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Athletics owes a huge debt to Tokyo, to its staunch audience. A debt that will not be able to pay off in these cursed Games, with empty seats and masks that do not allow us to smile. That crowd endured a typhoon season storm to accompany two heroes in one of the great duels in sport history. It was exactly 30 years ago, in 1991, at the Tokyo National Stadium, on which the Olympic Stadium now stands.
Carl Lewis
and
Mike Powell
fought, hand in hand, to carry the sand beyond the moat of length, into eternity. Like a
Muhammad Ali - George Foreman
, like a
Rafa Nadal - Roger Federer
, they searched the limits of themselves for the limits of the human being.
It rained, it stopped, it got worse, but nobody moved.
The wind, gusty, uncontrollable.
The stands followed in unison the clapping of the athletes before each attempt.
The two passed
Bob Beamon's
8.90
, but only Powell made it with legal wind (8.95).
The
record holder
embraced one of the best athletes of our time.
Nobody left.
The lucky ones who were there will not be able to avoid nostalgia now that athletics returns to that place in silence.
The scenario is the same, but it is not.
It was then still the stadium where, in 1964, the Japanese were able to truly enjoy their Games, watching
Bob Hayes
stop the 100-meter timer at 10.0 manuals before seeking his fortune in American football.
Another time, another athletics.
That of the 1991 World Cup, a year before the Barcelona Games, was already contemporary, although with faces that raised its appeal.
Lewis was the best,
the greatest
, but he was accompanied by many more in speed or depth.
Tokyo not only lit up the best longitude contest, but the 100 most valuable collectively until then, by the times of the final, dominated by the same man.
Until the appearance of
Usain Bolt
, no
sprinter
has managed to have his transcendence, although Lewis especially resisted the records.
These Games, the first without the Jamaican, are looking for a king, but they will not find any of such a hierarchy.
These are unique characters.
The best contest of your life
The 30th anniversary will not be fulfilled until August 30, but the opening of the stadium, last morning, on a day that ends today with the first final, the 10,000 meters for men (9:40 p.m., Spanish time), deserves to remember what happened. really over that pit. It wasn't just an isolated, magical jump. No. Lewis made the best contest of his life, going up to 8.91 with 2.9 meters per second of downwind, when the limit is at 2.0, at 8.83 with 2.3 and 8.84 and 8.87. Powell thought he had overcome all those attempts, but the judge said he had touched the clay on the beat. He got angry, something strange in this sport without
hooligans
. When he reached 8.95, he knew it before the measurement. The wind had practically stopped (0.3 m / s in favor). The gods loved the young man from Philadelphia more than the one who had done so much for athletics in the last 10 years.
Powell ended one of the legacies of the Mexico Games, in 1968. It was a brand favored by the altitude of the Azteca Stadium, with less atmospheric pressure.
It was an insurmountable legend, from another time, in black and white.
Well, its duration was 23 years.
Powell's now has 30. It is the oldest in men's athletics, with the exception of pitches dating from the 1980s, before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
A time under suspicion, like the one that hangs over the female records of
Florence Griffith
(100 and 200),
Marita Koch
(400) or
Jarmila Katrochvilova
(800).
Duplantis, Thursday, at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium.REUTERS
Three decades later, athletics cannot hold on to names of similar rank. Perhaps the most expert is
Eliud Kipchoge
, but he will only reach the track after the marathon. If he wins, he will be the only one after
Abebe Bikila
. The youngest candidate is
Armand Duplantis
, 21, the pertiguista who has surpassed the best in history,
Sergei Bubka
. His next barrier: 6.20. It is, therefore, an athletics full of aspirants to dominate the next cycle, open, and with records that have refreshed the season, including world records in four specialties, not counting the march. One would have to wonder which part is due to the new
magic slippers
.
Karsten Warholm
finished with one almost as old as Powell's, by overcoming
Kevin Young's
record
, dating from Barcelona'92, by
400 hurdles
to leave it at 46.70. A feat for a white, Norwegian, in a specialty dominated by black athletes since
Edwin Moses
. As meritorious as that of his compatriot
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
, the best of his saga, in battle with the Africans of the middle and bottom. Warholm's duel with
Rai Benjamin
can blow up the 400 hurdles.
Sydney McLaughlin
, meanwhile, beat the test in the female category in the
American
trials
(51.90).
Ryan crouser
He threw 23.37 in weight in that same appointment, very prolific, while two days apart
Sifan Hassan
and
Letesenbet Gidey
improved the female 10,000 (29: 01.03).
VERY FAST SPRINTERS
The
trials
left more things, such as excellent speed, with four men under 9.90 at 100:
Trayvon Bromell
(9.80),
Ronnie Baker
(9.85),
Fred Kerley
(9.86) and
Kenny Bednarek
(9.89). Bromell is the best of 2021 (9.77). Neither the appointment nor the Games attends
Christian Coleman
, sanctioned for not showing up for anti-doping controls. An excellent collective level, to which Bolt's compatriots do not adhere, this time. Jamaica suffers a crisis in the men's sprint but not in the women's.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
has run this year at 10.63, the fastest after Griffit, but there are also
Shericka Jackson
o
Elaine Thompson-Herah
.
It would not be unreasonable to think of a Caribbean podium.
Some presences are as relevant as absences, including
Mo Farah, Salwa Eld Naser, Brianna McNeal, Omar McLeod, Christian Taylor, Luvo Manyonga
and, of course,
Caster Semenya
, who refuses to take medication and sought classification without success in the 5,000, where you need to pass gender controls.
Harrison, on Tuesday, during a training session in Tokyo.
If 30 years separate us from Powell's record, 48 centimeters from his mark in 2021, half a meter.
An abyss in length.
8.47 is the best mark of this year jumped by a curious athlete.
Known as
Mr. Jumps
,
JuVaughn Harrison
alternates length with height and has managed, in both spatialities, to jump more than anyone else (8.47 and 2.33).
Since
Jim Thorpe
in 1912, no athlete has contested both events at the Games.
A good show that he will provide in the Olympic Stadium, although incomparable to that offered by two men to whom Tokyo will thank forever.
Arigato
, Powell and Lewis.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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