Oslo (AFP)

In an empty stadium, international athletics proposed Thursday in Oslo, with Armand Duplantis in particular, the first performances of a season turned upside down by the coronavirus pandemic.

Homer Simpson, Michael Jordan, an alien ... Funny spectators, in cardboard, fill the stands of the legendary Bislett stadium in Oslo, silent because closed to the public for the "Games of the impossible", a competition close to the 'exhibition (some unusual disciplines, a reduced plateau) which replaces the traditional meeting of the Diamond League.

A handful of hard-core spectators dressed in Vikings and perched on a lift higher than the stadium enclosure were able to admire, after two months of preparations, the recovery of the best Scandinavian athletes, including the freshest record holder in the world pole vault Armand Duplantis (6.18 m this winter).

The 20-year-old Swede crossed 5.86 m on his third try before failing to 6.01 m in this particular competition, where he was pushed in particular by the previous world record holder, the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, who had registered his own competition in his garden (5.81 m crossed on reduced momentum).

While athletics is upset by the coronavirus pandemic, with the postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 and the cancellation of the Paris Euro, Oslo looks like a recovery after various attempts to fill the lack of tartan (competition to distances, local meetings ...). The "real" international season should normally start on August 14 in Monaco.

- Warholm shines on 300 m hurdles -

Faced with Covid-19, which killed 242 people in Norway, multiple health precautions framed the event: the few journalists declared on their honor not to be sick, the possibilities of movement in the stadium were limited and the hydroalcoholic gel present in quantity.

With athletes congratulating each other without touching each other, the atmosphere contrasted with the life that swarmed around the stadium between the café terraces filled and the streets full of people under a radiant sun.

Without noise and without stake, the local stars shone all the same: the double world champion of the 400 m hurdles Karsten Warholm established the best performance of all time by running alone on the very little practiced discipline of the 300 m hurdles (33 dry 78).

The double European champion (1,500 and 5,000 m) Jakob Ingebrigtsen took just 19 years from the European record of 2,000 m (4 min 50 sec 01), which was also not very popular. With four other half-cross-country skiers, including his two brothers, he won a team competition against five Kenyans who were racing at the same time in Nairobi, including the 1,500m world champions Timothy Cheruiyot and Elijah Manangoi.

© 2020 AFP