The Nordic super evening in the athletics world championship came off. The dream was three golds – the result one silver. The only medal went to Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who had to see himself beaten by the competition’s biggest winner so far.
In the Olympics in Tokyo, Sweden took a double victory through Daniel Ståhl and Simon Pettersson. In the WC in Eugene, there were two Lithuanian medals, while the Swedes ended up completely off the podium.
Pettersson finished fifth and Ståhl fourth in a final where Kristjan Čeh won with the WC record 71.13. He took that record from double Olympic champion Virgilijus Aleknas – whose son Mykolas completed his breakthrough season at senior level by winning World Cup silver.
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The 19-year-old finished second with 69.27 and the bronze also went to Lithuania through ex-world champion Andrius Gudžius with 67.55.
Ståhls stayed at 67.10, but also had a throw that was measured at 69.16. A video review nevertheless showed that the heel touched the edge of the ring and the bronze length was exchanged for disappointment.
Warholm did not hold
In Tokyo, Karsten Warholm was perhaps the biggest star after an unparalleled world record. He came to Eugene as a question mark after an injury that meant that he effectively started the competition season in the WC.
In the trial heat and the semi-final it still went the way, and about 300 meters in the final. It then stopped there.
Warholm started strong, led for a long time and kept pace with Alison dos Santos into the race, but hooked. Brassen won in a fantastic time of 46.29 ahead of the Americans Rai Benjamin and Trevor Bassitt.
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Warholm limped to the finish in seventh, just ahead of the Estonian Rasmus Mägi.
– Already in the curve it started to look difficult for Warholm and when he then had to change his rhythm from 13 to 15 paces, he completely lost speed. It didn’t hold together this time, says Yle Sport’s expert Mikael Ylöstalo.
Resounding victory in the 1500 meters
It was a Nordic medal. Seen in advance, the safest card held – but not all the way to victory.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the lead with just over two laps remaining in the 1500m final and looked to be in complete control of the race.
But he did not manage to shake off his rivals and with 200 meters to go an unexpected name appeared. Jake Wightman took the lead into the final corner and never let go.
Ingebrigtsen tried to squeeze past on the run but the Briton held off and took the WC’s most unexpected gold so far. Wightman ran a new personal best with 3.29.23 and defeated runner-up Ingebrigtsen by 24 hundredths.
Of the four Nordic Olympic athletics champions from Tokyo, three were betting on repeating the victory in Eugene within the space of an hour. All eyes now turn to Armand Duplantis, who skips the pole vault on Friday.
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In the evening’s fourth final, there was also a surprise victory, as Australia’s Eleanor Patterson cleared two meters outdoors for the first time and won with a tantalizing Oceanic record of 202. Ukrainian favorite Jaroslava Mahuchikh also cleared 202, but she cleared the height on the second attempt, while Patterson flew over in first.
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