by Alfonz Juck
Jenn Suhr, photo by PhotoRun.net
Day Eight was a tremendous day in Engenhao Stadio Olimpico. The pole vault, the 200 meters, the amazing women’s 5000 meters, and the 50k and 20k for women. All part of our sport, and all part of the amazing diversity of our sport. Here’s what our friend, Alfonz Juck, had to say about the eighth day of athletics in Rio.
EME NEWS (AUG 19, 2016)
OLYMPIC GAMES 8TH DAY
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I have a saying: ‘Nothing is impossible’. I never set limits for myself. I’ve always wanted to push the barriers and that’s what I did. I accomplished what I wanted to and it’s a joy. I’m happy. There’s nothing else I can do but to push on and enjoy what I’ve done over the years,” Usain Bolt.
RESULT OF THE DAY
Usain Bolt triple-triple from Olympic Games. First ever Slovak medal at Olympics by Matej Toth. Special mention for Yohan Diniz to finish the 50 km walk. Great Olympic record by Vivian Cheruiyot.
SURPRISE OF THE DAY
Oly winner Suhr and World champ Silva without medals in pole vault. Ayana clearly losing the 5000 m final. USA dq in men 4×100 m. Top result by Japanese 4×100 m beeing second.
MEDALS (39 countries)
1. USA 10-9-8, 2. JAM 6-1-2, 3. KEN 5-5-0, 4. CHN 2-2-2, 5. CRO 2-0-0, 6. RSA 1-2-0.
POINTS (65 countries)
1. USA 259, 2. KEN 107, 3. JAM 92, 4. CHN 81, 5. GBR 73, 6. ETH 59
AGENT RANKINGS (by individual gold medal)
Jos Hermens 5, Ricky Simms 4, Paul Doyle 3, Claude Bryan 2, Adrian Laidlaw 2, Karen Locke 2, Vera Michallek, Helena Van der Plaetsen, Tyler Kukahiko, Federico Rosa, Peet van Zyl, Czeslaw Zapala, Marc Corstjens, Jose Praia, James Templeton, Daniel Wessfeldt, Ray Flynn, Michel Boeting, John Regis, Caroline Feith, Alfons Juck, Robert Wagner, Alberto Armas, Vladimir Maska. Ryan Crouser no agent.
TITLE DEFENDERS
Yes (6): Farah, Bolt (2), Rudisha, Pekrovic, Taylor, Eaton. No (17): T. Dibaba, Adams, Chen Ding, R. Harting, Fraser-Pryce, Rutherford, Ennis-Hill, Rypakova, James, Lavillenie, Kemboi, Reese, Majewski, Spotakova, Tallent, Suhr, Pars.
TOP MARKS
WR 3 (Ayana, Van Niekerk, Wlodarczyk), OR 8 (Ayana, Van Niekerk, Wlodarczyk, Thiago, Kipruto, Eaton, Crouser, Cheruiyot), WL 17 (Ayana, Van Niekerk, Harting, Carter, Ibarguen, Jebet, Thiago, Rudisha, Miller, Taylor, Clement, Eaton, Crouser, JAM 4×100, USAw 4×100, USAw 4×400, JAM 4×400), World Hept best (Thiam, Johnson-Thompson HJ). Decathlon Olympic best (Warner 100 m).
Bolt ends the season
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Triple-triple legendary gold medalist Usain Bolt is ending his season and will no more competing in 2016. Confirms his management. His anchor relay leg for Jamaica last night was his last race ever at Olympic Games. As he said many times he is not planning for Tokyo 2020.
10 Olympic champs for Athletissima
LAUSANNE (SUI): Thirty-one medallists including 10 Olympic champions will be present next Thursday on the Pontaise track for Athletissima Lausanne Diamond League first top meet after Rio.The hurdle races will clearly be one of the highlights with competitive races. In the 100m hurdles, the Olympic champion Brianna Rollins will have to stay sharp to defend her supremacy against her compatriot Kendra Harrison the world record holder. Lea Sprunger, who underperformed in Rio as she did not qualify for the semi-finals, but who says that she is in very good shape, will also have her own “Olympic final” as she will be facing no less than the three medalists in Rio: the Olympic champion from the USA Dalilah Muhammad and her teammate Ashley Spencer, who won the bronze in what has been her first season in the 400m hurdles, and Sarah Petersen. In men hurdles top 4 from Rio will run headed by Omar McLeod.There will also be a Rio medallist in the 400m hurdles with the Kenyan vice-Olympic champion Boniface Mucheru Tumuti. Last but not least long jump Olympic champion Tianna Bartoletta and Caster Semenya, number 1 favourite in tonight’s 800m final, have also been confirmed.
