feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2024-08-06 05:47 pm
feather_ghyll) wrote2024-08-06 05:47 pm
SPORTS: tennis, gymnastics and athletics
Day eight: The morning session was all about the men’s doubles, with the gold medal match up first. Both teams were slightly scratch pairings of experienced doubles players, the Americans Krajicek and Ram, versus the Australian Peers and Ebden, who I hadn’t seen play. Neither team had dropped a set. From a distance, the only way of differentiating Ebden and Peers was that the latter wore sunglasses, sometimes around the back of his head.
As the first set went on, the Americans seemed sharper, getting a break, as they did in the second set. Two games away from the win, though, they had a very tentative game on the Ram serve, and it was back on and tense. The Aussies had stayed with it and got their reward in the tiebreak. But in the champions tiebreak, they were incredible (particularly Peers) and won.
The bronze match had a completely different complexion. Paul and Fritz, two high-class singles players, would be facing Machac (who already had a gold medal) and Pavlycec of Czechia, the latter the only doubles player. It seemed slightly less intense, and it soon became clear that Paul and Fritz had too much weight of shot in their serves and returns. I think Machac was having a bit of a reaction to the day before too. The Americans looked as if they were going to run away with it until a string of terrible volleys from Fritz at the net gave away a Paul service game. They still won the first set, though.
Machac raised his level, but it felt relatively easy for the Americans and when Fritz was serving and Paul was at the net they were so strong. And it was in that combination that they were serving for the match. Up 40-0, they started to waver, Fritz’s big serves weren’t going in, and it got a bit hairy until they eventually took it.
Their medal ceremony followed shortly after, and the Americans getting the bronze medal were the happier Americans, it looked like. (Krajicek probably has a realistic chance of another Olympics and another shot at a gold, but this was probably it for Ram.) The Aussies, probably closer to the end of their careers than the beginnings, were delighted, and it was nice that a Woody was part of the ceremony. (Fritz should definitely play more doubles to improve his volleying. Paul should because there’s nothing wrong with his netplay.)
I switched to watching some gymnastics apparatus finals on the BBC. There was impressive stuff on the men’s floor, with Yulo of the Philippines pulling off an impressive routine. Christine turned out to be more accurate about the judges’ scoring than Craig, and I didn’t quite understand why Luke Whitehouse didn’t get a higher mark, but Jake Jarman has developed enough control of his landings to get on the podium.
The women’s vault was next, and although they talked up the possibility of Andrade doing an amazing new move, she didn’t, ceding the gold to Biles, who has the most difficult vault, and pulled off both of her vaults cleanly. Andrade’s vaults were perhaps more stylish, but there was a difference in difficulty levels. A Korean who potentially could medal did not land well enough, leaving the door open for Jade Carey, who pulled off her most difficult routine and did a safer second vault, executing it well enough that her averages got her the bronze medal.
The men’s pommel horse turned out to be more competitive, with a Kazakh gymnast surprising everyone with a clean, difficult routine. This put pressure on Max Whitlock, following him, who increased his difficulty, but you could see where the judges would give him minor deductions. In the second half came McClenaghan, who has matured into being a very accomplished gymnast on this apparatus and did an excellent routine, taking him up to first. The other contender was a bespectacled American (he took them off for the routine) and he was cleaner than Whitlock (the elder statesman of this apparatus with Verniaev), putting the Brit fourth. It was a staggeringly good final, with the top four scoring over 15, so the gymnasts coming fifth and sixth might have had a hope of a medal with their scores on other apparatuses.
This meant I had to catch up on women’s singles’ gold match, which started earlier than I expected. They might not be the expected players in the gold medal match, but they had put out the first and second seeds between them. I thought Zheng might have a little too much game for Vekic, because she can hit the ball pretty hard too. It was really interesting to hear that the young Chinese player had consciously changed tactics when facing Swiatek, knowing she had to do something different because Swiatek had beaten her in all their past meetings. The ‘locker room’ (i.e. the rest of the women’s tour) may be grateful to her for suggesting a way of beating Swiatek on clay, but that’s if they can pull it off.
Zheng served first, and played confidently. In the next game, Vekic clearly hadn’t settled and rather gave the break away, giving her opponent an advantage for the rest of the set. Although Vekic started competing more in her return games and winning her own games, she could never get back on terms and ceded a second break to give Zheng the first set.
Vekic competed hard in the second set, accepting she had to play more balls than she wanted and making more happen, but Zheng was mostly able to cope, sometimes making telling blows of her own. What always struck me was that Vekic had too much to do as the second set was so closely competed. Towards the end of the second, Zheng looked a little better, a little tougher. What an impressive win for her – bettering Ling Na at the Olympics. Will she be able to use it as a springboard for more? It sounded as though she hadn’t had a great few months after making the Aussie Open final, but the manner of her play and her willingness to compete and let others make mistakes are things she ought to take forward, and she’s only 21.
Swiatek looked happy to be in the medal ceremony, and Vekic looked pleased to be getting a silver for her country, while Zheng must have felt good having beaten them both to get her gold.
The men’s singles bronze medal match was intriguing. I learned that Auger-Aliasseme is only 23 – he feels as though he’s been around for a long time, making Djokovic the exception with the three others in the last four being in their early twenties. Both players had been beaten in different ways, both had reasons to be tired, yet positive. Musetti started off better and carried a break until he rather handed the break back to Auger-Aliasseme. Irritated at himself, he responded brilliantly and got another break and won the first set from there. I think he’s the better player on clay.
But Auger-Aliasseme kept playing aggressively, got an early lead in the second set, and kept Musetti at bay. (I fast forwarded when it became clear the Italian wasn’t going to claw it back.)
The third set was hard-fought, with both men covering the court superbly. A lot of lines were hit, with Auger-Aliasseme playing brilliantly, then throwing in some errors. Musetti’s level was more consistent, but it took him until late in the third set to be able to win the wrestling match for the lead, which he kept and won a medal. (And Auger-Aliasseme already has one bronze.)
Judicious fast forwarding allowed me to catch up on the women’s 100m semis in the athletics (Dina Asher-Smith had no explanation for failing to progress into the final) and then the final. Well done, Julien Alfred, winning St Lucia’s first medal so decisively. Richardson’s start did it for her again.
Day nine: I started watching at the end of the bronze medal women’s doubles match, where the Spanish pair convincingly won the Czech team, to their delight. Next up (to my surprise but it worked better for me) was the men’s singles gold medal match, the match up we’d always wanted. Much was made of it being the oldest player going for gold versus the youngest. What struck me as their achievements were listed was that Alcaraz has nearly won as many slams as Masters events, and of course the last two, while Djokovic’s numbers are ridiculous. I thought they both had to bring of their best, and knew it, which was tantalising. Loud Serbian support for Djokovic and equally loud Spanish support for Alcaraz.
And they did bring of their best. It was staggeringly good tennis from the beginning, with both pushing each other’s service games for quite a while, but the server always repulsing the attack, even from 0-40 down. The number of points lost by careless errors was very low. Either it was a winner or a forced error by a brilliant shot. Djokovic smiled more than usual at the level, because of the challenging brilliance, but was able to match it with challenging brilliance of his own. As he was serving first in the first set, he had a little scoreboard pressure, but Alcaraz defended set points on his serve and after well over an hour it went into a tiebreak. And it really was a matter of a couple of points, but Djokovic played better and won.
Amazingly, the quality did not drop off in the second set, although I think the intensity did for me, because Djokovic had won the first (and though I can respect the man’s ability, I have generally supported his opponents, either because they play even more aggressive/stylish tennis, or because they were Murray at his pomp.) But to his credit, Alcaraz, serving first, realised it had only been a couple of points and did not let off. Neither did Djokovic (in fact his serving stats in the second set were terrific.) Both were still making each other cover the court and hit tough shots from ridiculous positions on or off the court, and often making them. As we came to the business end, I did think that if he managed to win this set, Alcaraz would have the physical edge in the third set, although Djokovic only doubled over once after one extra remarkable point. But Djokovic played the big points well and took it to a tiebreak. And in this one, it was a handful of points (and maybe knowing he had one set already) that decided it for Djokovic.
He’s finally got his gold, and obviously it means so much for him. It obviously meant so much to Alcaraz too – tough, tough for him to do an interview on the back of the court, but it was only the tiebreaks that differentiated them (only!) On the one hand, it must be devastating, because that’s the first time he’s experienced a loss in a major final. It’s all very well us taking the long view that he should have other opportunities at future Olympics, but Djokovic now has his revenge and has nudged ahead in their rivalry, which probably won’t have too many years left in it. Given Alcaraz’s champion mentality, this loss ought to feed his desire to win even more.
