Track and field brings people together, even in an empty stadium

Ethiopian takes a thrilling gold in the 10,000 metres, but there are no crowds to cheer a victory lap

At 8.14pm Tokyo time, as the public address burbled weirdly and a crew of Lycra-wrapped athletes, male and female, collapsed together in a narrow corner of the Tokyo Olympic stadium, Marvin Schlegel, a 23-year-old German runner, leapt up on to a concrete walkway above the running track and began to roar into the empty space.

Fists clenched, neck muscles fanned, Schlegel continued to roar, a kind of wild-man victory bark. Ten minutes earlier he had run the anchor leg in Germany’s mixed 4x400 relay team. His quartet, two women and two men, had just qualified for Saturday’s Olympic final by the finest of margins.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3BY6iHO