100 days to go to the World Athletics Championships Oregon22
There are just 100 days to go until the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 and the outdoor season starts in earnest this weekend when the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar kicks off in Bermuda.
The World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 closed the curtain on an action-packed indoor season, with some riveting rivalries and record-breaking brilliance setting the scene for all there is still to look forward to as we transition from one season to the next.
So, what have the past few months told us about the World Championships season to come? We take a look at the current state of play.
Renewed rivalries
Mu vs Hodgkinson, Holloway vs Allen, Thompson-Herah vs Thomas, Duplantis vs Nilsen… need we go on? Recent action has made some of the hottest head-to-heads even more tantalising and the outdoor season offers plenty of opportunity for those rivalries to be renewed.
Last year’s top two will be picking up from where they left off during the Olympic season when they clash outdoors over 800m again. USA’s Athing Mu is the Olympic 800m champion who chose not to do a full indoor season. Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson is the Olympic silver medallist who was among the favourites for the world indoor title until injury forced her to withdraw. So far, the pair have met just twice over two laps – once in the Olympic final and once at the Prefontaine Classic – with Mu winning on both occasions.
“I am sure in the next couple of years, we are definitely going to push each other,” said Mu after her Olympic win. “That (world) record is going to go down, just because we are good athletes.”
Grant Holloway equalled his own world indoor 60m hurdles record in the semifinals in Belgrade, while such is the US strength in the event, Devon Allen didn’t manage to qualify. They led the 110m hurdles world top list 12.81 to 12.99 in 2021. With a World Championships on home soil this season, they will be racing to prove they are the best in their country, as well as the best in the world. Holloway leads their head-to-head, 7-2.
Jamaica’s five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah used the indoor season to work on her start, running a 60m season’s best of 7.04 in Torun. Gabby Thomas raced just once over the distance on the boards and has already turned her attention to outdoor action, clocking a wind-assisted 21.69 for 200m at the Texas Relays. They topped the 200m season list last year, with Thompson-Herah’s 21.53 No.1 ahead of Thomas’s 21.61. Thompson-Herah won the Olympic 200m title and Thomas bagged bronze. The Jamaican leads their head-to-head for the distance at 3-0 but with their focus on the World Championships in Oregon, how much will the home advantage count for?
Mondo Duplantis is the world pole vault record-holder, the Swedish star who raised his global mark to 6.20m to win the world indoor title in Belgrade. Chris Nilsen is the rising US talent who earlier this year set a North American indoor record of 6.05m, elevating him to fifth on the world indoor all-time list. Duplantis rarely loses, but Nilsen has inflicted two defeats on the Swede in recent years, and earned silver medals behind Duplantis at both the World Indoor Championships and Olympics. It will be intriguing to see what they are both capable of as they continue to push each other to new heights.
Want to learn more about the rivalries involving your favourite athletes? Head to their World Athletics profile and check out the ‘head-to-head’ tool.
World record-breakers
Four athletes achieved world records during the indoor season – Duplantis in the pole vault, Grant Holloway in the 60m hurdles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m and Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump. Now the world waits to see what they can do outdoors.
It took Duplantis two years and 54 attempts to raise his own world record to 6.19m in Belgrade. His improvement to 6.20m in the same Serbian city took just two weeks and three attempts. The man with an outdoor best of 6.15m will be looking to maintain that momentum as he works towards a world outdoor title.
Mondo Duplantis and Grant Holloway at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (© Getty Images)
Holloway is consistent. Consistently great. In 2021 he broke Colin Jackson’s world indoor 60m hurdles record with 7.29 in Madrid. A year later he equalled it en route to winning the world indoor title. How will that translate to the 110m hurdles? In 2021 he improved to 12.81 – the fastest time in the world that year and a mark just 0.01 off Aries Merritt’s world record set in 2012.
Running 3:30.60 in Lievin on 17 February, Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen took almost half a second off the previous world indoor 1500m record set by Samuel Tefera in 2019. “This is my first world record,” he said at the time. “Hopefully, more will come.” His outdoor best is the 3:28.32 European record he ran to get his Olympic gold, a mark that puts him eighth on a world all-time list topped by Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:26.00 from 1998.
First she jumped 15.43m to break the world indoor record in Madrid, then she leapt 15.67m outdoors to win the Olympic title. Then, 13 months after her magnificent Madrid mark, she did it again, soaring 15.74m for an outright world record at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. Rojas is the undisputed triple jump queen and 16 metres is in her sights.
Unfinished business
The indoor season didn’t go to plan for everyone. Shot put star Ryan Crouser had gone to Belgrade on the hunt for his first world indoor medal but despite his dominance, records and Olympic titles, he had to settle for a second world silver, finishing runner-up to Brazil’s Darlan Romani.
How will he respond? Getting gold on home soil in Oregon would go some way towards redemption.
“I’m from the US so obviously, the outdoor championships is something I am coming for,” he said in Belgrade. “This is something that gives me an extra motivation and I hope I stay injury free and will get ready for the next major championships on home soil."
