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≡ WORLD ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS ≡
Session 5 ~ Sunday, 17 July 2022
Sunday’s program began with the men’s marathon at 6:15 a.m., then will continue at 10:35 a.m. with the 100 m hurdles of the women’s heptathlon. This post will be added to later …
● Men/Marathon ● The flat, three-loop course started in 57 F temperatures and overcast skies just after 6:15 a.m. with 62 men on the line at Autzen Stadium, with Olympic marathon legend Frank Shorter the actual starter.
Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono, the 2019 Boston and Chicago Marathon winner, did not start as he was suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit as he “tested positive for trimetazidine, a substance that is prohibited under the 2022 WADA Prohibited List as a metabolic modulator. Substances in this category modify how the body metabolizes fat.” He tested positive during a 23 May 2022 out-of-competition test, but the result was received 47 days later from the lab in Lausanne (SUI) instead of the usual 20 days: “The AIU has made a formal complaint to the laboratory in relation to this unacceptable delay, which has denied the opportunity for another Kenyan athlete to take the place of Mr Cherono in the marathon.”
(Remember that a long delay in the result for Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva from the Stockholm lab caused the still-unresolved issues with the Beijing 2022 Team Event. This is a problem.)
In the race, the contenders ran together in a lead pack of 30, passing the half in 64:08 with Shumi Dechasa (BRN) leading most of the time. At the end of the second loop – 28 km – Dechasa had the lead at 1:25:11, but with 31 others still in contact.
The pace began to grind on the pack, with Dechasa and Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola – the 2017 Worlds runner-up – leading after 31 km, with 22 still in contention. The group was down to 14 by 32 km, with Tola pushing and Kenya’s three-time World Half Marathon champ Geoffrey Kamworor and Belgium’s Olympic bronze medalist Bashir Abdi closest.
Tola attacked after 32 km and broke away, with six chasing but seven seconds behind by 34 km after Tola threw in a 2:43 kilometer and found no challengers to his surge. Abdi, Mosinet Geremew (ETH), Kamworor and Cam Levins (CAN) were closest, but Tola was moving away smartly, up 12 seconds by 35 km and 17 seconds at 36 km, running kilometers in about 2:46.
Abdi and Geremew moved ahead of Kamworor and Levins with 6 km left, but the four were together by 38 km. Abdi and Geremew forged an expanding lead by 40 km and then fought each other for the silver and bronze.
Tola was 39 seconds up by 38 km and cruised to the win – accompanied by a group of bike riders on the other side of the road – in a brilliant 2:05:36, shattering the World Championships meet record of 2:06:54 by Kenyan Abel Kirui from 2009. Tola won by 1:08!
Geremew moved ahead of Abdi after 40 km and won his second consecutive Worlds silver (2:06:44) and Abdi got third in 2:06:48. Levins was sensational, taking more than two minutes off his lifetime best and set the Canadian record at 2:07:09. Kamworor was fifth in 2:07:14.
It was the second straight 1-2 for Ethiopia after Lelisa Desisa and Geremew went gold-silver in Doha in 2019. The Americans: Galen Rupp, suffering from back pains during the race, finished 18th in 2:09:36; Elkanah Kibet was 24th in 2:11:20 and and Colin Mickow was 46th in 2:16:37.
● Men/400 m heats ● South Africa’s Rio 2016 gold medalist Wayde van Niekerk is back from injury and won the first heat impressively in 45.18. In heat two, world leader Michael Norman of the U.S. worked the far turn and came into the home straight with a lead and cruised in at 45.37. Fellow American Michael Cherry ran hard early and won heat three in 45.81.
The third American, Champion Allison, took over the fourth heat in the final 75 m and won in 45.56. Botswana’s Bayapo Ndori won heat five in 44.87 over Grenada’s London 2012 gold medalist Kirani James (45.29). The final heat went to Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) in 45.49. The semis are on Wednesday.
● Women/400 m heats ● Olympic champ Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH) had no trouble in heat one, winning easily in 51.10, but American Kendall Ellis was sixth (52.55) and was eliminated. Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson was a comfortable winner in the second heat in a seasonal best of 50.15, moving to no. 6 on the 2022 world list. Sada Williams (BAR) won heat three in 51.05.
Olympic silver winner Marileidy Paulino (DOM) dominated heat four (50.76), with American Lynna Irby third in 51.78. Fiordaliza Cofil – the Dominican anchor on the Mixed 4×400 m team – won heat five in 51.19, with Talitha Diggs (USA) second in 51.54. The final heat went to Poland’s Anna Kielbasinka in 50.63. The semis are on Wednesday.
