This is Stuart Weir’s first column about the Atletissima match that took place in Lausanne, Switzerland on 22 August 2024.
Athletics overview
The Athletissima in Lausanne began, as it often does, with a street pole vault competition held in a spectacularly beautiful setting on the edge of Lake Geneva, the night before the main event. When Mondo is there and clears 6.15m, it adds a world-class dimension to the evening.
The timing of the competition, the first since the Olympics, gives the event a unique dimension, both positive and negative. For: for some athletes, it is a public celebration of an Olympic victory. for others, it’s a chance to try to forget the disappointment of the Olympics. And it’s always a luxurious atmosphere at the Ponteles Stadium, overlooking the city of Lausanne and the lake.
Olympic champions who did their thing included Miltiades Tentaglou, but only won with a final jump of 8:06. And the longest jump of the evening was 8.20 Paralympic long jump by Marcus Rehm. Rehm, who has jumped 8.20 twice in the evening, is believed to have an edge over the blade, something that has by no means been proven.
Jaroslava Macuchych won the high jump at 1.99m in an event where no one else could repeat her Olympic form.
Letsile Tebogo won the 200 in 19.64, a race where the top four ran as many as 20.
Chase Jackson, who failed to reach the Olympic finals, won the women’s shot a season’s best 20.64, beating the Olympic champion, Yemisi Ogunlie, by one meter.
Olympic silver medalist Matt Hudson-Smith was denied a rematch with Olympic champion Quincy Holm when the American withdrew. Hudson-Smith won in 43.96.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 1500m in 3:27.83 from Olympic champion Cole Hawker (3:29.85) and Hobbs Kessler.
Rasheed Broadbell won the 110m hurdles in 13.10 with a rare defeat to Grant Holloway, the newly crowned Olympic champion, with Tokyo 2021 Olympic champion Hansle Parchment third.
A great way to kick off the post-Paris Olympic season.
