Rome – The Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica) e Karsten Warholm (Norway) were named world athletes of the year ai World Athletics Awards 2021.
Thompson-Herah was the protagonist of one of the most beautiful sprint seasons in history, confirming his Olympic titles in the 100 and 200 m Tokyo and adding a third gold medal in the 4×100 m relay. In addition to his Olympic hat-trick, he also scored the best seasonal performances with 10.54 and 21.53. «I went very close to the world record – in the words of Thompson-Herah – so anything is possible. The World Cup in Oregon is definitely my next big goal, ”he added.
Warholm uncapped one of the most extraordinary performances in track and field history when he took gold in the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics. Having already broken the world record with 46.70 in Oslo ahead of the Games, Warholm surpassed all expectations in the Japanese capital by taking gold with a stunning world record of 45.94. «I am so happy for this – Warholm said – The first time I saw the weather, in Tokyo, I thought: ‘It must be a mistake!’.
The blue Gianmarco Tamberi and the Qatari Mutaz Barshim were awarded with the Inspiration Award for the shared gold medal in the high jump at the Tokyo Olympics.
Elaine Thompson-Herah is in history. By Giorgio Cimbrico
The Tokyo trio and poker gave Elaine Thompson the World Athletics Oscar: last Jamaican, Usain Bolt in 2016, sixth “statuette, last Jamaican, Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce in 2013. Elaine, 29 years old, married Herah , is Olympic champion of 100, 200 and 4×100 and, five years after Rio, has granted an encore in the two individual races. It is in history. And not just for the medal collection.
“I have to continue my work, I feel that there is still something inside me, something more. I have a mission to accomplish”, He confessed after Eugene’s 10” 54. Some tend to consider it the real world record. He was already second of all time after the 10 “61 in Tokyo, before reaching five cents from Florence Griffith Joyner’s 10” 49, after dominating a race to be archived as one of the greatest in history: Shelly Ann Fraser dictates the Pocket Rocket 10 “73, Shericka Jackson 10” 76, in a repeat of the Olympic podium, all Jamaican. To give the idea of thickness, the Swiss Mujinga Kambundji seventh in 10 ”96.
Elaine, a native of Banana Ground, near Jamaican Manchester, does not have a thunderous start: if she had that too and grafted it on her progressive and on her magnificent launched phase, she could aim for the size of 10 ”4. And that’s exactly what he’s aiming for when he talks about mission. In Eugene, in addition to a brand new track, he was able to enjoy an exciting field of opponents, excellent conditions and a perfect favorable wind, just under one meter.
There is no need to exhume once again the suspicions on Florence Griffith’s 10 “49 at the Indianapolis 1988 Olympic selections and on that wind benignly indicated with a double zero, when it is known that on the triple platform, that day, it blew very generously . And in the same verse. More importantly, Thompson and Fraser have scattered seasons upon seasons of times under 10.90. The concentration of Florence’s performances covers a very short period of time: from July to September ’88 came the four times that upset the sprint, 10 “49, 10” 61, 10 “62 and 10” .70. To find her name it is necessary to descend to find her again with 10.88 and 10.89, always centered in that season interpreted by who was called a bionic woman. O Wonderwoman. To suddenly disappear before reaching 39 years of age.
This year Elaine has eight performances between 10 “54 and 10” 78, in the battle for gold he got the better of the resurrected veteran Shelly Ann for 13 cents and his pursuit of Flo Jo goes on even on 200: the 21 “53 of the Olympic final, won with 28 cents on the 19 year old Namibian Christine Mboma, puts her in second place of all time, 19 cents from the 21 ”34 that Griffith hit in another Olympic final, that of Seoul.
Karsten Warholm, a man of records. By Giorgio Cimbrico
“I do not think that Bolt’s 9” 58 is better than what Warholm did “: Rai Benjamin judged that at the ninth hurdle of the Olympic final he returned to Karsten Warholm and ended up igniting the last stocks of the Norwegian’s competitive fury. The result, 45 ”94 in the 400hs. And Benjamin just over two tenths, 46 ”17, at the bottom of the most amazing race in history on the unforgiving distance. If Bob Beamon flew to Mexico in the 21st century in ’68, what meanders of time did the screaming and slapping young man go into before bending over the blocks, strictly in the seventh lane?
At 25 Warholm adds to the European title, two world titles, Olympic gold, two world records, World Athletics’ Athlete of the Year Oscar. It was taken for granted because that time – “good even without ten obstacles” someone said, dreamily – is a touchstone that will last for who knows how long, it is a result torn by asking for and obtaining one hundred percent of the energy, of the mental strength. , without losing the thread of the rhythm that governs the succession of flat sections and the overcoming of barriers. The 400hs have the cadences of a Prokofev piano sonata.
Karsten Warholm in Tokyo 2020
“The night before the final – said Karsten – I was restless, I was struggling to fall asleep. I felt like I was a child again, when I was waiting for Christmas. A feeling that I never thought I’d relive ”. The gift arrived, gigantic, two months after Warholm had put an end to the endless reign of Kevin Young, almost 29 years to go from 46 “78 to 46” 70: “For me a decisive moment, especially for the place: for a Norwegian, the Bislett in Oslo is an unparalleled stage, with a great audience. I was happy and I felt I still had petrol in the tank ”.
And so the little progress became a chasm in Tokyo, so deep that someone, staring at the scoreboard, thought of a “breakdown” in the timing. Instead, everything is regular. “The greatest moment of my life” it offered the final mutation of a very noble distance that had lived by for many years: Rai Benjamin, second, 46 ”17; Alison dos Santos, third, 46 ”72; Kyron McMaster, fourth, 47 ”08; Abder Samba, fifth, 47 ”12. One world record, three area records, European, North American, South American. Alessandro Sibilio, under 48 “in the semifinals, will always be able to say:” I was there “..
Reviewing the exploits of those who have been able to combine Olympic victory and world record, Warholm would have given twenty meters to David Hemery, eighteen to John Akii Bua, fifteen to Edwin Moses, at least 8 to Kevin Young who as a world record holder held a lot to long, until the advent of the Viking born in a country, Volda, placed in a tangle of arms of the sea, with an adolescent past in the decathlon, with a future that will lead him to new challenges, with and without obstacles.
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