Fred Kerley flies to the fastest ever 100m heat time at a major championships with 9.79 in Oregon (© Getty Images)
Have you had a hearty breakfast? That’s good, my friends, because we have a couple of heavy issues to decide before we break for lunch. Then, this evening, there’s the little matter of deciding who leaves Eugene 2022 in (temporary) possession of the “world’s fastest man” title. Along with finals in the shot put on the women's side and the hammer throw and long jump on the men's.
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If that’s not enough to keep your energy levels high there’s a tempting array of snacks in the form of preliminaries and qualifying rounds. Among the tastiest the women’s 100m and high jump, the men’s 1500m and hammer throw.
How ready is Hassan?
Six years ago at the Rio 2016 Olympics, Almaz Ayana gave the first day early-risers a rousing wake-up with a world record in the women’s 10,000m. In last year’s form, Sifan Hassan may have been capable of a similar performance, but she has cut back from an ambitious Olympic treble attempt to a world championships double, her one and only race for 2022 a ‘tempo’ 5000m in 15:13 a week or so ago up the road in Portland. Impressive, but she will probably need back-to-back splits faster than that to prevail here.
This year’s world list is not a reliable guide either. Elise Cranny leads it, but is running the 5000m. Eilish McColgan beat Letsenbet Gidey by 25 seconds in Hengelo and is a medal chance should she maintain that edge here. Hellen Obiri prevailed in a close finish in the Kenyan championships at altitude in Nairobi.
The form is muddled, the result unpredictable. Which will probably make for a great race.
Is Warholm ready at all?
If Sifan Hassan’s form-book is hard to read, Karsten Warholm’s is a blank sheet. His only start for the season, in the Rabat Wanda Diamond League, resulted in a pull-up after catching his trailing leg on the first hurdle.
A cramp? A hamstring? Something else? Whatever it was, Warholm came to the Norwegian training camp in California recently professing confidence he could get to Eugene to defend his world title. And now, here he is. After his fabulous world record win in last year’s Olympic final, who would be game to write him off.
In the interim, Tokyo silver medallist Rai Benjamin has not gone away and bronze medallist Alison Dos Santos has gone from strength to strength.
The first-round heats will not tell us everything, may not tell us anything at all. But at least we may find out just how healthy Karsten Warholm is. Fit and confident, he remains the one to beat. And, as he reminded everyone at a sponsor media event this week, he ran a world record first-up last year.
The world’s fastest man
Fred Kerley cuts an imposing figure on the track. He also has the performances to match, at 100 (PB 9.76), 200 (19.76) and 400m (43.64). He had a metre to spare over anyone else in the heats on day one. Kerley won his heat in 9.79, next fastest his teammate Trayvon Bromell with 9.89. Five others went sub-10, perhaps the most intriguing Letsile Tebogo of Botswana with a world U20 record 9.94.
Speaking of intrigue, what to make of Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs. A 10.04 behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville (9.93) doesn’t look too impressive, but maybe he was holding something back after a season disrupted by illness and injury. Others who may be lurking in the shadows, so to speak, include Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala who ran ‘only’ 10.08 for third in his heat but arrived in Eugene only a couple of hours before his race after a race against time to by granted a US visa.
Heats can tell us only so much. Some sprinters got all out, then hold something back, Omanyala was, literally, held back by red tape. Finals’ day is the time to perform.
But first, there’s the potentially tricky matter of the semi-finals. The finals are the second event on day two’s evening program. The final brings down the curtain and, perhaps, the house at the end of the night.
Len Johnson for World Athletics
