200m winners Jackson and Lyles make history in Oregon

On an evening when two sporting legends were sitting trackside at Hayward Field – Tommie Smith and John Carlos – the current generation of sprinters served up spectacular displays of 200m running at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on Thursday (21).

Noah Lyles of USA and Shericka Jackson of Jamaica both destroyed their rivals with the best performances of their careers, and some of the greatest 200m displays of all time, sizzling to respective times of 19.31 (0.4m/s) and 21.45 (0.6m/s).

Earlier in the night, Carlos and Smith sat beneath the stands at Hayward Field and spoke glowingly about the current generation of sprint stars. “I like Mr Lyles,” said Carlos. “I looked at his career, I looked at his heart. He’s a fighter.”

Of course, the pair have more than that in common with the 25-year-old. At the US Olympic Trials last year, Lyles had worn a black glove – minus the fingers – and raised his fist in the air as he was introduced for the 100m, a nod to Smith and Carlos’s Black Power salute on the 200m podium at the 1968 Olympics.

“We have a good connection,” said Lyles. “We vacation at the same spots and have had plenty of great conversations. I remember something (Carlos) said to me once: 'A shy man will never eat, he’ll just starve to death'. I was already hungry, but I got real hungry after that. I said I’m going to risk it all, I’ll go out there and speak my truth about Black Lives Matter.”

In Lyles, Smith sees an athlete who’s able to perform while using his platform to fight for equality –the same way they did five decades prior. The message Smith wanted to put across tonight?

“What can you do to create that avenue of equality?” he said. “We have to stand up for what we believe in so the younger generation will understand and have a purpose.”

Before the men’s 200m final, Smith and Carlos were introduced to the crowd and they received a rapturous reception, the love for them running just as deep as their love for the sport.

“Track is the grandfather of all sports,” said Carlos. “Track and field was there before any of them.”

And in Lyles’ and Jackson’s performances, the sport showed its modern-day capacity to electrify an audience.

Going into the 200m final, most saw 18-year-old US sensation Erriyon Knighton as the athlete with the potential to depose Lyles as world champion. And while Knighton produced his typically strong bend, this was one of those scenarios where the inside lane was no advantage, not when he had to witness the manner in which Lyles was bounding into the home straight ahead of him.

Down the home straight, Lyles powered clear, his speed so great it began to put everything he’d learned and drilled thousands of times in training under great duress.

“I was breaking down in form, which is something I never do,” he said.

Lyles said he “thought it was slow” but when he hit the line, and saw 19.32, he was both thrilled and slightly frustrated, given it apparently tied Michael Johnson’s former world record. “I was like, you gonna do me like that?” he laughed. “Then that number changed, and my whole mood changed.”

The number it changed to was 19.31, moving him third on the world all-time list behind Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. Johnson soon went down to the track and gave him a hug. “He was congratulating me, letting me know I am a fierce competitor,” said Lyles.

The champion’s delight was only enhanced – along with the home crowd’s – when the minor medallists flashed up on screen, with Bednarek taking silver with 19.77 and Knighton third in 19.80. “To be so young and be on the podium, there's more to come,” said Knighton. “Noah Lyles told me I will be one of the greatest in the sport. It feels good coming from him.” Liberia’s Joseph Fahbulleh unleashed his usual flying finish to take fourth in 19.84.

“Everybody dreams of this day,” said Lyles. “But today was my day.”

Minutes earlier, Jackson turned in an equally peerless performance to win the women’s 200m in astonishing style, biding her time – relatively speaking – until the home straight, at which point she ran down 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and put daylight between her and field.

Her time of 21.45 was a championship record and moved her second on the world all-time list behind Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 21.34.

“The fastest woman alive, the national and championships record, I cannot complain,” said the 28-year-old. “I was not thinking about any time or any records. I know Shelly is probably one of the best curve runners in the world so I knew she was going to go hard. I knew that if I wanted to get gold, I had to run the curve as hard as possible.”

Fraser-Pryce held on well for silver with 21.81 while Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, the 2019 champion, took bronze with 22.02, the Briton dedicating the medal to her late grandmother, who passed away in recent months. Niger’s Aminatou Seyni (22.12) and USA’s Abby Steiner (22.26) were next best.

“I was really, really tired physically and mentally and still I wanted to come out and have a good run,” said Fraser-Pryce. “This has always been an event that challenges me. What would that be if I did not challenge myself at these championships?”

Elsewhere, world leader Nicholas Kipkorir Kimeli of Kenya had a nervous wait following his heat of the men’s 5000m, finishing sixth in a blanket finish in 13:24.56, outside the five automatic spots. World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei was among those just ahead of him along with Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, with Oscar Chelimo taking victory in 13:24.24.

Kipkorir ended up sneaking through to the final by less than half a second, with nine going through from the second heat, where Jacob Krop of Kenya took victory ahead of Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 13:13.30.

The men’s 800m semi-finals produced their usual share of drama. Kenya’s Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir led compatriot Wycliffe Kinyamal into the final in the first of three races, clocking 1:45.38, while Australia’s Peter Bol clocked 1:45.58 in third to advance on time. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati took the second semi-final in 1:45.44 ahead of France’s Gabrial Tual (1:45.53). In the third semi-final, Algeria’s Slimane Moula claimed victory in 1:44.89 ahead of Canada’s Marco Arop (1:45.12), with Emmanuel Wanyonyi ensuring there will be a trio of Kenyans in the final, clocking 1:45.42 in third.

In the women’s 800m Olympic champion Athing Mu looked completely composed as she sauntered to victory in her heat in 2:01.30, while Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson (2:00.88), USA’s Raevyn Rogers (2:01.36), Jamaica’s Natoya Goule (2:00.06) and France’s Renelle Lamote (2:00.71) also won their respective heats, But the fastest of all into the semis was Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji who clocked 1:58.83 to win the first heat.

In the heat won by Hodgkinson, a collision on the last turn that resulted in Australia’s Catriona Bisset falling and Italy’s Elena Bello being impeded resulted in both athletes being advanced to the semi-final.

Defending world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra of India led the way in the men’s javelin qualification, with Peters throwing 89.91m and Chopra 88.39m. Jakub Vadlejch of Czech Republic (85.23m) and Germany’s Julian Weber (87.28m) were the only others to throw beyond the automatic qualification mark of 83.50m. Germany’s Andreas Hofman, an 87.32m thrower this year, recorded three fouls and was eliminated.

The men’s triple jump qualification saw Pedro Pichardo of Portugal and Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso lead the way, with Zango ticking off the automatic mark in the second round with 17.15m and Pichardo jumping 17.16m in the first.

USA’s Christian Taylor did not advance after jumping a best of 16.48m, signs of clear progress as he continued his comeback from a ruptured achilles tendon last year. “Athletes or not, we all deal with setbacks,” he said. “It's just having that mindset of perseverance and resilience. I encourage athletes and non-athletes to still have that fight. There will be times when you want to give up, but your breakthrough could be right around the corner. Just keep fighting.”

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics