Live: Peter Bol returns to the site of his 2021 Olympic success

I have to admit, I really like the triple jump.

When it’s done well, it looks like athletes are flowing over the runway, gliding gracefully before splashing into the sandpit.

However, the vast majority of athletes do seem to either collapse or rush the step phase, which can make it look clunky…

Anyway, Desleigh Owusu goes in Group B for Australia.

As ever, the top 12 qualify at least, but you get a free ticket if you clear 14.35m

A fast heat first up in the men’s two-lap race.

Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, who won the bronze medal in Paris, looked good in easing through to the semifinal in second place with a 1.45.01, just behind Spain’s David Barroso (1:44.94).

Botswana’s Kethobogile Haingura snuck in to get the third automatic spot with 1:45.02.

The first event of the evening is about to get underway, and there are three Australians who will all be hoping to qualify for the semifinals.

There are seven heats, the first three in each heat qualify, as do the athletes with the three fastest times who didn’t get through automatically.

The Aussies are in action in consecutive heats: Peter Bol (Heat 4), Luke Boyes (Heat 6) and Peyton Craig (Heat 5).

The Olympics champion from Paris, Kenya’s 21-year-old star Emmanuel Wanyonyi, is the number one-ranked athlete in the field and races in Craig’s heat.

Gout Gout has discovered the task ahead of him if he wants to reach the semifinals of the world championships, with the draw for Wednesday’s heat’s released today.

Gout will be in the outside lane 8 of heat 5.

And on paper, it’s not a bad draw.

Makanakaishe Charamba (Zimbabwe) and Bryan Levell (Jamaica) have both ran sub-20 this year, but they are the only two to have run faster than the Australian teen.

With the first three to go through automatically, that puts Gout in a good position.

Blessing Akwasi Afrifah (Israel) does look as a threat though, having a PB of 19.96 to his name.

Naeem Jack, the South African in lane nine, should provide a decent carrot for Gout, with his season’s best standing at 20.13.

Fellow Aussie Calab Law will run in lane two in the first heat, while Aidan Murphy is in lane eight of heat two.

I promise we’ll move on from last night’s pole vault soon, but I just had to show this footage from Dutch vaulter, Menno Vloon.

He somehow managed to channel the scissor kicking high jump technique of the pre-Fosbury flop-era to make this extraordinary clearance, that had SBS’s commentary pair Tamsyn Manou and David Basheer stunned.

How would you celebrate a job well done at the world athletics championships?

Well, it turns out most of the elite men’s pole vaulting field went and sang together — which I know a few members of the ABC Sport team are partial to as well.

Have a listen to ABC Sport Daily to discover what Kurtis Marschall‘s go-to song was and, perhaps more interestingly, what Armand Duplantis serenaded his competitors with.

Another bronze medal for Kurtis Marschall and he was absolutely delighted when he spoke to ABC Sport’s David Mark in Tokyo last night.

“I knew that’s what it was going to take if I wanted to mix it with the best in the world,” Marschall said.

“Unfortunately didn’t jump six [metres], that would have just been the icing on the cake.

“But 5,95, bronze medal, I’ll take that every day of the week.”

It’s the two-time Commonwealth Games champion’s second world championship bronze medal in a row, following his third place finish in Budapest 2023.

You know what happened last night? Mondo happened last night.

For the 14th time in his career, Mondo Armand Duplantis broke the world pole vault record to put a $US100,000 cherry on top of his third world championship gold medal.

Kurtis Marschall got a bronze medal that he was absolutely and justifiably stoked about to get Australia on the board at these championships.

And Sarah Carli qualified for the 400m hurdles semifinals.

Here the full round up.

Good evening folks and welcome to what promises to be a huge night of action at the National Stadium in Tokyo, with two Australians going for gold in the track and on the field.

My name is Simon Smale and I have just about come down from the high of seeing Mondo Duplantis doing Mondo Duplantis things, as this World Athetics Championships got its biggest wow moment so far on day three.

Olympic silver medallist Jess Hull will race in the women’s 1,500m at 11:05pm AEST, so make sure you stay awake until then.

But before that, Yual Reath will aim to stun the field in the high jump final. That starts at (9:35pm AEST).

Before all that we have three men running in the 800m, including the man who came fourth in the Olympics that were held on this exact same track four years ago, Peter Bol.

We also have Reece Holder in the 400m semifinal and Desleigh Owusu in the triple jump qualifiers. So plenty to look forward to.

As ever, keep me company by dropping me a line in the comments and let me know what you’ve enjoyed so far.