Tokyo Olympics 2021: How and when to watch Peter Bol in 800m final
When Peter Bol’s coach saw the text message of his athlete eating alone in the Olympic village he knew something special was brewing.
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It was the message that told Justin Rinaldi that Peter Bol was ready to do something extraordinary in Tokyo.
As he was changing the nappy of his 10-week-old son Archer in Melbourne, his phone beeped with a picture of Bol sitting alone eating dinner in the athletes village.
It was captioned: “I’m not here to make friends.”
“They are the little things you want to see,” Rinaldi says.
Coaches love the one percenters and for outgoing 27-year-old Bol, who is prolific on social media, to be in that zone in an environment like the Olympic village said a lot to the man who has been guiding him since he moved from Perth to further his career in November 2015.
Rinaldi has coached the past three Australian 800m record holders — Alex Rowe, Joseph Deng and now Bol, who has set a new national mark in the heats in Tokyo and then bettered it when he won his semi-final in 1min44.11sec.
A couple of years ago, many thought it would be Deng, who is four years younger, who’d be in this position, but things changed during the 2020 Covid lockdown.
Deng didn’t handle it mentally while Bol flourished, although the two people closest to him — Rinaldi and his manager James Templeton — can’t come up with a pin-drop moment.
“He has always had this talent, he’s no fitter than he has ever been before, but he just believes in himself, that is the only difference,” Rinaldi says.
“You would think he’d be scraping his claws to get into the Olympic final, but he made it look easy, which is scary.”
Templeton, who guided the career of two-time Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha for a decade, points to Bol’s maturity and intelligence as an important factor, comparing him to former world champion Bernard Lagat.
“He is 27 years of age, he has been around the block, he is a mature guy who has got a university degree and he speaks three or four languages,” Templeton said.
“He has got that maturity like Lagat demonstrated. He was an intelligent, articulate guy and so is Pete. It makes a difference and that maturity just shines through in his races.
“Everything has just come together for Pete and it’s funny how with an athlete sometimes it just clicks in and you go, ‘Wow I am in a great place’.
“About 10 days ago in Germany I said to Pete, ‘Well mate, there is nothing much to say. Words aren’t needed, you know you are in good shape, you know where you are at and it doesn’t need me to say anything and it doesn’t need you to articulate anything’.”
When Bol won his first race in France coming off the plane a month ago after a brilliant training camp on the Gold Coast, his team knew that was significant.
BELOW: HOW PETER BOL CAN STUN THE WORLD IN 800M FINAL
#tokyo2020 how is this for a celebration?!
— Herald Sun Sport (@heraldsunsport) August 2, 2021
Aussie Peter Bol's family and friends cheer him on in the 800m semi-final 🇦🇺 💪
(📷: @pbol800 instagram) pic.twitter.com/TuNWOvOYTi
He was then deemed not good enough by organisers to fill a lane at the prestigious Monaco Diamond League meet and instead went to Gateshead, England, where he ran third.
Afterwards he declared he’d win a medal in Tokyo.
Rinaldi will keep it simple ahead of Wednesday night’s final with a “just keep doing what you’ve been doing all year” ethos.
Tactics in the final will be intriguing, with race favourite, Kenya’s Ferguson Rotich, looming as the key.
“We talked about getting comfortable running 50 seconds for the first lap,” Rinaldi explains.
“The thing is if you can do that then you’re not sort of scared, you don’t go ‘Oh my God they have gone 50 I’m in trouble’.
“Rotich is a clear favourite, the danger is he can sometimes go to the front and then try and slow it down as he has got a really good acceleration.
“We have to be mindful of that and if it happens, not be scared to take it up to him because you have got to run for the win rather than play it safe for a medal.
“You have to believe and not die wondering.”
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