The China Mail - Olympics: Athletics, Day 7

Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali will bid to defend his 3000m steeplechase title and become only the third Arab to win double gold.

AFP Sport looks at five stand-out events on the seventh day of competition in the athletics programme.

Men's 400m - Final

Matthew Hudson-Smith can complete a remarkable comeback and become Britain's first Olympic champion since Eric Liddell won the last time the Games were held in Paris 100 years ago.

The 29-year-old's talent is not in doubt but a global title would lay to rest claims that he tightens up when it matters after silvers in last year's worlds and the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

One of the threats to him is the man who beat him in the Commonwealth Games final, Zambia's Muzala Samukonga.

The Americans possess no one with the intimidating star quality of Michael Johnson or Jeremy Wariner but in Michael Norman they have a proven winner, the 26-year-old taking the world title in 2022.

Men's 3000m Steeplechase - Final

Three-time world champion Soufiane El Bakkali will bid to defend his 3000m steeplechase and write his name in history as just the third Arab to win double gold.

Only his Moroccan compatriot Hicham El Guerrouj, who won 1500m and 5,000m gold in Athens 2004, and Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli (1500m freestyle in Beijing 2008 and 10km marathon in London 2012) have achieved the feat.

His victory in Tokyo saw El Bakkali become the first non-Kenyan runner to win the Olympic steeplechase title since 1980.

And the fast-finishing Moroccan has plans that extend from his world championship showings to beyond the Paris Games.

"I hope to achieve five golds, what with the Paris Olympics and next year's world championships in Tokyo," the 28-year-old said.

Women's Pole Vault - Final

Heading into the Olympics, Britain's world indoor champion Molly Caudery looked primed to challenge for gold after setting a world-leading 4.92m earlier this year.

But Caudery's Olympic dream ended abruptly in the qualifying round on Monday when she failed in all three attempts at 4.55m.

The Briton's absence sets the stage for another duel between Australia's Nina Kennedy and defending Olympic champion Katie Moon of the United States, who shared the gold medal at last year's World Championships in Budapest.

Kennedy however appears to have an edge, impressing with a victory at last month's London Diamond League event, where she cleared 4.85m to secure victory.

Men's Discus Throw - Final

Lithuania's Mykolas Alekna could win Olympic discus gold 20 years after father Virgilijus won the second of his two Olympic gold medals in the discipline at the 2004 Athens Games.

Mykolas, 21, broke the longest-standing world record in men's track and field in April after launching a 74.35m throw.

That monster heave shattered the nearly 38-year-old previous best mark of 74.08m set by East Germany's Jurgen Schult on June 6, 1986.

Although Alekna has regularly passed 70m in competition since setting his world record, he is likely to face a stiff challenge from 2022 world champion, Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia, who pipped Alekna at the European Championships in June.

Sweden's Daniel Stahl, the reigning Olympic and world champion, is also looming large in a stacked field.

Men's High Jump

Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi and Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim offered up one of the most iconic images of the Tokyo Games three years ago.

The pair agreed to share gold in the men's high jump, a decision that caught the imagination of an expectant audience across the world, which was at the time ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"To be honest, it will never happen again," three-time world champion Barshim told AFP, with Wednesday's heats to be followed by the final on Saturday.

There are also injury doubts over Tamberi, the Italian posting photos of himself sat in a hospital bed, saying he had kidney pains and was running a temperature.

It is Tamberi who has produced the biggest leap of the year, 2.37m, to win his third consecutive European title in Rome in June.

New Zealand's world indoor champion Hamish Kerr, world silver medallist JuVaughn Harrison, fellow US jumper Shelby McEwen and South Korea's 2022 world indoor champion Woo Sang-hyeok will be waiting in the wings.

O.Tse--ThChM