RIO NEWS
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Jenn Suhr said her health had worsened since qualifying to the point she was coughing up blood on the morning of the final, informs AP. “I feel horrible. I’m actually getting concerned. It’s going on Day 10 and I feel worse today. They think it’s respiratory and now in the lungs. This morning I was coughing up blood. It’s getting scary,” she said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Yelena Isinbayeva has said she believes she was capable of vaulting 5.10m and Ekaterini Stefanidi’s win yesterday was “not a real victory” informs sports.ru. “I understand this is not the fault of the girls but a competition without Isinbayeva is not a real victory. I think even the girls themselves understand it,” she said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Ekaterini Stefanidi said she believes Isinbayeva should have been allowed to compete in Rio although her absence doesn’t devalue her victory, informs sports.ru. “I feel sorry for Yelena. I believe it was not fair to her. She deserved a chance to be here with us. But it is what it is. A lot of good athletes are not lucky because of injuries or bad luck – anything can happen. I do not think it somehow affects my victory,” she said. However, Martina Strutz said her comments “are completely out of place” as she didn’t win gold four years ago.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Matej Toth believes Russian race walkers could be successful without resorting to doping, informs AP. “The only question is when they will be able to realise it — that we can do it without doping. Now it’s up to Russian athletics, it’s up to race walkers, to change their mind,” he said. However, he fully supported the exclusion of Russian athletes from taking part in the Olympics. “They deserved this punishment, especially in race walking, there (are) many, many athletes with positive tests,” Toth said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Yohann Diniz was taken to hospital after the 50km walk but he has since been discharged, informs France TV. Diniz was affected by heatstroke, dehydration and gastric problems. He collapsed at the 37km checkpoint but he still managed to complete the race, finishing eighth.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Legendary race walker Jesus Angel Garcia will carry the Spanish flag at the Olympic Games Closing Ceremony, informs MARCA.
OTHER NEWS
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Russia has been stripped of their silver medal from the 4x400m at the 2008 Olympics after Anastasia Kapachinskaya tested positive for stanozol and turinabol in a reanalysis of her doping samples, informs AP. Likewise, Alexander Pogorelov was stripped of his fourth-place finish in the decathlon after testing positive for turinabol and Ivan Yushkov had his tenth-place finish in the shot put annulled after testing positive for stanozolol, turinabol and oxandrolone. The Russians were also stripped of their gold medal in the 4x100m after Yulia Chermoshanskaya retroactively tested positive.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Piotr Malachowski is auctioning off his Olympic silver medal to raise the funds towards the treatment of a baby who has been diagnosed with a malignant tumour of the retina, informs sports.ru. “Health of this fantastic baby is more important than my fight for the win in Rio. I invite everyone to participate in the auction, with your help, my silver may become for him more valuable than gold,” he said.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Vivian Cheruiyot will compete in the Great North Run next month and plans to make her marathon debut in London next spring, informs Reuters. Even though she will shift her focus to the roads, Cheruiyot is still planning to defend her world 10,000m title next year.
RIO DE JANEIRO (BRA): Olympic silver medallist Melina Robert-Michon plans to compete for at least one more season, informs L’Equipe. “I’ve just beaten my record. Why should I stop my career here?” she said.
ADDIS ABABA (ETH): Ethiopian marathon specialist Gebo Burka has been suspended for eighteen months and stripped of his Houston Marathon title after testing positive for prednisone, informs AFP. Burka has a marathon lifetime best of 2:08:12 which he set in Houston last year.
VOLGOGRAD (RUS): Yelena Isinbayeva’s trainer Evgeny Trofimov is taking an indefinite break from coaching, informs sports.ru.
FALMOUTH (USA): Diane Nukuri will defend her Falmouth Road Race title on Sunday, informs RRW. She will face tough opposition from the likes of Betsy Saina who finished fifth in the 10,000m in Rio and Kenyan team-mate Caroline Chepkoech. Stephen Sambu will also look to defend his men’s title.
ORLANDO (USA): Donavan Brazier has reportedly moved to Orlando, Florida to train with American record-holder Johnny Gray and second fastest American 800m runner of all-time, Duane Solomon. Informs Flotrack.
STATS (by Ken Nakamura)
W5000m: Vivian Cheruiyot became first ever KEN woman to win either 5000m or 10000m in the Olympic Games. Vivian Cheruiyot became third woman (after Defar and T Dibaba)to win W5000m in both World Championships and Olympics.
WPV: First Olympic medal for GRE (gold) and NZL (bronze) at WPV. Stefanidi became second (after Isinbayeva) World Youth and European Champion at WPV to win the Olympic games. Best marks for place for 4th and 6th (& tied 2nd and 5th) were set for WPV.
HT: First medal for TJK by Nazarov in Olympic HT. 78.68 is the shortest winning distance for Olympic HT since 1984 when 78.08 won.
W4x100mR: Best marks for place for 2nd-6th (4th were tied) for 4x100mR were recorded. 41.01 and 41.36 are second and third fastest time in Olympics.
4x100mR: Best 3rd, 4th and 5th place time in Olympic 4x100mR were recorded JAM won third gold in a row and now has second most gold behind USA.
4x400mR: 3:00.82 by FRA is the fastest time that failed to make the final of Olympic 4x400mR; previous record was 3:01.25 from 2004. 2:58.29 by JAM is the fastest first round time (in 2 round scenario) of Olympic 4x400mR.
W4x400mR: 3:21.42 is the fastest heat time of Olympic W4x400mR. 3:26.02 by GER is the fastest time that failed to make the final of Olympic W4x400mR.
50km Walk: Matej Toth became third (after Gauder & Korzeniowski ) with both World Champ and Olympic Gold at 50kmWalk. 26 sec spread between 1st and 3rd is the smallest ever in the Olympic 50km walk, replacing 49 sec from 1996. First ever Olympic medal for Slovakia in athletics.
W20km Walk: Liu Hong became second walker to win two medals at Olympic W20km walk. 7 sec spread between 1st and 3rd is the smallest ever at the Olympic W20km walk, replacing 13 sec from 2004. Maria Gonzalez became first Pan American Games gold medalist to win Olympic medal, both at W20Km walk and it was also first Mexican medal in this event.
SPLITS
Fastest in 4×400 m rd1. Men 43.4 McQuay, USA – 43.75 Rooney, GBR (dq) – 43.9 Sibanda, BOT. Women 49.68 McCorory, USA – 49.76 Guei, FRA – 49.9. McLaughlin-Wilby, JAM.
