Duplantis, Ingebrigtsen … The names to follow at the World Championships in Eugene

Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis’s search for a new world record in his ongoing attempt to expand human limits will be one of the highlights of the World Athletics Championships starting this Friday in Eugene (United States).

However, Duplantis, who aspires to achieve the world title is still not on his record, It’s not the only right name to follow in the men’s category at a World Cup held for the first time in American soil history.

DUPLANTIS SEEKS ITS OWN LIMITATIONS

Undoubted favorite to win gold in the pole vault final, the struggle of Swedish Armand Duplantis is not in overcoming his rivals, but in knowing how far he will be able to raise the level At this moment.

Generous in all his competitions, the world record holder turned each of his tournaments into a battle to transcend human limits.

After signing the world’s best record of all time in the open air with 6.16 meters he signed in Stockholm on June 30, the challenge for Duplantis, 22, is to set a new world record in Eugene, where he must break the 6.20 which he achieved in March at the Indoor World Championships in Belgrade.

AMERICAN SPEEDERS WANT TO RETURN

Wounded with pride after losing in the Tokyo Olympics final by Italian Marcell Jacobs, American sprinters will try to reclaim the throne of the 100 meter dash.

start of Fred Kerley, silver in the Japanese capital, who came to the event with the best world record of the year thanks to 9.77 seconds in which he won the final of the American selection tests, on the same track at Hayward Field.

A mark that Marcell Jacobs has yet to come close to this year, weighed down by injuries, came to Eugene with a best time of 10.04 seconds, 24 hundredths more than the time that allowed him to win gold in Tokyo Games.

WARHOLM’S DOUBT HAS OPENED A BATTLE FOR GOLD

Doubts about the true state of form of Norwegian Karsten Warholminjured on June 5 in Rabat, made the duel for gold in the 400m hurdles between American Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison dos Santos, the two athletes who escorted the Nordic to the Olympic podium in Tokyo.

A battle in which the young 22-year-old Brazilian athlete seems to have started with a slight advantage, not only coming to Eugene with the best time of the year, the 46.80 seconds he set on June 30 in Stockholm, but also counts the achievements in all his careers this year.

In fact, Dos Santos has already beaten Benjamin the only time the two athletes have met this year, after beating the American in the Diamond League event held in May in Doha.

INGEBRIGTSEN AGAIN CHALLENGES THE AFRICAN NAVY

You have to go back as far as 1983, the first World Cup held in Helsinki, to find the victory of a European athlete in the iconic middle distance test, the 1,500 meters.

But if there’s one person capable of taking the baton from the legendary Steve Cram, it’s the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who at the age of 21 already knows what the crowned Olympic champion means after defeating Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot in Tokyo.

A defeat that the Kenyan army will try to recoup, which, in addition to Cheruiyot, current title defender, highlights the presence of Abel Kipsangworld leader of the year with a time of 3: 31.00 minutes.

Although if anyone knows what it will feel like to beat Ingebrigtsen this year, it was Ethiopian Samuel Tefera, who snatched the gold medal at the Belgrade Indoor World Championships in March from the Norwegian, who a day later announced of his positive for coronavirus.

THE FUTURE BEGINS WITH ERRYON KNIGHTON

Few athletes have raised as many expectations in recent times as very young Erriyon Knighton, who is 18, is emerging as the favorite to win a gold medal in the 200 metersafter a spectacular 19.49 seconds signed by the American in April.

That mark put Knighton, who at just 17 years old was 19 hundredths away from a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, in fourth position in the all-time world rankings.

The Tampa athlete needs to get close to that record if he wants to beat fellow defending champion Noah Lyles, who has already beaten Knighton in the U.S. Trials final.