Athletics: Tokyo flops triumph in Paris
Ecuador’s Brian Pintado and China’s Jiayu Yang, who finished 12th in Tokyo three years ago, both won gold medals at Paris 2024 as athletics kicked off in the French capital yesterday.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s ‘Siu’ celebration was shouted out by Pintado after he finished the 20km race walk. The Ecuadorian was competing in his third Olympic Games after finishing 37th in Rio 2016 and 12th in Tokyo 2020. Now in Paris, the 29-year-old athlete has achieved the greatest success of his career by winning Olympic gold.
Returning Olympic champion, Massimo Stano, was keen to become the first walker to defend his Olympic title. Álvaro Martín, the 2023 World champion, and Koki Ikeda of Tokyo 2020 were two other contenders for the gold medal.
Ikeda began to fall back with three kilometres to go. Pintado, Martin and Stano were joined by Brazilian, Caio Bonfim, and the four continued to fight for gold.
With one kilometre to go, Pintado began to open up a gap. He finished first with a time of 1:18:55. The other three battled for silver and Bonfim finished second, 14 seconds behind the Ecuadorian. Martin came one second ahead of Stano, and improved on his fourth place in Tokyo with a bronze medal in Paris.
World record holder, Jiayu Yang, dominated the women’s 20km race walk. She was also the record holder at the 2020 Games, but failed in Tokyo, finishing 12th. Yang took the lead in the fifth kilometre and began to open up a gap kilometre by kilometre. Yang crossed the line in 1:25:54 to take gold.
Spain’s Maria Perez began to close the gap from the 15th kilometre, but could only finish second, 25 seconds behind Yang.
Jemima Montag (Australia), Tokyo 2020 silver medallist, Lorena Arenas, and Alegna Gonzalez (Mexico) battled for bronze, with Montag finishing third with an Oceania record. Arenas finished with a national record but failed to make the podium this time. — Insidethegames.biz
