Sports
Chase Ealey makes U.S. shot put history with gold medal at WCH Oregon22
Before most of the field knew what hit it Saturday night, Chase Ealey had already won the women’s shot put at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. Ealey was throwing first in the order in the shot put final at the reimagined Hayward Field at the University of Oregon and wasted no time. On that first throw, Ealey launched the shot 20.49m to immediately put the rest of the field in a hole from the start. That throw held up as the winning mark as Ealey became the first United States’ woman to win a shot put gold medal at an outdoor World Athletics Championships.
“The list came out and me and my coach decided that was the move,” Ealey said. “I warmed up bigger than I competed, which happens a lot. But I warmed up and every throw was at 20 (meters) so I was like, ‘I think we can do this.’
“The minute I got in there and the cheers and the crowd, I knew it would happen, and so I felt really good about it.”
Ealey’s throw was just off her personal best of 20.51m set last month when she won the event at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships. That mark broke the Hayward Field record and made her the No. 2 thrower in American history. On Saturday, she made her own American history with the win. Prior to Saturday, the only outdoor World Athletics Championships medals won by U.S. women were bronzes by Jillian Camarena-Williams in 2011 and by Michelle Carter in 2015 and 2017. Ealey’s win was also the first individual medal for a U.S. athlete at WCH Oregon22 on top of being the first in U.S. women’s shot put history.
“My main goal was to come out here and get gold and to do it at home and in front of my family,” Ealey said. “To be the first medal here, the first medal outdoors for us, it’s all amazing. I feel like a bunch of firsts and I’m really proud of it.”
Getting a big mark early in the competition is not the norm for Ealey, she said, and put her in a different position as she waited to see if anyone would surpass her.
“It’s nerve-wracking, but I felt like if I had to, I could have got another throw out there,” Ealey said. “It’s hard to tell, but I felt like my last throw, had I needed it, I was definitely at that point where I was ready to go big.”
China’s Lijiao Gong figured to be Ealey’s main competition entering the final as she was the two-time defending World Athletics Championship gold medalist and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist. Gong was the only other woman to throw past 20m Saturday and moved closer to Ealey when she threw 20.23m in the third of six rounds. In the fifth round, Gong got even closer with a throw of 20.39m, but Ealey said she was confident she had maintained the lead based on where she saw the shot put land and where her previous mark was still viewable in the cinder sector.
Ealey also had throws of 19.82m and 20.07m in the competition.
“I feel like it was an amazing competition,” Ealey said. “Gong is a seasoned veteran, so she definitely had me on my toes the whole time, but I’m happy I pulled out the win even if it was just one throw.”
Gong, who is 33 years old, won her first outdoor World Athletics Championships medal in 2009 as a 20-year-old when she took bronze and won her sixth overall Championships medal Saturday. She also won bronze in 2013 and silver in 2015. Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands won the bronze medal Saturday by setting a national record of 19.77m. Canada’s Sarah Mitton also threw 19.77m, but Schilder had two throws at 19.77m, and Mitton’s second-best throw was 19.18m.
Jessica Woodard was eighth for the U.S. at 18.67m, and Maggie Ewen was ninth at 18.64m. Ealey was seventh at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, then finished fifth at the Olympic Trials last year. She won her first global medal when she finished second at the indoor World Athletics Championships in March in Belgrade, Serbia. She was second in the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Championships for Oklahoma State, and has openly discussed how it took her some time before she took track and field seriously.
“My senior of college I think I just kind of started respecting it more,” Ealey said. “And then when I went pro, I realized how amazing athletics was, which a lot of people don’t realize how amazing athletics is.
“I really started just falling in love with the sport as a whole, which made me start respecting my event more. I really felt like I could do something, and I wanted to stop being OK at something. I really turned over and started going for it.”
In the other throwing event final Saturday, Pawel Fajdek of Poland became the first person to win an event five times at the outdoor World Athletics Championships when he threw 81.98m to win the men’s hammer gold medal for the fifth consecutive time. He led a 1-2 finish for Poland as Wojciech Nowicki, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist, was second at 81.03m. Eivind Henriksen of Norway, the Olympic silver medalist, was third at 80.87m.
Rudy Winkler, the American record-holder, was sixth at 78.99m, Daniel Haugh, the U.S. champion, was eighth at 78.10m, and Alex Young was 12th. In the men’s long jump, Jianan Wang of China, the bronze medalist at the 2015 World Athletics Championships in Beijing, went 8.36m on his final jump to take the gold medal. He moved from sixth into the lead with that attempt. Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, the Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, was second at 8.32m, and Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer was third at 8.16m.
(worldathletics.org)
The first truly heavyweight clash of this expanded T20 World Cup format comes freighted with both history and subplots. A rematch of the 2010 World T20 final at Kensington Oval, the match pits Jos Buttler’s defending champions – who are aiming to become the first team to retain the trophy – against the Australian winning machine, victors at the 2021 edition and current world title-holders in Test and ODI cricket. And that’s before you throw in the Ashes for afters.
Already there is added pressure on England, after the rain in Bridgetown led to a share of the points in their opener against Scotland (and that having conceded 90 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket in a tepid bowling display). Lose to their oldest rivals and it will leave their Super 8 prospects open to being waylaid by the perils of net run-rate calculations, or worse.
The Scotland match was the third abandonment in five suffered by England, after a rain-affected home series against Pakistan, which has clearly hampered their readiness for this campaign after almost six months without playing T20 together. It does not take much for a side to click in this format – and England looked in decent shape when they did get on the field against Pakistan – but Buttler will be anxious for things to go their way on Saturday, if only to avoid further questions referencing the team’s disastrous ODI World Cup defence last year.
