WCH Oregon22 preview: 100m and 110m hurdles

Women's 100m hurdles

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Jasmine Camacho-Quinn owns the Olympic gold medal. Kendra Harrison holds the world record. What neither has is a world outdoor title.

That could easily change at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 when both chase victory in the 100m hurdles, an event that is loaded with top performers and contenders and shapes up as one of the meet’s must-see competitions.

Camacho-Quinn has been in top form all season after capturing the Olympic title in Tokyo last year in dominant fashion, clocking an Olympic record 12.26 in the semifinals (fourth on the all-time list) and then running 12.37 in the final to become the first athlete from Puerto Rico to win an Olympic track and field gold. Harrison took the silver in Tokyo in 12.52.

This will be the first World Championships for Camacho-Quinn, a three-time NCAA champion who was born and raised in South Carolina. The 25-year-old competes for Puerto Rico, her mother’s native home.

Camacho-Quinn has won eight of the nine hurdles races she has finished this year, including a season’s best 12.37 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on 9 June. She also won at the Prefontaine Classic in May at Eugene’s Hayward Field – the World Championships venue – in 12.45.

But Camacho-Quinn will face a daunting quartet of US challengers for the world title. The Olympic champion’s 12.37 stood as the world-leading time this year until Harrison and Alaysha Johnson both went faster in finishing 1-2 in the final of the US Championships on 25 June. Harrison out-leaned Johnson to win in 12.34, with Johnson clocking 12.35 to move into a tie for fifth place on the all-time US performer list. NCAA champion Alia Armstrong took third in a personal best 12.47.

Reigning world champion Nia Ali won her semifinal in 12.49 and skipped the final as she had a bye into the World Championships as the winner in Doha three years ago. The 33-year-old Ali has struggled to find her best form this year, winning only one of her 10 races, but will be determined to defend her title.

Oregon could mark a defining moment on home soil for Harrison, who is looking for that elusive gold at the age of 29. She set the world record of 12.20 in 2016, just weeks after the disappointment of failing to make the US team for the Rio Olympic Games.

Harrison has silver medals from Tokyo and the 2019 World Championships in Doha. She is also a five-time national champion and won the world indoor 60m hurdles title in 2018. A world outdoor title would be a crowning achievement on an already stellar career. 

The deep field also includes Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion and 2021 Diamond Trophy winner. She finished fourth at the Tokyo Games and Doha World Championships, but should challenge for a podium place in Eugene.

The 25-year-old Amusan has been in superb form, winning a Diamond League race in Paris on 18 June in 12.41, the fourth-fastest time of the year. She finished a close second to Camacho-Quinn in Stockholm on 20 June, with the Puerto Rican winning in 12.46 to her 12.50.

The field also includes Jamaica’s new national champion, Britany Anderson, who has a season’s best of 12.45.

Overall, at least half a dozen athletes have a realistic shot at winning the star-studded event. The preliminary rounds take place on 23 July, with the semifinals and final contested on the final day of the championships.

 

Men's 110m hurdles

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Before embarking on an American football career as a wide receiver in the NFL, Devon Allen has some business to complete on the track.

The 27-year-old US hurdler is aiming for his first global medal in the 110m hurdles, and he goes into the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 as a top contender for gold.  

Allen has been a major force in the sprint hurdles this year, posting the third-fastest time in history when he clocked 12.84 seconds at the New York Grand Prix at Icahn Stadium on 12 June. Overtaking reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist Grant Holloway midway through the race, Allen crossed the line just 0.04 off the world record.

Allen followed that stunning performance by winning Diamond League races in Oslo (13.22) and Paris (13.20). Just a few days after his father, Louis, passed away, Allen competed at the US Championships at Eugene’s Hayward Field and narrowly sealed his spot for the World Championships, finishing third in 13.09 behind Daniel Roberts (13.03) and Trey Cunningham (13.08).

Holloway, who won his semifinal in 13.03, skipped the final as he had a bye into the World Championships as defending champion.

“I made it to the Olympics and the World Championships but I never held one of those medals in my hand,” Allen said. “To have the opportunity to battle for a medal again and, this time, to do it on home soil in the United States at Hayward Field, it’s the chance of a lifetime. There will be nothing like this moment.”

Allen goes into the championships performing a difficult juggling act on the track and the American football gridiron. Just nine days after the World Championships hurdles final on 17 July, he will suit up for the start of training camp with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Allen was a two-sport star at the University of Oregon from 2013 to 2016. A two-time NCAA champion on the track, he also caught 54 passes for 919 yards and eight touchdowns in 22 games in three seasons for the football team.

After suffering two separate ACL tears, Allen put his football career on hold and focused on track and field. A three-time US national champion in the 110m hurdles, he finished fifth at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and fourth at the Tokyo Games. He was also seventh at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

Determined to resume his football career, Allen impressed NFL scouts by running the 40-yard dash in an unofficial time of 4.35 at Oregon’s Pro Day in April. That landed him a three-year contract with the Eagles as an undrafted rookie free agent.

But first comes the small matter of competing for his first world title, on his home college track no less.

“The goal is to get ready for Worlds, compete at Worlds, win, break the world record and then 18 July, when Worlds is done, go to (training) camp the next week,” Allen told Oregon Live in April.

Allen’s journey conjures memories of another US 110m hurdler who transitioned to the NFL: Renaldo Nehemiah played wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers for three seasons in the 1980s after setting multiple world records during his track career.

Allen went sub-13 seconds for the first time last year, clocking 12.99 in Zagreb at the end of the season in which he won the Diamond Trophy and reached the top of the world rankings. He’s the only man to break the 13-second barrier this season – and his 12.84 in New York put him third on the all-time list behind the 12.81 run by Holloway in Eugene last year and the world mark of 12.80 set by Aries Merritt in 2012.

The US team boasts extreme depth in the 110m hurdles and could easily sweep the podium in Eugene. At the US Championships, Roberts ran from the front to capture his second national title, while Cunningham showed the form that made him the NCAA champion to take second. Allen finished just three-thousandths of a second ahead of Jamal Britt to claim the final spot on the team.

Four US athletes hold the three fastest times this year – Allen’s 12.84 followed by Cunningham at 13.00 and Roberts and Holloway at 13.03. Merritt’s world record could be under threat at the championships.

“I’m going to bring my A-game like I always do," said Holloway. "I feel like I’m in 12.7 shape, just like everybody else.”

The Jamaicans shape up as the US athletes' main rivals, led by Tokyo Olympic champion Hansle Parchment. He clocked 13.09 at the Birmingham Diamond League on 21 May and won the Jamaican Championships in 13.14 ahead of Rasheed Broadbell (13.20) and Orlando Bennett (13.28). The 2017 world and 2016 Olympic champion Omar McLeod stumbled after the second hurdle and finished last in 13.54.

Brazil’s Rafael Pereira and France’s Sasha Zhoya, who both clocked 13.17 this year, should also be in the mix. The heats will be held on day two of the championships, with the semifinals and final the next day.

Steve Wilson for World Athletics