By A Correspondent
Noah Lyles took the men’s 100m title as he had promised he would in the run-up to the World championships. Joshua Cheptegei made it three in a row in the men’s 10,000m while a new name came up in Ethan Katzberg, a little-known Canadian who won the hammer throw gold as the second day wound up at the National Athletics Centre at Budapest on Sunday.
Briton Katarina Johnson-Thompson bounced her way back on the second day to upset favourite Anna Hall of the US in the heptathlon. This was the second World gold for the Briton, she having won in 2019.
Lyles and Fred Kerley, the American sprint stars had been forecasting a 100m showdown at Budapest, but the eventual line-up for the final did not have Kerley, the defending champion. He bowed out in the semifnals, finishing third in one of his poorest performances at 10.02s leaving the stage for the World 200m champion, Lyles.
Lyles got into his top gear only past the half-way mark having taken off with a modest start of 0.145s reaction time. Former world champion, Christian Coleman of the US and Zarnell Hughes of Britain looked to have an edge over Lyles, but the latter took over once past 60m, never to give the others a chance.
Lyles clocked 9.83s, his personal best and an equal world lead with Hughes who had clocked it in New York in June. Behind Lyles there was a blanket finish for silver, with three men credited with 9.88s.
The world junior champion, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, who took the silver, Hughes, who won his first individual medal in the World championships, and Oblique Seville who comes from the land of Usain Bolt, all were credited with 9.88s, with thousandth of seconds separating them for the medals eventually.
Tebogo won the silver, one-thousandth of a second ahead of Hughes while Seville had to be contented with the fourth place.
“I knew what I had to do,” Lyles said. “I came here for three golds, ticked off one, others are coming. The 100m was the hardest one, it is out of the books. I will have fun with the event I love no”, he said, the last part referring to the 200m in which he is the acknowledged expert and champion.
“All these years, all these years of lessons, tribulations, of patience, I stuck to it. I had self-belief and trust in speed, my coach, and it’s all come together at last in the 100m at a World Championships,” said Hughes who had an incredulous look as the race finished, perhaps realising that for the first time he had won an individual medal at the Worlds. He was overcome by emotion as he knelt and received the congratulations from the others later.
“I’m not really devastated,” Kerley said, of his elimination at the semifinal stage. “That’s the point of the race, to find the better men. They were better men today.
“There were some movements in the start blocks but other than that I had no issues. I just have to move on. It was a terrible race for me but I’m good, I’m healthy. Life moves on”. Tebogo and Seville finished ahead of Kerley.
Sani Brown gets best placing for Japan
Japanese Abdul Hakim Sani Brown finished sixth in the 100m final with a 10.04s, bettering his seventh position in the last Worlds and achieving the best placing for his country in the men’s 100m.
Sani Brown had clocked a 9.97s while taking second place behind Lyles in the semifinals. He equalled his personal best with that and qualified for the Paris Olympics, the standard being 10.00s
“It’s really frustrating,” Sani Brown was quoted as saying. The 24-year-old Japanese had a poor reaction time but made up after that. “I was in better condition than last year, but I couldn’t give my best performance.”
“I was able to reconfirm I can compete on this stage. I feel like I’m getting closer to a medal than last year,” Sani Brown said. He had finished seventh in 200m also last year.
Cheptegei joins select band
In completing his hat-trick of 10,000m titles in the World championships, Cheptegei joined Ethiopian greats, Haile Gebrselassie and Kenenisa Bekele, and Briton Mo Farah. The Ethiopians have won four titles each.
Making his decisive move from about 500 metres to the finish, Cheptegei held onto his lead as he and Ethiopian Selemon Barega were engaged in a furious fight on the final back straight.
Into the home straight, Barega tried to chase the Ugandan down, but each passing yard, Cheptegei kept widening his lead with the Ethiopian visibly fading. In the end, Barega was edged to the silver by Kenyan Daniel Ebenyo, the Commonwealth Games silver medallist last year.
Cheptegei clocked 27:51.42, his season best, Ebenyo 27:52.60 and Barega 27:52.72.
“I am very excited and proud that I have succeed in winning my third world title in a row, “said Cheptegei, “This was the best possible way to end the season. This might be my last championships on the track. That’s why this gold medal means even more.”
Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew came 10th with a season best 28:08.03 while Japanese Ren Tazawa was 15th with 28:25.85
Katarina Johnson-Thompson was second to Hall at 3998 to 3905 on the first day. But on the second day of heptathlon, the Briton wrested back the lead which she had held briefly on the first day, with a leap of 6.54 to Hall’s 6.19 in long jump. Competing with a strapped leg because of an injury at this stage, Hall was pushed to third place for a while after javelin.
