Norwegian star eases through to 400m hurdles semi-finals as British jumper makes high jump final as we recap the opening men’s events in Tokyo

The highlights of the men’s first morning of action was provided by some fast 400m hurdles and steeplechases and from a British perspective Tom Gale’s qualification for the men’s high jump final.

The 400m hurdles were well contested and world record-holder Karsten Warholm virtually jogged home in his heat in 48.65 with Ireland’s Thomas Barr following him home in 49.02.

Qatar’s world medallist Abderrahman Samba was fastest overall with a 48.38 opening heat victory just ahead of Brazil’s Alison dos Santos’s 48.42.

Warholm’s expected biggest rival Rai Benjamin won his heat in 48.60.

High jump drama

Tom Gale has competed sparingly in 2021 but he did superbly to make the high jump final on what was otherwise a disappointing morning for British male athletes.

The advertised guarantee final qualification was 2.30m or top 12 and Gale finished 13th with 2.28m and was  listed at one stage as not qualifying.

He cleared 2.17m and 2.21m at the first attempt and then 2.25m at the second. However he failed his first two attempts at a season’s best of 2.28m but managed it – just – on his final attempt and he was the 13th to do so.

No one wanted to go up to 2.30m to eliminate just one athlete so the judges sensibly settled for a 13-man final.

Most of the favourites will join Gale in the final with world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim and ANA athlete Mikhail Akimenko the only two with perfect records up to 2.28m.

Ukraine’s 2.40 jumper Andrii Protsenko – fourth in Rio – was probably the biggest name casualty exiting with a best of 2.25m.

Gale said: “I feel amazing. I’ve missed a significant amount of technical work which is why today I was a little bit inconsistent and frustrated to be second and third attempt in the last two heights.

” I think I just got to the end and the image which came to my mind was one, my Dad sat in front of the TV, heart rate at like 210, and my Mum curled up in a ball watching away from the TV sat right next to him. I was like ‘I can’t let them down’.

“I’m really happy about today, but on the other side, I know going into the finals that the shape I was showing, yeah I cleared 2.28 which is a massive clearance and felt really good, in the finals if I’m third attempt it’s going to be massively costly for medals.

“I believe in myself, my knee’s a bit uncomfortable so I’ll get that addressed by the physios, and if I get to 100% I still believe in myself to get a medal.”

Stahl leads discus qualifiers

While Gale excelled, it was less of a good day for London 2012 finalist Lawrence Okoye who has looked almost back to his very best this season after his American football sojourn winning the European Team Championships and he had three no throws and did not comment after his competition.

World champion Daniel Stahl was the only athlete in either group to get the automatic qualifying mark with a 66.12m. Andrius Gudzius was next best with 65.94m.

World silver medallist Fedrick Dacres surprisingly missed out on qualifying with a 62.91m best and he was  ironically denied a top 12 place by his Jamaican team-mate’s Chad Wright’s 62.93m with the very poor distances achieved disappointing and making Okoye’s elimination all the more frustrating.

Japanese joy in fast steeplechase rounds

The steeplechase heats was the first men’s action on the track and they started impressively and confirmed this is a very fast track for distance runners.

World silver medallist and world leader Lamecha Girma, who was a very late addition to the Ethiopian team, won heat one in 8:09.83 – easily the fastest Olympic heat in history and he was quickly followed by Japanese teenager Ryuji Miura who smashed his national record with 8:09.92. It was a six second PB for the athlete who is still an under-20 athlete.

The second heat was not much slower and five broke the previous Olympic heat fastest of 8:15.11 led by Kenyan Abraham Kibiwot’s 8:12.25 just ahead of Getnet Wales’s 8:12.55.

The heat three runners knew a time of around 8:16 would have guaranteed a top five place for the final but instead they ambled round for the opening kilos and ensured only the first three would survive and Soufiane El Bakkali won in 8:19.00 from surprise Finn Topi Raitanen’s 8:19.17 as both ran 2:37 closing kilometres.

Kenyan trials winner Leonard Bett was a casualty in the big sprint finish for places and his 8:19.62 fifth place means unusually Kenya will only have two finalists.

It was a disastrous qualification for the Britons. In heat one Phil Norman started encouragingly with a 2:45.2 opening kilometre but even at 8:15 pace he was back in 14th. He was up to 13th at 2000m in 5:38.7 but was now eight seconds off of the leader beginning to struggle. He finished up 13th in 8:46.57 with kilos of 2:45, 2:53 and 3:08.

Zak Seddon, seemingly initially enjoying being free after having been confined to isolation after sharing a plane with an effected Covid traveller, also ran similar splits. However he was a leader at 1000m in 2:45.5 but was back to tenth at 2000m in 5:35.6 just three seconds off of the leader but he lost close to half a minute in the final kilometre and finished 13th in 8:43.29. His kilometres were 2:45, 2:50 and 3:08.

Seddon was naturally disappointed with his showing but philosophical. “It was hard, it was disappointing, it’s just a shame the one race in five years you want to get right and you get wrong and you don’t show your best self on the day so it’s disappointing. I went for it, I believed I was in the shape to run well so I knew what I had to do and I’m never scared of running like that but I think it just showed that on the day I wasn’t worth what it was or some things weren’t happening.

“It’s not been great and mentally it’s been hard here there and everywhere, but in this day and age that’s what sport is and some athletes are going to get easier rides in than others but you have to deal with it – you don’t get points on the finish line for having different build-ups, you know? The numbers on the scoreboard are what counts.

“Rules are rules and if I want to show up here and run at the Games I have to abide by them. If some have to suffer for the many I suppose that’s better than everyone not having a Games.”