Letesenbet Gidey at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
Day nine in Eugene sees us doing it by numbers, rather than one thing at a time.
The first number is 10. The men’s decathlon kicks off the morning session with the 100m, long jump and shot put, the first three of 10 events over the last two days.
Then, it’s four, the number making up a relay. The track component of the evening session commences with heats of both men’s and women’s 4x400m relays and closes with the finals of both 4x100m relays.
Anything can happen in a 4x100m, but first you’ve got to get the baton around, a task sometimes beyond some of the world’s fastest sprinters. Let’s wait and see what eventuates..
Full daily highlights at a glance
Can Gidey turn one into two?
Letesenbet Gidey had to wait a few years before she finally stepped up to a gold medal. But having won the 10,000m on day two of these championships can she take gold no.2 just a week later. You bet she can, we know that: but will she?
Gidey holds the world record, the 14:06.62 she ran in Valencia in October, 2020, during that crazy first year of lockdowns and chaos. She can run fast enough to win, but she probably needs to have run the sting out of her rivals before the bell as her own finishing speed is adequate but not overwhelming.
Helping Gidey is the fact that defending champion Hellen Obiri has chosen not to double after the 10,000m and Sifan Hassan may not have had enough hard racing to reach her peak (disclaimer: one may be enough!).
There’s a pair of Gidey’s teammates, and rivals – 1500m silver medallist Gudaf Tsegay and Dawit Seyaum – Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui, Karoline Grovdal and Elise Cranny who will also give themselves every chance, but if Gidey has everyone else stretched coming into the last lap, her first gold medal may quickly be followed by her second.
Peters v Chopra in men’s jav
Anderson Peters and Neeraj Chopra have made history for their countries in the past two global championships, Grenada’s Peters winning in Doha in 2019 and India’s Chopra at the Tokyo Olympics last year. Qualifying suggests they could fight it out here with one walking away with a second javelin gold medal for his nation.
Each qualified comfortably. Peters launched his spear out to 89.91m and promptly departed for his post-competition cooldown. Chopra had already gone 88.39m in the earlier group. Job done. Get ready for the final.
With Thomas Vetter missing the championships injured, Julian Weber stepped up for Germany with an 87.28m qualifier. The only other thrower to surpass the automatic qualifier of 83.50m was Jakob Vladejch with 85.23. But there will be others come the final.
The ‘jav’ is notorious for surprises – all it takes in one big throw. But if you follow the form book, this one’s between Peters and Chopra.
A wide open men's 800m
The semi-finals of the men’s 800m are never a totally reliable guide to the final. The cut-throat nature – just first two in each of three semis with the next two fastest overall – makes it possible for all three medallists to come from one semi, rendering the oft-used reference to next fastest as ‘fastest loser’ even more inappropriate than ever.
The semi-final format usually means three fast races as no-one can afford to be relying on progressing as a non-automatic. Unusually, fastest of the round this time was Slimane Moula in ‘just’ 1:44.89.
The other two semi-final winners were Tokyo Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir and Damel Sedjati. Two Algerians, three Kenyans – Wyclife Kimyamal Kisasy and 17-year-old Emmanuel Nanyoni joined Korir in advancing – Canada’s Marco Arop, Australia’s Peter Bol and Gabriel Tual of France will contest the final and if you can pick the winner, good luck to you.
Len Johnson for World Athletics
