Addis Ababa, August 1, 2023 (FBC) – One year from today, just before 9am local time, the first athletics champions of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be crowned, which will be held from August 1 to 11, 2024 in the French capital.
It will be the first of 48 sets of medals that will be awarded during the track and field programme of the Games, spanning 11 days of action.
Ethiopian athletes will look forward to live up to expectations by surpassing relatively disappointing results in the previous Olympic Games held in Tokyo.
On the first day (August 1, 2024), the starting gun will fire at 7:30am local time for the men’s and women’s 20km race walk events, marking the start of the athletics programme in the French capital. Held on Pont d’lena, against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower, the races will bring together the best race walkers in the world.
On August 2, in-stadium track and field action will kick off, starting with heats of the women’s 100m in the morning and ending with the men’s 10,000m in the evening session. It is to be recalled that Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega has taken the 10,000m crown at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo.
On day 6 (August 6), the women’s 200m will engage sprint fans, while the women’s 5000m promises to be another mouth-watering clash for fans of distance running. Meanwhile, the men’s 1500m – with Jakob Ingebrigtsen potentially defending his title from Tokyo – will be a highlight for keen followers of middle-distance running.
On August 7, the action will be hot as the men’s 400m and 3000m steeplechase finals take place, along with the women’s pole vault and men’s discus.
Whereas, on August 9, the women’s heptathlon will reach its conclusion during the evening session, while the women’s 10,000m, shot put and men’s triple jump will be key features of the busy night of athletics action.
On the penultimate day, August 10, Ethiopian long distance runners will be looking to rack up accolades in different categories. Nine finals will be held on the last full day of track and field action, but the day begins with the men’s marathon on the streets of Paris. Back in the stadium, the finals of the men’s 800m, 5000m and women’s 1500m will take place, so too will the women’s 100m hurdles and both men’s and women’s 4x400m finals.
In a break from tradition, the last athletics action of the Games will be the women’s marathon, which will take place on the morning of 11 August as the world’s best road runners compete for the final title on offer in Paris.