Great Start to Rio Games

The first 2 days are done (plus today's only morning event--the Women's Marathon!), and the verdict is---WOW!
Already posted is my detailed description of the first final--the Women's 10000.
Here's all the rest of what took place on August 12th & 13th--with a late addition of this morning's Marathon!
(See NOTE at the bottom.  I'm going to post TWICE today!  Not enough room for everything here!!)

It all began with the Men's DT Qualifying rounds.
Piotr Malachowski threw 216-2 .
Mason Finley Q'ed with his 206.
But Q rounds (and running heats) are most notable for who does NOT make it through than for who does!
Fedric Dacres, Tavis Bailey, Robert Urbanek, Andrew Evans, Ehsan Hadadi, and Robert Harting all failed to make the final!

The Women's SP Qualifying saw Valerie Adams lead the way with 64-9.25.
Raven Saunders made it with 61-9.50 at 20 years of age!
Felicia Johnson failed to Q, being over 5 feet off her PR.

The Men's 800 heats saw David Rudisha (Who else??) lead the Q's with his 1:45.09.
Boris Berian and Clay Murphy both made it, Berian running 1:45.87.
Charles Jock, Wes Vazquez, and Abe Rotich all failed to move on.

The Men's 20000 Walk was led by the Chinese pair of Zhen Wang and Zelin Cai, Wang's 1:19:14 twelve seconds ahead of Cai's 1:19:26.
A bit of a shock in 3rd was Australia's Dane Bird-Smith, who Walked 1:19:37.
Brazil missed out on a medal, as Caio Bonfim finished 5 seconds off the podium!!
Miguel Lopez was 11th, while my pick for Bronze--Ben Thorne--was 27th!
Kenya's Samuel Gathimba was a DNF!

All 3 Americans Q'ed for the Women's 1500 Semi's!!
All the usual suspects moved on.
Mo Koster, a sub-4 woman, didn't!
Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the young German, passed through.

Anita Wlodarczyk blasted a 252-4 Hammer Throw to lead the Q rounds!
Wenxiu Zhang's 241-5 was 2nd best!
Gwen Berry, the American Record holder, didn't make it, but Amber Campbell and Deanna Price were successful.
Martina Hrasnova and Kathrin Klaas were notable casualties!

Only Karani James's 44.93 dipped under 45 seconds in the Men's 400 heats.
Two of the Belgian Borlees--Kevin & Jon--failed to move on!
As did Deon Lendore!
So did Chris Brown of the Bahamas, although he got the consolation prize of breaking his own Age 37 record---again!!
He ran 45.56.

Jianan Wang's 27-0.50 was the lone 27 foot LJ in the Q's, with Jeff Henderson coming in at 26-11.
Greg Rutherford needed his 3rd attempt to just get a number on the board!
He made it!
Michel Torneus and Mike Hartfield weren't so lucky!!

Then came the Women's SP final!!
The first Women's final had produced that incredible 10K Record assault!
Here, it was Shock & Awe!!
Valerie Adams was back.
Michelle Carter had won the INdoor WC's on her final throw, moving Adams to 2nd!

Adams's 64-11.25 opener eclipsed Carter's by more than 2 feet!
When Adams blew one out to 67-0--further than Carter's American Record, it seemed to be over!
Carter had tossed a decent 65-0.50, but still fell almost two feet shy of the Kiwi.
Carter improved to 65-2.25 in round 4, but barely dented Adams's fender!
Adams fouled twice in 4 & 5.
Then came that 6th round!
Would it be deja vu all over again?
YES!!
Carter entered the circle, bent low with the ball attached to her neck, then swept around and blasted a throw of 67-8.25!!
This was a new American Record, breaking her own by over 15 inches!!
(Although she remains almost 2 feet removed from my World DDD!!)
So it came down to one last attempt for Adams!
If anyone was a come-through performer, it was this tall and newly married New Zealander!
She blasted one out there, while Carter held her breath!
The measurement was 66-10.75, so the Gold went to the American--the first time in Olympic history an American woman had the Top of the Podium in her name!!

Behind them, Anita Marton had the best day of her career, her 65-2.25 moving her National Record of Hungary from 63-11.
This was also in the final round!
Raven Saunders improved her PR by an inch to finish 5th.
Her 63-6 has her remaining 7th A-T US.
Not bad for this young & powerful phenom!
But Christine Schwanitz, expected to challenge Adams for the title, couldn't get it together, ending in 6th with her paltry 62-5.25!!
Cleopatra Borel was 7th!!

Only "name" to not make the Women's 100 Semi's was Kelly Ann-Baptiste!
Otherwise, all moved on, with Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce showing she was ready, having the fastest time--10.96!
Michelle Lee Ahye ran 11.00 in a separate heat.

Keturah Orji just squeaked into the Women's TJ final, her 46-2.50 the final Q.
But Christine Epps just missed.
Sharika Thomas and Andrea Geubelle were other top fails.
But it was a shocker that Olga Saladukha's 45-10 didn't get her through!
No shock, however, that Caterine Ibarguen led all with her 47-7.75!

