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2024 Paris Olympic Games

Today's Morning Recap: 5K Carnage, Spain Walks Sub-3 Marathon For Gold

Today's Morning Recap: 5K Carnage, Spain Walks Sub-3 Marathon For Gold

Americans Grant Fisher, Hobbs Kessler, and Bryce Hoppel all advanced, as did the women's hurdlers led by Masai Russell.

Aug 7, 2024 by Harry Prevor
Today's Morning Recap: 5K Carnage, Spain Walks Sub-3 Marathon For Gold

The sixth morning session of in-stadia action is behind us, and dozens of crucial semi-final and final spots were doled out to top performers. We've covered it all live for you, but for those not interested in the play-by-play from this morning here are the big takeaways.

Carnage In the 5K Heats: Bodies Strewn Across the Track

Beginning last year, World Athletics removed time qualifiers from distance races at Worlds, a move applauded by most as it removed the "advantage" for later heats knowing the times they needed to run from the earlier races. At the 2023 Worlds, it didn't significantly affect the winning times -- it only takes one person in the field to take it out in order to drag the field along with them.

That all changed during the first 5K semifinal at the Olympics this morning. After a slow first 1K of 3:06, most thought someone would take the pace eventually. But kilometer after kilometer, it never happened. At some points, the race was six wide going in to the final lap.

At about 500m to go, the pack took its first victim as Mo Ahmed fell onto the track. He got up and tried to make up the distance, but it was an insurmountable gap. 

But it was not until 100 meters to go that the carnage really began. As Narve Nordas led with the American Graham Blanks safe up front, the former Refugee Team athlete now representing Spain, Thierry Ndikumwenayo, appeared to initiate a scuffle that resulted in the abrupt falls of George Mills, Mike Foppen, and Dominic Lobalu.

Photos after the race appeared to show George Mills angrily confronting French athlete Hugo Hay post-fall, who led the race in the early stages. In the end, protests were filed and Mills, Foppen, and Lobalu were automatically advanced to the finals.

Blanks, who advanced in that first heat, told NBC after the race, "Staying on the rails, that's marginal gains... Low reward for high risk. Some people unfortunately fell, we never like to see that. For me I'm happy with how it went, let's move on to the finals." In a show of class, Blanks said his last-minute selection for the team after Parker Wolfe was deemed ineligible on rankings was an "Incredible honor. I'm out here running for him (Wolfe) and running for the United States."

One would think that mistake wouldn't be repeated in the second heat, but alas we were treated to déjà vu as it went out in 3:05. Luckily, heat 2 only took one casualty, but unluckily it was American Abdi Nur in the final lap. He might have a case for a protest, but as of writing, Nur has not yet been advanced to the final that way according to the World Athletics results.


Fan favorite Luis Grijalva, who has twice finished 4th in the 5K at Worlds, avoided a fall but didn't have it on the last lap and was left out.

Hoppel And A Tired Kessler Advance In the 800m

Both Hobbs Kessler and Bryce Hoppel advanced through the 800m rounds with no red flags. Though Hoppel was bested by an all-out Mohamed Attaoui of Spain, he ran controlled to finish 2nd in 1:45.24. Earlier in heat 4, Kessler moved up in the final 100m to finish 3rd and auto-advance. The third American Brandon Miller was not so fortunate, finishing 8th in his heat and moving backwards over the home stretch. He'll have one more chance to qualify in the new repechage rounds.

Kessler said after the race to NBC, "I was tired. It got away from me there a little bit, but I know a lot can happen in the last 150." Of his 1500m 5th-place finish, "I'm proud and I'm proud to be an American miler, that's for sure. It would have been great to come home with a medal but I'm proud."

Spain Walks a 2:50:31 Marathon In the Couples Race We Didn't Know We Needed

In order to achieve gender event parity, World Athletics removed the men's 50K race walk from these Olympics and added a new "Marathon Race Walk Mixed Relay" in its place. Drawing inspiration from the famed Ekiden marathon relay in Japan and also from the 2 x 2 x 400m race that Donavan Brazier won at the World Relays, the event features one man and one woman walker per country.

The male athlete walks about a quarter-marathon (~10K) before handing off to the female athlete who walks another quarter-marathon, who then hands back to the same male athlete to walk the third quarter of the marathon before the same female athlete anchors the race. All in all, each athlete runs about half the marathon total.

The U.S. sent several teams attempting qualification, but wasn't able to place top 22 at the Race Walking Team Champs so they went unrepresented. No matter, the Spanish duo of Alvaro Martin and Maria Perez stormed to the lead and posted a dominating performance to win the gold medal.

Their time for the marathon distance? 2:50:31 -- and remember, they were walking. Next time you finish a marathon slower than that, just imagine Martin and Perez literally "walking you down" in the final stretch. The silver medal went to Ecuador's team of Brian Daniel Pintado and Glenda Morejon in 2:51:22, and bronze was bagged by Rhydian Cowley and Jemima Montag in 2:51:38.


For those that remember the racewalking couple that proposed last Thursday during the 20K walks, they returned in this race as a team -- Dominik Cerny and Hana Burzalova of Slovakia ran their first race together as fiancé and fiancée and finished 18th in 3:03:54. Dominik was spotted giving Hana a smooch on the finish line after she anchored the Slovak team in their first appearance at this new event.

When Are The Paris 2024 Olympic Games?

The Olympics begin on July 26 and end on August 11. The track and field events will begin on Aug. 1. 

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