Wanyonyi adds luster to Year of the 800
His winning time in Olympic Games is fifth fastest in history
An incredible year in the men’s 800 meters produced another scintillating race in the Olympic Games in Paris on Saturday as Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi defeated Marco Arop of Canada by the narrowest of margins.
A dozen years and a day after compatriot David Rudisha set the current world record of 1 minute 40.91 seconds in the Olympic Games in London, Wanyonyi clocked 1:41.19 while finishing a hundredth of a second in front of Arop in the first race in history in which four men ran under 1:42.
The times by Wanyonyi and Arop were the fifth- and sixth-fastest in history and moved them to third and fourth on the all-time performer list.
Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, who had posted yearly world-leading times of 1:41.56 on July 7 and 1:41.46 on July 12, placed third in 1:41.50, the 10th-fastest time ever. He was followed by Bryce Hoppel of the U.S. in an American record of 1:41.67, Mohamed Attaoui of Spain in 1:42.08, and Gabriel Tual of France in 1:42.14. For good measure, Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana ran a personal best of 1:42.82 while finishing seventh.
This post is on the long side. Therefore, if this email appears clipped or truncated in your inbox, you should be able to click on “View entire message” to read it in its entirety.
Overall, the race produced the fastest times ever run for places 2, 3, 4, 6 , and 7, with Attaoui’s 1:42.08 being tied for the fastest fifth. It also came at the start of the final evening session of the Games that ended with U.S. teams posting the second-fastest times in history in both the men’s and women’s 4 x 400-meter relays.
The victory by the U.S. men came in a scintillating race in which 400 intermediate hurdle champion Rai Benjamin held off 200 gold medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana on the anchor leg.
In contrast, the U.S. women’s team posted the largest margin of victory in Olympic history when it came within a tenth of a second of the world record that was set by a squad from the Soviet Union in the 1988 Games in Seoul.
In other events that were held on Saturday night, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya won an unprecedented third consecutive title in the women’s 1,500 meters, Masai Russell of the U.S. placed first in the women’s 100 hurdles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway took the men’s 5,000, Hamish Kerr won the men’s high jump, and Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan placed first in the women’s javelin.
Earlier in the day, Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia had won the men’s marathon.
Arop had edged Wayonyi for the gold medal in the 800 in last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, but the runner who had turned 20 on August 1 said in a Reuters post that he had received some valuable advice from Rudisha on Friday.
"Rudisha told me yesterday, 'You need to run your race, to run from the start to the finish in front. (Beating) the world record's not easy. Maybe you can do it in the future, not now'."
Sedjati, who had beaten second-place Wanyonyi by two hundredths of a second, and third-place Tual by five hundredths, when he ran 1:41.56 in the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet on July 7, had talked about trying to break the world record in the Olympics. However, he never put himself in a good position to win on Saturday.
Wanyonyi, who had also run 1:41.70 in June, moved into the lead heading down the backstretch for the first time and never relinquished it. Max Burgin of Great Britain and Tual were his closest pursuers after the first 200 meters of the race and Tual, Hoppel, and Burgin were running in second, third, and fourth place when he went through the first lap in 50.28 seconds.
Wanyonyi and Tual had opened up a lead of two to three meters over Hoppel and Arop at the 600-meter mark while Sedjati was in fifth place.
Arop had moved into second place after coming off the curve and he began to make up ground on Wanyonyi down the home straightaway, but he couldn’t edge past him, and when the Kenyan outleaned him at the finish line, he became the youngest man ever to win the 800.
Sedjati made a late run to overtake Hoppel for the bronze medal, but the aggressiveness he had displayed in his previous races this season was missing. Although Hoppel lost out on a medal, he moved to seventh on the all-time performer list with his performance.
“Arop beat me last year because of experience,” Wanyonyi said in a World Athletics post after giving Kenya its fifth consecutive gold medal in the men’s 800. “He came from the back, then he beat me the last 20 metres. So, this time, nobody can beat me times two.”
When talking about the finish, Arop said in the moment “you just try to focus on your cues, you try to stay technical, try not to fall apart, and I did everything I could. It's not the first time we've had a finish like that, Wanyonyi and I. He's an incredible athlete. And you know, it's not going to be the last time we have a race like that. Hopefully next time we race, it'll be me on top, but I’ve got to give him credit where credit is due.”