The Women's 3000SC heats saw all of the Americans make it through, although Colleen Quigley made it on a time basis.
Ruth Jebet's 9:12.62 won Heat 1, and was the fastest overall time.
Quigley was 4th with 9:21.82, just 0.53 off her recent PR!!
Beatrice Chepkoech took Heat 2 with 9:17.55, sprinting past Emma Coburn on the last straight!
Emma ran 9:18.12.
The 3rd heat was the slowest, Hyvin Jepkemoi's 9:24.61 the leader.
Courtney Frerichs finished 3rd.
In 4th was Genevieve LaLonde's 9:30.70, the new National Record of Canada!
Also breaking an NR was Anna Moller.
Her 9:32.68 is Denmark's new National Record.
However, she still failed to move on to the final!!
Etanesh Diro and Aisha Praught went down with about 3 laps to go.
Diro's shoe came off!
After trying to get it back on, she finally tossed it aside, running the final 1200 with one bare foot!!
Both Praught and Diro were admitted to the final!!

Lalita Babar broke India's National Record with her 9:19.76.
Fabienne Schumpf also got an NR for Switzerland with her 9:30.54.

Hiwot Ayalew, Charlotte Fougberg, and Erin Teschuk all failed to move on!

The Men's DT saw another 6th round winner!!
Behind Piotr Malachowski's 3rd round throw of 221-7, Christoph Harting whipped it out to 224-3 to keep the Olympic Gold in the Harting family name, Robert having won the London Games!
Daniel Jasinski also used the last throw to secure Bronze with his 215-9!
Gerd Kanter took 4th with 213-7.
Mason Finley ended in 11th.

The Women's 400 heats were mostly without drama, although Seren Bundy-Davies failed to move on to the semi's!
Kemi Adekoya's 50.72 in heat 3 is the Bahrain National Record!
Phyllis Francis won that heat with the fastest time of the day, 50.58!
Allyson Felix won the second heat in a cruising 51.24.

Even though it was just the heats, Usain Bolt was given a King's entrance, the filled stadium cheering vociferously even before they could SEE him!!
No one ran in the 9's, as Justin Gatlin's 10.01 led the Q's!
Some good names didn't make it--Femi Ogunode, Churandy Martina, Julian Reus, Yoshihide Kiryu, Aaron Brown, and Richard Thompson!
BTW, Bolt jogged a 10.07!

In the Men's PV Q round, Raphael Holzdeppe and Pawel Wojciechowski didn't move on.
Neither did 2 of the Americans--Logan Cunningham or Cale Simmons.

Kirani James sprinted 44.02 to once again nail LaShawn Merritt, who ran 44.21.
And this was just the first of  the 3 semi's races!!
Karabo Sabanda--all of 18 years old!--ran 44.47 behind them!!
Michel Cedeno took semi 2 with his 44.39 defeat of Wayde Van Niekerk, who ran 44.45.
Bralon Taplin's 44.44 won the third semi, with Matthew Hudson-Smith running 44.48, and Ali Khamis just 0.01 further back.
Liguelin Santos's 44.71 didn't get him to the final.
Neither did Gil Roberts's 44.65!
Others who failed to make the final were Lalonde Gordon, Pavel Maslek, David Verburg, Steven Gardiner, and Isaac Makwela!
That 43.93 Jamaican from the WC's last year--Rusheen McDonald--also didn't make it!

Those last rounds!
With Jeff Henderson's final round 27-6 seemingly giving him the Gold, it was left to his teammate Jarrion Lawson to try to take the title away!
He sped down the runway, leapt forward, landed just about where the "leader" line was.
But he had to wait for the measurement!
When the mark was given as 7.78, or 25-6.25, everyone was incredulous!
No way was it 7.78!!
He'd landed well past the 8 meter line!!
They'd raked the sandpit, so there was no way to re-measure!
So they went to the replays.
Finally, it showed that Lawson's left hand had hit the sand---at the 7.78 mark!!
Henderson was the Olympic Champion!!
Ruvo Maniyonga of South Africa was 2nd with 27-5.50.
Greg Rutherford nabbed Bronze with his 27-2.50.
Lawson finished 4th.

The Women's 100 final, which was expected to produce fireworks, were stoked by three hot semi's!
Tori Bowie ripped a 10.90 to just nip Michelle Lee-Ahye, who had the same time!
Christiania Williams PR'ed at 10.96 in 3rd!
Muriel Ahoure, Mujinga Kambundji, and Ewe Swoboda failed to get to the final!
The second semi went to Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, her 10.88 leaving Dafne Schippers's 10.90 and Marie Josee Ta Lou's 10.94 behind!
Tianna Bartoletta's 11.00 wasn't enough to move her through!
Asha Philip also didn't make it.
Elaine Thompson won semi three in 10.88, with English Gardner not far behind with 10.90.
Blessing Okagbare was too slow to make the final!
The battle lines had been drawn!

The Men's 800 semi's produced some good times, but few real shocks.
Except that Mohammed Aman, Adam Kszczot, Brandon McBride, and Ayanleh Souleiman all failed to make the final!
Pierre Ambroise-Bosse (1:43.85 in the 1st), Alfred Kipketer (1:44.38 in the 2nd), and David Rudisha (1:43.88 in the third) took the races.
Taoufik Makhloufi matched Bosse's time in that section.
Boris Berian ran 1:44.56 behind Kipketer.
And Clay Murphy PR'ed in 1:44.30 behind Rudisha!
This makes him 21st A-T US, tied with 1 other!!

On that note, I've decided to end this post, as it's already too long, and I want to give enough space to fully describe the Men's 10000, the Women's 100 final, the Heptathlon, and today's Women's Marathon!!
But not to worry, I'll be back SOON with the next post!!

(I also have some "old" news---outside of the Olympics--I'd like to give you--which I'll add to the next post!!)

See you in a couple of hours!!