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Morning without Italians. It used to happen often in the evening sessions, nowadays only in the morning sessions today and tomorrow, although it could still happen on Sunday evening if the 4X400 do not qualify. I therefore go 'incognito', i.e. without any national symbols, flag or cap (I wear my Zurich 2014 European Championships cap instead). I finally manage to take the direct tram, where you can see mostly French people, and arrive with a good margin. I also have time to get a drink and for the first time I arrive at my place before the start of the first race (and also before my neighbours). It is multiple events' day: one sees many Estonians, Frenchmen (who are playing their last medal chance with Mayer), but above all Germans: already the presentation of their athletes is greeted by a roar that, home athletes aside, had so far only been heard for Tentoglu. On the side of the second bend, where the javelin is held, Finnish and Czech flags are also seen.
The first event is also the only one on rack, the 100 decathlon. Warner wins with 10.32, seventh Victor (not bad for a throwing specialist), 14th Mayer, penultimate Kaul. Immediately afterwards the first field events, which are then the only non-decathlon events, start: women's high jump and men's javelin. Both are presented when they have already started, how sad to see the women's high jump without any Italians, I don't think this has happened since the 1960s. Instead, there is a home athlete, and from the reactions she elicits one can see that Hungarians always remain the most numerous. They will be disappointed by both her and the other Hungarian, in the javelin. They start at 1.75, but the first eliminations are at 1.85 (6, including the Hungarian): Lake, who entered at this height, is saved in the third. At 1.89 there are 19 left and it is clear that 1.92 is likely to be the last height (1.94 would also be in program) and that 1.89 without faults might even be enough. Levchenko and Cunningham are saved in the third. Levchenko is unrecognisable, both physically (a little less thin and with a different hairstyle) and especially in performance: she exits at 1.92. In the end only eight clear 1.92 and 1.89 in the second without previous faults is enough to qualify.
In the javelin we get to the last throw of the first round with a best of 81 metres. But now it is Chopra's turn, with the speaker quoting the number of his followers on Instagram (6.3 million): the javelin goes far, far beyond the qualification line at 83 metres: 88.77. In this group he will be the only direct qualifier, in the second there will be two. It will end with an Indian and a Pakistani in the first two places and two more Indians in the final.
The decathlon continues with the long jump, and the Germans still have a chance to exalt themselves. Neugebauer already does 7.83 in the first, but the third is so long that he too immediately exults: 8.00: In the individual event he would have finished sixth. Booth and Skotheim seem to be at Desenzano levels, while Mayer is clearly under-performing: one wonders if he will bounce back in the shot put. Victor is seventh. At the end of thbeache race, the mascot makes the usual stunt of transforming the pit into a beach, playing with a boy: the first time (London 2017) it was original, now it's trivial
Once the high jump is over, the second group of the javelin and the decathlon SP remain, both of which take place on the opposite side to mine, i.e. on the side of the second bend. I then try to move, wondering if they would let me: no problem, there are no more access controls. I arrive just in time to see Vajdech qualify directly in the javelin. In the decathlon SP, on my side the B group, the weaketr one, throws: to see the top group you still need binoculars. However, I see Neugebauer throw well over the 16 metre mark and exult even more than in the long:jump 17.04. First in both LJ and SP for a man at this level it seemed impossible. Mayer retires, and with that it is definitive that France will end the World Championships without medals. Victor is second and moves up to third place.
For the evening session, I had planned to see the decathlon's high jump in course, but then I arrive a little later than expected anyway: when I enter, group A is at 2.05 and there are 7 left, group B at 2.02 and there are 3 left. I see the American Ziemek get injured on his third attempt at 2.05 and I read that Kaul, after clearing 2.02, has given up on continuing: both will not compete in the 400. Skotheim wins with 2.11, Neugebauer stops at 2.02, but remains in the lead.
