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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Athletics ● For someone who says very little, 2022 men’s 100 m World Champion Fred Kerley of the U.S. is often in the middle of a lot of conversations.
On Friday, prior to Sunday night’s Enhanced Games in Las Vegas, he told reporters that he has not taken any performance-enhancing drugs in advance of the event and despite being suspended into August 2027 for “whereabouts” failures, expects to be in the mix for future Olympic medals:
“I will compete at the L.A. Olympics in 2028.”
He expects to run fast on Sunday and will be challenged by former U.S. teammate Marvin Bracy-Williams, the 2022 Worlds 100 m silver winner, who is also suspended through November 2027, and is doping for the event.
● Wrestling ● Given the continuing conflict in the Middle East, United World Wrestling announced Friday that the 2026 UWW World Championships is being relocated from Manama in Bahrain to Astana in Kazakhstan.
The dates are to remain the same: 24 October to 1 November; Astana previously hosted the UWW Worlds in 2019.
≡ RESULTS ≡
● Archery ● At the USA Archery Team Qualifier Salt Lake Summit, Olympic medal winners Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold won the men’s and women’s Recurve titles with identical, 6-4 scores.
Ellison defeated Nicholas D’Amour by 6-4 in the men’s final while Kaufhold got past Abigail Kippes in the women’s final, 6-4. The Compound wins went to top-ranked Kyle Douglas over Louis Price, 149-148, while third-seed Alexis Ruiz took the women’s Compound gold, 146-142, against top-seed Paige Pearce.
● Athletics ● Strong fields produced some noteworthy marks at the 2026 L.A. Track Festival held at UCLA’s Drake Stadium, with the men’s 800 m the main event. In fact, three two-lap races stood out:
● Paris Olympian Brandon Miller won the men’s 800 m in 1:44.26, taking off on lap one in 50.37 and then beating an elite field, including Abe Alvarado (1:44.59), British 1,500 m World Champions Josh Kerr (1:44.60) and Jake Wightman (1:44.74) and U.S. stars Bryce Hoppel (1:45.01) and Donavan Brazier (1:45.03).
● Another section of the 800 was almost as fast, with Australia’s 2024 World Junior runner-up Peyton Craig winning in 1:44.66 over Yusuf Bizimana (GBR: 1:44.89).
● The best section of the women’s 800 m was an outdoor world-leading time from NCAA and U.S. champ Roisin Willis in 1:58.08, who led at the 400 m mark in 58.18, then held on to win, ahead of Paris Olympian Klaudia Kazmierska (POL: 1:58.18) and American Raevyn Rogers (1:59.82).
There was another outdoor world leader, in the men’s 5,000 m with Eritrea’s 2026 NCAA Indoor champ Habtom Samuel (ERI) winning in 12:57.22, well ahead of Gulveer Singh (IND: 13:03.93).
American Olympian Parker Valby was on the track for the first time since Paris 2024 and won the women’s 5,000 m in a lifetime best 14:49.41, the U.S. outdoor leader in 2026. Britain’s Elise Thorner won the women’s 3,000 m in 9:07.39 – a stadium record – to move to no. 6 on the 2026 world list.
Vincent Ciattei won a three-way sprint in the early men’s 1,500 section, winning in 3:33.41, ahead of Nathan Green and Parker Wolfe, both in 3:33.46. Abdi Nur beat Joe Waskom in the men’s 1,500 m evening section, 3:34.31 to 3:35.47.
In the sprints, it was 2022 World Champion Michael Norman taking the men’s 400 m in 44.94, no. 5 in the U.S. this season and his fastest since 2024.
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At the Tucson Elite Classic, three-time U.S. Olympian Rudy Winkler won the men’s hammer and moved to no. 4 in the world this season at 80.88 m (265-4), ahead of Trey Knight at 78.01 m (255-11).
American Rachel Richeson won the women’s hammer and went to no. 2 in the world at 78.95 m (259-0). In the women’s javelin, Madison Wiltrout got a lifetime best of 63.88 m (209-7) and moved to no. 3 on the 2026 world list and no. 6 all-time U.S.
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World 20 km silver medal winner Alegna Gonzalez was a clear winner at the World Athletics Race Walk Tour Gold in La Coruna (ESP), taking the women’s Half Marathon walk in 1:32:24, well ahead of Italy’s Sofia Fiorini (1:32:36)
The men’s race was a Chinese 1-2, with 19-year-old Shengji Shi winning by 1:23:23 to 1:23:25 for Chenjie Li. Japan’s Keisuke Hara was a distant third in 1:23:52.
