Wednesday began with the heats of women´s 800m, where several our runners fought for the
semifinals. In the first heat, Finnish Eveliina Määtänen took 3rd position in 2:00.41 and a big Q. So did Anita Horvat, with a time of 2:00.06.
Last year´s javelin throw silver medallist Haruka Kitaguchi made it safely through the qualification by beating the qualifying performance with a 63.27m mark. Simultaneously, reigning men´s long jump olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou leaped to a 8.25m jump, marking 3rd qualification result
overall.
In the heats of 200m, Canadian Brendon Rodney clocked a huge season best of 20.14s and
dominated in the fouth heat. This has been his best 200m time since 2016, therefore we can look forward to more in the semifinals. Bianca Williams of Britain fulfiled the task of advancing too. She covered the distance in 22.67s.
Another Oregon 2022 silver medallist, Canada´s Camryn Rodgers confirmed the expectations of
advancing to the women´s hammer throw semifinals with a throw of 73.95m. The evening session had a bittersweet taste for Slovenian hope Tina Šutej. In the pole vault final, she
improved her own national record to 480cm. Then she had some really good attempts at 485cm, however, she lost the battle for the medal to Wilma Murto (equally 480cm) just by one unsuccessfull attempt. Tina took the 4th position as she did last year in Oregon.
Wednesday also was a remarkable day for the Top Athletics leader Alfons Juck. International Sports Press Association (AIPS) rewarded him for the attributes of longevity, quality and value of sports journalism as a profession, with the „Journalist on the podium“ award. Congratulations.
Photo credit: Pavol Uhrin
Jakub Ďurdina
