There's only one person going to win gold in the pole vault... EDIT: Sorry, you're referring to the women's pole vault! Apologies, I have my idiot head on today, clearly!
Caudrey failing to clear 4.55 is a massive shock. The way she's been going this year, you'd back her to clear 4.55 with her eyes closed.
Gold Medal for Great Britain Track cycling - women's team sprint GREAT BRITAIN GET THE GOLD! It's another world record! That's the third time this evening GB have broke it. Britain were second best after that first lap, but they make up the distance and Emma Finucane finishes it off, crossing the line in 45.186 seconds. New Zealand were 0.473 seconds behind and they'll get silver.
A superb night of track and field. Allman in the Women's discus, Keely Hodgkinson's excellent run in the 800m (she pulled all the other runners through under 1.59), (loved the way she rang the bell a la Lyles), and the superb Duplantis in the pole vault and a new WR and OR. It will be difficult to better that!!
I've been following Keelys progress for 5 or 6 years and she's come so close to THAT moment so many times on the big stage, but theres always been someone just a little bit better on the day. This time everyone knew that Keely was THE class act and it was hers to lose, but she still had to go out there and win it. And she sure did that despite clearly not having her absolute best level in her legs from the fatigue of the semi and the weight of nerves and expectation on her shoulders. She didn't even need her best level to win it, and you could see the determination all over her face, she was not going to allow anyone to take that win from her. Get in Keely, Olympic champion and GB's golden girl of Athletics for the foreseeable. Duplantis is actually unbelievable. We've not seen how high he could go because it makes no sense for him to do anymore than increase his own WR by 1cm each time because he will get paid out every time he breaks it. Think he's broken it 9 times now? and when you see the ease and distance with which he clears it you could see him still breaking it another 10 or 15 times. Records are there to be broken but nobody comes even close to Duplantis. I'm clearly being dramatic but he has no competition but his own, he is basically a god
Ingebrigtsen v Kerr in the 1500m final tonight should be tasty. Hopefully the rivalry will push them both to new heights and we can see an almighty smack down, with Kerr coming out on top of course!
Can you see her running in the 4 x 400 relay team RSS? I can visualise her as both a 400m and 800m. She has the stamina of the 800m and the speed of a 400m as illistrated in the way she pulled clear in the last 200m.
One slight disappointment from last night was the non-appearance of Hughes in his 200m heat. I know he has just come back from injury and has competed very lightly. I don't know if he came to the Olympics because it is a once in a lifetime experience or because Team GB persuaded him to go. It would appear he will not be in the 4 x 100 relay lineup either. In the US he would not have got this free ticket. Sadly, British sprinting is back in the doldrums again, and possibly due to a lack of funding as this drops when the athletes do not perform at the highest level.
I think it will be interesting to see what she does from here! She could go down the route of adding in the 4x400m, though I think she'd have to work on her top end speed to really be able to compete with the top 400m runners. Her 400m pb is 51:61. She has used 400m races in the last few seasons to help build her speed for the 800m but I think her strength is also in race tactics and you lose that a bit with shorter distance races. I think she will want to cement her place at the top of the 800m podium by beating Mu on the big stage, and win the titles that have alluded her like the World Champs. She has come out and said that she thinks the 800m WR is within her reach now. She could always look to the 1500m and try to emulate Kelly Holmes with the 800/1500m double, but shes not shown any signs of upping the distance and hasn't clocked an official 1500m time since 2018!
