by Stuart Weir
This is Stuart Weir’s first column on the Athletissima meeting, which was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 22, 2024.
Athletissima overview
The Athletissima in Lausanne started as it often does with a street Pole Vault competition, held in a spectacularly beautiful setting on the edge of Lake Geneva on the night before the main competition. When Mondo is there and clearing 6.15m, it adds a world-class dimension to the evening.
The timing of the competition, the first after the Olympics, gives the event a unique dimension – both positive and negative. For some athletes, it is a public celebration of an Olympic triumph; for others, it is a chance to try to forget the disappointment of the Olympics. And there is always a magnificent atmosphere in the Pontelaise Stadium, which looks down on the city of Lausanne and the lake.
Olympic Champions who did their stuff included Miltiades Tentaglou, but winning only with an 8:06 with his final jump. And the longest jump of the evening was the 8.20 by Markus Rehm in the Paralympic long jump. Rehm, who jumped 8.20 twice in the evening, is deemed to have an advantage from jumping off a blade – something which has not been proved either way.
Yaraslava Machuchikh won the high jump with 1.99m in a competition where no one was able to repeat their Olympic form.
Letsile Tebogo won the 200 in 19.64, in a race that saw the top four run sub-20.
Chase Jackson, who had failed to reach the Olympic final, won the women’s shot with a season’s best 20.64, beating the Olympic champion, Yemisi Ogunleye, by a meter.
Olympic Silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith was denied a re-match with Olympic champion Quincy Hallm when the American withdrew. Hudson-Smith won in 43.96.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 1500m in 3:27.83 from Olympic champion Cole Hocker (3:29.85) and Hobbs Kessler.
Rasheed Broadbell won the 110m hurdles in 13.10, inflicting a rare defeat on Grant Holloway, the newly crowned Olympic champion, with Hansle Parchment, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion, in third.
A great way to begin the post-Paris Olympic season.