Of course, the Olympics are weird for tennis players (and all other sportspeople who play matches) because the semi-final losers get a second chance for a medal, and the loser of the final gets a silver medal. Alcaraz did manage to smile on getting his silver medal, while Djokovic got to see his flag raised and sing his anthem with the welcome weight of gold (and a part of the Eiffel Tower) around his neck.
If the women’s doubles final had been the second match, I’d have watched that and then the men’s final, but it wasn’t, so I caught up on more artistic gymnastics individual finals on the BBC. I got sucked into watching the men’s rings, though I hadn’t meant to. The draw meant that the best gymnasts had competed first, so there was certainly no tension about the gold and silver. Young Harry Hepworth did himself proud, it’s quite something for a 20-year-old to look like a worthy finalist on the rings.
The women’s uneven bars was the one I really wanted to watch. Two gymnasts fell. Sadly, one of them was genuine medal contender Becky Downie. The other was a Chinese gymnast, so all credit to her compatriot for going through her routine cleanly. She also managed the difficulty score of 7.2, equalling what Neymar was likely to post, but the Algerian did her routine more cleanly. (Even I could differentiate the good ones from the less good ones because of the zippiness and the lack of wasted swings.) The last to go was Lee, and she managed to push out the former Olympic champion, who had been in third, quite a bit behind the 7.2ers in gold and silver. I read that she’s come back from kidney disease, so good on her.
The men’s vault was pretty close, with most of them doing 5.6s, often the same ones, so there were direct comparisons. The first vaulter, an Ukranian, set the standard, but Harry Hepworth was even better. Jake Jarman did a 6.0 and that took him over 15 points, so he had a bit of a buffer, when his landing for the 5.6 was a little wilder. But Yulo of the Philippines also did a 6.0 difficulty vault and it, like the 5.6 one he did, was cleaner, putting him first. Hepworth was in silver and Jarman was in bronze position, and had quite a wait as several gymnasts’ landings kept them out of contention, until the experienced Davytyan, who’s also a former world champion, came and executed two 5.6 vaults rather beautifully and edged Jarman (who had been pantomiming adorably) out. Hepworth got a bronze though.
I caught up on the athletics, with judicious fastforwarding, still on the BBC. From the build up to the men’s 100m semi-final, I gathered that it was an open race. The excellently named Oblique Seville and Thompson of Jamaica impressed in their semis. Lyles and defending champion Jacobs were through to the finals, unlike the ragged Hinchliffe and Hughes, coming back from injury.
I watched the semis for the women’s 800m, and Mary Moraa got through, but truly didn’t look as good as she has in the past, while Keeley Hodgkinson did look impressive. She would be the only Brit through. I also watched the men’s 1500m involving Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingerbritson properly. The women’s high jump was divvied up between the Aussies and the Ukranians, as expected, with Mahucik winning gold.
The build up for the men’s 100m final was initially great, but they did hold them too long, and then it was incredibly close and fast. Lyles got it by a fraction, although when they analysed the race with all the fancy technology, you could see why. Thompson did not quite have the race he wanted and was a little bit caught up in battling Kurley, who would get the bronze. The times were incredibly fast. Lyles and two others PBd, and it was a world record for fourth to eighth. I will say that it’s obvious that Lyles has done the work to back up all his talk, although if Thompson had more championship experience, he might well have won it. If he's healthy, watch out for him in the next Olympics.
Day ten: I caught up on the last of the individual apparatus gymnastics finals, and don’t have much to say about the high bars, because of the drama of the beam, where the first gymnast, who had a shot at a medal, very nearly fell off and certainly got deductions, meaning it was a much lower mark than she’d hoped. The nerves were catching, with several gymnasts falling (a full point off) and one of them twice, including Simone Biles (who I felt the presenters were hanging a gold round her neck a bit too hastily. Medal contender, yes.) To her absolute credit, Alice D’Amato fought to stay on and with the cleanest routine so far, got close to her expected score, which was enough to put her in the lead. Biles was not immune to falling, and she seemed angry about something to do with the atmosphere. (Apparently it was the crowd shushing gymnasts who were supporting their compatriots, although this was more of a problem for the Americans than the Italians. Deep silence did not help with the beam.)
Andrade managed to stay on, and got huge applause, but did not go into the medal position, because she hadn’t gained the difficulty value by linking moves, so the Chinese gymnast who’d started all the wobbling and falling got a medal she couldn’t have expected after doing her routine after all. I am delighted for D’Amato, who’d come fourth twice as an individual, so I wanted her to medal, and she got the gold, with her compatriot Esposito getting the bronze.
