TOKYO WOW MOMENTS - PART IV - THE INCREDIBLE SIFAN HASSAN

 

The Tokyo Olympics have been full of legendary & incredible performances but I doubt there will be any greater than the treble of Sifan Hassan. When she let the world know that she was competing in the 1500m , the 5000m and the 10,000m at the same Olympic games, it was unprecedented. It meant she would be running 5 days out of the 9 day athletic schedule and she would be running more than 61 laps if she were to be a medal contender in all events. She would become the only athlete in history - male or female to win a medal at these events in the Olympic games. 

There have been triple hauls before - the Finnish legend Paavo Nurmi won the 1500, 5000 and 10k cross country, the Czech locomotive - Emil Zatopek did the 5000m, 10000m, and the marathon in the 1952 helsinki Olympics. The double of the 5000m and the 10000m have been done by quite a few legends including Mo Farah, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibala etc.Kelly Holmes did the 800m & 1500m in 2004 while El-Guerrouj did the 1500m & 5000m in the same Olympics. But a combination of the distances that Sifan Hassan was attempting was audacious and unprecedented. In an interview she stated that she doing it because she wanted to see how much she could push herself. Talk about pushing yourself out of ones comfort zone. 

She starts off her journey in the 1500m heats. Her running style is mainly running at the back of the pack and then kicking up the pace in the end. She was towards the back of the pack with the last 400m to go when disaster struck. A couple of stumbles in the running pack ahead, created a ripple which led to Sifan Hassan colliding with a runner and tumbling to the ground. She rolled and almost in one motion was back on her feet and running. But precious seconds were lost and she was dead last with less than 300m to go. Her ambitous goal of the treble was almost over before it had even realistically started. Cliche as it sounds, but when the going gets the tough, the tough get going - she put in a kick over  that one lap and overhauled all the athletes one by one. She needed to be in the top 4 to qualify but she ended up coming first- talk about sending a message of intent. 

She won the first of her treble with the 5000m gold in convincing fashion and was up against the brilliant Faith  Kipyegon in the 1500m. Sifan ran a tactically aggressive race but did not have the finishing power of Faith and the British runner Laura Muir. She finished with a bronze - a medal nevertheless. 

The last event - 10000m was on the last day of the Olympics and she was up against the young Letesenbet Gidey who set the WR in both the 5000m and the 10000m. I watched the whole race and it was a tactical masterclass. Sifan instead of hanging at the back of the pack kept pace with Gidey throughout, when Gidey slowed down she did the same, when she upped the pace, Hassan was two steps behind  prompting an annoyed Gidey to have a bit of a verbal diatribe with Hassan. But Hassan kept her head down, did not respond and kept Gidey in her crosshairs. In the final lap, in typical Hassan fashion she took off and there was no catching her. She broke into tears after crossing the finishing line, an indication of the enormity of the task on her mental strength. She admitted later thinking during her medal ceremony - "It is over , Now you can sleep"

What Sifan attempted in Tokyo was bold, audacious and without precedent. Doing the 5000m and 10000m double puts her in the league of legends, the 1500m bronze elevates her to the unchartered territory of trailblazers who show that impossible is nothing. 

TOKYO WOW MOMENTS - PART III - Womens 400m Hurdles - The handing of the torch

 

If the men's 400m hurdles was being touted as the race of the century, the women's version almost outdid it. Now a bit a history and rivalry to this race. Dalilah Muhammad has been the undisputed queen of the quarter mile hurdles for nearly a half a decade. She won gold in Rio and was the World Champion in 2019 and set the WR of 52.16 in that race. That golden run led her to be named the Womens track and field athlete of the year in 2019. 

Sydney Mclaughlin who is 9 years Dalilah's junior was a prodigy in her junior years. She was breaking high school and university records and was the youngest US athlete to qualify for the Rio Olympics at the age of 17 , but went out in the semi finals. Since then she has been getting better and better. 

Before the Tokyo Olympics - both Dalilah and Sydney went head to head in the US trials. The race was the standout one of the US trials with Sydney eclipsing Dalilah and setting a new WR, becoming the first women athlete to run that distance under 52s. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DATsj8mzD2g

So heading into the olympics, both women knew that they would have to run the race of their lives to beat the other and win gold. Then there was the prodigal European Femke Bol who had also the talent to play spoilsport to their epic face off.  As the gun went off Dalilah blazed off the starting blocks setting the early pace, eating up the track and her fellow competitors. Sydney kept pace with a steady rhythm but was clearly behind Muhammad heading into the final straight. The last 2 hurdles saw the power and pace of Sydney coming through. You could see Dalilah pushing with everything that she had but Sydney had that extra zip in the final 20 meters. The time was again a new WR of 51.46 with Dalilah coming through for the silver in 51.58. 

Sydney has publicly credited the presence of Dalilah as the reason for her being able to push herself to break these records. Dalilah has a few more years left in her corner, but the torch has been handed over in this  event. Sydney definitely has her hands firmly on the crown but  a new rivalry blooming between the two 22 year olds - Sydney & Femke (who finished 3rd and took bronze) can only mean great thing to come in the future. 

