Stade de France’s purple track and the field it surrounds were drenched in rain on Saturday night in Paris, which made the results across five finals contested all the more majestic. The night kicked off with men’s hot put final but by the time the downpour began, Ryan Crouser all but sealed his third consecutive gold medal with a 22.64 opening shot. By the time the race reached halfway through, Crouser was standing at 22.90 and Rajindra Campbell was in medal position for Jamaica’s first ever Olympic podium spot in a throwing event.

Joe Kovacs, on the other hand, was not that lucky. It took him six attempts to surpass 22 metres. When he landed a 22.15 throw, it immediately catapulted him to silver medal position having made less erroneous attempts than Campbell.

On the soaking track, Femke Bol was busy amazing the 60-thousand strong crowd with an amazing anchor run leg where she ran a split of 47.93 after taking the baton in fourth place. Her “from the depths of hell” run brought the Netherlands the second-best time ever in 4x400 mixed relay with 3:07.43, and the country’s first Olympic relay gold in 76 years.

Decathletes were also crowned, as Lindon Victor won another bronze – his first Olympic medal – after standing on the third step of world championships last year. Leo Neugebauer brought Germany the country’s first decathlon medal at the Olympic Games in 28 years. But the real surprise of the event was Markus Rooth, who stood at sixth place with three events to go but finished with a gold medal – Norway’s first decathlon gold since Helge Lovland topped the race 104 years ago in Antwerp. His 8796 was a national record, a 108-point jump from his own in European U23 Championships last year.

FIRSTS FOR CARRIBEAN COUNTRIES

A country never forgets the first time one of its athletes stood on an Olympic podium. For better or for worse, August 3, 2024 proved a day to remember for St. Lucia and Dominica, as both won their first ever Olympic medals by producing gold-medallists.

In women’s triple jump, Thea LaFond brought joy to Dominica, the island of 72.000 people, located between Guadeloupe and Martinique. As the only athlete to surpass 15 metres this year, she leapt to a new Dominican record of 15.02 metres on her second attempt and claimed the first Olympic medal of the country’s history with a gold.

In the meantime, Shaneika Ricketts, with a leap of 14.87m, clinched silver medal and marked the first time Jamaica would stand on two field event podiums in a single edition of the Olympic Games. Jasmine Moore, on the other hand, denied Cubans Liadagmis Povea and Leyanis Perez a podium spot as she clinched bronze with 14.67.

Women’s 100m field was stunned by the absence of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the semi-finals, but in the end, it was all about Julien Alfred and St. Lucia. In 10.72 seconds, she became the Olympic champion, and brought the spectators in Castries to their feet by being the country’s first ever Olympic medallist.

Sha’Carri Richardson, who had the season’s best time coming to Paris, recovered from a reaction time of 0.221 seconds to claim silver in 10.87 seconds, but failed to end the American gold medal drought in the event that has been going on since 1996. Another American, Melissa Jefferson, two-time world champion in women’s 4x100, won bronze.