World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Day 3 (15-09-2025)

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This time, I decide from the beginning to watch only the second passage of the marathon in Akihabara, but getting up is becoming increasingly difficult, so at a certain point, I doubt I will be able to do it. I go anyway: there is more of a crowd than yesterday, I have to settle for a spot in the second row, but luckily we are in Asia and so there are people shorter than me. I arrive just in time. Unlike the women's race, there is still a large group in the lead, more than 30 athletes. I am shocked when I don't see any blue jerseys, but then I think that maybe the Italians are wearing white jerseys, as is often the case in road races (but yesterday Lonedo was wearing blue), and so it is: on the way out, I catch a glimpse of two of them, and when they pass on the way back, I realise that all three are in the group. Even the athletes who have fallen behind are often in small groups: when I think that almost all of them have passed on the way out, I head towards the stadium, wondering if I will arrive in time for the finish.

I manage it with a decent margin: when I enter the stadium, we are about 2 hours from the start. I rush in so quickly that they have to chase after me to check my ticket: the check is manual, and the attendant wasn’t to be seen. The race is on screen, with a leading group of 9 people, including 2 Italians. While Chiappinelli seems to be struggling, Aouani is among the front runners and looks very fresh: at the 40 km mark he’ll pass in first place. With 600 metres to go, there are still 5 in contention, Chiappinelli has lost contact, and as they enter the stadium there are 3 left, with Aouani among them: it’s a medal for him. Just over 200 metres from the finish, Aouani drops back slightly and looks behind: it’s left to a German and, as I gather from the announcer, an Israeli (I knew there were two Israelis in the leading group) to fight for the gold medal. On the final bend, the German gains a certain margin, but in the last few metres the other comes back and seems to overtake him, although from my position it’s not clear (I’m on the opposite side, 15th row). When the result appears on the scoreboard, you can see that the overtaking did happen, but the winner isn’t an Israeli, but the Tanzanian Simbu. The announcer later says the difference was 3/100, less than in the 100 metres! Amid the confusion, I don’t pay attention to the other runners entering the stadium and so I don’t notice that Chiappinelli finished 6th. The first Japanese athlete is 11th, the first Kenyan is 20th, and no Ethiopian finished.

The men’s hammer and women’s pole vault qualifications were underway. For the hammer, I manage to see Olivieri’s third throw, even worse than the other two: he’s already eliminated after the first group. The second group starts with a bang: of the first four, three qualify directly and one comes close. In the end, between the two groups, there will be 9 direct qualifiers at 76.50 and the cut-off is 75.91. When I enter, the women’s pole vault is at the second attempt at 4.25, the entry height: I see Molinarolo clear it, while Bruni had done it on the first go. Five go out, including Murto. Both Italians then clear 4.45 on the second attempt, and Bruni makes 4.60 on her first: that should be enough. The second group has a series of technical problems, so much so that when the first finishes 4.60, they’re still on their first attempt. During the second attempt there’s a major problem that stops the event for quite a while, and the athletes leave the field. In the end, they replace an upright: there were 6 jumps left, only one of which is successful. There are 14 left (including 3 New Zealanders), and they stop.

The first track event is one of the three women’s events without Italians: the 3000 steeplechase. I cheer for my former fellow citizen (from Frankfurt) Krause, racing in the second heat, who qualifies. In the third, run at a very fast pace, the crowd supports the home athlete to the end; she finishes sixth, so she’s eliminated, but with a national record (3 seconds lower than the Italian record). It ends with the women’s 400m hurdles heats. The Italian athletes do brilliantly, all qualifying directly: Folorunso second, Sartori fourth (more easily than it looked from my position), Muraro even first with a personal best.

For the evening session, my goal is to arrive, if not for the start, at least for the second men’s 400m hurdles heat, the one with Sibilio, and for the start of the long jump qualifiers, with Furlani jumping first. I sit down just as the first 400m hurdles heat is about to start. To my left a series of empty seats, a few more than on the previous days. All around me are Japanese (or at least Asian), I see only one Westerner, a couple of rows behind. It seems the “Westerners” are all on the first tier (I’m on the third): you can see the Jamaican sector, as yesterday (I met some of them on the metro), Irish and Greek flags, and in the end it turns out there are quite a few Swedes. The locals will have many disappointments in the qualifiers, only Muratake will satisfy them.

I picked this seat mainly for the pole vault, which I can indeed see well, but I also have a great view of the long jump, right at the pit: from here the metric bar gives a pretty accurate idea of the distances. Furlani’s first jump looks just over 8 metres and in fact it is 8.07. I think that’s enough to qualify, even though automatic qualification is only at 8.15, so I wonder if he’ll jump again. He does: the second jump he doesn’t finish and seems to hurt himself, the third (I only see the mark) is long but a foul. In the end, he’s ninth, while the Australian Adcock and two out of three Americans are out.

