Olympics
Sprint and repechage rounds grab attention on day three in Paris
This Saturday, in the men’s 100m heats, world leader Kishane Thompson had time to look around and slow down before winning the opening race in 10.00.
Noah Lyles, seeking four golds in Paris, finished second in his heat in 10.04 as Britain’s Louie Hinchliffe, the NCAA champion who is coached by Carl Lewis, crossed first in 9.98 to a perplexed silence, cupping his hand ironically to his ear.
Jacobs, who has let it be known that he sees Thompson as the challenge to his title rather than Lyles, finished second in his heat in 10.05. Thompson’s teammate Oblique Seville won his heat in 9.99.
The aspirations of Hinchliffe’s team-mate Jeremiah Azu had ended before they begun after he was disqualified for false starting in his opening heat.
Among the athletes racing in the men’s 100m preliminary round, on a universality place, was Montenegro’s multi-eventer Darko Pesic, who came to wider notice as he competed barefoot in the discus during this year’s European Championships decathlon in Rome.
Pesic wanted to run in Paris in memory of his father, Velisa, who died in 2020. A few days before his race he broke a bone in his right foot and he arrived in the French capital wearing a protective boot. He achieved his ambition as he completed his race in 11.85, posting afterwards on Instagram: “Father – we made it! I have always dreamed of being an Olympian.”
While the decathlon was missing the home world record-holder Kevin Mayer, unable to compete because of injury, the men’s pole vault lacked the presence of France’s former world record-holder, Renaud Lavillenie, who was desperate to sign off with an appearance at the home Games aged 37 but missed out by one place at the national trials.
Lavillenie at least got his moment in the sun, literally, as he was introduced trackside before the men’s pole vault qualifying and received warm waves of appreciation.
Just as Mayer’s fellow French decathlete Gletty inherited the massive home support, so did the home athletes in the pole vault, Anthony Ammirati and Thibaut Collet.
But it proved not quite enough as both failed to progress in a competition where Sweden’s defending champion and world record-holder Mondo Duplantis topped the list of those who cleared 5.75m.
“Compared to Tokyo, it’s just night and day,” said Duplantis. “It’s super cool. I can’t even imagine how amazing the final’s going to be.”
World silver medallist Ernest John Obiena of Philippines, who had been hoping against hope that he would be sufficiently recovered from injury to compete in Paris, had his wish – and after passing after two failures at his initial height of 5.60m he recovered his fortunes with first-time clearances of 5.70 and 5.75m.
The repechage round, open to all who fail to earn automatic qualifying places in events ranging from 200m to 400m hurdles, offered progression to race winners and the two next fastest finishers overall in the women’s 800m.
The first athlete to qualify by this new method was Australia’s Abbey Caldwell in a heat where Uganda’s 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi, who had missed qualification by one place the previous day, finished sixth.
The din as home athlete Bourgoin overtook Allie Wilson of the United States around the final bend to claim the qualification place in heat two was ear-splitting, and she crossed the line as triumphantly as if she had won a medal. It was a very good advertisement for the repechage round.
“My feet hurt a bit but when I heard the stadium, I let the pain go and I had to keep going,” said Bourgoin. “You have a lot of emotions when people scream your name.”
Majtie Kolberg of Germany and Rose Mary Almanza of Cuba were the other winners, with Kenya’s Vivian Kiprotich and Switzerland’s Valentina Rosamilia claiming the next two fastest places.
Paris 2024 sold a record 12 million tickets for the Olympics and Paralympics, beating the Games record previously set by London 2012, organisers said on Sunday.
Some 9.5 million tickets were sold for the Olympics and 2.5 million for the Paralympics, which end on Sunday.
In 2012, London organisers set the record for the Paralympics with 2.7 million tickets sold but only 8.2 million were sold for the Olympics.
-Reuters
The French capital will pay tribute to Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire by her boyfriend, by naming a sports facility in her honour, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo announced on Friday.
The marathon runner, who competed in the Paris Games last month died on Thursday, four days after she was doused in petrol and ignited by her boyfriend in Kenya, in the latest attack on a female athlete in the country.
The 33-year-old, who finished 44th in her Olympic Games debut, suffered burns to more than 75% of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
“She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her. Her beauty, her strength, her freedom, and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,” Hidalgo told reporters.
“Paris will not forget her. We’ll dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Cheptegei is the third prominent sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021. Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen described Cheptegei’s death as a loss “to the entire region”.
“This is a critical moment— not just to mourn the loss of a remarkable Olympian, but to commit ourselves to creating a society that respects and protects the dignity of every individual,” Uganda’s Athletes commission Chair Ganzi Semu Mugula said on Friday.
-Reuters
Engineer’s descendants say French capital landmark ‘not intended as advertising platform’
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has triggered a heated debate by saying she wants to keep the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower after the summer Games are over.
“The decision is up to me, and I have the agreement of the IOC [International Olympic Committee],” she told the Ouest-France newspaper over the weekend.
“So yes, they [the rings] will stay on the Eiffel Tower,” she added.
Some Parisians backed the move, but others – including heritage campaigners – said it was a bad idea and would “defile” the French capital’s iconic monument.
The five rings – 29m (95ft) wide, 15m high and weighing 30 tonnes – were installed on the Eiffel Tower before the Paris Olympics opened on 26 July, and were expected to be taken down after the Paralympics’ closing ceremony on 8 September.
But Ms Hidalgo said she wanted to keep the interlaced rings of blue, yellow, black, green and red, symbolising the five continents.
She added that the current rings – each one measuring 9m in diameter – were too heavy and would be replaced by a lighter version at some point.
The Socialist mayor also claimed that “the French have fallen in love with Paris again” during the Games, and she wanted “this festive spirit to remain”.
Some Parisians as well as visitors to the French capital supported the mayor.
“The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful, the rings add colour. It’s very nice to see it like this,” a young woman, who identified herself as Solène, told the France Bleu website.
But Manon, a local resident, said this was “a really bad idea”.
“It’s a historic monument, why defile it with rings? It was good for the Olympics but now it’s over, we can move on, maybe we should remove them and return the Eiffel Tower to how it was before,” he told France Bleu.
Social media user Christophe Robin said Ms Hidalgo should have consulted Parisians before going ahead with her plan.
In a post on X, he reminded that the Eiffel Tower featured a Citroën advert in 1925-36.
The Eiffel Tower was built in1889 for the World’s Fair. The wrought-iron lattice tower was initially heavily criticised by Parisian artists and intellectuals – but is now seen by many as the symbol of the “City of Light”.
Ms Hidalgo, who has been running Paris since 2014, is known for her bold – and sometimes controversial – reforms.
Under her tenure, many city streets, including the banks of the river Seine, have been pedestrianised.
Last year, she won convincingly a city referendum to ban rental electric scooters. However, fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
But both drivers’ groups and opposition figures attacked the scheme, saying the SUV classification was misleading as many family-size cars would be affected.
France’s Environment Minister Christophe Béchu said at the time that the surcharge amounted to “punitive environmentalism”.
And just before the Paris Olympics, Ms Hidalgo and other officials went into the Seine to prove the river was safe to swim.
-BBC
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