Key events
Team GB’s Jazmin Sawyers, who failed to make the final in the long jump, spoke to the BBC: “I’m gutted. That’s one of my worst competitions of the year. I feel like so many people put in such hard work to get me here and I just wish I could’ve made their work mean a little more. It’s great to have made it back to the team, but I’m never really here to just make teams. I have bigger goals than that.”
Thibaut Collet, the Frenchman, makes his pole vault of 5.55 to some relief. The qualifying height is a mighty 5.80. So there’s a way to go.
The third 1500m heat sees Japan’s Kimura set off at a rate, to real noise from the home crowd. Ethiopia’s Hailu takes up the pace and the Japanese fans fear for Kimura, who drops back through the pack and won’t be qualifying. It’s a battle for the top sixth, and Ireland’s Sophie O’Sullivan, daughter of the legendary Sonia, falls over the line, and makes it. She just edges out Guerrero. There’s tears for those down the field but O’Sullivan makes a heart shape in pride at making it through.
The second 1500m heat sees Nelly Chepchirchir sail away. Huge applause for the 22-year-old from the Kenyan contingent. Team GB’s Revee Walcott-Nolan holds on to sixth, just about, with Australia’s Linden Hall in third, and the USA’s Emily Mackay back in fifth. They all struggled with the pace of the winner.
Women’s Long Jump finalists
The 12 women’s long jump finalists will be:
Tara Davis-Woodhall USA 6.88
Hilary Kpatcha FRA 6.85
Agate de Sousa POR 6.81
Marthe Koala BUR 6.76
Claire Bryant USA 6.72
Natalia Linares COL 6.66
Pauline Hondema NED 6.66
Quanesha Burks USA 6.63
Malaika Mihambo GER 6.63
Chantel Malone IVB 6.62
Maja Åskag SWE 6.61
Esraa Owis EGY 6.60
So then, the women’s 1500m heats, the semi-final being Sunday. There’s four heats. The first receives huge noise from the crowd. It’s a bunfight for the six qualifiers. Jessica Hull of Australia is the heat winner. She beats Sinclaire Johnson of the USA into second, but the bad news for Team GB is Erin Wallace falling short in eighth.
It’s Duplantis time, as he clears 5.55 with some ease. He’s just getting warmed up.
Some quotes, via the BBC, from Daryll Neita, winner of her heat: “Just to come here and execute like that in my first race, after what has been a season, is showing myself that it’s all about trusting and believing. I’ll let the running do the talking for the rest of these World Championships.
“When I came out here, I just had goosebumps because this place holds such special memories for me and my career. I feel good and I’m just going to head back, recover and get ready for tomorrow.”
The final heat of the 100m for women. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce needs no introduction, as the Ivorian Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith, another veteran, wins and the legend comes in second. Liranyi Alonso takes third for the Dom Rep, as they call it in the travel industry.
The long jump cut-off is 6.58, and we are down to the wire for a few jumpers. Last orders has been called, pretty much. Jazmin Sawyers won’t be one of them, her best jump of 6.54 is followed by a final jump of three that sees her fall back in the pit. A shake of the head.
The sixth heat of the women’s 100m sees Team GB’s Amy Hunt finish second after being slow from the blocks. Dosso of Italy wins it, Kayla White of the USA is third.
The long jump continues to be a grind. Only Hilary Kpatcha and Murthe Koala of Burkina Faso have made the 6.75 required. It’s a countback to top 12. With a jump of 6.32, Larissa Iapichino will not be one of them, she’s a Diamond League winner.
The fifth heat sees Team GB’s Daryll Neita run a beauty, her season’s best, beating the USA’s Twanisha Terry into second. It’s a photo for third, Liberia’s Thelma Davies taking it after an anxious wait.
The fourth heat sees Julien Alfred, the Olympic champion, storm home in 10.93, the day’s fastest time. Kora of Switzerland took second, though there was no contest with Alfred.
The third heat sees Shericka Jackson of Jamaica storm to the front, only for Sha’Carri Richardson to come to beat her at the line. Torrie Lewis came third to set an Australian record. Big smiles from her.
Jefferson-Wooden sounds confident enough: “on to the semi-finals and then on to the final.”
Now for the women’s 100m heats. The first sees the US’s Melissa Jefferson-Wooden win in a time of 10.99. That looked easy for the Olympic bronze medallist. Dina Asher-Smith goes in the second heat. Three to go through, and Asher-Smith makes it, second behind Tina Clayton, the young Jamaican.
The women’s long jump was going ahead while those steeplechases were taking place. Tara Davis-Woodhall, the Olympic champion, makes it with her first jump, of 6.88m. It’s 6.75 to qualify, and the others are having their struggles.