In the 400m hurdles, you can already see Sibilio struggling on the back straight (the one in front of me): he’s behind and struggling to keep pace (I’ll read later that he stumbled on the first hurdle). Halfway through, he stops. In the next heat, even Warholm seems to have trouble with his rhythm between hurdles: he finishes third, and it’s not clear how much he was in control (only in the final stretch does he visibly slow down). Next come the other men’s hurdles, the 110m: Simonelli finishes third in his heat in 13.25, but no one does better than 13.17. Holloway comes fourth in his and again it’s unclear whether he was really struggling or just holding back, but in any case they show his face and he wasn’t satisfied.

Meanwhile, the highlight of the evening had started: the men’s pole vault. Curiously, Duplantis enters the competition at the first height, 5.55, while Karalis passes. Lavillenie passes too, and I wonder if he has actually withdrawn, but at 5.75 he shows up and clears it on first attempt. One is eliminated at 5.55, another at 5.75 (the Qatari clears it on the third attempt, equalling the national record), two at 5.85. So 8 remain at 5.90: 5 clear it on first attempt, Duplantis passes and the others save their attempts. So there are 8 at 5.95: here Karalis, who until now had cleared everything easily, almost like Duplantis, starts missing, once, then twice. Duplantis clears it first time, Kendricks and Marschall on their second. Curiously, of all those who could do the third attempt, only Karalis does so, and clears it, the others save their attempts. So 7 attempt 6.00 (a few years ago it seemed exceptional if 3 did): Karalis and Duplantis clear it first time (the Swede always with great ease), the others go out. Both pass 6.05 and go straight to 6.10, but we’ll talk about that at the end.

Meanwhile, the other field event was taking place, the only final of the day with Italians: the women’s hammer. As with the two events yesterday, this competition seems decided on the first throw: 78.09 by Canadian Rogers. That would have been enough to win, but she improves to 80.51 on her second. Now they put the favourites at the start, but the Chinese Zhao surprisingly takes second place with the final throw. Fantini starts seventh with 71.70, improves to 73.06 (season’s best) with her second, but stays seventh. Her fifth and last throw is the only one I see in full, from start to finish: I convince myself she’s moved up a place, thus qualifying for the final throw, but she doesn’t improve, and anyway the Pole ahead of her extends her lead. In the last round, first the Chinese Zhang snatches second place from her compatriot, then the latter takes it back. Interestingly, in the end the top 7 positions are the same as after the first throw, even though all improved. Fifth is my old friend DeAnna Price.

On the track, the 100m hurdles semi-finals follow. Amusan is back, setting the fastest time, but the final looks wide open. The two Italian women both finish fifth, but especially well done to Carraro who improves to 12.79. Next are the 1500m semi-finals, both very tactical, with sprint finishes where at most you can work out the top 3–4 qualifiers, not all six. The Italians are last, but for very different reasons: in the first, Arese loses contact on the last lap (but still gets a season’s best), in the second Riva falls in the second lap and jogs to the finish. I’ll read later that he was reinstated.

We’ve already reached the finals, and at this point I decide not to take a break, as I have my water bottle for a drink. I don’t consider, however, that the evening might not end with the last track event. The first final is the most anticipated by the locals, the 3000m steeplechase. The crowd goes wild when Miura stays in the lead (but the favourites are at the back), then on the last lap, when he seems to be fighting for the medals, the noise becomes deafening. Towards the end of the last bend, however, he loses ground, while El Bakkali breaks away, looks to have it won but is caught by an athlete I don’t recognise (if the announcer says who he is, I can’t make it out, the sound isn’t great), who wins. I find out later it’s New Zealander Beamish: I’m happy for my neighbours from Saturday. The Japanese athlete finishes eighth. The last event is the 100m hurdles final: Kambundji takes the lead and holds off Amusan’s comeback at the finish.

But the evening is not over yet, with Duplantis and Karalis still to go. At 6.10 metres, the Swede clears it, while the Greek athlete narrowly misses and moves on to 6.15 metres, where the scene repeats itself. At this point, Karalis attempts 6.20 metres and at least manages to get his legs over the bar. Duplantis has won: it's time for the record attempt, and this time it's 6.30 metres. I wonder whether to stay, it's late, but I think I'll see how it goes after the first attempt. Everyone has stayed in my half of the stadium, but some have left the other half. He misses the first attempt by a whisker, so I decide to stay. He gets even closer on the second attempt. At first, the bar seems to stay up, but then I see in the replay that he knocked it down with his chest as he landed. On the third attempt, the bar wobbles but stays up: the celebrations begin, with the Swedish “terrace” and his girlfriend, while the loudspeaker plays songs by Abba (during the competitions they play various dance tracks, including Italian ones such as “Pedro” and “Italo disco”). After 41 years, I witnessed another milestone: Bubka's 5.90 was the first world record I saw live, in London in 1984.

At the exit, there is a longer queue than usual at the underground entrance, so I decide to walk (it's about 3 km). However, after 200 metres, I discover that there is another entrance to the same station with no queue, so I change my mind. Tomorrow I will rest a little, as there is only the evening session. Meanwhile, we have four medals, equalling our 21st-century record, and eight placings in the top eight, which in some editions we did not achieve in the entire event.