Olympic Updates (Aug. 4): Decathlete in Fourth, Wrestler with Shot at Bronze
8/4/2021 10:40:00 AM | Olympics
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Men's Track and Field
In his debut Olympic appearance, Steven Bastien (USA) is more than holding his own in the decathlon competition as he finished the first of two days in fourth place with 4,369 points. Bastien is 160 points outside of the medals, with seven men -- including world record-holder Kevin Meyer of France -- within 100 points in the other direction.
It was an eventful first five events for the multiple-time Michigan All-American, including a pair of significant third-attempt performances in the field and a season's best to close out the day on the track. He began the session with a solid 10.69 (+0.2m/s) effort at 100 meters to net 931 points, good for 10th place through one event.
Just as happened at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 2021 Olympic Trials, his decathlon nearly went off the rails early in the long jump. After fouling his first two attempts, he was left with just one opportunity to record a mark to stay alive in the competition. He delivered with a strong 7.39m (24-3) leap to net himself another 908 points, moving up to sixth overall.
He also recorded just one legal attempt in the shot put event, but it was a 14.40m (47-3) heave on his second attempt that landed just seven centimeters shy of his lifetime best for 753 points. Given the relative strength of the rest of the field in this event compared to Bastien, he slipped back down to 10th overall.
After a lengthy scheduled midday break, the decathletes were back in action in the high jump, where Bastien again came through in the clutch. He was perfect through his first four bars all the way to 2.02m (6-7.5) but missed twice in a row at 2.05m (6-8.75). Needing a make on his third and final attempt to raise the bar, he delivered with room to spare. It was not to be for Bastien at a career-best-tying 2.08m (6-9.75), though he only just bumped the bar off with his calves on all three attempts despite having the requisite hip height for a clearance.
The strong jumping -- sixth-best in the field -- earned him 850 points, including an additional 28 from his third-attempt make. Entering the final event of the day, he had moved up to sixth place with 3,442 points. An indication of how tight the competition was: without those additional 28 points, he would have remained tied for 10th.
He saved his best performance relative to the field for last, as he clocked a 47.64 season's best over 400 meters -- the fourth-fastest among the 22 men who finished the event -- to earn 927 points.
Day two of the decathlon resumes at 9:16 a.m. local time on Thursday (8:16 p.m. EDT Wednesday) with the 110-meter hurdles on USA Network. The final five events will also include the discus, pole vault, javelin and 1,500 meters. The competition is expected to conclude Thursday at 9:40 p.m. local time (8:40 a.m. EDT).
• Steven Bastien (Decathlon): 4th (4,369 points) after Day 1
» 100m Dash: 10.69 (931 points) | Results and Video
» Long Jump 7.39m (908) | Results and Video
» Shot Put: 14.40m (753) | Results and Video
» High Jump: 2.05m (850) | Results and Video
» 400m Run: 47.64 (927) | Results and Video
Stevan Micic (left, Getty Images)
Wrestling
Two Michigan wrestlers -- Myles Amine and Stevan Micic -- made their Olympic debuts Wednesday morning (Aug. 4) in the freestyle competition at Makuhari Messe Hall in Chiba, Japan.
Amine went 1-1 in his first Olympic action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and is still alive in the 86kg freestyle repechage and in contention for a bronze medal. Amine, who wrestles internationally for San Marino, cruised to a 12-2 technical superiority over Colombia's Carlos Izquierdo in his first bout, scoring on three low leg attacks, including one off the opening whistle, and adding three gut wrenches.
In the quarterfinals, Amine fell to USA's David Taylor, 12-2, after scoring first. He was pulled back into repechage when Taylor, the 2018 world champion and a two-time NCAA champ at Penn State, advanced to the gold-medal final. Amine will face Belarus' Ali Shabanau in the repechage match at 10:07 p.m. EDT Wednesday (11:07 a.m. Thursday in Japan). He is 1-1 against the four-time world bronze medalist Shabanau, most recently winning 5-1 in the opening round at the 2019 World Championships.
Micic dropped his opening-round bout to Japan's Yuki Takahashi, 7-0, at 57kg. Micic, who wrestles internationally for Serbia, gave up a passivity point and a stepout in the first period to trail 2-0 at the break but could not respond when Takahashi pulled away with a pair of takedowns in the second. He was eliminated from the competition when the Japanese wrestler dropped his quarterfinal bout on criteria.
• Stevan Micic (Freestyle 57kg): 0-1 (eliminated)
• Myles Amine (Freestyle 86kg): 1-1 (in repechage)
• Results and Video: 57kg | 86kg
