By Yavuz Yavuz in Tokyo National Stadium
Two field finals opened the night in Tokyo. In women’s pole vault, the medallists were more or less determined by the time the bar reached 4.80. Amalie Sablikova of Czechia skipped the height at her last attempt and failed to clear 4.85, which left the field for Katie Moon, Sandi Morris and Tina Sutej to determine which way the medals would go. For a brief while it looked like Sutej could give the American duo a scare, but she failed all her three attempts at 4.85, leaving Tokyo with bronze.
Sandi Morris cleared 4.85 at her first attempt, as Katie Moon decided to skip the height after her first failure and it seemed like after silvers in 2017, 2019 and 2022, the American five-metre club member would finally win the world gold. But Katie Moon managed to clear 4.90 at her second attempt, and when Morris failed all her attempts, a three-peat was a done deal for her. This is only the third time this was achieved — the first two belongs to Sergey Bubka and Armand Duplantis. The only other pole vaulter to win three world titles in women’s competition is Yelena Isinbayeva.
FURLANI COMPLETES THE DOUBLE
Men’s long jump final was a four-way battle to the end which took off with a 8.33 leap from Tajay Gayle, the champion of Doha 2019. World indoor bronze medallist Yuhao Shi matched the length and took the lead by the merit of two unfaulted attempts. Simon Ehammer seemed to pose a challenge to the two with 8.30 at his third attempt but the next round Gayle took back command with 8.39. In the meantime, defending champion Miltiadis Tentoglou, who seemed to have had almost everything off with him this season, was eliminated with his best attempt sitting at 7.83.
That was when Mattia Furlani took the stage. The Olympic bronze medallist leapt to a PB of 8.39 at his fifth attempt, and with no one to outjump that mark, he won Italy’s first long jump gold since Fiona May emerged victorious 24 years ago. Furthermore, Furlani also completed the indoor-outdoor double having won the title in Nanjing earlier this year.
Faith Cherotich was in command of the women’s 3000m steeplechase final. She clocked sub-8:52 for the first time in his career, and her gold-winning time of 8:51.59 is not only a championship record but it now also stands at fifth place on the all-time list. Her winning margin of 4.87 seconds to Winfred Yavi is the second largest in the history of world championships. While Sembo Almayew won bronze in 8:58.86, Marwa Bouzayani pushed real hard to win Tunisia’s first world medal in a decade and came in fourth.
NADER STUNS THE 1500M FIELD
The crown jewel of the night session of the fifth day was the men’s 1500m final. In the highly speculated final that lacked the likes of Cole Hocker, the Olympic champion, and Azzeddine Habz, the fastest man of the season over the distance, or a star like Jakob Ingebrigtsen, it was Portugal’s Isaac Nader who capitalized on the opportunity.
The final included three former world champions, two Scotsmen Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, as well as Timothy Cheruiyot. While defending champion Kerr was set back with a calf injury, the other two were edged at the end of the race from their targets.
Run in a relatively slow tempo in the absence of a dominant specialist to pace the group, there were at least five contenders for the top spot coming into the final lap. Niels Laros, the young Dutch who was seen as an upset potential before the race and led the pack in the first laps, failed to deliver on his trademark home straight kick. Timothy Cheruiyot was surpassed by Reynold Cheruiyot, a fellow Kenyan and a training partner, who clinched the first major result of his career with a bronze.
The real battle, however, was for the gold. While Jake Wightman was determined to save the top spot for Britain, Isaac Nader, European Indoor bronze medallist this year, climbed up from the fifth place in the last 200 metres and dived for gold. His 3:34.10 clocking was only 0.02 seconds better than Wightman which marked the closest finish in the history of the event in world championships.
