A contrasting day for Nafi Thiam who is making his return to the European Athletics Championships in Rome. The double Olympic champion began with the traditional 100m hurdles event. Only seventh in her series, our compatriot achieved a time of 13.74, a time far from her record but the main thing is elsewhere for her. Competing in the next series, Noor Vidts put in a very good performance, finishing at 13.16, setting a new personal best. After one event out of seven, Vidts was second while Thiam was sixteenth.
Thiam makes up for it
After the 100 meter hurdles, the program continued with the high jump. After the successive failures of several candidates for the podium, Nafi was the only one to cross the bar at 1m86, where Noor Vidts stopped at 1m80. Better yet, Thiam then passed the bar at 1m95, enough to take the lead in the general classification. Noor Vidts currently ranks just behind the reigning two-time Olympic champion.
A contrasting evening
In the evening, the program continued with the shot put. With a throw of 15.06 meters, Nafi achieved his best throw of the season – and the second best performance of this heptathlon, ahead of… Noor Vidts, at 14.79 meters (personal best) – and dug a little deeper into his ahead of the main competitors.
Nafi Thiam, the choice of discretion
To end the first day of the hepathlon, Nafi Thiam achieved a time of 24″81 over 200m. An honest time, four tenths from his personal best. In the same series, Noor Vidts finished first in 23″85 . The two Belgians therefore finished the first day of the heptathlon in the lead. Nafi Thiam has 3955 points, 35 more than Noor Vidts who has 3920.
The heptathlon continues this Saturday with the long jump (12:10 p.m.), the javelin throw (6:05 p.m. or 7:20 p.m.) and the 800 meters to conclude (9:43 p.m.).
Present in Rome after many months without competition, Nafi Thiam is under pressure because these European Championships represent her last chance to reach the minimums for the Olympics, namely 6480 points, a formality a priori for her, but a small error could therefore be fatal to him.