I arrive at my place with a few minutes to spare before the start of the relays. We start with the men: Italy is in the second heat. We enter the final straight in the lead, Canada seems to be second, but I always fear the return of Great Britain. Instead it is South Africa that comes back, but it is not enough: we win with 37.65, 2/100 less than the USA in the other heat and only 15 more than the Olympic time. Something we dared not remotely dream of.
And if it seemed that the men had done a great result, we had yet to see the women. In the second bend we are clearly third and in the final straight not only we are holding on, but getting closer to second. I look and look to make sure I don't mix it up with another team, but that's us. Given the time of the first (41.59) you can see that we have beaten the Italian record by a lot. and in fact it is 42.14, a record of over half a second!
It is difficult to recover from such an emotion, but the women's triple jump also began, which will offer many more. It started with Jamaican Ricketts' 14.84, which with relays goes almost unnoticed. Bekh's 15.00 goes unnoticed by me, but not by many others: I can tell by the murmur of the audience. When Derkach's turn comes it is already clear that it will be difficult to get into the eight, but her jump seems to be at least over 14 metres, and indeed it is by quite a bit: 14.36. Cestonaro's jump can be seen to be a little shorter, but it is still 14.05. After the first round the third already has 14.84, and there is still Rojas without a result. Rojas' result will come in the second jump, and it will be very disappointing: 14.33. The third will be even worse: 14.26, she barely gets into the eight. This was followed by two fouls, the second by a very small margin and one very long, perhaps first place. On the fifth jump Lamond moves up to third place with 14.90, but still leaves the pit dissatisfied. The sixth jump was the good one: 15.08: from eighth to first. Ricketts also improved with 14.93, but remained fourth. A level we had not been used to for twenty years: with 14.90 (the measure with which Martinez won bronze in 2003) one finished fifth, with 14.87 sixth.
The other field event of the day is the women's javelin (with all the continents represented), which, at least until the end of the triple jump, arouses very little interest: only one throw by the Colombian Ruiz Hurtado stands out, who crosses the 65-metre mark and takes the lead by almost 4 metres. At least for the first three rounds, the level is low; one enters the eight with 58.49. Barber, winner of the last two editions, is seventh, below 60, then improved, but remained seventh. In the fourth round, Latvia's Kocina gets from seventh to second. It came down to the sixth: first Little moved up to third place, ousting Kitaguchi, but then the Japanese athlete's throw went well over the 65-mark: 66.73, gold by over one metre.
Meanwhile, the track programme continued with the semi-finals of the women's 800. In the third there are Mu and Coiro, this time the American does not make a head race and finishes second behind Moraa. Coiro stayed in the group and in the final gave the impression that she could at least finish in the middle. Instead she finished sixth, but with a personal best of 1:59.61. Final with three Americans and two Britons. This was followed by the decathlon's 400, where there were two announced withdrawals and one surprise: the Australian Dubler did not show up without his withdrawal having been announced (and he had finished the high jump regularly) . First the Puerto Rican Owens-Delerme in 46.44, Neugebauer makes no more than 47.99. Warner 47.32.
And we come to the two most eagerly awaited events: the finals of the 200, first women's, then men's. The presentation goes from the outer to the middle lanes, which in turn depends on the outcome of the semi-finals: so Richardson, repechaged, is presented first. Jackson enters the straight ahead of Thomas and Richardson, and that will be the order of finish, only for Jackson's lead to increase: she wins with 21.41, 7/100 off Griffith's record. For a while the Amricans celebrated on one side, the Jamaican on another, then they joined in.
Among the men, Lyles came into the straight with a slight lead, but then increased it. He wins with a 'simple' 19.52, a far cry from the record he had announced. Knighton came second with 19.75, Tebogo third with 19.81: not bad, but after the Diamond League in Monaco more was expected. The fourth (Hughes) is even above 20.
I'm not joining in the celebrations, I'm going out, like almost everyone else here. Tomorrow we start again at 7 a.m. with the marathon, then morning session and evening session
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