World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Day 8 (20-09-2025)

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And that makes seven. Thanks to Nadia Battocletti, we have broken the record for medals at a World Championships. Who would have thought that, after Stano's withdrawal and the problems experienced by Tamberi, Jacobs and the 4x100 team? I was still hoping we could equal the record, I didn't dare hope for more and, in any case, I would have been satisfied just to repeat the four medals won in Budapest. For decades, we said to ourselves, “Just think, once we won six medals”. Now, and I think for quite some time to come, we will say, “Just think, once we had never won more than six medals” (and the days when we were satisfied with winning one already seem a long way off).

As for the race itself, there isn't much to tell. The start was slow: first kilometre in 3:17, then the second in 3:03, the third and fourth just under 3 minutes, so much so that up to three laps from the end everyone was still in the group. With 500 metres to go Nadia makes her move, only Chebet, Kipyegon and Tsegay follow; then on the opposite straight the Kenyans overtake her, but the Ethiopian drops off: it's a medal. Between the last bend and the start of the home straight she still gives the impression she might catch the first two, but she can't – Chebet finishes first, Kipyegon second, Battocletti third. The home athlete finished twelfth, cheered on relentlessly by the crowd.

The day began with the race walk. I wondered how long it would take me to find the course – I wasn't sure I'd understood the map on the website. Following the flow (and remembering it was connected to the Marathon Gate) I found it, but it was hard to find a spot where you could actually see something: there were up to four rows of spectators. After all, it's the first time in ten years (or twelve, considering only the ones I've attended) that the World Championships have taken place in a country with a race walking tradition (though in Moscow the course wasn't crowded). After a while, I found a stretch where there was only one row, but it was a group that shouted slogans the whole time, something I've never heard at the stadium. After a bit I was dazed, but among them was a baby in a sling, sleeping happily. Eventually, I realised they were shouting "let's go" and the name of the athlete: the one they cheered for most was the Japanese competitor who was most behind, Ayané Yanai. However, towards the end they also cheered a lot for the one in the leading group, Yanako Fujii. Among the many Japanese flags, more than you usually see in the stadium, a few Chinese and Mexican ones appeared.

When I arrived, there was a leading group of seven, followed by a Chinese athlete and then Palmisano. After a couple of laps, the Italian stopped, right in front of me. She stayed a while talking, I suppose with her husband-coach, then left the course. Five kilometres from the end, the group was down to four, then three, then Perez broke away, followed by the Mexican Gonzalez and the Japanese Fujii. It was hard to keep track of the situation, given the number of lapped athletes. After the 18th km, I remembered it was the last lap and so went into the stadium, knowing I'd arrive with the race already finished. Indeed, I entered as the last athletes were finishing: I later read that the Japanese athlete just managed to hold off the Ecuadorian Torres for third place.

The first qualifying group for the discus was underway, featuring both Alekna brothers, who even share the same initial: after a while I realised it was the younger one who qualified directly, not the world record holder, but the other would easily make the top twelve as well. The final will feature eight Europeans and three Oceanic athletes (the twelfth was Cuban). Then came the 100 metres of the decathlon, with Warner withdrawing: Owens-Delerme won in 10.31, the others were all over 10.50.

I watched the start of the men's 20 km walk from the stadium, then left, but before going down I checked to see if I could spot the course from outside, and although it was quite far away, I could see a much longer stretch than you could from trackside. Of course, it was hard to distinguish the athletes, but I saw that everywhere along the course there were at least three rows of spectators, so I abandoned the idea of going down. I especially struggled to pick out the Italians, as there were so many white shirts: only after reading their positions on the website did I realise which ones were them. So I watched Cosi just behind the leading group for a while and Fortunato in the second group. Then Cosi was stopped for a penalty and Fortunato became the first Italian, eventually finishing 16th. Bonfim was easier to distinguish, his shirt more recognisable. Around the 16th km, Yamanishi took a small lead, but was then stopped. On the last lap, McGrath pulled ahead and looked to have it won, but when I moved to watch the passage towards the stadium, I found Bonfim in the lead. I then entered the stadium and this time saw the finish (though I had to wait: the stretch between that part of the road and the stadium entrance was longer than I'd thought). I saw the warnings and realised that the Brazilian's comeback was helped by having one fewer than the others.

I saw the discus being thrown and thought they were warm-up throws: instead, the second qualifying group was already in the third round. Shortly afterwards, the heptathlon long jump began, then the decathlon shot put. So there were four areas with very quick jumps/throws, hard to follow. I missed Brooks's 6.79; otherwise, not great marks, Hall stopped at 6.12, Thiam at 5.99, Gerevini at 5.80 and was 17th both in the event and overall. In the shot put Garland won with a personal best (17.02), ahead of Neugebauer and extended his lead.