Johnson-Thompson had a 43-point lead going into the last event, the 800m where the American is strong. But on an injured leg Hall could not overhaul the Briton though she clocked the best, but Johnson-Thompson had 20 points to spare in the end, at 6740 to 6720.
“This has been one of the most gruelling heptathlons I’ve ever done – the delayed start yesterday, the long day, then I got about three hours sleep last night,” said Johnson-Thompson
“This is the culmination of so much hard work. I’m so happy, I’m crying. I can’t help it. Today I knew that if I believed in myself, I could do it. But it wasn’t easy,’’ the Briton said.
Dutchwoman Anouk Vetter who briefly took the second place after javelin, finished third in a season best 6501.
Heavyweights beaten in hammer
A silver medallist at the last Commonwealth Games, Kratzberg was not among the heavyweights in the hammer throw contest, but he clinched the gold with a fifth-round throw of 81.25m.
For the first time after winning five titles in a row Poland’s Pawel Fajdek had to vacate the top spot. Not just that, he could not win a medal, finishing fourth with 80.00m
Olympic champion Wojchiech Nowicki of Poland took the silver with 81.02m while, to the delight of a large, appreciative crowd, Bence Halasz won the bronze at 80.832m to provide the host country its first medal in these championships.
“To throw a PB and become a world champion, that is absolutely a great feeling,” said Katzberg, who at 21 was the youngest ever hammer champion at the World championships. Incidentally, all the top 10 marks of the Canadian have come this year.
Vuleta bags long jump gold
Serbian long jumper Ivana Vuleta (nee Spanovic) took her first world outdoor title with a world-leading 7.14m.
She had previously won bronze medals at the World championships in 2013 and 2015 while she had also won World indoor title in 2018 and 2022
American Tara Davis-Woodhall claimed the silver with 6.91m while Alina Rotar-Koltmann of Romania took the bronze at 6.88m.
Defending champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany was not entered in this competition because of an injury.
Perez wins 20km walk
On the second morning, Maria Perez won the 20km walk event in the championships, completing a golden double for Spain in racewalking.
Perez’s effort added to the one scored on the opening day by Alvaro Martin who won the men’s 20km walk gold.
Perez clocked 1:26:51, well ahead of the second-placed Jemima Montag of Australia who took the silver in 1:27:16, an Oceania record. The bronze went to Olympic champion Antonella Palmisano in 1:27:26 who suffered a fall during the course of the event.
Perez was disqualified in the event at last year’s World championships in Oregon.
“It’s unreal,” said Montag, the two-time Commonwealth Games champion, about winning the silver. “This was like celebration with my family who also had come”, said the Australian.
The 36-year-old Chinese racewalking legend, Liu Hong, came 17th in 1:30:43. This was her eighth appearance in the World championships. She had won gold on the trot from 2011 to 2015 and then added her fourth gold in 2019. In between she also took the Olympic silver in 2012 and the Olympic bronze in 2021.
It had not been a good outing for Asian walkers in these championships, both among men and women. The Japanese domination of the men’s event had ended the previous day and today in the women’s 20km, the best place for an Asian was the seventh by Chinese Ma Zhenxia (1:28;30).
Three Japanese men made it into the semifinals of the 400m on Sunday with Kentaro Sato, the newly-crowned Asian champion at Bangkok, posting a national record of 44.77s. He bettered the 32-year-old national record of the legendary Susumu Takano, that of 44.78s he clocked in the National championships. Takano also clocked 44.91s in the heats of the World championships held in Tokyo that year. He finished seventh in the final.
Also joining Sato in the semifinals from other heats were Fugi Sato (44.97s) and Yuki Joseph Nakajima (45.15s).
With these three men Japan should do well in the 4x400m relay in these Worlds but also be looking for the top spot in the Asian Games in September where Sri Lanka, the Asian champion, and India would be the other main contenders.
Photo 1 Credit: https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a44857711/world-athletics-championships-2023-results/
Photo 2 Credit: https://sportnewsafrica.com/en/breve/athletics-budapest-2023-worlds-botswana-with-tebogo-and-13-athletes/
Photo 3 Credit: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.asahi.com%2Fajw%2Farticles%2F14985717&psig=AOvVaw11Q2Gik213x6DsgM-DvVOH&ust=1692708242558000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBMQjhxqFwoTCMD_qeHj7YADFQAAAAAdAAAAABAg
Photo 4 Credit: https://athleticsweekly.com/event-reports/katzberg-breaks-hungarian-hearts-in-mens-hammer-1039970805/
