New Zealand high jumper Hamish Kerr just kept knocking the bar over – but he still ended up soaring to a bizarrely splendid Olympic gold medal at the Stade de France.
In one of the oddest competitions in Games high jump annals, the 27-year-old Aucklander triumphed in a jump-off with American Shelby McEwen, which neither seemed particularly keen to win.
The bar was pushed lower in a bid to break the deadlock but still neither could get over.
Each man missed three attempts at 2.38 metres, another at the same height during the jump-off, and another at 2.36 metres.
After 11 straight misses by the pair, world indoor champ Kerr cleared 2.34 metres to take gold, sprinting his way into the infield and lying down in the centre of the javelin arc.
Fortunately, the women’s javelin final had already finished.
“To do it the way I did it was just amazing,” Kerr said. “It was crazy.”
Kerr and McEwen could have agreed to share gold, which happened memorably in Tokyo when Mutaz Barshim, of Qatar, and Italian Gianmarco Tamberi made their famous pact.
“I have so much respect for what they did in Tokyo,” said Kerr.
“But I always thought that to add to the story and to be able to be given the chance to actually do the jump-off would be so amazing. I knew straight away we were going to make history and we did that.”
Barshim this time ended up with the bronze while Tamberi finished a disappointing 11th, commiserating with his team in the stands.
On the penultimate night of action at the Stade de France, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, sensationally beaten into fourth in the 1500m, made glorious amends by taking the 5000m crown.
The Norwegian won in 13min 13.66sec to add the gold to his wins at the event in the last two world championships. Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi finished second and American Grant Fisher was third.
The crowd were treated to the best men’s 800m in terms of depth of quality ever seen, as 20-year-old Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi edged victory over Canada’s Marco Arop by just one-hundredth of a second, narrowing missing a world record.
It was the same story in the women’s 100m hurdles as American Masai Russell disappointed the hosts by pipping France’s first track medallist of the Games, Cyrena Samba-Mayela, by 0.01sec in 12.33sec.
The Americans cleaned up in both 4x400m relays, including a barnstorming run to win the women’s event by over four seconds.
Source Agencies
