Nafissatou Thiam joined the great Jackie Joyner-Kersee as the only combined eventers to win back-to-back Olympic heptathlon titles, improving from third overnight to a successful defence of her title.
Thiam overcame a 47-point deficit after four events to win the gold medal by over 100 points with a score of 6791 points. Former European champion and overnight leader Anouk Vetter from the Netherlands won silver with a national record of 6689 points with her Dutch teammate Emma Oosterwegel scoring a lifetime best of 6590 points to capture an unexpected bronze medal.
Thiam reduced the deficit to four points with 6.60m in the long jump although Vetter might have been the happier of the two aspirants at this point. The Dutchwoman isn’t renowned for her prowess in the fifth event but Vetter has improved her long jumping this season and came within two centimetres of her lifetime best with 6.47m to maintain her position at the top of the leaderboard.
In years gone by Thiam would have banked on her javelin to propel her into a healthy lead - or to further extend her advantage - but the Belgian has struggled with a well-documented elbow injury in recent seasons and hasn’t thrown a javelin in competition since the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha where she ceded her world title to Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
But Thiam had all but sealed her second successive Olympic gold medal with her second throw, rekindling some of her very best form in the event with a timely 54.68m in the second pool. A 55 metre-plus thrower at her very best, Vetter was reduced to a 51.20m effort in the first pool of the javelin which saw Oosterwegel continue her charge up the leaderboard with the second best throw of the day of 54.60m.
Thiam was rewarded with a 64-point cushion heading into the 800m with 5912 points ahead of Vetter (5848) with Kendell Williams from the United States (5642), Oostewegel (5641) and Thiam’s rapidly improving Belgian teammate Noor Vidts (5592) all involved in an intense three-way tussle for the bronze medal.
Thiam finished almost three seconds ahead of Vetter to ensure a triumphant defence of her Olympic title but the race for the bronze medal was still in the balance. Rather unusually in the heptathlon 800m, Vidts produced a significant negative split to win in a lifetime best of 2:09.05 but Oosterwegel kept the Belgian within three seconds, crossing the finish-line in a lifetime best of 2:11.09 to move onto the rostrum.
Vidts finished a tantalising 19 points shy of the podium but her score of 6571 points represented a lifetime best of more than 300 points for the 25-year-old who won a silver medal behind Thiam in the pentathlon at the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
But once again, it was Thiam who took the plaudits in a major event although her build-up and the competition itself was fraught with difficulties. On the morning of the second day, Thiam’s coach had tested positive for coronavirus and was unable to accompany her charge to the stadium.
"I’m still in shock. It’s been two difficult years with a lot of ups and downs and physical problems. Also, in my head I wasn’t always in the right place but I’m happy it has paid off in the end. There was a lot of pressure from the outside and also on myself," said Thiam.
As Canada’s Damian Warner was crowned Olympic decathlon with a prodigious Olympic record of 9018 points, world record-holder Kevin Mayer from France added yet another major medal to his collection.
Mayer has competed sparingly this season but the Frenchman defied a back injury to win his second successive Olympic silver medal with a score of 8726 points. Competing at his third successive Olympics, Mayer was in the medal hunt throughout the 10 events and he effectively sealed his place on the rostrum with a lifetime best of 73.09m in the javelin.
While the gold and silver medals were awarded to two of the old-timers of the event, the bronze medal went to the 21-year-old reigning world U20 champion Ashley Moloney from Australia. Moloney produced a turbo-charged last 250 metres in the 1500m to ensure the bronze medal with 8649 points ahead of Garrett Scantling from the United States with 8611 points.
There was also a European gold medal some 850 kilometres north of the Japanese capital in Sapporo, the stage for the race walking events and the men’s and women’s marathon.
Massimo Stano is a policeman by day and the Italian produced an arresting performance on the last lap of the 20km race walk, pulling away from the Japanese favourites Koki Ikeda and Toshikazu Yaminishi for Italy’s third gold medal of the athletics programme in 1:21:05.
“Every day in my mind, I repeated: 'I am the strongest, I am the strongest', and I was. My only strategy was to stay in the front,” said Stano.
Ikeda and Yaminishi won silver and bronze for the host nation in 1:21:14 and 1:21:28 respectively with Spain’s Alvaro Martin (1:21:46) and Germany’s Christopher Linke (1:21:50) rounding out the top five.