Australia, under the laidback leadership of Mitchell Marsh would love nothing more than to add to the English sense of jeopardy – having helped bundle them out of the tournament in India on the way to taking the crown. Their head to head record is less impressive in T20 however, with England having won six of the last seven completed encounters, as well as that 2010 final.
Despite a wobble with the bat, Australia avoided mishap against Oman earlier in the week, the experience of David Warner and Marcus Stoinis shining through in difficult batting conditions. Surfaces in the Caribbean – not to mention those games staged in the USA – have already had teams scratching their heads; rather than the “slug-fest” England had prepared for, following a high-scoring tour of the Caribbean in December, it looks as if boxing smart may be the way to go.
Speaking of Warner, this could be the last time he faces up against England in national colours – and another match-winning contribution would likely reduce the chances of them meeting again in the knockouts. On the other side of the card is Jofra Archer, fresh from an emotional maiden outing at Kensington Oval and ready to take on Australia for the first time in any format since 2020. Can Mark Wood fire up England’s campaign, as he did during last summer’s Ashes? Will Pat Cummins be back to harass the old enemy once again? Seconds out, it’s almost time to rumble.
Cummins is set to return after being rested for the Oman game, which saw Mitchell Starc leave the field with cramp. Starc is understood to be fine and could keep his place – which would likely see Nathan Ellis miss out. Marsh is still not fit to bowl, with Australia likely to continue with the allrounder combination of Stoinis and Maxwell to give them cover.
Australia (probable XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis/Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
The one change England may consider is Reece Topley coming in for Wood, with the expectation that there will be some rotation among the seamers through the course of the tournament.
England (probable XI): Phil Salt, Jos Buttler (capt & wk), Will Jacks, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley/Mark Wood
[Cricinfo]
Once is coincidence, twice is a clue, and three times is proof.
To paraphrase Agatha Christie, that is the narrative around South Africa’s meeting with Netherlands at this T20 World Cup.
The Dutch beat South Africa at the 2022 tournament and ended their semi-final hopes in a match where South Africa appeared to be sleep walking, and then beat them again at the 2023 ODI World Cup, where they exposed South Africa’s vulnerability in the chase. If they to do the treble, not only will Netherlands take the lead in Group D, but they will offer conclusive evidence of the threat they pose to Full Members, especially South Africa.
Of course, it will take some doing after South Africa’s opening performance against Sri Lanka, where they reduced their opposition to their lowest T20I total and chased it down in fairly straightforward fashion thanks to the most stable middle-order of their white-ball era. In Aiden Markram, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, South Africa have bankers and big-hitters and, for this match, they also have the advantage of experience. They’ve already played at Eisenhower Park, and have first-hand knowledge that run-scoring doesn’t come easily;Klassen said they are prepared to use their “cricket brains” and play “smarter cricket”.
But the conditions could be good news for Netherlands, who are not naturally a line-up of big hitters and build their innings on a foundation of turning ones into twos. In other words, they tend to take a slightly more conservative approach to batting, which may work well here, but they’ll be wary of the uneven bounce of the surface and will have to come up with plans to counterattack especially against South Africa’s seamers. Their own bowlers were exemplary in Dallas and will look to build on that performance against a line-up that will likely be more proactive than Nepal’s, but who they have managed to keep quiet not once, but twice in the past. Third time’s the charm, they say.
Anrich Nortje’s stunning return to form against Sri Lanka means South Africa may not have to tinker with the bowling combination, and Gerald Coetzee and Tabraiz Shamsi may have to wait their turns to get a game. The batting line-up should be unchanged, with no space for Ryan Rickelton yet.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markam, Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Ottneil Baartman, Anrich Nortje
Conditions in New York may tempt Netherlands to include an extra seamer and they have Kyle Klein in their squad. But it could come at the expense of a shortened batting line-up and they may not want to risk that.
Netherlands: Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Vikramjit Singh, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Scott Edwards (capt, wk), Bas de Leede, Teja Nidamanuru, Logan van Beek, Tim Pringle, Paul van Meekeren, Vivian Kingma
[Cricinfo]
Nuwan Thushara’s last over brought Sri Lanka screaming back into the match,as he first bowled Rishad Hossain, and then nailed Taskin Ahmed in front of the stumps with a pinpoint swinging yorker. This left Bangladesh eight wickets down, with 12 runs still to get.
However, the experienced Mahmudullah was at the crease for Bangladesh, and despite some further nervy moments, pushed Bangladesh across the line off the last ball of the 19th over.
But this was a match chiefly decided by Bangladesh’s own outstanding bowling. Mustafizur Rahman was the best among them, using shorter lengths and his cutters efficiently, to claim figures of 3 for 17. Rishad Hossain’s three-for through the middle overs also kept Sri Lanka quiet.
Mustafizur was instrumental in Sri Lanka’s downward spiral through the middle overs, which culminated in a crash-and-burn end. Ultimately, their inability to find boundaries, or even rotate strike against good Bangladesh bowling resulted in their downfall. A score of 125 for 9 always seemed poor on a decent pitch, even if their bowlers made a match of it in the end.
Brief scores:
Bangladesh 125 for 8 in 19 overs (Towhid Hridoy 40, Litton Das 36; Dhanajaya de Silva 1-11, Nuwan Thushara 4-18, Wanidu Hasaranga 2-32, Matheesha Pathirana 1-27) beat Sri Lanka124 for 9 in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 47, Dhananjaya de Silva 21; Tanzim Hasan Sakib 1-24, Taskin Ahmed 2-25, Mustafizur Rahman 3-17, Rishad Hossain 3-22) by two wickets
[Cricinfo]
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