● Women/Hammer ● American Brooke Andersen entered as the world leader and favorite and took command immediately at 74.81 m (245-5) in the first round, only to lose the lead to fellow American – and world no. 2 – Janee’ Kassanvoid in the second round at 74.86 m (245-7).
Canada’s Cam Rogers, the collegiate record holder at Cal, got into her third-round throw and took the lead at 75.52 m (247-9). But then Andersen got unstuck and sent the ball-and-chain to 77.42 m (254-0) in the fourth round and re-took the lead. And Andersen was hot, extending her lead to 77.56 m (254-5) in the fifth round.
No one could challenge the top three and Kassanavoid did not improve in round six, clinching the bronze. Rogers also did not improve on her sixth throw, settling for silver and Andersen won the second straight World title for the U.S. by bombing her final throw out to 78.96 m (259-1), a third straight improvement, the no. 2 throw in the world this season and the no. 4 in U.S. history!
American Annette Echikunwoke managed only 68.12 m (223-6) and finished 12th.
● Men/10,000 m ● It was 75 F for the 24 starters at 1 p.m. with Olympic champ Selemon Barega (ETH), world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei (UGA) and world leader Grant Fisher (USA) on the line.
The first half saw the runners strung out in a line, but with a dozen in contact with the leaders. Nothing changed until two laps to go, with Barega pushing the pace against seven others, and being challenged by Stanley Mburu (KEN), Olympic fourth-placer Berihu Aregawi (ETH) and Cheptegei. Barega had the lead at the bell, but Cheptegei got the lead heading into the backstretch and was working hard to maintain it against Barega, Aregawi and Mburu with Canada’s Moh Ahmed and Fisher both closing.
The all-out sprint from 200 m out saw Cheptegei maintaining the lead and no one could catch him, winning in 27:27.43 and moving up from silver in Tokyo. Mburu, who fell on the first lap and was shoved a few laps later, got the silver in 27:27.90 and Jacob Kiplimo (UGA), one of the early leaders, sprinted up for the bronze (27:27.97). Fisher surged in the final 75 m and passed two, but ended up fourth in 27:28.14, ahead of Barega (27:28.39) and Ahmed (27:30.27).
Cheptegei defended his 2019 Worlds gold in this event and will now go for the double in the 5,000 m, where he is Olympic champ from Tokyo.
● Women/Heptathlon ● American Michelle Atherley led the 100 m hurdles, running 13.12 in the second section, ahead of a 13.17 lifetime best from Annik Kalin (SUI). Double Olympic champ Nafi Thiam (BEL) scored a lifetime best of 13.21 in the first section, smashing her 2017 mark of 13.34.
Thiam was sensational in the high jump, winning at 1.95 m (6-4 3/4), ahead of Adrianna Sulek (POL: 1.89 m/6-2 1/4) and American Anna Hall (1.86 m/6-1 1/4). The shot put and 200 m will follow this afternoon.
¶
American 400 m star – and two-time NCAA champ – Randolph Ross was also tossed from the World Championships by the Athletics Integrity Unit. He received a Notice of Allegation – and a provisional suspension – “for tampering with the doping control process. The allegation arises out of the athlete’s conduct during the course of an investigation into a potential whereabouts violation. There was an unsuccessful attempt by the AIU to test Mr Ross on 18 June 2022 and the investigation into this matter concluded when Mr Ross was interviewed by the AIU in Eugene on 14 July.”
This not only eliminates Ross from the men’s 400 m, but impacts the U.S.’s 4×400 m relay plans.
≡ PANORAMA ≡
● Cycling ● Stage 15 of the Tour de France was decided by an all-out sprint at the end of a 202.5 km ride in 100 F heat with Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen edging countryman Wout van Aert for his first career Tour stage win in 4:27:27. Dane Mads Pedersen was just behind in third.
The route from Rodez to Carcassonne included a couple of crashes – one of which involved race leader Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) – more protesters on the road and other antics, but after breakaway attacker Benjamin Thomas (FRA) was caught with 800 m to go, it was a flat-out sprint for the line.
The leaderboard remained unchanged as Vingegaard rejoined the race after his fall and finished 23rd. He retained his 2:22 lead on two-time defending champ Tadej Pogacar (SLO) and 2:43 on Britain’s Geraint Thomas. Monday is a rest day, followed by three straight mountain stages in the Pyrenees that may well decide the race.
¶
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