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I make another attempt to catch the direct tram, but no way: it is full even in the morning, so I miss the first heat of 800 and catch a glimpse of the second from the screen on my way to the controls. I can't see the result: I then read that Coiro finished fifth, with a time that bodes well for the repechage, which she will get. There is more queue at the controls than last night, I didn't expect this crowd in the morning. Once inside, however, I find that there are fewer people than in the evening sessions, although a lot for a morning session.
In 800 there was a curiosity to see Athing Mu, in her first race of the season: she starts off strong straight away and makes the gap, then controls. When I arrived, the pole qualification had already begun, but Stecchi passed the first height (5.35) to enter at 5.55, made on first, but I missed it. After 5.70 on second he misses 5.75 twice, then at the third he seems to have made it, but as I said yesterday from my position I can't see the bar very well: I understand from his reaction that this is the case, but until I see it on the scoreboard I am not sure. He is the tenth to go over 5.75: his group is almost finished, but the other one is still in the second round, so we still don't know if they will stop here or go to 5.80 In the end there are 13 left, and they stop. Curiously, Duplantis enters the competition at 5.55 and does all the heights, of course always clearing them by huge margins and ending up doing more jumps (3) than he does in many competitions, record attempts excluded.
Immediately afterwards the qualification of the women's javelin began, and I followed them distractedly, as there were no Italians. Now that there are only a few events without Italians, I find it difficult to get passionate about them, at least in the early stages (multiple events are the exception). Barber qualified with the last measure, made at the tthird, in the final only 3 Europeans, of which 2 were Latvians (the Germans were absent, there was only one Finn and she finished far away). For us long jump qualifications were much more interesting, for which, as for all the horizontal jumps, I was in a good position, as long as there was no one leaning over the balustrade, which happens quite often and sometimes you have to warn them several times. The Jamaican Pinnock jumped second and it was immediately apparent that it was a good jump, but I didn't think so: 8.54. Furlani, in the other group, does a little better than those who preceded him: 7.66, but it is clear that this is not enough, although after the first round he is still in. The third jump seemed to be in line with the qualification line marked on the metric bar, instead he improved, but it was not enough: 7.85, then the qualification was at 7.94, in the end it would be 8.00. At the end of the second round Tentoglu, Dendy and Gayle were also out, but they made up for it in the third.
The track events continued with the 200 heats, first women's, then men's. Kaddari is in the last one: she arrives on the straight lined up second behind Asher-Smith, then finishes fourth, but in 22.67, amply repechaged. The men's opened with Desalu coming in behind (sixth), but still doing better than his recent standards (20.49). Then it turned out that his was clearly the fastest heat: he was the second of the excluded and three qualified with higher times. Great disappointment instead for Tortu, who arrives on the straight far behind, then ralies a little, but is fourth with 20.46: out by 2/100. In the last heat there will again be the "ghost runner" seen in Dosso's heat in the 100: Frenchman Zeze is disqualified for a false start, then is allowed to run anyway, but does not appear in the finishing order.
For the evening session, I try to leave a little early, but not as much as I would have liked. I find a queue I've never seen at the controls: we stand still for a while at the beginning of the serpentine (and I see someone wearing a Roma 1987 T-shirt), but then within 10 minutes we get in. We can see the screen, so I hope to see Fantini's throw, which is the first one, instead they show the presentation of the 5000 battery. She qualifies straight away, so I won't see her, just as I won't see my old acquaintance DeAnna Price, except when she comes to hug her colleagues after the second group. In the end, 2 out of 4 Americans and the former Polish world champion (whose name I avoid writing) will be left out.
I enter the first deck when the heat of 5000 is on the fourth kilometre and Cavalli has lost contact. I get some food and now that I arrive at my seat the second heat is halfway through: Battocletti will finish seventh with a time close to the Italian record, Hassan and Kipyegon will sprint for first place. The stadium is a bit fuller than yesterday, especially the area of the second bend and the first deck above the finish area. Compared to other days we see more Norwegians, some wearing helmets with horns, and Finns.
I also see the women's triple qualifying started. Cestonaro and Derkach do the second jump almost at the same time, Cestonaro's is good, but I didn't think so: 14.20, Derkach's doesn't seem exceptional and instead it's 14.15. They are eighth and ninth and seem to have a good margin for qualification, instead the twelfth will be at 14.13, and one will be left out for the second measure. There is Dominica's Lafond who makes a jump that is immediately seen to be excellent, in fact it is 14.62, also a national record, but strangely she does not seem satisfied, indeed she seems to come out cursing.
Immediately afterwards begins the only final of the competitions, the women's pole vault. I saw Molinarolo clear 4.50 on first (she had also cleared 4.30 on first, but I had missed it). At 4.65, however, she never gives the impression of being able to do it and is one of the first four eliminated. 4.75 are cleared by 5 (including the surprising Briton Caudery, whom I had never heard of), but only by Murto on first, while Moon passes. The 4.80 is immediately surpassed by Sutej and Kennedy, the first to jump, very clearly by the Australian, at least that's how it seems to me. Murto also passes them in the first, Moon in the second. At 4.85 only Kennedy and Moon remain, and they are exactly even: the tie begins to be in the air. The tie remains after 4.90, which they both do on third. At this point one wonders: will they really try to clear4.95? At least in the first yes, both give the impression they can do it, although Moon more so. However, they both miss three times and, as was to be expected, forfeit the jump-off.
After the heats of women's 3000 steeplechase, with the clear elimination of Coburn, and the semifinals of 100hs, where with 12.55 one is left out, the track finals begin with 1500. Field events come to a halt: I thought they would suspend them for the whole race to avoid concurrences, instead it is only for the start. Ingebritsen leads the race, but at 200 metres the Briton Kerr takes second place and in the final straight he attacks Ingebritsen and overtakes him, to the delight of my neighbour, who stamps his feet making the whole row shake. For third place comes the other Norwegian Nordas from behind. Many British flags appear and even a Scottish one (as my neighbour will confirm to me, Kerr is Scottish).
We continue with the women's 400, with Paulino expected to win. I am pleased that Barbados, a small island (despite the s, it's only one!) I visited last year, gets a medal. We close with the 400 hurdles: we get to the last straight and the race still seems open: Warholm has a good margin, but not insurmountable. Instead the margin increases and he wins with a normal, almost disappointing 46.89 for him (I will read later that up to the 300 the splits had been monstrous). For second place McMaster precedes Benjamin, so we also have the British Virgin Islands with medals (in all, there are 31 countries with medals).
It was a bit of an old-style evening, with no Italians fighting for medals, although those who were there did their bit (I'm talking about the evening). Compared to yesterday, it was a minor event for us, but you can't expect to have those emotions every day.
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