Noah Lyles (© Thomas Boyd / WCH Oregon22)
There will be plenty of speed on display Thursday night as the women’s and men’s 200m races close out Day 7 of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at the reimagined Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
The 200m races are the only finals on the docket for Thursday at the first World Athletics Championships on U.S. soil.
Also on the track Thursday at the opening heats in the women’s 800, the men’s 5,000m, and the semifinals of the men’s 800m. Field-event qualifying will happen in the men’s javelin and men’s triple jump.
The United States swept the medals in the men’s 100m, and Jamaica swept the women’s 100m medals. Those two countries will be looking to do the same in the 200m.
In the men’s 200m at 7:50 p.m., the U.S. will go for a medal sweep with Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton, and Kenny Bednarek, and is still in outstanding position for a medal sweep despite 100m champion Fred Kerley suffering a hamstring injury in the semifinals.
Lyles is the defending champion in this event from the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, and he always runs well at Hayward Field, where he’s the stadium record-holder at 19.52 seconds from last year’s Prefontaine Classic. Lyles, who was the bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has broken 20 seconds in all eight of his races this season, with a season best of 19.61 seconds, and two other races where he ran 19.62 seconds and 19.67 seconds. He’s the fifth-fastest performer ever at 19.50 seconds.
Knighton, the teenage sensation, has the world lead at 19.49 seconds to break Usain Bolt’s U20 world record. Knighton also ran 19.69 seconds to finish second to Lyles at the U.S. Outdoor Championships, and won his semifinal heat in 19.77 seconds.
Bednarek was the silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where he set his personal best of 19.68 seconds. His best this season is 19.87 seconds when he was fourth at the U.S. Outdoor Championships. This is his second World Athletics Championships appearance and his first finals appearance.
The top challengers to the U.S. sweep are South Africa’s Luxolo Adams, Liberia’s Joseph Fahnbulleh, and Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards. Adams has run a personal-best 19.82 seconds this year, Fahnbulleh, the 100m and 200m NCAA champion for Florida, has run 19.83 seconds this year, and Richards, the indoor World Athletics Championships 400m gold medalist, has also run 19.83 seconds this year.
On the women’s side, Jamaica will be going for a sweep of the medals with Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah when that race starts at 7:35 p.m.
Jackson, who finished second to Fraser-Pryce in Sunday’s 100m final, ran 21.55 seconds to win the Jamaican championships to become the No. 3 performer all time. She was also the bronze medalist in the 400m at the 2015 and 2019 World Athletics Championships.
Fraser-Pryce won her fifth 100m World Athletics Championships gold medal on Sunday. She was also the 2013 World Athletics Championships 200m gold medalist, and won her semifinal heat on Tuesday in 21.82 seconds, just off her personal best of 21.79 seconds set last year.
Thompson-Herah is history’s No. 2 performer at 21.53 seconds, a time she ran to win the 200m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She also won the 200m at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and won the 100m at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. She’s run 21.97 seconds this year but is still searching for her first individual gold medal at the World Athletics Championships. She was third in Sunday’s 100m, and third in this race at the 2015 World Athletics Championships.
Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith is the best bet to break up a Jamaican sweep. She is the defending champion from Doha, was second in her semifinal in 21.96 seconds, a season best, and has a 21.88 personal best.
Abby Steiner of the U.S. is ranked No. 2 in the world this year at 21.77 seconds, and has run 21.80 seconds two other times. Teammate Tamara Clark equaled her personal best of 21.92 seconds in winning her semifinal heat over Asher-Smith.
Everyone in this final has a personal best under 22 seconds except Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, who set a national record of 22.05 seconds in the semifinals. She was the bronze medalist in Doha.
Before Tuesday, no one had run faster than 22.12 seconds in a World Athletics Championships semifinal. Only Steiner ran slower than that Tuesday to advance. The Hayward Field record of 21.61 seconds was set by Gabby Thomas at last year’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field. The World Athletics Championships record of 21.63 seconds was set by Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in 2015.
Other events to watch on Thursday:
MEN’S 800 METERS (Semifinals, 7 p.m.)
