TOKYO:
Noah Lyles will search to rebound from defeat within the 100 metres by safely negotiating the heats of the 200m on day 5 of the world championships on Wednesday, whereas Britain’s Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman every go for a second 1,500m title.
Katie Moon can be gunning for a 3rd gold within the ladies’s pole vault within the Tokyo stadium the place she additionally received Olympic gold in 2021.
AFP Sport appears at three stand-out occasions:
Males’s 1,500m
A cat was put among the many pigeons on this ultra-competitive occasion when Norway’s 2021 Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen didn’t make it out of the heats.
Ingebrigtsen sustained an Achilles damage after sweeping to a world indoor double in March, and a primary outside outing in Tokyo proved an excessive amount of.
Then Olympic champion Cole Hocker was disqualified within the semi-finals on Monday for ‘jostling’ because the American barged his method by a gaggle of runners within the dwelling straight. His enchantment was rejected.
The defending champion is Kerr, who together with British teammate Wightman disadvantaged Ingebrigtsen of golds on the final two world championships.
“I’m coming right here as somebody who”s accomplished it earlier than and I’m coming to do it once more,” mentioned 27-year-old Kerr.
Regardless of the high-profile athletes lacking, competitors can be robust, with a 3rd Scot within the form of Neil Gourlay and the likes of in-form Dutchman Niels Laros, Kenyans Timothy and Reynold Cheruiyot, Spain’s Adrien Ben and Portugal’s Isaac Nader all within the combine.
Girls’s pole vault
American Katie Moon, the two-time defending world champion and Olympic gold medallist in Tokyo in 2021, can be joined by 13 different athletes within the remaining of the ladies’s pole vault.
All of them cleared 4.60m in qualification and Moon can be accompanied in Wednesday’s remaining by teammates Sandi Morris and Hana Moll.
“I’m right here for revenge as a result of on the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 I broke a pole in qualification and obtained injured, so I’ve already began higher than final time I used to be right here,” mentioned Morris, a two-time world indoor champion who has received three world outside silvers.
One notable absentee, nevertheless, can be former world indoor champion Molly Caudery after the Briton sustained an ankle damage in warm-up that compelled her to withdraw from the occasion.
Reigning Olympic champion Nina Kennedy of Australia didn’t journey to Tokyo, having pulled out with a strained leg muscle following hamstring surgical procedure.
Women and men’s 200m heats
Noah Lyles will start his bid for a fourth consecutive world 200m title when he takes to the observe on the Nationwide Stadium.
Within the 100m, received by Indirect Seville from Kishane Thompson in a Jamaican 1-2 on Sunday, was “not the day to get the gold”, Lyles mentioned. The Olympic 100m champion needed to accept bronze.
“The main focus is now on 200 metres, that is my bread and butter,” he mentioned.
The ladies’s Olympic 100m champion Julien Alfred, who needed to accept an sad third place within the ladies’s world 100m, has pulled out of the 200m due to a hamstring pressure.
“The choice was made to prioritise Julien’s well being and long-term profession,” the Saint Lucia Athletics Affiliation mentioned in a press release.
Alfred was no match within the brief dash for Melissa Jefferson-Picket, who scorched to victory in 10.61sec.
And the in-form American ought to be within the combine for a tilt at a dash double.
“Popping out with the gold medal and a championship file, it is an awesome begin to my second world championships,” Jefferson-Picket mentioned after her 100m victory.
“I’m excited in regards to the 200 metres now.”
