Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
Do you like the ‘two’, the 200 metres?
Yes, well have we got just the day for you. Day seven has just two finals, two gold medals to be decided. And both of them are 200s, one for the women, one for the men. Can’t say fairer than that on any measure.
Full daily highlights at a glance
Lyles favourite, but plenty of chances in men’s race
The men’s 200m could go any number of ways. It could be a local clean sweep with Noah Lyles leading home teammates Erriyon Knighton and Kenny Bednarek (warning: order may change without notice) and even though it is hard to imagine the home team being locked out of the medals, almost any of the other five finalists is capable of medalling.
Knighton’s 19.49 early this year hit like a thunderclap. He hasn’t done anything quite like that again, though a next best of ‘only’ 19.69 is anything but shabby). The 18-year-old made the world sit up and pay attention. Inevitably, one of those who’s alarm clock went off was defending champion Lyles. If he didn’t see the treat from his precocious rival before, he certainly did then. Lyles worked particularly hard and celebrated quite boisterously in defeating Knighton by just 0.02 at the US championships.
And Kenny Bednarek is, well, just Kenny Bednarek: rock solid with flashes of brilliance often enough to dazzle any rival.
So the sweep is possible. Equally, any of the other five finalists could play the disruptor to this US dream. Jereem Richards, Aaron Brown, Joseph Fahnbulleh, Luxolo Adams and Alexander Ogando all have the ability to medal and, who knows, even win.
Speed v speed endurance in women’s 200
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce bring the speed to the women’s 200m; Shericka Jackson and Abby Steiner 100/200 speed and speed endurance from the 400m end.
Defending champion Dina Asher-Smith and Majinga Kambundji have both had excellent lead-in form in both sprints; Aminatou Seyni and Tamara Clark have shown impressive form here.
It is predictable how things will go. Fraser-Pryce will lead, but can she hang on? Asher-Smith and Thompson-Herah will be strong in all phases of the race; Jackson will come on strong in the last 50 metres. They’ll play to their strengths; twenty seconds is not enough time to play around with changes to race patterns anyway.
Fraser-Pryce and Thompson-Herah have tended to win their world and Olympic titles with sprint doubles, a good enough reason to think it may happen again in Eugene.
Plenty of preliminary drama
Pick of the preliminary action is probably the semi-finals of the 800m. Three races, first two straight to day nine’s final, plus the next two fastest. It’s always high pressure, mistakes are almost always punished, and then you’ve got to do it again in the final. Great to watch; insane to run.
There’s also first round action in the women’s 800m, the men’s 5000m, men’s javelin and triple jump. Happy days.
Len Johnson for World Athletics
