USAthe great superpower of athletics, finally hosting the renovated Hayward Field stadium in Eugene, after 17 editions, some world championships without Russia -punished by the invasion of Ukraine- which had to be postponed for a year due to the pandemic.
It hasn’t been since the Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games that the United States has hosted a global outdoor athletics competition. Twenty-six years later, Eugene will be the smallest city (176,000 inhabitants) to host the World Cup.
In the absence of official confirmation, World Athletics points that out More than 1,900 athletes from 192 teams will compete at the revamped University of Oregon Stadium July 15-24and among them all one name stands out: Allyson Félix, the adorable “Chicken Feet”, who ended her long career with the chance to add a new medal to the 18 she has achieved at the World Championships since Helsinki 2005.
In addition to his 11 Olympic medals (7 gold), the 36-year-old American sprinter, selected here for the 4×400 mixed relay, won his first world medal in the 200 meters in Helsinki 2005, at the age of 19, and then is collected. metals up to 13 gold, 3 silver and two copper. In total, four more are next on the list, the Jamaican Usain Bolt.
Felix is the only woman to have won three consecutive 200 world titles (Helsinki 2005, Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009) and beat Jamaican Veronica Campbell by 0.53 seconds in Osaka 2007.
The 43 individual Doha 2019 winners have enjoyed the longest reign (three years) since the championships began to be held every two years, starting in Tokyo ’91. In Eugene, 37 of them will defend their titles.
Also at Hayward Field there will be 42 current Olympic champions and athletics greats who, despite their dedication to Olympic titles, are still chasing their first world crown. Such was the case of the king of the pole vault, the Swedish Armand Duplantis; Norwegian middle-distance runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah and two Americans, shot putter Ryan Crouser and 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin, have a huge responsibility to their audience.
The primacy of world speed, vacated by Usain Bolt after his retirement in 2017, continues without a clear owner. The men’s 100 meter final, already on the second day of competition (July 16), has been called to be the highlight of the championships. Among those registered were 16 athletes with year times of less than 10 seconds, and two Americans, Fred Kerley (9.76) and Trayvon Bromell (9.81) in the lead.
After being given his penalty for not being available for doping controls, the defending champion, Christian Coleman, also an American, was at the bottom a bit on the list, seventh with 9.87, and he came back very quickly (third with 9.85 ) to Jamaican Yohan Blake, 32, who won gold in Daegu 11 years ago after disqualifying his teammate Usain Bolt for a wrong start.
The participation of Olympic champion, Marcell Jacobs, remains in the air. The Italian has suffered several physical setbacks since the start of the season and has not dropped below 10 seconds (10.04), although he continues to work hard on his recovery.
The Americans dominated even more in the men’s 200. The host country included the three fastest of the year: Erriyon Knighton (19.49), Noah Lyles (19.50) and Fred Kerley (19.76).
Conversely, women’s speed forecasts opted for the Jamaica side. The current champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.60), Shericka Jackson (10.76) and Elaine Thompson-Herah (10.79) make up a formidable triple against Americans Aleia Hobbs (10.81)), Melissa Jefferson (10.82) ) and Twanisha Terry (10.87).
The absence of Russia, the second power on the historic medal table, just behind the United States, will have dramatic effects in events such as the high jump or pole vault, because the current champions, Mariya Lasitskene and Anzhelika Sidorova, will not be included.
The penalty, World Athletics explained “is a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” and affects everyone, including those authorized to compete as neutral athletes.
The United States presents a team with 15 world leaders and 33 athletes located in the top 3 of the world rankings. In some events, the 110 m hurdles, four of its representatives topped the list of marks of the year: Devon Allen (12.84), Trey Cunningham (13.00), Grant Holloway (13.03) and Daniel Roberts (13.03). In launches, he leads all trials. For the hosts, the challenge was to break their historical record for medals (29) and gold (14).
YULIMAR, ALONE AGAINST HIS RECORD
The Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, Olympic champion and triple jump world record holder (15.74), will not be able to double Eugene due to the absence of a mandatory minimum length mark, when the deadline for obtaining them expired on June 26.
His 6.93 -meter jump made on June 8 at his Spanish base camp in Guadalajara was not approved by World Athletics because he did it using triple jump shoes, whose sole (25 mm) exceeded the thickness limit (20 mm). ) approved for shoes. haba.
Rojas intended to double Eugene, in search of an unprecedented historic doublebut according to his Cuban coach Ivan Pedroso, he decided not to try the minimum length again due to the psoas discomfort he experienced in June, so as not to jeopardize his participation in the World Cups.
The double horizontal jump at an outdoor World Championship was a victory that has not been achieved until now, even though Russian Tatiana Levedeva achieved it on an indoor track in Budapest 2004.
On July 18, in the triple final, if there are no setbacks in qualifying, Yulimar Rojas will find himself alone against his own record.. On the world list, with her indoor record of 15.74, she was one meter ahead of the next two, American Keturah Orji (14.79) and Ukrainian Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (14.74).
AND DUPLANTIS AGAINST YOU
the king of the pole, Mondo Duplantis, who made two weeks ago in Stockholm the best jump in history in the open air, at 6.16 meters, surpassed 6.14 by Ukrainian Sergey Bubka 28 years ago, but certainly a new world record was not the one he most hoped to achieve with Eugene, but his first outdoor world title.
He became world champion on the indoor track this year in Belgrade, and an Olympic and European champion. You only need this gold to complete your collection. The world record, a second goal for the 22-year-old Swede, was rewarded with $ 100,000, in addition to the prize for victory in each event.
However, record options are limited for the world record holder in the 400 m hurdles (45.94), Norwegian Karsten Warholm, who is blindsided by the big event of the year, “the biggest challenge” of her athletic career , according to his words.
Injured to the hamstring of his right thigh since meeting on June 5 in Rabat, until the last minute he wasn’t sure if he could fight Eugene. The meters Warholm spent racing in the Moroccan capital is the only one he has run this year, although he hopes the work carried out at his base camp in Berkeley (California) will have positive effects to be prepared for the heat up. Dec. 16. July.
FONDER SEMENIA RECONVERED
the south africa Caster Semenya, two -time Olympic champion and three -time world champion in the 800 meters, will once again compete in a World Championshipafter five years of loss, but in the 5,000 -meter test, for which he was officially registered.
Since the World Championships in London 2017, where he won his last gold medal in the double lap, Semenya has not been able to participate in his event again. Her excess testosterone, and her refusal to take medication to reduce it to the limits (5 nanomoles per liter of blood) that World Athletics has required of women since 2019, is preventing her from doing so. According to current regulations, athletes must keep their testosterone levels below that figure for a continuous period of at least six months if they want to compete at distances between 400 meters and one mile (1,609 meters).
Semenya, 31, who is considered a hero in South Africa, is the most notorious case of an athlete with hyperandrogenism. For three years he was in a legal battle with World Athletics, an organization he accuses of imposing discriminatory policies, contrary to human rights and unethical, because they force healthy people to take medicine.
To stay on the slopes without undergoing treatment, Semenya decided to change his runner profile and try to adapt to other specialties not affected by these regulations, but at the moment he has not been able to stand 200 meters. or 5,000.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
