On Friday night in steamy northern Paris, Claudia Hollingsworth stood on the purple track at a full Stade de France and told herself to look up and soak it all in. She is 19; she couldn’t expect too much. She was here for the experience.
But she knew that was lie. She wasn’t just here for experience, she wants more.
Hollingsworth surged into the semis of the women’s 800mCredit: Getty Images
“I don’t know how to feel. That was insane,” Hollingsworth said after the most stunning performance of her young and impressive career, coming second in her heat in 1.58.77.
“I couldn’t stop moving [on the start line], but honestly it’s probably the most relaxed I’ve been on a start line. Craig [Mottram, her coach] yelled at me as soon as I ran out and said something like ‘come on, go get it,’ and that was all I was thinking.
“I just thought ‘hold your spot, it’s no one else’s’. You’ve going to be a bit selfish and I’ve kind of learned to just get your elbows out and don’t let anyone push you around because you’re just as important as anyone in this race.
“Sunday I’ll just come with the same attitude, maybe be a bit more hungry because I’ve got some confidence now. But yeah, just enjoy the experience and go as hard as I can. I guess now it’s not just for the experience, it’s to have a real, good crack.”
Hollingsworth came second in her heat.Credit: Getty Images
Fellow Australian Abbey Caldwell ran well in her heat to finish fifth in 1.58.49 while national record holder Catriona Bisset was disappointing, finishing 7th in 2.01.60.
Bisset and Caldwell will get another chance to qualify for the semis in the repechage on Saturday.
Earlier on day one of the Olympic athletics program, Bree Masters became the first Australian woman since Melinda Gainsford Taylor in Sydney in 2000 to make the 100m semi-final when she ran third in 11.26s.
It was a mixed first day on the track: the men’s 1500m runners had a horror; the women’s high jumpers, Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson, were predictably clinical in making the final; and Rose Davies continued her steady rise to stake a place in the 5000m final.
Ollie Hoare and Stewart McSweyn, who both made the final in Tokyo, both had poor days, failing to advance from their 1500m heats but, like Bisset and Caldwell, have been given a second chance because of the new repechage system introduced for these Games.
Runners in Paris, other than in the 100m, get a second crack at qualifying with six runners from repechage races still able to get through to the semis.
Hoare’s race was bizarre. He was in the lead group for most of the race but at the bell was buffeted sideways by Kenyan Brian Komen, stumbled and nearly fell. He kept his feet, but he then got pushed around by other runners and went backwards through the field over the last 300m.
Masters makes history in the women’s 100m
Bree Masters woke up in her room in the athlete’s village and found a little note by her bedside. It was from her roommate Torrie Lewis, Australia’s fastest woman.
Masters was drawn in the same heat as Sha’Carri Richardson, the reigning world champion whom Lewis beat earlier this year.
“If I am not awake in time I wish you the best of luck, you have worked so hard to get in this individual 100m, now go and beat Sha’Carri,” Lewis wrote.
Masters quite beat Richardson but she did do something no Australian woman has done in 24 years and made it through to an Olympic semi-final in the 100m.
“I’m speechless. I went in sixth fastest and then came out three, so I’m rapt,” she said.
Rose Davies’ first Olympics in Tokyo was a blur. Then at last year’s world titles in Budapest she missed the semi-final by one place. She wasn’t going to do that again.
“I am 20 seconds faster than that now,” the 24-year-old Newcastle runner said after finishing third in her 5000m heat in 15:00.86.
The high jumpers, Olyslagers and Patterson, were efficient in advancing to the final, which is on at 3.50am Monday (AEST).