Although the U.S, had been the pre-meet favorite to win its third consecutive title in the men’s 4 x 400 relay, as well as its fifth in the last six Olympics, Botswana had posted the fastest qualifying time ever when it ran 2:57.76 in its heat on Friday.
In addition, the U.S. was without 400 champion Quincy Hall because he had suffered a leg injury near the end of his 43.40 victory on Thursday.
Nonetheless, the team of Christopher Bailey, Vernon Norwood, Bryce Deadmon, and Benjamin narrowly missed the world record of 2:54.29 — that had been set by a U.S. team of Andrew Valmon, Quincy Watts, Butch Reynolds, and Michael Johnson in the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany — while holding off a fierce challenge from Botswana.
Bayapo Ndori had given Botswana a small lead over the U.S. when he was credited with a hand-held time of 44.3 seconds on his first leg, compared to Bailey’s 44.5.
Great Britain then took the lead on the second leg when 400 silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith ran 43.0, compared to a 43.4 split for Busang Kebinatshipi of Botswana and 43.3 for Norwood.
It became a two-team race for the gold medal on the third leg as Deadmon’s 43.5 carry gave the U.S a time of 2:11.3 after 1,200 meters, with Botswana at 2:11.5 after a 43.8 split from Antony Pesela.
After seeming content to stay behind Benjamin for the first 300 meters of the final lap, Tebogo moved into lane two coming off the final curve and very gradually began to make up ground on Benjamin.
He reduced his led to about half a stride with about 15 meters left in the race, but he could get no closer as Benjamin was credited with a 43.18 carry for a U.S. team that clocked 2:54.43.
Botswana clocked 2:54.53 after Tebogo’s 43.04 split to cut nearly three seconds off the African record of 2:57.27 that its national team had set in winning the bronze medal in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021.
Great Britain finished third in a European record of 2:55.83, with national records also going to Belgium in fourth in 2:57.75, South Africa in fifth at 2:58.12, and Japan in sixth at 2:58.33. The time by Japan was also an Asian record.
“I calculated that run very well, to a tee,” Benjamin said in a World Athletics post. “I have a really high track IQ on people and how they run, so I didn't have to get out too hard – let's just save it up to come home, because lessons will be coming. Any guy that can run 19.4 can split 43 low, so I just had to be ready for that.”
Alexis Holmes was the only 400 specialist on the U.S. women’s 4 x 400 relay team, but the squad was brimming with talent as 400 hurdlers Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Shamier Little have one-lap bests of 48.74 and 49.68 seconds, respectively, and 200 specialist Gabby Thomas has also clocked 49.68.
The Americans had a comfortable lead over the Netherlands after the first leg as Little ran 49.48 on her carry, compared to a 50.25 split for Lieke Klaver.
McLaughlin-Levrone, fresh off a world record of 50.37 in the 400 hurdles on Thursday, proceeded to run a scintillating 47.71 on the second leg to give the U.S. a lead of more than two and a half seconds over second-place Ireland when it clocked 1:37.19 at the halfway point of the race.
After Thomas ran 49.40 on her leg, Holmes followed with a 48.78 anchor leg that gave the Americans a winning time of 3:15.27 that was only a tenth of a second short of the world record of 3:15.17 that was set 36 years ago by a Soviet Union team of Tatyana Ledovskaya, Olga Nazarova, Mariya Pinigina, and Olga Bryzgina.
The victory was eighth Olympic title in a row for the U.S., which finished more than four seconds ahead of the second-place Dutch team that timed a national record of 3:19.50 after receiving a 48.62 anchor leg from Femke Bol.
National records also went to third-place Great Britain at 3:19.72, fourth-place Ireland at 3:19.90, and fifth-place France at 3:21.41. Canada finished sixth in 3:22.01 and Belgium was seventh in 3:22.40.
Jamaica did not finish the race after the baton was dislodged from Andrenette Knight’s hand during the second leg after her arm swing had led to the baton hitting Ireland’s Rhasidat Adeleke a couple of times.
