Heptathlete Cherri Hawkins no-height in the HJ: Tried to open way too high

I was going to ask the same thing. It's amazing to me how often this happens in the HJ and PV in the multis. They do tons of training and it's 7 or 10 events, just get one safety jump to get something on the board and the pressure off. An attempt takes 5 seconds.

Poor decision-making at the biggest event of the world.

She thought all those A skips in practice were going to get her to new heights

for reference, 5 competitors opened up as low as 1.62, before the bar saw 1.65, 1.68 and then 1.71 where she failed to clear it 3x

given she's had a competition this season where 1.70 was her final mark, as a coach i would have still been nervous having her open at 1.65

1.62 would have been an easy way to get on the board and shake the nerves out

Chari seen leaving the Stade de France:

As well as knock the rust out with the practice jumps.

Is that what they call those? I see what you did with your comment, that was harsh...but funny.

She almost looked in shock when talking to her coach. Her hand was shaking uncontrollably at one point. It reminded me of the Tom Hanks character in Saving Private Ryan whose hand was always shaking. I heard her say, "Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. I don't even know what to do. I am so shocked right now." Then she shook her head and knelt down against the wall and started repeating, "No, no, no, no ,no" like she was trying to convince herself that it did not actually happen. It was almost tough to watch. Give credit to her coach, though. She remained calm and reassuring, even holding her hand at one point.

If you watch the replay of this mornings competition, her 3rd jump occurs around 1:27:00 right after the women's 4x100 relay and her reaction is around 1:28:45.

Anna Hall's tactic has been quite the contrast to Cherri's in the HJ today, opening up about 15cm below where she prob figured she'd at least get to and ended up being 18cm below her final clearance of 1.89

1.71
1.74
1.77
1.80
1.83
1.86
1.89
1.92 - failed to clear

Looks like Anna and/or Anna's coach would have recommended Cherri open up at 1.62 or 1.65 at the max.

I give a lot of the credit to her coach for letting/advising Cherri to open up way too close to her maximum capacity

Massive fail on her coach's part, as Cherri ends up as the only athlete to no-height

Saw it with Molly Caudery into he pole vault as well. She skipped the opening height of 4.40 to go straight to 4.55 and ended up with no mark. The indoor world champ and current world leader with 4.92m didn't even get out of qualifying. It just seems stupid to me to not get some easy clearances in while you can

She seemed so unbelieving at one point it was as if she didn't realize she'd picked 1.71.

There seems to be no excuse for not going in way too low to make sure, it's just 1 jump so won't take too much energy out of you.

Feel bad for her, lot of effort put in all year and then it's over after only an hour or so. Athletics is very top heavy. Your career is defined by very few champs, and your injured out of form for some of them. 4 years for another go at Olympics :(

She was in 3rd place at the World Indoor Championships in 2022 when she had three fouls in the long jump. Withdrew with only the 800m remaining.

Wouldn't normally be the same because in multi events getting an early mark is completely common sense because of the points situation.

Early heights in PV qualification would generally count for nothing if they're not high enough to get you through. In this case a first time clear at 4.40 was enough to make the final (the opening height was 4.20).

Negligence by her coach, surely?

The pressure of no jumping on a height when you've got nothing on the board can quickly lead to what we saw here, especially at the Olympics. 3 jumps is nothing.

In multi-events, surely getting something on the board (even if it's well below your max) eases the pressure on subsequent jumps to a benefit far greater than 'saving your legs'.

It just seems unbelievably stupid. Surely just see them as warm up jumps?

Frustrating that Molly did a similar thing. It’s the Olympics, you can’t make stupid decisions like this. Hopefully it will discourage other athletes from following.

I thought it was pretty common knowledge of coaches in HJ and PV to come in at least two heights below your current best or so. Even Mondo took a safety jump at a low bar to work the kinks out before skipping a couple of heights. No one wants a NH next to their name and there was no reason for it to happen here.

They probably got the math wrong between imperial and metric. Because America.

She and her coach will wake up in the middle of the night thinking about this for the rest of their lives.