Tokyo WOW Moments - Part II: Karsten Warholm & the race of the century

 

The 400m Men's Hurdles had some heady anticipation about it. 3 men capable of breaking records and setting new standards, were at the prime of their careers - Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin & Abderrehman Samba. Warholm was at the forefront of this trio having just set the WR @46.70 in Oslo in July 2021. Rai Benjamin and Samba too had broken the 47 second barrier and on their day were capable of giving the Norwegian prodigy a run for his money. 

The heats were on point with all of them winning comfortably. The semis saw Alison Dos Santos running 47.31 to eclipse Samba and bringing himself into the mix. Warholm and Benjamin ran in the other semis with the Norwegian clipping Benjamin at the end to send a message. So onto the finals with all 4 men believing that they had a chance for a medal. The race exploded into life with Warholm setting off at a blistering pace. He had overhauled a few runners in front of him including Samba. But Benjamin wasn't out of it yet, he reeled in the Norwegian and in the penultimate hurdle was almost at par with him leading to the commentator excitedly calling out "here comes Benjamin". But Warholm showed his finishing prowess and brute strength when he pulled away after the last hurdle and won with a 2m gap over Benjamin and smashing his own WR and dipping under the 46 second mark for the first time in human history. 

Why is this race so remarkable?  This race saw all 3 medalists breaking the existing OR and the top 2 broke the existing WR. Benjamin smashed the old WR by half a second but came in second. Dos Santos finished in 46.72 just 0.02 outside the old WR and won bronze. Six out of the 8 competitors set new National records and PB's. 

Watching this live on TV was amazing and the commentary team were caught up in the moment and made some bold statements right there... "Is this the greatest performance in an Olympic final of all time?" , "If this doesn't encourage young boys and girls to get out and train for the olympics - nothing will ", "This performance rivals Bolts run in Beijing or Rudhisha's 100 sec of the 800 in london"

The 400m hurdles has seen one of the longest and most dominant streaks in sports history when the legendary Edwin Moses won 122 consecutive races over a 9 year period. During the streak he won gold medals in the 1976 and 1984 Olympic games and set the WR in the event 4 times. 

Warholm might find it difficult to match the legend Moses's streak but has definitely established his pedigree as the greatest 400m hurdler of our time and we can hope that Benjamin, Samba and Dos Santos continue to push him and themselves to greater heights. 

Tokyo 2020 Olympics - My Personal WOW moments - I: The Magnificent Mirabai

The build up to Tokyo 2020 was probably the most uncertain and volatile build up to an Olympic games in recent memory. From an unsurprising postponement by a year, to still many question marks about the event actually happening in the lead up to the games. Corona and it many waves, vaccination protocols, athlete safety, crowds in the stadiums etc made the Tokyo 2020 organizing committees tasks, one of the most unenviable jobs in the world. However despite all the trepidation and uncertainty leading up to the games, once Naomi Osaka lit the Olympic cauldron in a fairly unspectacular opening ceremony, what followed over the course of the next 14 days was pure sporting poetry. The athletes lit up the world with their spectacular performances and re-instated the Olympics at the pinnacle of human sporting endeavor. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the action and want to pen down what i personally saw as my top goosebump moments of the Olympics. I am sure I might miss out some seminal moments from sports I didn't follow as closely. 

Silver for India on Day 1 of the games: The Magnificent Mirabai Chanu

The @olympic app was a real lifesaver,  giving me live updates on schedules and allowing me to follow the action. And fortunately on 24th July at 10am, we as a family were glued to the tele and following the 49kg weightlifting action. I knew that Mirabai was a real contender given her pedigree in previous world events - she had won the world championships in 2017 and had finished 4th in 2019. She had won gold at the 2018 commonwealth games and silver way back in 2014. She had genuine medal potential, but she also had a poor showing in Rio 2016 where she did not complete a lift in the clean and jerk leading to a DNF status. 

On that Tokyo morning, she had lifted a 87kg in her snatch section and was behind the Chinese lifter going into the clean & jerk. Now the chinese lifter -  Hou Zhihui was in a class of her own. She had lifted 94kg in the snatch setting a new Olympic record and was miles ahead of the rest. In the clean & jerk, Mirabai lifted 110kg on her first attempt and her second lift was pegged at 115kg. This lift would see her claim the lead. Amid cheers from Gia & Agastya who were watching their first Olympics, Mirabai lifted the bar high and kept steady for those 3 white lights signalling a valid lift and putting her in medal contention. 

The Chinese lifter lifted 116kg fairly easily setting a new OR again. Mirabai was now assured of the silver and valiantly attempted 117 to get back the OR but failed, even though she is the current WR holder at 119kg. No matter, she had done herself and India proud with an amazing show. Her combined total of 202kg (snatch + clean&jerk) was among her best scores but still quite a way behind the Hou who totaled 210kg for a new OR and took gold. 

Silver was a great start for India and though we wouldn't hear the Indian National anthem at the medal ceremony (not yet atleast, that came later on), it put India at #3 in the medal tally leading to many including me taking a snapshot of that anomaly. 

After this victory, Whatsapp went into overdrive with unverified stories of Mirabai's childhood struggles and her hollywoodesque journey to Olympic glory being forwarded. As a romantic sports fan,  I want to believe all of them but knowing the reputation of Whatsapp forwards, I will wait and hope for Mirabai to come out with her autobiography which I will gladly read.