Thomas earned her third gold medal of the Games with her performance as she won the 200 on Tuesday before running the third leg on the victorious 4 x 100 relay on Friday.
“We were watching people win medals all week, I was so inspired watching my teammates do what they do,” Thomas said in a World Athletics post. “I know what it takes. I know how hard it is to win a medal in track and field. It’s a very cut-throat sport, especially at this level. I was absolutely inspired and very motivated to do it with these girls.”
The 30-year-old Kipyegon had been favored to win her third consecutive in the women’s 1,500 after lowering her world record to 3:49.04 in the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet on July 7. However, she did not look to be in great form last Monday when teammate Beatrice Chebet sped away from her in the home straightaway while winning the 5,000.
Nonetheless, she was not seriously challenged for the gold medal on Saturday as she ran her final 300 meters in a little more than 44 seconds while on her way to an Olympic record of 3:51.29.
Jessica Hull of Australia finished second in 3:52.56 and she was followed by Georgia Bell of Great Britain in a national record of 3:52.61.
The next three finishers all set personal bests as Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia clocked 3:52.75, Laura Muir of Great Britain timed 3:53.37, and Susan Ejore of Kenya ran 3:56.07.
Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, who had not run well in the 5,000 on Monday or the 10,000 on Friday, pushed the pace from the get-go in the 1,500 as she led the field through the first lap in 59.3 seconds and the 800 in 2:03.3.
She began to drop back after that and Kipyegon was in the lead with a lap to go and when she came through 1,200 meters in 3:07.1 after running her previous 400 in 63.8.
Welteji, Hull, and Bell were not far behind Kipyegon at that point in the race. But the Kenyan began to expand her lead as she headed into the final turn and no one could keep pace with her in home straightaway as she recorded the sixth-fastest time of her career and the 11th-fastest in history.
Although her win was not unexpected, Kipyegon let out a scream of joy shortly after crossing the finish line and shed some tears after that.
“It's a big, big achievement,” she said in a World Athletics post. “I was really looking forward to defending my title and I had a dream. It’s amazing to me that I completed it. I'm so, so happy. This is history. I managed to make history. I've done it. This is an amazing honour; to win the gold medal in the 1500m was my key target.”
The thought of Russell winning an Olympic title would have seemed far-fetched as recently as the middle of June as she had a season best of 12.63 at that point and had finished second once, fourth once, fifth once, sixth twice, and ninth once in her six finals. But she caught fire in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June, lowering her personal best to 12.35 in the fist round, running 12.36 in a semifinal, and then winning the final in 12.25 to move into a tie for fourth on the all-time performer list.
In her only meet since the Trials, she had run 12.51 in a qualifying heat and 12.66 to place third in the final of the Holloway Pro Classic on July 19.
She then ran 12.53 to win a first-round heat of the Games on Wednesday and 12.42 to finish second in a semifinal on Friday before clocking 12.33 on Saturday to finish a hundredth of a second in front of silver medalist Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France and three hundredths up on defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico.
Nadine Visser of the Netherlands placed fourth in 12.43, followed by Grace Stark of the U.S. in 12.43, and Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas in 12.56.
The victory by Russell marked the first time in Olympic history that athletes from one nation had won all four hurdle events as compatriots McLaughlin-Levrone and Grant Holloway took the women’s 400 hurdles and the men’s 110 high hurdles, respectively, on Thursday, and Rai Benjamin placed first in the men’s intermediate hurdles on Friday
Alaysha Johnson of the U.S. got off to a very good start in the final of the 100 hurdles on Saturday , but she clobbered the third hurdle, and ended up finishing seventh in 12.93. Ackera Nugent of Jamaica did not finish the race after hitting some hurdles during the second half of the race.
The 24-year-old Russell appeared to be no higher than fifth place midway through the race, but she had moved into third by the eighth hurdle. She stilled trailed Camacho-Quinn over the ninth and 10th barriers, but she beat her on the run to the finish line after touching down off the last hurdle.
The finish was close enough among the top three finishers that results were not instantly available on the video boards in the stadium, but when Russell’s name appeared first, she jumped up and down and then paced around. She later shed tears of joy when she was presented with her gold medal during the medal ceremony.
