By The Star Staff
Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens Delerme finished ninth in the decathlon at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Owens Delerme entered the final event, the 1,500-meter run, with the possibility of winning an Olympic diploma for finishing in the top eight overall in combined scoring, after his medal hopes had slipped away in the penultimate event, the javelin throw.
Norwegian Markus Rooth surprised the more than 70,000 spectators and athletics experts by winning the gold medal in the decathlon with 8,796 points. He accumulated 683 points for his 11th-place finish in the 1,500 with a time of 4 minutes, 39.56 seconds on a wet track. With that performance he snatched the championship from one of the favorites, German Leo Neugebauer, who took the silver medal with 8,748 points. The bronze went to Grenada’s Lindon Victor with 8,711 points.
“It has been a very difficult road, but we did it,” said Owens Delerme, who said he sustained several injuries during a competition in California after qualifying for the Olympics in April. “We are here at the Olympics.”
Owens Delerme, 24, attributed the decline in his performance on the second day of the competition to the lack of training in several events, such as the pole vault, due to stress injuries in his pelvic area three months ago. He finished 12th in the 1,500 meters on Saturday, less than a second behind Rooth.
“I couldn’t [elevate] much with the pole vault. I didn’t do so well with the javelin,” said the native of Pittsburgh who moved to San Germán to complete his training. “Despite that, I am happy to be here.”
Caguas native Gladymar Torres Crespo, meanwhile, expressed satisfaction with her performance in the 100 meters.
“I am not upset. I am satisfied with the work I did,” she said. “My heat (series) was of a very high level. It is important to have experience. I am leaving with that.”
The sprinter, who won the 100 meters and 200 meters at Las Justas for Ana G. Méndez University was in the second of three semifinal heats. Notable in that heat was the absence of three-time gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, who had qualified for the event with the second best time, 10.92 seconds. From that same heat came the top two finishers in the final, Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia (10.84 seconds) and Sha’carri Richardson of the U.S. (10.89.884).
“She [Fraser-Pryce] didn’t show up,” said Torres Crespo, who holds the Puerto Rico record in the 100 meters. “For me it was a surprise. That’s how sport is. I went to the call room and … they called her and they called her and she didn’t show up.”
The 100-meter specialist ran on Friday in heat eight of eight of the first round. She clocked a time of 11.12 seconds to break her own national mark of 11.20 seconds.
Comments