The men’s high bar was next, and it too featured more falls, especially during the dismounts, which puzzled the judges and made it all rather a fraught watch. But the young Colombian, with the body of a young man and the face of a 17 year old, which he is, was an extremely exciting high flyer. You could see he didn’t have the form of others, but unlike some of them, he stayed on and his high difficulty helped.
The women’s floor had drama too. There were nine gymnasts, although I only saw eight of them. Andrade’s routine was excellent, with high difficulty, great execution and charismatic performance. Biles’s tumbling was out of this world, but she stepped out twice, and those deductions meant that she only got silver. The drama was over bronze, really, as one Romanian watched her younger compatriot do excellent tumbles, but get less difficulty (she was only 17 and her immaturity showed in the execution of the ‘dancing’ for overall performance). She put in an inquiry because her difficulty was lower than expected, but it was rejected, while Jordan Childs did what looked like a medal-winning routine, but it scored lower than expected, and the new bronze medallist was celebrating, but an inquiry was put in (the judges get to look at the routine in slo-mo and it only applies to the difficulty) and was accepted, meaning that she got the bronze instead. Fourth is such a heartbreaker.
My attention turned to athletics and with lots of judicious fast forwarding and channel switching, I caught up – there were heats and semis for the 200m, with swift turnarounds for everyone who’d run the 100m. I was particularly interested in the men’s pole vault, and it felt as though I missed the height where who was up for medals separated from the rest (5.95 metres.) But Duplantis, who is the truly outstanding athlete of this generation, had been doing his thing of clearing easily, passing, while everyone else struggled. He eased over 6 metres, which the Greek bronze medallist couldn’t quite managed, neither could the American silver medallist, but both celebrated their medals. Duplantis then went for 6.10, the Olympic record (his? He was the defending champion, but that height might stand from Rio) and then, as he’s done in all the major championships or on good nights, he went for 6.25 to beat his own world record. I think we only saw his third attempt, so I don’t know whether the first two were just sighters, but he’d looked as though he had it in him all night. After all the other medals (including a well-deserved gold for Allman in the discus) and a medal ceremony, Duplantis soared over his record (and it looks as though he could raise it again, the next time he tries.)
On the track, there was the women’s 5000m, featuring crazy women. Okay, the 5000m and 10,000m double is relatively popular, and Kipyegon’s strongest race is the 1500m, so doing a triple with that makes sense for her, but when you’re planning to do a 5000m, 10,000m and marathon triple – Sifan Hassan – it’s another level. There was a strong field, and it was expected that one of the Kenyans, Ethiopians or Hassan would take it.
The commentators did note an obvious kerfuffle during the race, but it was hard to tell who had shoved who, and no one fell. Chebet kept on her compatriot’s shoulder towards the end, and had a burst of speed to overtake her and deservedly win the gold. Kipyegon came second, Hassan third, and seemed delighted with it, but then came the news that Kipyegon had been disqualified (and when they replayed it and Paula Radcliffe explained it, it looked fair), meaning Kipyegon was stripped of silver (and will probably have something to prove in the 1500, where she was favourite) and Hassan was upgraded. I wasn’t clear on who’d got the bronze, because the BBC was gripped by the fever of a potential British gold medallist. (Molly Cawdry, a world lead, hadn’t been able to qualify for the women’s pole vault – something that wasn’t entirely surprising after the last meet before the Olympics in London, where she underperformed.)
In fairness, given her results this year (and that one of her biggest rivals, Mu, famously fell in the American trial and so didn’t make the team), Keeley Hodgkinson was the favourite to win the 800m. Big build up, in which I learned that she has a hearing impairment, and then a tense run, although she took an early lead to control the pace. Moraa tried to stay with her, which cost her the silver, as Duguma was the one with enough left to surge into second place at the end, but once Hodgkinson ‘put her foot down’ after the last bend, she accelerated away into the lead, finally winning the gold after numerous silvers. (Although she’s only 22!) Good for her, although objectively, Duplantis’s almost routine defence of his gold with 30cm on his closest competitor is the better result.
