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≡ WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
The decathlon continued on Sunday morning but also the extra relay heats from the carnage during Saturday’s heats at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. It was hot again, this time with 85 F temperatures, but with much lower humidity at about 55% and lots of sunshine.
Just two relays: a 4×100 m time trial and a one-on-one match in the 4×400 m, held in between groups of the decathlon discus:
● Men/4×100 m: South Africa was impeded – hit – by Italy on the first exchange in the heats and allowed to run again, needing to time 38.34 or faster to get into a nine-team final.
Shaun Maswanganyi led off well and made a good first pass to Sinesipho Dambile. The second exchange to Bradley Nkoana was good and the final exchange to star sprinter Akani Simbine was excellent.
Simbine ran hard to the line, but finished in 38.64, short of the time needed. They’re out.
● Men/4×400 m: Zambia’s David Mulenga cut across other runners, especially Demerius Smith of the U.S. on the second exchange in heat one and got his team disqualified. The decision was to allow Kenya (3:00.76) and the U.S. (3:01.06) to have a run-off for a ninth lane in the final.
The Americans showed the same order, with Chris Bailey, the World Indoor winner, then Smith, 2023 national champion Bryce Deadmon and Jenoah McKiver. Kenya changed its order to George Mutinda (3rd on Saturday), David Kapirante (lead-off), Dennis Mulongo (2nd) and anchor Kevin Kipkorir.
They ran in the same lanes as in the heats: four for the U.S. and seven for Kenya, which made for a strange outlook with the three-turn stagger. The first exchange was fairly even, with Bailey (44.67) ahead of Mutinda (45.12). Smith took a clear lead on the backstraight, but Mutinda blasted up to challenge.
Smith re-established the lead in the home straight and passed ahead by 2 m (45.00) to Deadmon, who rolled to a big lead on the third leg. He came into the straight up by about 12 m but faded a bit (44.35), and McKiver took an 8 m lead on the final pass.
Kipkorir was gaining on the anchor leg (44.50), but McKiver pulled away on the straight (44.46) and the U.S. qualified at 2:58.48, actually the fourth-fastest qualifier among all teams! Kenya finished in 3:00.39. (Relays hands photo by Mattia Ozbot for World Athletics.)
● Men/Decathlon: The 110 m hurdles started before the relays, with Puerto Rico’s Ayden Owens-Delerme – fourth at the 2022 Worlds – posting the fastest time at 13.65 in race three, with Heath Baldwin of the U.S. fifth-best at 14.16 and U.S. champion Kyle Garland sixth overall in 14.30.
The shocker was Sander Skotheim (NOR) in heat two, the world leader at 8,909, hitting hurdle five, losing his balance over hurdle six and then pushing hurdle seven over, then continuing and finishing in 15.77 (worth 759 points). He was disqualified in the event and after a warm-up throw in discus, retired.
So, Garland leads with 5,643, with Owens-Delerme second (5,507), then German star Leo Neugebauer (5,329), 2024 European Champion Johannes Erm (EST: 5,286) and Baldwin (5,264). On to the discus.
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Going into the final evening session, the medal table shows the U.S. way in front with 20 total (12-4-4), and Kenya second at 10 (6-2-2) and Jamaica with eight (1-4-3). The placing table, scored 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 to measure overall team strength, has the U.S. at 250, with Kenya at 95 and Jamaica at 80.
The final session schedule has the women’s 800 m, men’s 5,000 m, the end of the decathlon and the relays. The field-event program has women’s high jump and the men’s discus.
Prize money for the Worlds is $70,000-35,000-22,000-16,000-11,000-7,000-6,000-5,000 for individual events and $80,000-40,000-20,000-16,000-12,000-8,000-6,000-4,000 for relays.
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