Day 3: King Mondo

Tokyo, Japan: My goal today was to get as few steps as possible. It’s a lofty goal for someone staying 1/4-mile from the elevator on her hotel floor.

Our bed(s) are made up daily and a set of pajamas - along with a short kimono-style robe with a sash are placed near the pillows. Every night we do not wear them. I brought my own. Every night I place both sets of Jammie’s on the top of the dresser. Every night, they mysteriously appear back on the bed.

Today is a national holiday (Respect your Elders Day), so nearly everything in town was closed, so a perfect day to rest. Why doesn’t America have Respect your Elders Day? It’s always a three day weekend so you can party with grandma, or maybe take her to watch a marathon?

We watched the men’s marathon on TV. No rain on the men, and they ran the same course as the women. Tanzanian Alphonse Simbu won in a very respectable 2 hours, 9 minutes. Not bad for running in a sauna. Dave worked out in the fitness center. I stitched, and published my journal from yesterday.

Later we went to a tempura restaurant on the first floor of the hotel for lunch. It was very nice and light… and there were family groups dining together and giving wrapped gifts to grandma. Respect!

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking over our tourist activity plans, and we headed over to the stadium at 6:30p. The action this evening included men's 400m & 110m hurdle heats, plus women's 100m hurdle semis - and later the final, men's long jump qualifying, and men's 1500m semi-finals. Duck Cole Hocker found himself (per usual) on the rail coming down the straightaway in the second heat, knocked everyone out of his way and was disqualified. He won the gold medal in Paris! (Note: The US coaches have filed a protest, but I don't think he will be reinstated.)

Precision Hurdle Team: *lotsa* hurdling tonight

Finals tonight included the women's hammer, men's steeplechase and the men's pole vault.

Several big athletic shoe companies, agents, and national federations have seats in our section, so we are treated to visits from many athletes below us. Tonight we saw Canadian Camryn Rogers (Hammer gold) and Nigerian Tobi Amusan (110m hurdle silver) below our seats. Happy ladies! We have been lucky enough to follow Rogers for years, as she competed for Cal-Berkeley in college, so have seen her throw in so many NCAA meets. (Ah... Pac-12. How I miss you.)

After falling in the heats, and having his face stepped-on while laying under the steeplechase hurdle, New Zealander, Geordie Beamish won the steeplechase gold tonight! This was the first-ever gold medal for New Zealand ever in the World Championships - and he beat the heavy favorite - Moroccan El Bakkali. The crowd went crazy. El Bakkali cried. But forget about world leaders, Olympic champions and international sports superstars - there was a Japanese athlete in the race and 65,000 people in the stands were only watching Ryuji Miura. Miura is very small and so much shorter than the other competitors, but he was right-there with the pack the entire race. The stadium was SO LOUD and everyone was so excited. Everyone (not just the Japanese fans, but everyone) was cheering for Miura. He ended up in 9th place, but it was a huge moment for Japan. It wasn't too long ago, Japan seemed to only have marathoners and race walkers and rarely had a track athlete into a final - and now Japan is rising! So exciting.

And then it was Mondo Time. The pole vault competition, as usual, is a slog - with 12 men fighting it out for gold. Four competitors rose to the top quickly, World & Olympic champion and world record holder Armand (Mondo) Duplantis (Sweden, via Louisiana), Greek Emmanouil Karalis, Kurtis Marschall of Australia and American Sam Kendricks. Sam finished 4th, but he may have had other things on his mind. Since arriving in Tokyo, his wife gave birth to their second child! Bet Sammy is on the first plane to America in the morning?

Karalis was jumping so well this evening and was keeping up with Mondo... until he wasn't. After Duplantis had won, he decided to keep going and try to break the world record... which, of course, is his own world record. All other events had finished, but few people left - wanting to see if Mondo could do the impossible. He missed on his first attempt of 6.3 meters (20’8”). Jumpers have over five minutes between attempts. He sat down, removed his shoes and closed his eyes. The stadium DJ began playing ABBA! Too funny. His second attempt was also a failure, yet so very close. Again, a five minute rest. No one knew if he was going to go home or give it one more try. The local fans were having none of it - they were cheering so much and the spirit in the stadium was over-whelming. Duplantis stood and the crowd went wild. Did he do it? Watch for yourself.