I did catch up on the women’s doubles gold medal match, which featured a lot of entertaining points. Andreeva and Shnaider, playing as neutrals, were stronger in the opening set. Paolini hadn’t quite got her range, and Errani’s serve was poor. But the Italians willed a momentum change in the second set, Paolini’s level went up, and Errani’s overheads were amazing finishing shots. They had the momentum in the champions tiebreak, and Errani has now won a doubles lifetime golden slam, while Paolini has a gold medal to prove what an excellent year she’s having.
As the first set went on, the Americans seemed sharper, getting a break, as they did in the second set. Two games away from the win, though, they had a very tentative game on the Ram serve, and it was back on and tense. The Aussies had stayed with it and got their reward in the tiebreak. But in the champions tiebreak, they were incredible (particularly Peers) and won.
The bronze match had a completely different complexion. Paul and Fritz, two high-class singles players, would be facing Machac (who already had a gold medal) and Pavlycec of Czechia, the latter the only doubles player. It seemed slightly less intense, and it soon became clear that Paul and Fritz had too much weight of shot in their serves and returns. I think Machac was having a bit of a reaction to the day before too. The Americans looked as if they were going to run away with it until a string of terrible volleys from Fritz at the net gave away a Paul service game. They still won the first set, though.
Machac raised his level, but it felt relatively easy for the Americans and when Fritz was serving and Paul was at the net they were so strong. And it was in that combination that they were serving for the match. Up 40-0, they started to waver, Fritz’s big serves weren’t going in, and it got a bit hairy until they eventually took it.
Their medal ceremony followed shortly after, and the Americans getting the bronze medal were the happier Americans, it looked like. (Krajicek probably has a realistic chance of another Olympics and another shot at a gold, but this was probably it for Ram.) The Aussies, probably closer to the end of their careers than the beginnings, were delighted, and it was nice that a Woody was part of the ceremony. (Fritz should definitely play more doubles to improve his volleying. Paul should because there’s nothing wrong with his netplay.)
I switched to watching some gymnastics apparatus finals on the BBC. There was impressive stuff on the men’s floor, with Yulo of the Philippines pulling off an impressive routine. Christine turned out to be more accurate about the judges’ scoring than Craig, and I didn’t quite understand why Luke Whitehouse didn’t get a higher mark, but Jake Jarman has developed enough control of his landings to get on the podium.
The women’s vault was next, and although they talked up the possibility of Andrade doing an amazing new move, she didn’t, ceding the gold to Biles, who has the most difficult vault, and pulled off both of her vaults cleanly. Andrade’s vaults were perhaps more stylish, but there was a difference in difficulty levels. A Korean who potentially could medal did not land well enough, leaving the door open for Jade Carey, who pulled off her most difficult routine and did a safer second vault, executing it well enough that her averages got her the bronze medal.
The men’s pommel horse turned out to be more competitive, with a Kazakh gymnast surprising everyone with a clean, difficult routine. This put pressure on Max Whitlock, following him, who increased his difficulty, but you could see where the judges would give him minor deductions. In the second half came McClenaghan, who has matured into being a very accomplished gymnast on this apparatus and did an excellent routine, taking him up to first. The other contender was a bespectacled American (he took them off for the routine) and he was cleaner than Whitlock (the elder statesman of this apparatus with Verniaev), putting the Brit fourth. It was a staggeringly good final, with the top four scoring over 15, so the gymnasts coming fifth and sixth might have had a hope of a medal with their scores on other apparatuses.
This meant I had to catch up on women’s singles’ gold match, which started earlier than I expected. They might not be the expected players in the gold medal match, but they had put out the first and second seeds between them. I thought Zheng might have a little too much game for Vekic, because she can hit the ball pretty hard too. It was really interesting to hear that the young Chinese player had consciously changed tactics when facing Swiatek, knowing she had to do something different because Swiatek had beaten her in all their past meetings. The ‘locker room’ (i.e. the rest of the women’s tour) may be grateful to her for suggesting a way of beating Swiatek on clay, but that’s if they can pull it off.
Zheng served first, and played confidently. In the next game, Vekic clearly hadn’t settled and rather gave the break away, giving her opponent an advantage for the rest of the set. Although Vekic started competing more in her return games and winning her own games, she could never get back on terms and ceded a second break to give Zheng the first set.
Vekic competed hard in the second set, accepting she had to play more balls than she wanted and making more happen, but Zheng was mostly able to cope, sometimes making telling blows of her own. What always struck me was that Vekic had too much to do as the second set was so closely competed. Towards the end of the second, Zheng looked a little better, a little tougher. What an impressive win for her – bettering Ling Na at the Olympics. Will she be able to use it as a springboard for more? It sounded as though she hadn’t had a great few months after making the Aussie Open final, but the manner of her play and her willingness to compete and let others make mistakes are things she ought to take forward, and she’s only 21.
