Tokyo 2020: Games Diary; Triumph and tears on Day Six

Andre De Grasse finally won gold, after six silver and bronze medals over four global championships.

Bengaluru, August 5: Day Six of the athletics events at Tokyo 2020 was a story of triumph and tears as four of them had their Olympic hopes dashed, overtaken either by injury or other contenders.

The casualties included world champions -- Noah Lyles (200M) Pawel Fajdek (hammer throw), Niklas Kaul (decathlon) and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon).

On the flipside of fortune, Canada's Andre De Grasse finally won gold, after six silver and as many bronze medals over four global championships.

Tokyo 2020: Andre De Grasse wins gold at last! Tokyo 2020: Andre De Grasse wins gold at last!

In 2016, Usain Bolt predicted before his last Olympic appearance that De Grasse would be his successor. It took five years and a roundabout route, littered with illness and injury, but he finally arrived on Wednesday (August 4) as the Olympic 200M champion, upsetting reigning world champion Lyles.

De Grasse revealed something of his relief afterwards, exclaiming: "I've been waiting for this moment."

The Canadian seemed poised to take the sprint crown from Bolt at the London 2017 World Championships, but tore his hamstring just weeks before the competition and that injury sidelined him for two seasons.

He returned tentatively in 2019 and found enough form by the Doha 2019 World Championships to win minor medals in both the 100M (bronze) and 200M (silver behind Lyles), the identical medals that he had won in Rio.

At Tokyo 2020, in the 100M, he again won the bronze medal, but the Canadian finally broke out of the pattern of minor medals in the 200M.

Gold that glitters

Drawn in lane six, he tracked the USA's Kenny Bednarek through the first 100M before taking a narrow lead that he held down the straight to claim victory in 19.62, a personal best time that lifted him to eighth on the all-time list.

"I went back after the 100M and I was a little bit disappointed in myself, that I could've done better," De Grasse told World Athletics.

"I said: 'I gotta go and get this 200, I gotta go and get it'. I knew the Americans were going to push me, and they were going to take me to a personal best. It's been five years since I had a personal best, so it was just good to get that finally out the way."

Korir leads Kenyan 1-2

Meanwhile, East Africa, the world's foremost cradle for distance runners, finally asserted itself at Tokyo 2020, as both Kenya and Uganda won their first gold medals in the stadium.

It has been a slow start for distance powerhouse Kenya, but they finally broke through in style, claiming both the gold and silver medals in the men's 800M -- as Emmanuel Korir crossed the finish line in 1:45.06, just ahead of Ferguson Rotich (1:45.23).

Chemutai does Uganda proud

History was made in the women's 3,000M steeplechase final as Peruth Chemutai sprang an upset to become the first Ugandan woman to win an Olympic medal.

With 600M to go, front-running Courtney Frerichs of the USA had a handy lead, but Chemutai patiently reeled her in and took the lead with 300M to go, surging away to win in a personal best time of 9:01.45.