● Badminton ● China scored three wins at the BWF World Tour Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur, with Shi Feng Li taking the men’s Singles title, 21-16, 21-17 over Panitchapon Teeraratsakul (THA), and wins in the women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.
Ratchanok Intanon (THA) swept top-seeded Yu Fei Chen (CHN), 21-17, 21-15, in the women’s Singles final and Denmark won in the men’s Doubles.
● Cycling ● The 109th Giro d’Italia headed into its second weekend with furious riding and a change in the leaderboard.
The Friday stage of 189 km to Verbania was mostly flat, then a climb with about 17 km left, and a lead group of 15 saw Italian veteran Alberto Bettiol attack near the top and ride away to win in 3:51:33, ahead of Andreas Leknessund (NOR: +0:26). The race leader stay comfortable in a pack that finished 13:06 behind Bettiol.
Saturday’s brutal climbing stage of 133 km to Pila featured two major climbs, one smaller one and then a misery-inducing uphill finish over 17 km, from 617 m to 1,789 m!
An early breakaway was finally reeled in as the final climb began and race favorite Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) sailed away to win in 3:53:01, 49 seconds ahead of Felix Gall (AUT) and 59 seconds up on Jai Hindley (AUS). It also gave Vingegaard the race lead, with Portugal’s Eulalio Afonso finishing 15th and 2:49 back. Vingegaard’s lead was 2:26 over Afonso and 2:50 over Gall heading into Sunday.
The 15th stage was a sprinter’s dream, a flat, 157 km route finishing in Milan, but it didn’t turn out that way. A breakaway group formed almost from the start and held on for a four-way finish with Fredrik Dversnes (NOR) winning at the line over Italians Mirco Maestri, Martin Marcellusi and Mattia Bais. Due to road conditions and the placement of barriers, it was decided for safety reasons to take times and placements at the start of the last lap in Milan and not at the actual finish.
Vingegaard thus goes into the final week as the leader, still up 2:26 on Afonso.
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The four-stage UCI Women’s World Tour Vuelta a Burgos Feminas saw Dutch star Lorena Wiebes win the first two stages in sprint finishes, then countrywoman Mischa Bredewold taking the sprint finish in the hilly third stage with Wiebes third. Wiebes entered Sunday’s final ride with just a three-second edge.
A third Dutch star, Yara Kastelijn, took stage four with a 1.2 km breakaway on the uphill finish and won the hilly, 120 km ride into Lagunas de Neila in 3:36:47, 16 seconds up on France’s Evita Muzic. Bredewold finished fifth at +1:01 and Wiebes was 49th (+9:05), so Kastelijn came from eighth and -0:25 to win with an overall time of 13:20:04, beating Muzic by 20 seconds, with Bredewold fading to fifth and Wiebes to 36th.
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The UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Nove Mesto (CZE), the second stage of the season, opened with Short Track wins for Mathis Azzaro (FRA) in the men’s race (over Britain’s double Olympic champ Tom Pidcock, 21:46 to 21:47) and Dutch 2024 World Champion Puck Pieterse (21:37) at the line, beating Laura Stigger (AUT) and Nicole Koller (SUI) with all given the same time.
On Sunday, Pidcock won the men’s race decisively in 1:18:52, 18 seconds up on France’s Luca Martin and 1:04 ahead of Swiss Filippo Colombo. Stigger, the two-time World Junior Champion, won her third World Series gold in 1:21:32, way ahead of Rio 2016 Olympic champ Jenny Rissveds (SWE: +0:47). American Savilla Blunck was sixth.
● Fencing ● Egypt’s Paris 2024 bronze winner Mohamed Elsayed won the FIE World Cup in Men’s Epee in Bern (SUI), taking a 15-12 finals win over Tibor Andrasfi (HUN). It’s Elsayed’s second career World Cup win. The Swiss won the team gold, over Italy.
Korea’s Paris Olympic champ Sang-uk Oh won a battle with American Colin Heathcock in the final of the FIE World Cup in Men’s Sabre in Cairo (EGY), winning by 15-8, for his seventh career World Cup gold. Heathcock, still just 20, won his third career World Cup medal. France won the team title over Hungary.
The FIE World Cup in Women’s Epee in St. Maur (FRA) saw Italy’s 2023 Worlds runner-up Alberta Santuccio win over American Hadley Husisian, also by 15-8. The American, 22, is now ranked seventh worldwide and won her third career World Cup medal and first silver. South Korea took the team gold, defeating the Russian “neutrals.”
France’s Sarah Noutcha won the FIE World Cup in Women’s Sabre in Lima (PER), 15-11, against Sebin Choi (KOR) for her second career World Cup win.
