Fred Kerley (© How Lao / Fred Kerley)
Before the start of the men’s 100-meter final at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, two F-15 fighter jets flew over Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
It was hard to tell if it was louder before the race or after it.
In the first World Athletics Championships on U.S. soil, Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy-Williams, and Trayvon Bromell gave the home team a sweep of track and field’s glory event by taking the top three spots and delighting the roaring home crowd.
“It felt amazing to have it on home soil, the crowd behind us, and we said at USAs that we were going to do it and we got the job done today,” said Kerley, who won with his lean at the finish line in 9.86 seconds.
Bracy-Williams, who briefly quit the sport to play professional football, was second in 9.88 seconds, the same time as Bromell, who won his second World Athletics Championships bronze medal. Bromell was also almost out of the sport and even had written a retirement letter to his agent after two surgeries to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon.
“When I leaned, I looked and I saw there was a gap between all of us and everybody else, I instantly knew we went 1-2-3,” Bromell said.
Christian Coleman, the defending 100m champion from the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, was also in the final and finished sixth in 10.01 seconds.
This was only the third time one country swept the men’s 100m medals at the World Athletics Championships. The U.S. accomplished the feat in 1983 and 1991, and both times the sweeps were led by Carl Lewis.
“It’s amazing to be around greats,” Kerley said. “They did it in ’91 and we did it 2022.”
The similarities between the 1991 sweep in Tokyo and Saturday’s 1-2-3 finish were remarkably similar. In Tokyo, Lewis set a world record of 9.86, the same winning time as Kerley on Saturday. In Tokyo, Leroy Burrell was second in 9.88, the same time as Bracy-Williams and Bromell. In Tokyo, Dennis Mitchell completed the sweep by finishing third in 9.91 seconds.
“To be mentioned with any one of (those) names, it means everything,” Bracy-Williams said. “I’m just honored. Those are some of America’s greatest sprinters of all time, so to be in any conversation with them, whether we’re talking medals, times, performances, anything, I’m on it.”
Coleman and Bromell, as they usually do, got the best starts. By the midpoint of the race, Kerley and Bracy-Williams pulled even and then it was just a matter of who could win the last half of the race. That was Kerley, who got Bracy-Williams and Bromell with a lean.
“The job was done at the finish line today,” Kerley said. “I held my composure and finished with the top time. I didn’t know (who won) until I looked at the clock, and it said, ‘Fred Kerley, No. 1.’”
Kerley was third in the 400m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. He shocked many by choosing the 100m over the 400m at last year’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, then went on and won the silver medal in the 100m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Now he’s the fastest man in the world. His mindset changed after there were no championship meets in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I accomplished something not too many 400 (runners) did,” Kerley said. “If it wasn’t for 2020, I probably wouldn’t be in this position, I’d probably still be in the 400.”
Kerley was in lane 4 in the final with Bracy-Williams to his outside in lane 3, and South Africa’s Akani Simbine in lane 5. Bromell was on the far outside in lane 8, one lane outside of Coleman.
Bracy-Williams was thankful he was in a lane next to Kerley on Saturday.
“It was such an advantage because you get to feed off him, and he’s running hot right now, so if you gauge off of him and see where you are,” Bracy-Williams said, “you just have to compete hard. It’s such a disadvantage being out there (in the outside lanes), not being able to get in the mix.”
For Bromell it was tough to tell where he was early in the race.
“It was a great race,” Bromell said. “Obviously being out in lane 8, it was hard to see where everybody was. It was a blessing to have a great starter like Coleman next to me to push and give me that edge. I’ve never really been in that position before, so to be able to overcome that, to be able to stay poised and stay consistent through my last meters and to move up, I was happy with it.”
Jamaica’s Oblique Seville was fourth Saturday in 9.97 seconds with Simbine fifth in 10.01 seconds, the same time as Coleman, who was sixth. Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown was seventh in 10.06 seconds, and Canada’s Aaron Brown was eighth in 10.07.
Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, pulled out of the semifinals about 20 minutes before the race, citing an injury.
By Ashley Conklin