“I just took off running, because it's literally what I imagined,” Russell said in a World Athletics post. “I could barely sleep last night. I was tossing and turning because I kept dreaming about my name coming up No.1. When it actually came up, I was like: 'stop playing me, stop playing me'. Because so many people were saying so many crazy things about me, as they always do when you're not doing what they believe you're capable of.
“I just proceeded to shut out the noise, focused on what I could control. It was truly a dream come true.”
Ingebrigtsen had finished a disappointing fourth in the 1,500 last Sunday when he was unsuccessful in defending the title he won in the Games in Tokyo in 2021. However, he had a relatively easy time in winning the 5,000 on Saturday as most of the race was run at a very conservative pace.
The splits for the lead runner were 2:49.7 for 1,000 meters, 5:27.9 for 2,000, and 8:17.5 for 3,000.
The pace picked up substantially in the fourth kilometer as Addisu Yihune of Ethiopia was in first place at 4,000 meters in 10:52.0, but Ingebrigtsen looked very comfortable as he ran in fifth place in the 22-runner field.
Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia, who had run 12:36.73, the second fastest time in history, in winning the Bislett Games in Oslo on May 30, shot into the lead with a lap and a half left in the race. But Ingebrigtsen easily covered the move and he went past Gebrhiwet just before heading into the final turn and no one was able to challenge him for the remainder of the race as he ran the final lap in 53.2 seconds and his final 200 in 26.5 while on his way to a time of 13:13.66.
It was the third consecutive global title in the 5,000 for the 23-year-old Norwegian as he won World titles in 2022 and last year.
Ronald Kwemoi of Kenya finished second behind Ingebrigtsen in 13:15.04 and Grant Fisher of the U.S. finished third in 13:15.13 after being in seventh place with 150 meters to go. It was the second bronze medal of the Games for Fisher, who had placed third in a fast-paced 10,000 on August 2.
Dominic Lobalu of the Refugee team, placed fourth in 13:15.27, followed by Gebrhiwet in 13:15.32 and 17-year-old Biniam Mehary of Ethiopia in 13:15.99.
“I caught up with him and felt strong at that point,” Ingebrigtsen said in a World Athletics post when talking about his ability to cover Gebrhiwet’s move. “That’s the thing about the 5K. It’s all about spending your energy wisely and making good decisions.”
In the men’s high jump Kerr won a jump-off with American Shelby McEwen to become New Zealand’s first Olympic medalist in the event. He had previously won the high jump in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, in March.
Kerr and McEwen were tied for first at the end of the regular-scheduled competition after they each cleared 2.36 (7-8¾) on their first attempts and they each had a total of five misses during the competition.
Since each of them had missed their three attempts at 2.38 (7-9¾), that was the height of the first jump-off bar and they both missed their single attempts.
They each missed again when the bar was lowered to 2.36, but Kerr won the gold medal when he cleared 2.34 (7-8) after McEwen had missed.
That clearance prompted the 27-year-old Kiwi to take off on a winding, celebratory run on the infield after he had taken a total of 14 jumps on a hot, humid night.
It also came three years after Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar and Giamarco Tamberi of Italy had made Olympic history by agreeing to share the men’s high jump title rather than take part in a jump-off.
“If anything, I'm more fatigued from running on to the field than I am from the actual jumping, but I was so just happy that I'd won,” Kerr said in a World Athletics post. “I always talked about how amazing the jump-off was last time (in Tokyo). That has such a special place in history for high jumps. For me also to have an exact same scenario this time around, but to choose to do the jump-off, was putting at peace one of those people who wanted to jump-off, so we're both really happy to add to that history.”
Barshim placed third on Saturday after clearing 2.34 (7-8) to become the first man in history have won four Olympic medals in the men’s high jump. He won silver medals in 2012 and ’16 before sharing the gold medal in ’21.
Stefano Sottile of Italy raised his personal best when he too cleared 2.34 on his first attempt, but placed fourth on the tiebreaker because he had more total misses than Barshim.
Ryoichi Akamatsu of Japan and Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine each cleared a personal best of 2.31 (7-6¾) while finishing fifth and sixth, respectively.
Akamatsu finished fifth ahead of Doroshchuk because he cleared 2.31 on his first attempt and the Ukrainian made it on his second.
