Sara Hall - Next Stop Oregon (© WCH Oregon22)
Women will be in the spotlight during Monday’s Day 4 of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the first World Athletics Championships held on U.S. soil.
The day kicks off at 6:15 a.m. with the women’s marathon beginning and ending outside of the University of Oregon’s Autzen Stadium. The scene then shifts to the reimagined Hayward Field where the day will be capped by Kenyan superstar Faith Kipyegon looking to add more gold to her collection in the women’s 1,500m.
World record-holder and Olympic gold medalist Yulimar Rojas will lead the field in the women’s triple jump final, and American Val Allman, also a 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, leads the discus qualifying.
Monday also has the final three events of the two-day heptathlon, with the only events at Hayward Field in the morning being the heptathlon long jump and javelin.
Other finals on tap Monday are the men’s high jump and the men’s 3,000m steeplechase. The heats of the men’s and women’s 200m are also Monday night.
Here’s a closer look at Monday’s key events:
WOMEN’S MARATHON (Final, 6:15 a.m.)
If Sunday’s men’s marathon was any indication, expect fast times in Monday’s morning women’s marathon that starts and finishes outside of Autzen Stadium.
Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich is the defending champion from the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. She was also third at the 2020 London Marathon and won last year’s Chicago Marathon. She also ran 2 hours, 17 minutes, 18 seconds in winning the Nagoya Women's Marathon, the second-fastest ever women-only marathon.
Also on the Kenyan team are Judith Jeptum, who won this year’s Paris Marathon, and Angela Tanui, the 2021 Amsterdam Marathon winner.
Leading Ethiopia will be Gotytom Gebreslase, who won the 2021 Berlin Marathon in her debut and finished third in this year’s Tokyo Marathon, Ababel Yeshaneh, second at the 2019 Chicago Marathon, and Ashete Bekere, third in last year’s London Marathon.
American record-holder Keira D’Amato, age 37, was a late replacement for 2020 Olympic bronze medalist Molly Seidel, who is injured. Sara Hall, third on the all-time U.S. marathon list, is making her World Athletics Championships debut at age 39 and was third in last year’s Chicago Marathon. Emma Bates was second in Chicago last year and completes the U.S. team.
WOMEN’S 1,500 METERS (Final, 7:50 p.m.)
Kipyegon is the two-time reigning Olympic gold medalist and is nearly 2 seconds faster this season than anyone else in this race. In May, she broke her own Prefontaine Classic and Hayward Field records when she ran 3 minutes, 52.59 seconds, and she has a career best of 3:51.09. Kipyegon won the 2017 gold medal at the World Athletics Championships, and took silver in Beijing in 2015 and in Doha in 2019.
Kipyegon’s biggest challengers will be Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Great Britain’s Laura Muir. Tsegay ran 3:54.21 behind Kipyegon at the Pre Classic, was the bronze medalist in Doha, and was the indoor World Athletics Championships gold medalist in March. Muir won the silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and has a career best of 3:54.50.
Ethiopia’s Freweyni Halu and Hirut Meshesha will be in the medals mix as well. Meshesha has run a personal best 3:57.30 this season, and Halu has run 3:58.18. Jessica Hull of Australia and Sinclaire Johnson of the U.S. are teammates on the Portland-based Union Athletics Club and are having the best seasons of their careers. Hull, a University of Oregon standout, will have the crowd behind her.
WOMEN’S TRIPLE JUMP (Final. 6:20 p.m.)
Rojas has redefined this event over the past five years. She’s the indoor and outdoor world record-holder, the two-time defending outdoor World Athletics Championships gold medalist and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist. In March, she jumped 15.74m to win the indoor World Athletics Championships gold medal and re-set the indoor world record. She set the outdoor record of 15.67m in winning in Tokyo. The last time she did not win a triple competition was on Feb. 2, 2019.
A win here would make her the first woman to win three outdoor World Athletics Championships in the triple jump.
Portugal’s Patricia Mamona (15.02m), the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, is the only other jumper in the field with a career best over 15m. Jamaica’s Shaneika Ricketts was the silver medalist in Doha, and compatriot Kimberly Williams is also a medal threat. Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk has had a strong season transitioning from the long jump. The U.S. is still looking for its first medal in this event. What better time for Keturah Orji and Tori Franklin to break through?
MEN’S 3,000-METER STEEPLECHASE (Final, 7:20 p.m.)
Will we see the first sub-8-minute steeplechase on U.S. soil? It may require it to win this event.
Morocco’s Soufinae El Bakkali was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and has run 7:58.28, just off his personal best of 7:58.15. He was the silver medalist in London in the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the bronze medalist in Doha in 2019.
Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto is the two-time defending champion, and also won silver medals in 2013 in Moscow and 2015 in Beijing. His career best is 8:00.12.
Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma has been under 8 minutes three times this season in improving his personal best to 7:58.68.
A number of other men in the field have career bests under 8:10.00, including American record-holder Evan Jager. Jager, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist, has been beset by injuries recently but was the U.S. runner-up to Hillary Bor and looked strong in his semifinal heat, as did Bor.
MEN’S HIGH JUMP (Final, 5:45 p.m.)
One of the lasting images of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics was the celebratory embrace between Qatar’s Mutez Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi when they were tied for the lead and decided to share the gold medal rather than continue on competing. All eyes will certainly be on them here.
Barshim has been a Hayward Field favorite over the years at the Pre Classic. A win here would make him the first men’s high jumper with three outdoor World Athletics Championships titles after he won gold in London and Doha.
Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo, the indoor World Athletics Championships gold medalist in March, is the world leader at 2.36m, 3 centimeters ahead of Shelby McEwen. JuVaughn Harrison of the U.S. could be in the medal hunt, along with a host of others who have jumped between 2.27m and 2.33m this season.
HEPTATHLON (Day 2 begins at 9:35 a.m.)
Belgium’s Nafi Thiam won the 2017 World Athletics Championships gold medal and is the reigning two-time Olympic gold medal. She enters the final three events of the heptathlon with 4,071 points.
Anouk Vetter of Netherlands took silver behind Thiam in Tokyo, and is second with 4,010 points. Anna Hall hopes to give the U.S. its first World Athletics Championships medal since Sheila Burrell in 2001. She’s in third place with a first-day personal best of 3,991 points. Poland’s Adrianna Sulek is fourth with 3,982 points, and Belgium’s Noor Vidt is fifth with 3,921 points.
Great Britain’s Katerina Johnson-Thompson was the 2019 World Athletics Championships gold medalist and has been working her way back from a ruptured Achilles tendon in 2020. She’s sixth with 3,798 points, and Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands, who took bronze in Tokyo, sits seventh with 3,791 points
WOMEN’S DISCUS (Qualifying, 5:10 p.m. and 6:35 p.m.)
The U.S. has never won a women’s discus medal at a World Athletics Championships, but Allman figures to end that drought.
After becoming the first U.S. women to win an Olympic discus gold medal since 2008 and the third overall, Allman re-set her American record to 71.46m this season, and she’s won three of the four Diamond League meets she’s competed in. She’s the Hayward Field record-holder and undefeated in Eugene as a professional.
Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic, the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, is the only person to defeat Allman this season. Perkovic has won four straight World Athletics Championships medals, including gold in 2013 and 2017. Cuba’s Yaime Perez won the gold medal in Doha and was the bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olymics.
Germany’s Kristin Pudenz was the Tokyo silver medalist. Jorinde van Klinken of Netherlands, the former Arizona State collegiate star, threw 70.22m last year, and is a definite medal threat. American Rachel Dincoff is having her best season, improving her personal best to 65.46m.
By Ashley Conklin