Swiatek looked happy to be in the medal ceremony, and Vekic looked pleased to be getting a silver for her country, while Zheng must have felt good having beaten them both to get her gold.
The men’s singles bronze medal match was intriguing. I learned that Auger-Aliasseme is only 23 – he feels as though he’s been around for a long time, making Djokovic the exception with the three others in the last four being in their early twenties. Both players had been beaten in different ways, both had reasons to be tired, yet positive. Musetti started off better and carried a break until he rather handed the break back to Auger-Aliasseme. Irritated at himself, he responded brilliantly and got another break and won the first set from there. I think he’s the better player on clay.
But Auger-Aliasseme kept playing aggressively, got an early lead in the second set, and kept Musetti at bay. (I fast forwarded when it became clear the Italian wasn’t going to claw it back.)
The third set was hard-fought, with both men covering the court superbly. A lot of lines were hit, with Auger-Aliasseme playing brilliantly, then throwing in some errors. Musetti’s level was more consistent, but it took him until late in the third set to be able to win the wrestling match for the lead, which he kept and won a medal. (And Auger-Aliasseme already has one bronze.)
Judicious fast forwarding allowed me to catch up on the women’s 100m semis in the athletics (Dina Asher-Smith had no explanation for failing to progress into the final) and then the final. Well done, Julien Alfred, winning St Lucia’s first medal so decisively. Richardson’s start did it for her again.
Day nine: I started watching at the end of the bronze medal women’s doubles match, where the Spanish pair convincingly won the Czech team, to their delight. Next up (to my surprise but it worked better for me) was the men’s singles gold medal match, the match up we’d always wanted. Much was made of it being the oldest player going for gold versus the youngest. What struck me as their achievements were listed was that Alcaraz has nearly won as many slams as Masters events, and of course the last two, while Djokovic’s numbers are ridiculous. I thought they both had to bring of their best, and knew it, which was tantalising. Loud Serbian support for Djokovic and equally loud Spanish support for Alcaraz.
And they did bring of their best. It was staggeringly good tennis from the beginning, with both pushing each other’s service games for quite a while, but the server always repulsing the attack, even from 0-40 down. The number of points lost by careless errors was very low. Either it was a winner or a forced error by a brilliant shot. Djokovic smiled more than usual at the level, because of the challenging brilliance, but was able to match it with challenging brilliance of his own. As he was serving first in the first set, he had a little scoreboard pressure, but Alcaraz defended set points on his serve and after well over an hour it went into a tiebreak. And it really was a matter of a couple of points, but Djokovic played better and won.
Amazingly, the quality did not drop off in the second set, although I think the intensity did for me, because Djokovic had won the first (and though I can respect the man’s ability, I have generally supported his opponents, either because they play even more aggressive/stylish tennis, or because they were Murray at his pomp.) But to his credit, Alcaraz, serving first, realised it had only been a couple of points and did not let off. Neither did Djokovic (in fact his serving stats in the second set were terrific.) Both were still making each other cover the court and hit tough shots from ridiculous positions on or off the court, and often making them. As we came to the business end, I did think that if he managed to win this set, Alcaraz would have the physical edge in the third set, although Djokovic only doubled over once after one extra remarkable point. But Djokovic played the big points well and took it to a tiebreak. And in this one, it was a handful of points (and maybe knowing he had one set already) that decided it for Djokovic.
He’s finally got his gold, and obviously it means so much for him. It obviously meant so much to Alcaraz too – tough, tough for him to do an interview on the back of the court, but it was only the tiebreaks that differentiated them (only!) On the one hand, it must be devastating, because that’s the first time he’s experienced a loss in a major final. It’s all very well us taking the long view that he should have other opportunities at future Olympics, but Djokovic now has his revenge and has nudged ahead in their rivalry, which probably won’t have too many years left in it. Given Alcaraz’s champion mentality, this loss ought to feed his desire to win even more.
Of course, the Olympics are weird for tennis players (and all other sportspeople who play matches) because the semi-final losers get a second chance for a medal, and the loser of the final gets a silver medal. Alcaraz did manage to smile on getting his silver medal, while Djokovic got to see his flag raised and sing his anthem with the welcome weight of gold (and a part of the Eiffel Tower) around his neck.
