TOKYO:
Noah Lyles, Armand Duplantis and Religion Kipyegon headline the world championships in Tokyo but it surely is a chance for brand new stars to emerge and add a freshness to the established order.
AFP Sport picks out 5 prospects who might obtain simply that:
Males
Cooper Lutkenhaus (USA)
A loaded 800 metres with Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya and Canada’s defending title holder Marco Arop makes it one of many standout races — the American teenager provides much more spice to it.
At 16 and 272 days when he runs in his warmth he would be the youngest athlete to compete for the USA at a world championships.
Lutkenhaus earned his ticket with an excellent effort to complete second on the US trials in an under-18 world document time of 1min 42.27sec.
He has turned skilled, signing a contract with Nike — turning into the youngest American athlete to take action.
Whereas his rivals have the benefit of a wealth of expertise his coach believes his angle will assist him.
“He does not make the dangerous or the nice too excessive or too low,” his highschool coach Chris Capeau informed trackandfieldnews.com.
“He loves celebration and loves being puffed up about it. But when it is a dangerous day, he nonetheless loves it.”
Niels Laros (NED)
It might be a case of double Dutch in Tokyo — Femke Bol within the girls’s 400m hurdles and Laros within the 1500m.
Laros, 20, is the approaching man, and the shape one too as he arrives armed with the Diamond League title.
There are query marks over Tokyo Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen after an injury-plagued season, his successor as Olympic gold medallist Kyle Hocker and defending world champion Josh Kerr.
Laros, who was sixth within the Olympic ultimate, might have opted for the 800m or the 5,000m — each Hocker and Ingebrigtsen are eyeing the 1500m-5000m double — however has determined to not overreach.
“In Tokyo I’ll deal with the 1500m,” stated Laros. “My coach and I do know that there shall be excessive expectations, we wish to be sensible. However after all I’m dreaming in regards to the podium.”
Oleh Doroshchuk (UKR)
The Dutch could entertain hopes of a observe double however the Ukrainians have comparable aspirations within the excessive bounce.
World document holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh is favoured to retain her title and Doroshchuk has a superb opportunity of turning into the primary man from his nation to be topped champion since Bohdan Bondarenko in 2013.
Based mostly on his season thus far, Doroshchuk might ship as Mahuchikh has continually executed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, giving a welcome morale enhance to their compatriots.
The 24-year-old comes into the championships after victory within the Brussels Diamond League meet, beating Olympic champion Hamish Kerr, who then avenged that on the Diamond League finals in Zurich.
He’s build up a medals assortment, European outdoor bronze final 12 months and gold within the European indoors earlier this 12 months.
The one slight fear is the knee damage he suffered earlier within the season.
“The world championships are all I take into consideration. I simply wish to compete there,” he informed Suspilne Sports activities in July.
“From the beginning, all of the work has been executed just for this.”
Ladies
Audrey Werro (SUI)
The 21-year-old might break a glass ceiling for Swiss girls and turn into the primary to win an 800m medal in a world or Olympic ultimate.
Werro, daughter of a Swiss father and an Ivorian mom, has transferred seamlessly into the senior ranks after a powerful junior profession.
Twice European Underneath-20 champion, she received under-20 silver within the 2022 championships in Colombia, and this 12 months received the European Underneath-23 title.
She rounded off her Diamond League marketing campaign in high quality type, successful in entrance of her house crowd in Zurich, turning into the primary Swiss girl to carry a Diamond League trophy.
Solely Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson has run quicker than her successful time of 1:55.91 — additionally a Swiss document — this season.
Regardless of that, she is measured in her ambitions for Tokyo.
“I wish to make the ultimate after which after that run my finest and see what occurs.”
Leyanis Perez (CUB)
The 23-year-old has restored some lustre to Cuban girls’s triple leaping. Her bronze within the 2023 world championships in Budapest ended a 14-year hiatus by way of medals within the occasion on the championships.
Perez topped that with the world indoor title this 12 months, she is the world chief within the occasion this season and picked up a Diamond League trophy.
Nevertheless, if she is to turn into the primary Cuban to win the ladies’s title since Yargelis Savigne retained her crown in 2009 she may need to battle Venezuelan nice and four-time champion Yulimar Rojas, who remains to be searching for her finest kind after damage disadvantaged her of the 2024 Olympics.
It needs to be some spectacle and Perez will know the 29-year-old Rojas by no means provides up, having been current when she received gold in Budapest.