● Gymnastics ● Paris Olympian Lena Bickel (SUI) won two events to highlight the World Gymnastics Artistic World Challenge Cup in Tashkent (UZB).
She took the Uneven Bars scoring 13.000 and the Floor Exercise at 13.100. Thi Quynh Nhu Nguyen (VIE) won the Vault at 13.375 and Evelina Yezhova (KAZ) won on Beam at 12.850.
The astonishing Oksana Chusovitina (UZB), now 50, was fourth on vault at 12.925 just 0.025 points from third place.
Bulgaria celebrated three men’s wins, from Rayan Radkov on Pommel Horse (13.900), Daniel Trifonov on Vault (13.950) and Yordan Aleksandrov on Parallel Bars (13.700). The other men’s victors included Emil Akhmejanov (KAZ: 13.650) on Floor; Akhrorkhon Temirkhonov (UZB: 13.850) on Rings, and Alisher Boysarov (UZB: 13.650) on the Horizontal Bar.
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The U.S. posted 1-2 finishes in both individual Trampoline finals at the Pan American Trampoline Championships in Medellin (COL), with Worlds silver winner Ruben Padilla winning the men’s title at 61.540, ahead of Aliaksei Shostak (60.280).
Padilla and Elijah Vogel then won the men’s Synchro gold, scoring 51.850, ahead of Brazil (50.760).
The women’s gold was won by Maia Amano at 55.190 with Leah Garofalo second, scoring 55.010. Ava DeHaines and Garofalo won the women’s Synchro at 48.270, with Mexico taking silver at 47.480.
● Ice Hockey ● With round-robin play concluding on the 26th, Switzerland (6-0) and Canada are leading the groups at the IIHF men’s World Championship in Switzerland.
The Swiss have rolled past six opponents by a total score of 35-5, with Finland right behind at 6-0 (29-7); they will meet on the 26th. The U.S. is 2-3 with two games left against Hungary and Austria and probably needs to win both to move from sixth to four and make the playoffs.
Canada (5-0) leads Group B over the Czech Republic (4-1) so far. The quarterfinals will be held on 28 May.
● Sport Climbing ● Australia’s Oce MacKenzie won her first World Climbing Series gold – and the first for Australia – in Bern (SUI) in the women’s Boulder final, scoring 74.5 in the final to top Britain’s Erin McNeice (69.0) and American stars Annie Sanders (60.0) and Brooke Raboutou (44.1).
The men’s Boulder final saw Japan’s teen sensation – he’s 19 – Sorato Anraku show why he was the 2025 World Champion, scoring an impressive 99.7 to win easily. It’s his 14th World Cup win across all events. France’s two-time Worlds silver winner Medji Schalck was a distant second at 84.3; American Colin Duffy was eighth (29.4).
● Swimming ● Triple Paris 2024 gold medal winner Torri Huske was everywhere at the third Tyr Pro Swim Series of the season in Sacramento, California, winning four events and second in a fifth.
She won the women’s 200 m Free in 1:57.15, then swept the 50 m Butterfly (25.95) and 100 m Fly (57.46) and the 200 m Medley in 2:11.34. She finished second in the 100 m Freestyle to four-time Olympic relay medalist Taylor Ruck (CAN), 53.90 to 54.13, in her fifth event Saturday evening.
World Junior Champs medal winner – and Georgia star – Kennadi Dobson was also busy, winning the 400 m Free in 4:07.64, the 800 m Free in 8:33.50 and then 400 m Medley in 4:43.73. The other women’s multi-event winners were Backstroke star Katharine Berkoff – the 2025 50 m World Champion – in the 50 m Back (27.41) and 100 m Back (2:08.41), and 16-year-old Mikayla Tan in the 100 m Breast (1:08.16) and 200 m Breast (2:26.35).
Emerging U.S. distance star Luka Mijatovic was the star of the men’s events, winning the 400 m Free (3:45.20), 800 m Free (7:47.08) and the 1,500 m (14:59.27). Stanford All-American Henry McFadden won the 200 m Free in 1:47.34 and tied for the 100 m Free gold with Ruslan Gaziev (CAN) in 48.72.
One of the highlights of the meet was the return of Backstroke star Ryan Murphy, in his return to competition. He was second to Daniel Diehl in the 100 Back, 53.74 to 53.91, but took the 50 m Back in 25.17.
Dutch swimmer Sean Niebold won the 50 m Freestyle in 21.92 and the 100 m Buitterfly, beating American star Michael Andrew, 52.13 to 52.36. Andrew won the 50 m Breast final in 26.96.
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