Like Crouser, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson had been a big Belgrade favourite in her event, the 800m. She had improved to 1:57.20 in Birmingham the month prior, breaking the British indoor record and moving to sixth on the world indoor all-time list, and was ready to go for her first global gold. At least, most of her was. The recurrence of a quad injury put paid to those plans and she withdrew as a precaution, in view of the busy season ahead. Fully fit and with some top competition to challenge her, Hodgkinson could soon be making even more history.
Having made the decision to compete in Belgrade just five days before the competition, Gianmarco Tamberi couldn’t be too disappointed with bronze – and another shared medal – in Belgrade, but the charismatic high jumper will be looking to return to the sort of form that saw him claim joint Olympic gold when he returns to global competition in Oregon.
He cleared 2.37m to win his Olympic title alongside Mutaz Barshim and had a best of 2.31m to bag bronze alongside Hamish Kerr in Belgrade.
“I saw the results of all the guys who planned to be in Belgrade and thought the level wasn't so high. How wrong I was,” he said in Belgrade. “At least I fulfilled my goal to take a medal here. It was a great experience and a good kick-off for a very important season.”
MIA
Adding another layer of intrigue is that a number of 2021’s stars decided not to compete indoors, saving themselves instead for another outdoor season with so much to fight for.
The women’s and men’s 400m hurdles events were both taken to another level last year and all the leading contenders will have fresh focus as they return to the track in 2022.
USA’s Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad have pushed each other to new limits over the past few years, Muhammad beating McLaughlin to win the 2019 world title in a world record of 52.16 and McLaughlin turning the tables at last year’s US Olympic Trials and Tokyo Games, setting respective world records of 51.90 and 51.46 at each.
Both athletes sat out the indoor season, as did last year’s men’s top two: Norway’s Karsten Warholm and USA’s Rai Benjamin. Benjamin replaced Warholm as No.2 on the world all-time list with a 46.83 run at the 2021 US Olympic Trials but Warholm responded with 46.70 to break the world record just five days later. In Tokyo, both athletes improved even further, Warholm winning in 45.94 to Benjamin’s 46.17.
Now they all have world titles to race for, on home soil for McLaughlin, Muhammad and Benjamin…
Another electric head-to-head in 2021 was the clash of Dutch star Sifan Hassan and Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon, who traded victories over 1500m before Kipyegon retained her Olympic title in the event in Tokyo and Hassan claimed bronze to go with her wins in the 5000m and 10,000m. They last met at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, where Kipyegon won the 1500m title ahead of Hassan, and the Diamond League series together with the Continental Tour calendar will give them plenty of high-profile rematch opportunities when they return to competition.
USA’s Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu might have restricted her indoor action to a couple of mile races but she’s already easing nicely into her outdoor season, where world gold on home soil is the aim. After running 1:24.13 for 600m in Arizona, she went on to clock a 50.26 leg to anchor her team of Shamier Little, Dalilah Muhammad and Raevyn Rogers to a 3:24.60 4x400m win in Texas last month. On the calendar so far for Mu in her specialist event is the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 27-28 May.
When and where?
Mu is just one of the world’s best athletes already announced for Diamond League and Continental Tour competitions over the next few months.
The Olympic 800m champion will take on Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson, Olympic bronze medallist Raevyn Rogers, world indoor champion Ajee Wilson, world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Natoya Goule and Kate Grace at the Prefontaine Classic – the season’s third Diamond League meeting – on 28 May, when the men’s pole vault will feature Mondo Duplantis, Chris Nilsen, Thiago Braz, Sam Kendricks, Renaud Lavillenie and KC Lightfoot.
Olympic and world champion Malaika Mihambo faces Ivana Vuleta, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and Lorraine Ugen at the Birmingham Diamond League, while Continental Tour Gold competition so far features eight individual Olympic medallists from the Tokyo Games at the USATF Bermuda Games on Saturday (9).
Check out the calendars below to find out when and where the world’s best will be competing.
Gold level meetings in the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour
9 April – USATF Bermuda Games, Devonshire (BER)
16 April – Golden Games, Mt SAC (USA)
7 May – Kip Keino Classic, Nairobi (KEN)
8 May – Seiko Golden Grand Prix, Tokyo (JPN)
31 May – Ostrava Golden Spike, Ostrava (CZE)
3 June – Irena Szewinska Memorial, Bydgoszcz (POL)
6 June – FBK Games, Hengelo (NED)
12 June – New York Grand Prix, New York (USA)
14 June – Paavo Nurmi Games, Turku (FIN)
8 August – Gyulai Istvan Memorial, Szekesfehervar (HUN)
4 September – Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, Silesia (POL)
11 September – Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica, Zagreb (CRO)
Full 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar
2022 Wanda Diamond League
13 May – Doha, QAT
21 May – Birmingham, GBR
28 May – Eugene, USA
5 June – Rabat, MAR
9 June – Rome, ITA
16 June – Oslo, NOR
18 June – Paris, FRA
30 June – Stockholm, SWE
30 July – Shanghai, CHN
6 August – Shenzhen, CHN
10 August – Monaco, MON
26 August – Lausanne, SUI
2 September – Brussels, BEL
7-8 September – Zurich, SUI
World Athletics Championships Oregon22
15-24 July – Hayward Field, Oregon, USA
