While the rain spared the Commonwealth heptathlon athletes on their first morning, they would not be so fortunate on Tuesday evening as thunder and lightning cracked the sky over Scotstoun.

Shot

Hardy officials with giant rollers tried their best to relocate the rainwater from the heptathlon shot competition, and from the women’s high jump final taking place on the opposite bend. We can only assume Tuesday night’s entries in La Olyslagers’ journal read “Damp. It’s so damp.”

Niamh Emerson was first to throw, a modest 11.40m before a further hiatus to continue the somewhat futile attempts to dry the ring. Marks were well down on the distances the field would typically expect to throw, of course, and the competition shifted in emphasis. Less about pushing new distances, more about minimising damage.

Jade O’Dowda dealt best with the conditions. She is by no means the longest thrower, an honour which belongs to Kate O’Connor, who has a lifetime best of 14.70m, approaching 15m. Mia Scerri, Niamh Emerson and Ellen Barber also all have PBs over 14m.

The furthest O’Dowda has ever thrown is 13.82m, and in that context 13.28m in drenched conditions was a very good effort.

Scerri had the longest throw overall, 13.87m, while O’Connor could only manage 12.80m.

This was a good result for O’Dowda for two reasons.

First, it was the second-best throw overall and brought valuable additional points from an unexpected source.

In contrast, the shot is one of O’Connor’s best events and not only did O’Dowda’s main rival lose a significant number of points in the rain, but she wasn’t even close to being the top mark.

While there are no prizes for individual event positions in heptathlon, O’Connor might not have expected to find herself with only the fifth best mark in one of her best events, and importantly with a throw shorter than O’Dowda.

After three events, O’Dowda moved back in front of O’Connor, 25 points ahead.  

200m

Despite the early hour, at 2000 the atmosphere in Scotstoun Stadium felt more like 2200, as the evening gloom brought forth a premature darkness. While the field events struggled to deal with the torrential rain, the sprinters seemed unusually unperturbed. The individual men’s 100m semi-finals had multiple sub-10s times a short while earlier, while Torrie Lewis set an Australian NR with 11 seconds flat in the women’s equivalent.

And while the sweep of PBs from the morning’s hurdle runs were not replicated in the 200m, there were some very good results. In particular, the Irish women O’Connor and McCauley ran through the heaving rain as if it were not there.

O’Connor, isolated in the slower 200m heat (missing a run to aid with seeding), gave a performance processional in demeanour, a curious combination of majestic and pissed off. The disappointing shot was buried by O’Connor’s splendid run of 24.14s, which would be the fastest overall.

In the second heat, McCauley held off both Tori West and a wall of athletes around 24.70s (Stephenson, Barber, Scerri and Stephenson) to run the fastest time, 24.55s to West’s 24.60.

At the end of Day one, O’Connor regained the lead from O’Dowda, turning 1 25-point deficit into a 49-point lead.

Her Day 1 score, if she can maintain the momentum, suggests a potential overall mark of around 6500. O’Dowda, however, is much closer to her lifetime best series, just 14 points behind the path towards the 6391 she scored in Tokyo, and ahead of her 6350 from Goetzis this year.

Mia Scerri is climbing steadily, from 11^th to tenth, to fourth to third at the end of Day one.

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WRITTEN BY: GABBY PIERACCINI