The fastest women's team on the planet. Photo: Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Twitter
Keep up to date with all the happenings at Tokyo 2020 through The Inner Sanctum’s Olympic hub and Olympic Central.
Tomala strolls home
Poland’s Dawid Tomala only just took out gold in the men’s 50km race walk this morning, by just 0.36 seconds with a time of 3:50:08.
At the 45km mark, German Jonathan Hilbert was 3:10 minutes behind Tomala and gave a huge final push to close the gap and almost snatch gold away. Instead, he settled for silver after an enormous final effort.
In third was Canada’s Evan Dunfee, who almost missed out on the podium. In a commendable attempt to secure a podium position, he pushed from sixth to bronze in the last five kilometres to finish with a season-best time of 3:50:59.
Australia’s Rhydian Cowley finished in eight with a personal best time of 3:52:01.
Take Two: Italian Déjà vu.
Italian Antonella Palmisano received the same honour compatriot Massimo Stano received yesterday – Olympic gold in the 20km race walk.
In the women’s edition, Palmisano finished with a time of 1:29:12, which was 0.25 seconds better than runner-up Sandra Arenas of Columbia.
China’s Hong Liu completed the course with a finishing time of 1:29:57 to lock in the bronze medal.
However, the podium could’ve looked completely different if it weren’t for two penalties handed out to China’s Jiayu Yang at 17km and Brazil’s Erica Sena in the final lap. This saw them slip to 11th and 12th respectively.
Aussie Jemima Montag finished in sixth place recording a time of 1:30:39, while Katie Hayward and Rebecca Henderson came in at 37 and 38.
Cheptegei completes the set
Uganda has added a second gold medal to their tally with world record holder, Joshua Cheptegei taking out gold in the men’s 5000m race.
For three kilometres of the race, Cheptegei moved between fourth and fifth, but one last burst in the final kilometre pushed him into the gold medal position.
Canada’s Mohammed Ahmed went from ninth to second in the last four kilometres to lock in silver with a time of 12:58.61.
American Paul Chelimo claimed bronze, running a season-best time of 12:59.05.
Sure gold for Shaunae
In the women’s 400m final, all three medallists’ times set new records and bests in various areas.
Shaunae Miller-Uibo won the Bahamas’ second gold medal of Tokyo 2020, winning the Woman’s 400m final in 48.36 seconds – a new area record.
Not only does she retain her Olympic Women’s 400m title, but she also becomes the second woman to win two gold medals in this event.
Joining her on the podium is Dominican Marileidy Paulino, who earned silver and a new national record of 49.20 seconds.
The USA’s Allyson Felix rounds out the medalists with a season-best time of 49.46, winning her tenth gold medal.
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Boxer Harry Garside bows out with bronze medal
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Keeping the Faith
A new Olympic record was set by Kenyan Faith Kipyogon, who also took out the gold medal in 3:53.11 minutes in the woman’s 1500m final.
Great Britain’s Laura Muir broke a national record and ran second, while Dutch runner Sifan Hassan took bronze.
Australians Linden Hall and Jessica Hull finished sixth and eleventh respectively, the former setting a new personal best of 3:59.01.
Good as gold for (Jave)Liu
China’s Shiying Liu locked in Women’s Javelin gold right from her first attempt, recording a season-best throw of 66.64m – almost two metres greater than the bronze and silver medallists’ throws.
Silver was awarded to Maria Andrejczyk of Poland, for her second throw of 64.61m.
Australian and world number one Kelsey-Lee Barber fell 5cm short of silver in her final throw of 64.56m – earning bronze.
Australians Kathryn Mitchell and Mackenzie Little were granted an additional three throws after finishing in the top eight after the first round.
Mitchell’s best throw was 61.82m which landed her in sixth, while Little finished eighth, throwing 59.96m.
Jamaica – The inevitable winners
With three of the fastest women on the planet on its team, it’s no surprise Jamaica were favourites heading into the relay.
As expected, Jamaica, claimed gold in the 4x100m relay, setting a national record in the process, but the USA was hot on its heels.
America finished in second, just 0.43 seconds later with a new season-best in hand.
Closing out the podium is Great Britain, who crossed the finish line 0.20 seconds after the USA.
It’s coming Rome
Italy only just snuck home in the men’s 4x100m relay final, beating Great Britain for gold by 0.01 seconds.
In addition to the gold medal, Italy ran the relay in 37.50 seconds to a new national record.
While losing by such a slim margin would be disappointing for Great Britain, they still did everything right to secure a new season-best, as did bronze medalists Canada, who too recorded a season-best.
USA at the Four-front
The stage is set for the Men’s 4x400m final tomorrow night with tonight’s two heats deciding the nine nations that take the track.
The USA qualified with the fastest time (2:57.77) across the two heats, making them the favourites for gold.
Also automatically qualifying from the first heat, is Botswana and Trinidad and Tobago. Of the qualifying teams, they had the next fastest times after the USA.
Botswana beat the African record for the men’s 4x400m relay to qualify, posting a time of 2:58.33.
In the second heat, Poland, Jamaica, and Belgium immediately went through to the medal match, leaving two places open in the medal race.
Those two places went to Italy and the Netherlands, which posted the quickest times outside of the top three for each heat.
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