World Athletics C’ships, Day 2: Kerley leads USA’s superb 100m clean sweep, Gidey wins epic 10k gold

American Fred Kerley led a US clean-sweep as he stormed to victory in the men’s 100m at the World Championships in Oregon on Saturday.

Kerley, in lane four, was down on Marvin Bracy for 95 metres of the tight race, but managed to out-dip his teammate for victory in 9.86 seconds at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

Bracy took silver in 9.88sec, Trayvon Bromell claiming bronze in the same time for a third-ever 100m World Championship cleans-weep for the United States after 1983 and 1991.

The fourth of the strong US quartet, Christian Coleman, the reigning world champion from Doha in 2019 who was banned from the Tokyo Olympics for missing three doping tests, finished sixth (10.01) despite an electric start.

“We said we were going to do it and we did! USA, baby!” Olympic silver medallist Kerley said to roars of approval and applause from a partisan home crowd.

“I didn’t know until I looked up and saw the clock with my name ‘Fred Kerley’ on it.

“It means a lot and I’ve done something not many 400m runners have done,” Kerley said, adding: “I know today opened up many doors for me. The future is bright for me.”

The last US clean-sweep featured Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell, something not lost on the modest Kerley or silver medallist Bracy.

“It’s amazing to be among the great, they did it in 1991, we did in 2022,” he said.

Bracy added: “This is history, to be part of something that has only happened three times ever just means the world to me.”

Bracy said he had been fortunate to be drawn in the inside lane to the winner.

“It was such an advantage, he’s running hot right now,” he said.

“The guy’s special, he’s a rare talent to be able to do all three events, his range is limitless. He might do 800m next year, we don’t know!

“He’s a special cat, amongst an elite group of people like the (Usain) Bolts the Wayde van Niekerks.

Late-charging Kerley

It was far from plain sailing for the in-form Kerley, who set out his stall with a heat-winning 9.79sec on Friday, as all the sprinters got off to a good start.

Bracy and Coleman looked like they might deprive Kerley of a gold many had predicted he would win.

But they hadn’t counted on his savage finishing skills, the former 400m runner showing all his strength at the line. Bromell also left it late to sneak onto the podium from lane eight.

As the crowd realised it was a US cleansweep, chants of “U-S-A” rang out and flags brandished.

Jamaica’s Oblique Seville finished fourth in 9.97sec, just ahead of South African Akani Simbine, who was clocked at 10.01 like Coleman in sixth.

Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown and Canada’s Aaron Brown were seventh and eighth, in 10.06 and 10.07sec respectively.

Failing to advance from the semi-finals to the final were Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse, also a two-time 100m bronze medallist, and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake of Jamaica.

The build-up to the final was rocked by the decision of Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs to withdraw just hours before the semifinals with a tightness in his right thigh.

Italian team doctor Andrea Billi said that evaluation of the contraction had found a “clinical picture that can put muscle integrity at risk and lead to injury”.

Jacobs, who pulled off one of the shocks of the Tokyo Olympics last year after storming to victory in the 100m in a time of 9.80sec, was crowned world indoor 60m champion in Belgrade in March but has struggled with injury since.

“I am a fighter and this is why I decided to be in Eugene,” he tweeted, saying it had been a “painful choice, I am forced to stop”.

Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey upstaged Dutch star Sifan Hassan to win the women’s 10,000m after an epic finish earlier on Saturday while Poland’s Pawel Fajdek claimed his fifth world title in the men’s hammer throw.

All eyes in the 10,000m were on Hassan, who produced a stunning 1500m-10,000m double at the 2019 world championships in Doha before winning 5000m and 10,000m gold and 1500m bronze at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.

But the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner left herself with too much do with 200 metres to go and world record holder Gidey held her nerve for an impressive win.

Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and teammate Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi claimed silver and bronze, Hassan finishing just off the pace in fourth.

The victory left Gidey dreaming of more success at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

“I have the next dream now - to win the gold at 5000m... I am very confident now,” she said.

Hassan insisted she was happy with the result, saying she had takena n eight-month lay-off from running in the wake of three years of non-stop training around Doha and Tokyo.

“I couldn’t get a medal, but still I’m really happy with the result,” she said

In the field, it was business as usual as Fajdek claimed his fifth world title, stretching his remarkable record with a winning throw of 81.98 metres on this third effort.

That was 95cm ahead of compatriot and great rival Wojciech Nowicki, the reigning Olympic champion, while Norway’s Eivind Henriksen took bronze.

“This was the competition which matters the most this year so I am glad that the major gold is in my hand for the fifth time,” said Fajdek.

“Now, we have to get back to do the next hard job towards the next championships” in Budapest next year.

- Warholm advances -

In a packed morning of qualifiers featuring a bevvy of stars, most negotiated their way through to further rounds.

Most eyes were on Norway’s Karsten Warholm, who produced one of the greatest Olympic track performances of all time last year when he smashed the 29-year-old world record to win the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Games in a time of 45.94sec.

But the 26-year-old pulled up injured at the Diamond League meet in Rabat in early June with a “muscle fibre tear” in a hamstring, something he dubbed a “personal disaster”.

Doubts had been raised over his true fitness level, but the Norwegian vowed this week he was at 100% and looked comfortable as he coasted through his heat in his bid to bag a third consecutive world title.

“I felt things were under control, had a steady race. No pain so that’s a good sign. I feel I did everything I wanted,” said Warholm.

Joining him in Sunday’s semi-finals will be American Rai Benjamin and Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos, the silver and bronze medallists in Tokyo.

Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, the Olympic champion seeking a third consecutive world title, made short work of triple jump qualification, soaring to 14.72m on her first attempt to guarantee herself an automatic place in Monday’s final.

Americans Grant Holloway, the reigning world champion, and Devon Allen, who will join up with the Philadelphia Eagles as a wide receiver after the worlds, qualified for Sunday’s 100m hurdles semi-finals with ease.

US champion Daniel Roberts, however, crashed out.

Also sailing through qualifying was outspoken Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who justified the absence of three-time defending champion Mariya Lasitskene by claiming athletics had no place for “Russian killers” in light of Moscow’s invasion of her homeland.

Saturday’s evening session at Hayward Field see the semi-finals and final (0250 GMT) of the men’s 100m, as well as finals in the men’s long jump and women’s shot put.

Stunning long jump heist

Wang Jianan of China snatched victory in the men’s long jump at the World Athletics championships on Saturday with his sixth and final effort.

Wang sailed out to 8.36 metres, edging by 4cm the best attempt by Greece’s reigning Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou.

Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer claimed bronze with 8.16.

American Chase Ealey claimed the US team’s first gold medal at their inaugural home world championships when she won the women’s shot put on Saturday.

Ealey managed a best of 20.49 metres in front of a partisan crowd at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

China’s Gong Lijiao, Olympic champion and two-time defending world title holder, had to be content with a silver with 20.39m.

Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands took silver with 19.77m.