If the women’s doubles final had been the second match, I’d have watched that and then the men’s final, but it wasn’t, so I caught up on more artistic gymnastics individual finals on the BBC. I got sucked into watching the men’s rings, though I hadn’t meant to. The draw meant that the best gymnasts had competed first, so there was certainly no tension about the gold and silver. Young Harry Hepworth did himself proud, it’s quite something for a 20-year-old to look like a worthy finalist on the rings.
The women’s uneven bars was the one I really wanted to watch. Two gymnasts fell. Sadly, one of them was genuine medal contender Becky Downie. The other was a Chinese gymnast, so all credit to her compatriot for going through her routine cleanly. She also managed the difficulty score of 7.2, equalling what Neymar was likely to post, but the Algerian did her routine more cleanly. (Even I could differentiate the good ones from the less good ones because of the zippiness and the lack of wasted swings.) The last to go was Lee, and she managed to push out the former Olympic champion, who had been in third, quite a bit behind the 7.2ers in gold and silver. I read that she’s come back from kidney disease, so good on her.
The men’s vault was pretty close, with most of them doing 5.6s, often the same ones, so there were direct comparisons. The first vaulter, an Ukranian, set the standard, but Harry Hepworth was even better. Jake Jarman did a 6.0 and that took him over 15 points, so he had a bit of a buffer, when his landing for the 5.6 was a little wilder. But Yulo of the Philippines also did a 6.0 difficulty vault and it, like the 5.6 one he did, was cleaner, putting him first. Hepworth was in silver and Jarman was in bronze position, and had quite a wait as several gymnasts’ landings kept them out of contention, until the experienced Davytyan, who’s also a former world champion, came and executed two 5.6 vaults rather beautifully and edged Jarman (who had been pantomiming adorably) out. Hepworth got a bronze though.
I caught up on the athletics, with judicious fastforwarding, still on the BBC. From the build up to the men’s 100m semi-final, I gathered that it was an open race. The excellently named Oblique Seville and Thompson of Jamaica impressed in their semis. Lyles and defending champion Jacobs were through to the finals, unlike the ragged Hinchliffe and Hughes, coming back from injury.
I watched the semis for the women’s 800m, and Mary Moraa got through, but truly didn’t look as good as she has in the past, while Keeley Hodgkinson did look impressive. She would be the only Brit through. I also watched the men’s 1500m involving Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingerbritson properly. The women’s high jump was divvied up between the Aussies and the Ukranians, as expected, with Mahucik winning gold.
The build up for the men’s 100m final was initially great, but they did hold them too long, and then it was incredibly close and fast. Lyles got it by a fraction, although when they analysed the race with all the fancy technology, you could see why. Thompson did not quite have the race he wanted and was a little bit caught up in battling Kurley, who would get the bronze. The times were incredibly fast. Lyles and two others PBd, and it was a world record for fourth to eighth. I will say that it’s obvious that Lyles has done the work to back up all his talk, although if Thompson had more championship experience, he might well have won it. If he's healthy, watch out for him in the next Olympics.
Day ten: I caught up on the last of the individual apparatus gymnastics finals, and don’t have much to say about the high bars, because of the drama of the beam, where the first gymnast, who had a shot at a medal, very nearly fell off and certainly got deductions, meaning it was a much lower mark than she’d hoped. The nerves were catching, with several gymnasts falling (a full point off) and one of them twice, including Simone Biles (who I felt the presenters were hanging a gold round her neck a bit too hastily. Medal contender, yes.) To her absolute credit, Alice D’Amato fought to stay on and with the cleanest routine so far, got close to her expected score, which was enough to put her in the lead. Biles was not immune to falling, and she seemed angry about something to do with the atmosphere. (Apparently it was the crowd shushing gymnasts who were supporting their compatriots, although this was more of a problem for the Americans than the Italians. Deep silence did not help with the beam.)
Andrade managed to stay on, and got huge applause, but did not go into the medal position, because she hadn’t gained the difficulty value by linking moves, so the Chinese gymnast who’d started all the wobbling and falling got a medal she couldn’t have expected after doing her routine after all. I am delighted for D’Amato, who’d come fourth twice as an individual, so I wanted her to medal, and she got the gold, with her compatriot Esposito getting the bronze.