In the evening I'd planned to watch a bit of the start of the heptathlon javelin and the decathlon high jump. The metro was quiet, I met a South African couple. Security checks were quick, but this time I was near the block of the first day and had to take a long walk to reach it. The stadium was almost completely full, only on the opposite side in the second deck were there a few empty seats. Around me were only Asians, the ladies to my left I suspected weren't Japanese from how they cheered for everyone and especially the Chinese, but then I saw they cheered the Japanese more anyway. Many Estonians were around, as it was decathlon day, along with the usual Jamaicans; this time I saw more Americans than usual. The last bend was covered with Algerian flags.

The events were further along than I'd expected: the javelin (where they throw in order of standings) was nearing the end of its second round. I saw that Gerevini had set a personal best, she was 10th at the time but would finish 13th, gaining two places in the standings, but only due to withdrawals, including Thiam's. With one event to go the podium seemed fairly settled: Hall-O'Connor-Brooks. In the high jump, Group A had already lost a few athletes, including Ehammer who ended with zero (there was a zero in the other group too, and another would come). Skotheim won at 2.14, followed by Garland at 2.11. The other group finished later, at 2.02.

The track events began with the relays. It started with the only one without Italy: the men's 4x400. In the first heat, the USA found themselves delayed in the third leg, I assume due to a changeover problem, but I couldn't see it (from my position it was hard to get an idea of the 4x400 exchanges): in the fourth leg they tried to come back, but faded at the end and finished sixth. Qatar was a surprise second (behind South Africa) with a national record. Very uneven heats: in the first, only one team under three minutes; in the second, all eight, though two would later be disqualified. Botswana won, fielding Tebogo but not the individual event champion. I now read that USA and Kenya were allowed to repeat the race.

Next was the women's event. Italy was in the first heat: Jamaica took off already in the second leg, then in the fourth, a team I thought was Great Britain made a break for second, but I later realised at the finish it was Norway (the British came last); then Poland, and Italy held off Spain for fourth place. In the second heat, the USA did more or less the same time as Jamaica and, given the gaps between fourth and fifth, it looked good for a non-automatic qualifier's spot. Indeed, the fourth-placed team (France) did slightly better than us, but the fifth (Canada) was a second and a half behind.

Then came the 4x100m relays. First up was the men's race, with Italy in the second heat, which was theoretically easier. In the first heat, Jamaica missed the final exchange and Canada won before the USA. In the second, Jacobs stumbled in his run-up for the exchange (I read later it was due to a collision with South Africa, who will get to rerun the race) and we were left behind. Melluzzo tried to recover on the anchor leg, but we finished sixth and last. A shame really, as qualification was only 0.18 away and Jamaica, Great Britain and (we thought) South Africa were out. Things went even worse for the women: Fontana got injured in the first leg. We managed to pass the baton, standing still, and continued, but finished in over 49 seconds. Fewer surprises compared to the men's race: the USA and Jamaica won their respective heats, with no major teams eliminated.

Meanwhile, the first five rounds of the women's shot put final were taking place, difficult to follow with the relays ongoing. I had watched the first throws, and not much had changed since then: the podium places remained the same from the first round, only Schilder improved, moving up to fourth. In the final round, however, there were no distractions: it was the only competition taking place and all the excitement was there. First, Roos improved, moving from fifth to fourth, but above all, Schilder, who was in fifth, threw 20.29 to take the lead. Then Jackson also threw beyond 20 metres, but it was not enough: 20.21. The last throw, by the New Zealander Wesche, who had started in the lead, also went over 20 metres: it probably wouldn't have been enough, but in any case, it was a foul.

The shot putters were replaced by the javelin throwers: their event started immediately afterwards, right besides them. It was the only field event, so it had all the scoreboards to it. Another event full of surprises: after a fairly normal first round, with the Australian Little in the lead, the Ecuadorian Angulo went ahead in the second with 65.12. Villegos was disappointing; after a disastrous start, she improved a bit but stayed in eighth. Little happened until the fifth throw, when the Latvian Sietna moved from eighth to third with 63.35. In the sixth, she improved again with 64.64 to take second place. Angulo finished with a throw that would have been enough for the podium anyway.

The track events continued with the heptathlon 800 metres. They all started together, using the 10,000m starting lines (so one group took the first bend in lane five). As expected, Hall won, Gerevini led the race and finished fourth, while Johnson-Thompson, third, claimed the bronze in a tie. Gerevini finished 13th, with a points total close to what was the Italian record before her. The group victory lap had to be limited to half a lap because of the start of the 5,000 metres.

After the aforementioned 5,000, the decathlon 400 metres followed. The first heat had only five athletes due to two withdrawals. The athletes were not introduced: we only found out who they were at the end (though you could recognise some of them). In the final heat, Ehammer did not start: as expected, Owens-Delerme won with 46.46. The first day ended with Garland leading by 160 points over Skotheim, followed by the aforementioned Puerto Rican and Neugebauer.

The grand finale was the 800 metres. Wanyonyi shot off and stayed in the lead until the home straight, but was then overtaken by Arop, while Sedjati was coming up from behind. However, he managed to recover and win, just 0.04 ahead of Sedjati and 0.09 ahead of Arop. All three ran under 1:42, everyone under 1:43.