes her last attempt at 1.95 m:
to pull into 2nd place behind Johnson-Thompson on the basis of fewer misses. Johnson-Thompson misses on her first try at what would be a world record for the heptathlon high jump of 1.98 m (6'6"). Thiam stepped up to the line and cleared the height to set a 2nd world record for the session! Johnson-Thompson then also cleared 1.98 m on her second try to tie the record. But the finish is a little anti-climactic when but both athletes fail on their three attempts at 2.01 m. This leaves them tied with 1211 pts and keeps Johnson-Thompson narrowly in 1st place with 2264 pts to 2252 pts for Thiam.
Our final event for the day is kind of unusual. It appears that too many women qualified for the 100 m so the organizers need three heats to reduce the number of women who will compete in the standard qualifying heats. As a result, a number of women from countries that would normally never be in the spotlight get to show what they can do. Here is the start of heat 1:
It is not often when the top four finishers in a heat are from Suriname, Cook Islands, Oman and Cape Verde! Charlotte Winfield from Malta has the fastest time in 11.86 seconds. The other seven qualifiers were Cecile Bouele from Congo, Sunayna Wahi from Suriname, Husniah Zulkifli from Malaysia, Hafsatu Kamara from Sierra Leone, Patricia Taea from Cook Islands, Mazoon Al-Alawi from Oman and Sisila Seavula from Fiji. I would also be remiss if I don't report that although they didn't qualify for the first round, Lidiane Lopes from Cape Verde, Kamia Yousufi from Afghanistan (running in the track equivalent of a burka) and Kariman Abuljadayel from Saudi Arabia all set national records!
There are a group of spectators that come to each Olympics and only watch athletics. After today's session, I can certainly see the attraction! On our way out of the stadium, we see Marisol Romero stretching out her legs against a security fence. I want to walk up and tell her that I appreciated how she kept battling despite not having a great day and being passed over and over, but do not want to intrude on her privacy.
It is only early afternoon, so neither the train nor the Metro are very crowded and we get back to our hotel around 3 pm. I work on pins for a couple hours while Beth and Sean watch the Olympic coverage. We're a little tired today so we decide to go back to the Mexican place for dinner, get a quick meal and go to bed early.
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