Donavan Brazier of the U.S., the defending champ and World Championships record-holder at 1:42.34, did not advance to the semifinals and neither did Bryce Hoppel, the indoor World Athletics Championships bronze medalist. None of the four Americans advanced to the semifinals. Also failing to advance was Poland’s Patryk Dobek, the bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won his qualifying heat Wednesday. Kenya’s Wyclife Kisasy is ranked second in the world at 1:43.54, and teammate Emmanuel Wanyonyi is ranked eighth in the world at 1:44.01.
Canada’s Marco Arop has run 1:43.61 this year to rank No. 3 in the world, one spot ahead of Morocco’s Moad Zahafi, the NCAA champion for Texas Tech, who has run 1:43.69. France’s Benjamin Robert is ranked sixth in the world at 1:43.75, and Australia’s Peter Bol has clocked 1:44,00, No. 7 on the world list.
MEN’S JAVELIN (Qualifying, 5:05 p.m. and 6:35 p.m.)
This should be one of the more thrilling and closely contested field events with six men having thrown over 89m this year and two others over 87m.
Grenada’s Anderson Peters is the defending champion from Doha and the world leader at 93.07m. Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic was the 2020 Olympic silver medalist, and has thrown 90.88m this year. India’s Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic gold medalist, is third on the world list at 89.94m.
Finland’s Oliver Helander is fourth on the world list at 89.83m, followed by Germany’s Julian Weber (89.54m), Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott (89.07m), Curtis Thompson of the United States (87.70m), and Germany’s Andreas Hoffman (87.32m).
The great Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic holds the World Athletics Championships record at 92.80m.
WOMEN’S 800 METERS (Heats, 5:10 p.m.)
Athing Mu of the United States looks to add the World Athletics Championships gold medal to the gold medal she won last year as a 19-year-old at the Tokyo Olympics.
Raevyn Rogers of the U.S. was the bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the silver medalist at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. She’s one of five iconic University of Oregon figures whose likeness is on the 10-story Hayward Tower at the track.
Ajee Wilson of the U.S. was the bronze medalist at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships, and was the gold medalist in March at the indoor World Athletics Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.
Uganda Halimah Nakaayi was the gold medalist in Doha. Great Britian’s Keely Hodgkinson was the silver medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Kenya’s Mary Moora is ranked third in the world behind Mu and Wilson at 1 minute, 57.45 seconds, just ahead of Hodgkinson and Rogers on this year’s world list.
MEN’S 5,000 METERS (Heats, 6:10 p.m.)
Uganda Joseph Cheptegei is the world record-holder in this event and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist. On Sunday, he successfully defended his 10,000m World Athletics Championships title.
Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris is the two-time defending World Athletics Championships gold medalist. Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega was the silver medalist in Doha in 2019, and Canada’s Mo Ahmed, who runs for the Portland-bases Bowerman Track Club, was the bronze medalist in Doha and the silver medalist in Tokyo.
Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir and Jacob Krop have the top two times in the world this year, set at the June 9 Rome Diamond League meet. Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi is third in the world rankings, having run 12 minutes, 50.05 seconds in the Saturday section of the Prefontaine Classic to set the Hayward Field record. Yomif Kejelcha, the 2014 World U20 champion at Hayward Field, is ranked fourth in the world, and American Grant Fisher will be a contender, as will Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who took the silver in Tuesday’s 1,500m. Ingebrigtsen ran what was then a world-leading time of 13:02.03 in May.
MEN’S TRIPLE JUMP (Qualifying, 6:20 p.m.)
Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo is the favorite after winning the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medal. He was the silver medalist for Cuba at the 2013 and 2015 World Athletics Championships. His season best of 17.49m is the best in the WCH Oregon22 field. He has a career best of 18.08m from 2015.
Christian Taylor of the U.S. is a four-time champion, the second-longest jumper ever at 18.21m, and the Olympic gold medalist in 2012 and 2016. He is a longshot for his fourth consecutive World Athletics Championships title as he’s working his way back from a ruptured Achilles tendon and is 59th on the world list this season at 16.54m.
Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez won the indoor World Athletics Championships gold medal in March when he jumped 17.64m.
Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso was the bronze medalist behind Taylor and Will Claye of the U.S. in Doha. He also finished third at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and has a career best of 18.07m. Claye was the silver medalist in 2017 and 2019 after winning bronze medals in 2011 and 2013.
China’s Zhu Yaming was the silver medalist at the 2020 Olympics, and Algeria’s Yasser Triki was fifth in Tokyo.
By Ashley Conklin