The men’s high bar was next, and it too featured more falls, especially during the dismounts, which puzzled the judges and made it all rather a fraught watch. But the young Colombian, with the body of a young man and the face of a 17 year old, which he is, was an extremely exciting high flyer. You could see he didn’t have the form of others, but unlike some of them, he stayed on and his high difficulty helped.
The women’s floor had drama too. There were nine gymnasts, although I only saw eight of them. Andrade’s routine was excellent, with high difficulty, great execution and charismatic performance. Biles’s tumbling was out of this world, but she stepped out twice, and those deductions meant that she only got silver. The drama was over bronze, really, as one Romanian watched her younger compatriot do excellent tumbles, but get less difficulty (she was only 17 and her immaturity showed in the execution of the ‘dancing’ for overall performance). She put in an inquiry because her difficulty was lower than expected, but it was rejected, while Jordan Childs did what looked like a medal-winning routine, but it scored lower than expected, and the new bronze medallist was celebrating, but an inquiry was put in (the judges get to look at the routine in slo-mo and it only applies to the difficulty) and was accepted, meaning that she got the bronze instead. Fourth is such a heartbreaker.
My attention turned to athletics and with lots of judicious fast forwarding and channel switching, I caught up – there were heats and semis for the 200m, with swift turnarounds for everyone who’d run the 100m. I was particularly interested in the men’s pole vault, and it felt as though I missed the height where who was up for medals separated from the rest (5.95 metres.) But Duplantis, who is the truly outstanding athlete of this generation, had been doing his thing of clearing easily, passing, while everyone else struggled. He eased over 6 metres, which the Greek bronze medallist couldn’t quite managed, neither could the American silver medallist, but both celebrated their medals. Duplantis then went for 6.10, the Olympic record (his? He was the defending champion, but that height might stand from Rio) and then, as he’s done in all the major championships or on good nights, he went for 6.25 to beat his own world record. I think we only saw his third attempt, so I don’t know whether the first two were just sighters, but he’d looked as though he had it in him all night. After all the other medals (including a well-deserved gold for Allman in the discus) and a medal ceremony, Duplantis soared over his record (and it looks as though he could raise it again, the next time he tries.)
On the track, there was the women’s 5000m, featuring crazy women. Okay, the 5000m and 10,000m double is relatively popular, and Kipyegon’s strongest race is the 1500m, so doing a triple with that makes sense for her, but when you’re planning to do a 5000m, 10,000m and marathon triple – Sifan Hassan – it’s another level. There was a strong field, and it was expected that one of the Kenyans, Ethiopians or Hassan would take it.
The commentators did note an obvious kerfuffle during the race, but it was hard to tell who had shoved who, and no one fell. Chebet kept on her compatriot’s shoulder towards the end, and had a burst of speed to overtake her and deservedly win the gold. Kipyegon came second, Hassan third, and seemed delighted with it, but then came the news that Kipyegon had been disqualified (and when they replayed it and Paula Radcliffe explained it, it looked fair), meaning Kipyegon was stripped of silver (and will probably have something to prove in the 1500, where she was favourite) and Hassan was upgraded. I wasn’t clear on who’d got the bronze, because the BBC was gripped by the fever of a potential British gold medallist. (Molly Cawdry, a world lead, hadn’t been able to qualify for the women’s pole vault – something that wasn’t entirely surprising after the last meet before the Olympics in London, where she underperformed.)
In fairness, given her results this year (and that one of her biggest rivals, Mu, famously fell in the American trial and so didn’t make the team), Keeley Hodgkinson was the favourite to win the 800m. Big build up, in which I learned that she has a hearing impairment, and then a tense run, although she took an early lead to control the pace. Moraa tried to stay with her, which cost her the silver, as Duguma was the one with enough left to surge into second place at the end, but once Hodgkinson ‘put her foot down’ after the last bend, she accelerated away into the lead, finally winning the gold after numerous silvers. (Although she’s only 22!) Good for her, although objectively, Duplantis’s almost routine defence of his gold with 30cm on his closest competitor is the better result.
I did catch up on the women’s doubles gold medal match, which featured a lot of entertaining points. Andreeva and Shnaider, playing as neutrals, were stronger in the opening set. Paolini hadn’t quite got her range, and Errani’s serve was poor. But the Italians willed a momentum change in the second set, Paolini’s level went up, and Errani’s overheads were amazing finishing shots. They had the momentum in the champions tiebreak, and Errani has now won a doubles lifetime golden slam, while Paolini has a gold medal to prove what an excellent year she’s having.