Two fallers in the third heat, and Ethiopia’s Girma is one of them. He goes back into the race steadily but is sat off the back. Spain’s Daniel Arce smashes into the barrier and can’t go on, he’s hurt his knee. Michalski of the US takes up the pace and Girma gets himself in position despite his fall. He lands second behind El Bakkali, the favourite, looking for five golds in five years.
1. El bakkali (Mor)
2. Girma (Eth)
3. Michalski (USA)
4. Querinjean (Lux)
5. Buchholz (Ger)
At the end, San Martin, clearly injured, was helped over the lane by Belgium’s Van de Velde, in an act of great sportsmanship. The steeplechase is brutal.
The second 3000m steeplechase heat sees a different strategy, and one that looks to catch out Kenneth Rooks of the USA, who is 40 metres off the pace, and will require some kind of Dancing Brave finish to land a place. He’s an Olympic silver medallist, too. Leo Magnusson of Sweden takes them to the bell, and Beamish of New Zealand falls, as Canada’s Desagnes is also taken down. Beamish bravely gets into second place, and Magnusson falls away. It’s a photo for third, fourth and fifth, as Ben Yazde of Morocco takes the race.
Qualifiers
Ben Yazide (Mor)
Beamish (NZ)
Firewu (Ethiopia)
Ruppert (Germany)
Kibiwot (Kenya)
That was some recovery from Beamish. That was a mess of a race and there’s some disappointed faces. Jhinaoui of Tunisia was lying on the track in agony as the computer showed he had finished sixth.
The first 3000m steeplechase qualifier begins slowly, on what is supposed to be a quick track, which means the second half of the race heats up for a madcap chase to the line. Edmund Serem, the Kenyan teenager, is in fifth. Miura the Japanese hope tries to stay out of trouble and comes third. Serem takes it with a kicking finish when it had looked like he would struggle for fifth.
The qualifiers
1. Serem (Kenya)
2. Wale (Ethiopia)
3. Miura (Japan)
4. Daru (France)
5. Jaziri (Tunisia)
Isaac Updike failed to rabbit, run, and finished eighth. No lucky losers here.
We’ll begin the Tokyo evening session with the men’s 3000m steeplechase heats; there’s three of them to come. It’s cloudy but very warm as darkness descends. Armand Duplantis is in the house, and warming up for his pole vaulr qualifier. The serial world record holder, the true successor to Sergei Bubka, is perhaps the star of the entire show.
Dunfee and Perez take walking golds
Reuters – Evan Dunfee of Canada and Spanish defending champion Maria Perez prevailed in suffocating Tokyo humidity to win the first gold medals of the 20th World Athletics Championships in the 35-km walks on Saturday.
Dunfee, the pain of the gruelling effort in tough conditions etched on his face, crossed the line at the National Stadium in two hours, 28 minutes and 22 seconds to claim his first global title.
“It is a dream come true,” said Dunfee. “I am turning 35 this year but I just feel like I am getting better and better. I was just patient today. That is part of my game and everyone who knows me knows that I can become better in the second half of the race.”
Caio Bonfim of Brazil won silver in 2:28.55 while Hayato Katsuki took a popular bronze for hosts Japan in 2:29.16.
World record holder Perez, who did the 20-km-35-km double at the last world championships in Budapest two years ago, roared in delight as she hit the tape in 2:39.01 before sinking to her knees on the track and sobbing.
Italian Antonella Palmisano, the 2021 Tokyo Olympic champion at 20km, took silver more than three minutes behind in 2:42.24, while bronze went to Paula Milena Torres in an Ecuadorian record time of 2:42.44. “I kept fighting throughout the course and this is what race walking is about, to aim to be a better athlete and person,” said Perez. “I feel privileged to beat Antonella. She is my idol.”
The start times of both races were shifted back by half an hour in a bid to mitigate the heat and humidity in the Japanese capital.
Sean Ingle also spoke to one of Team GB’s great medal hopes.
Sean Ingle is our man in Toyko, and the event is taking place under a rather too familiar cloud.
Preamble
Hello, and welcome to our live coverage of the World Athletics Championship, taking place in Tokyo. We’ll have news from the morning session, and take in the following events:
10.05 Men’s 3000m Steeplechase – Heats
10.30 Women’s Long Jump – Qualification
10.55 Women’s 100m – Heats
11.05 Men’s Pole Vault – Qualification
11.50 Women’s 1500m – Heats
12.35 Men’s 100m – Heats
13.10 Men’s Shot Put – Final
13.30 Women’s 10000m – Final
14.20 4x400m Relay – Final
Join us.