Tamberi finished 11th at 2.22 (7-3¼) after dealing with a series of physical issues since had had opened his season by clearing a yearly world-leading height of 2.37 (7-9¼) in winning the European Athletics Championships in Rome in June.
Kerr came from behind to win his gold medal as he had been in sixth place after it took him three attempts to clear 2.31.
However, he moved into third behind Barshim and Sottile after making 2.34 on his first attempt.
He then moved into a tie for first with McEwen when each of them cleared 2.36 to tie his Oceania record.
That height was a personal best for McEwen.
After moving fourth place to first in the final round of the women’s javelin in last year’s World Championships, Kitaguchi got off her gold-medal winning throw in the first round on Saturday.
Her 65.80 (215-10) effort was a season best and she followed it a throw of 62.39 (204-8) in the second round and a foul in the third. She then threw 61.68 (202-4) on her fourth attempt and 64.73 (212-4) on her fifth before fouling on her sixth.
Her 64.73 effort was the second-longest of the competition as Jo-Ane van Dyck of South Africa placed second at 63.93 (209-9) and Nicola Ogrodnikova of Czechia finished third at 63.68 (208-11).
Sara Kolak of Croatia placed fourth at 63.49 (208-0) and she was followed by Flor Denis Ruiz of Colombia at 63.00 (206-8) and Yulemis Aguilar of Spain at 62.78 (205-11).
As it turned out the final places had been determined by the end of the third round as van Dyck, Ogrodnikova, and Kolak all produced their best throws on their third attempts, with Ruiz getting her best in the second round and Aguilar notching her top mark in the first.
Kitaguchi’s victory marked the first time a Japanese woman had won a medal in the javelin in the Olympic Games.
“I cannot believe this, this wasn’t easy for me,” Kitaguchi said in a World Athletics post. “I couldn’t train well in the lead-up to the Games, but my physio and my team believed in me. Without their help, I wouldn't have won gold today.”
Tola won the men’s marathon on Saturday morning with an Olympic-record time of 2 hours 6 minutes 26 seconds that was run over a course that was loaded with uphills and downhills after the first 15 kilometers had been relatively flat.
The 33-year-old Tola had replaced Sisay Lemma on the Ethiopian roster in the last week of July after Lemma was experiencing leg issues. But he looked right at home on a brutally hard course while giving his country its fifth Olympic title in the men’s marathon and the first since 2000 when Gezahegne Abera was victorious in Sydney, Australia.
“I am happy today because I fulfilled my goal,” Tola said in a World Athletics post. “I prepared well. I trained hard so I could win. In my life, this is my great achievement.
“I was the reserve in the Ethiopian team, but when Sisay had injuries, then I had a chance to represent him. I was fully prepared and knew I could fulfil my dream. I am happy to do that today.
“This is the Olympics and it is not easy to win the Olympic Games, not at all. I am very proud, very happy.”
Tola’s race results have been up and down during the last two seasons as the 2022 World champion placed third in the 2023 London Marathon before dropping out of the World Championships last August and then setting a course record of 2:04:58 in the New York City Marathon in November. He then dropped out of the London Marathon in April.
Bashir Abdi of Belgium , the bronze medalist in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, finished second in 2:06:47, followed by Benson Kipruto of Kenya in 2:07:00.
They were followed by Emile Cairess of Great Britain in 2:07:29, Deresa Geleta of Ethiopia in 2:07:31 and Akira Akasaki of Japan in 2:07:32.
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, who was attempting to win an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title, dropped out of the race. He was in 63rd place, nearly two and a half minutes out of first place, at the 25-kilometer mark and he was not listed amongst the runners still in the race at 30 kilometers.
Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, considered by many to be the greatest all-around distance runner in history, finished 39th in 2:12:54.
Tola led the field through the halfway mark in 1:04:51 on Saturday and was among a 15-runner lead pack when Akasaki came through 25 kilometers in 1:16:08.
However, he began to break away from the pack just before 29 kilometers and he had an 11-second lead over second-place Cairess when he passed the 30-kilometer mark in 1:31:12.
His lead had grown to 18 seconds after 35 kilometers and it was up to 22 seconds at 40 kilometers.
An excellent summary - prose & process. Thank you.