LOH 2021 Tokyo | American Crouser defended ball gold, threatened the world record

American Ryan Crouser defended his victory in the ball competition at the Tokyo Olympics.

Petr David Josek, ČTK / AP

The ball medals were shared by the same throwers as at the last World Championships in 2019 in Doha, only in a different order. Crouser won, silver was won by his compatriot and two-time world champion Joe Kovacs and bronze by New Zealander Tomas Walsh. But while at that time they were only an inch apart, this time the competition was a big solo of one man.

Crouser did not lose twenty meetings in a row, during the American qualification he broke the 31-year-old world record with a performance of 23.37 meters. He has been leading in Tokyo since the first attempt and improved his Olympic record from Rio de Janeiro three times in total. Thanks to the explosion in the last attempt, he added 85 centimeters to it

When it was decided, he pointed a piece of paper to the camera that said, “Grandpa, we did it. The 2020 Olympic winner.” He sent an emotional greeting to his grandfather, who brought him to the ball and died shortly before the Olympics.

“The key was to give my first long try and I succeeded. Thanks to the lead, I was able to be more aggressive in the end and the result was the best throw,” Crouser said.

It is only the first gold for the United States in men’s disciplines in Tokyo, with three women taking care of the three so far. According to paper assumptions, more American triumphs were supposed to increase, but this did not happen in the obstacles or in the triple jump, and the men’s sprint relay surprisingly dropped out. American athletes will certainly not have thirteen gold medals like in Rio de Janeiro.

The biggest favorite on the obstacles was world champion Grant Holloway. In the American qualifiers, with a time of 12.81 seconds, Aries Merritt’s nine-year-old world record defeated him by only one hundredth, and he has not lost since last August. He started the final well, but he did not succeed in the end, he lost a lot on the last two obstacles and did not win the 20th Olympic gold in this discipline for the USA.

Jamaican Hansle Parchment celebrates winning the 110m hurdles race at the Tokyo Olympics.

Andrew Boyers, Reuters

Although Parchment has bronze from the London Games at home, he was not one of the favorites. He didn’t race all last year due to injury, he was only third in the Jamaican qualification and didn’t attract any attention on the way to the final. But he managed the decisive race well. “I often leaned forward too soon after the last hurdle. The coach told me to run behind the line and I did,” he described his winning conclusion. Ronald Levy multiplied Jamaican joy by third place.

McLeod did not fit into the nomination because he tripped over the first hurdle at home during the qualification and the leadership of the association was not willing to make an exception even for the Olympic winner and the second man of this year’s tables. In Tokyo, however, he had great successors.

In the absence of the two-time Olympic champion in the triple jump of the American Christian Taylor, who broke his Achilles tendon during the Golden Scout, an attack on gold was expected from his compatriot and the eternal shadow of Will Clay. He won silver in London and Rio de Janeiro and at the last two world championships. But he also had problems with the Achilles tendon and although he improved to 16.44 meters today, he finished below the podium.

In the third attempt, European Indoor Champion Pichardo approached two centimeters to the 18-meter limit. The silver was surprisingly won by the Chinese Zhu Ying, who improved his personal record by 17 centimeters with a performance of 17.57 m. As with the last Hugues World Championship, Fabrice Zango has bronze and it is the first ever Olympic medal for Burkina Faso in history.