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Asian hopes will rest on javelin throwers

By A Correspondent

The World championships are upon us. And the exciting possibilities of record-breakers and history-makers clashing over an array of events through the next nine days, starting Saturday at the National Stadium in Tokyo, are endless and mouthwatering.

The run-up has seen world records tumble at an incredible frequency and duels developing among the top contenders that showed a glimpse of what could be in store in Tokyo. The sprints, in both the sections, look set to produce most fierce clashes like the ones Tokyo’s National Stadium had witnessed 34 years ago in Japan’s first World championships.

Then, the king of long jumping, Carl Lewis, and the man who challenged him for the ultimate crown and record, Mike Powell, had come up with the most memorable clash that produced a world record, eclipsing an impossible-looking 8.90m of Bob Beamon at the 1968 Olympics. Powell got the world record with an effort of 8.95m, but Lewis jumped the best series ever.

The same stadium is going to witness electrifying action now though the Lewis-Powell showdown looks likely to remain the greatest ever at the long jump pit. Of immense interest for the fans would be the short sprint clash between defending champion Noah Lyles of the US and Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, and Lyles and Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana in the 200 metres, with another American, Kenny Bednarek a contender in both the sprints. Lyles would be gunning for his fourth successive World championships gold in the longer sprint.

Japan would be looking out for success beyond the usual in a World championship with the athletes drawing more inspiration from a host’s advantage. Yet, the pressure to perform on some of the top Japanese at home would be such that anything can happen.

Japan has medal chances in women’s javelin through the defending champion, Haruka Kitaguchi, male steeplechaser Ryuji Miura and a clutch of racewalkers headed by Toshikazu Yamanishi who would be looking forward to taking his third 20km title in what could be an unforgettable moment for him and the home fans.

Asia would depend much on the Japanese success this time since China is no longer looking strong in women’s throws and there is no one of the calibre of Essa Mutaz Barshim in Qatar or elsewhere around in the continent to take over the high jump mantle. Barshim has been entered in Tokyo but with a season best of 2.13m and limited competitive build-up, he cannot be expected to challenge the best.

Apart from Kitaguchi, the two other Asian gold medals in the last edition in Budapest came from Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra and Bahrain’s female steeplechaser Winfred Yavi. Both are in the field this time, too, and they are in the midst for the top honours though not so dominant as in 2023.

Chopra crossed 90 metres for the first time this season, at the Doha Diamond League. Yet, coming into these championships, it is German Julian Weber who is being tipped to take over from the Indian. The German has two marks over 91 metres and he has scored over Chopra twice this season including the Diamond League final.

While the Chopra-Weber showdown is being highlighted, let us not forget Arshad Nadeem who won the Olympic title in Paris last year much against expectations with a career best of 92.97m., an Asian record. The Pakistani has since then reportedly grappled with injuries and a surgery in London further delayed his entry into competition after he won the only event he competed in this season, the Asian championships in Gumi, Korea, which he won with some difficulty at 86.40m at the end of May. Since then, there had been a long gap which will be filled with his foray back into the World championships. His critics might argue he does not compete in any meet except the championships and there is truth in it. Chopra has a 9-1 record against Nadeem, his only loss coming at the Olympics last year.

Chopra, Olympic champion at the same venue in 2021, and defending World champion, has conserved himself this year, coping with a few recurring injuries while fine-tuning himself under the Czechia great Jan Zelezny. Weber beat him at Doha 91.06m to 90.23m. The Indian won at Paris, Ostrava and Bengaluru in lesser fields but lost the Diamond League final at Zurich where he could manage only 85.01m to the German’s PB of 91.51m.

The field will also have some of those who have made rapid strides this season plus some other experienced global medal winners in two-time world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago’s Keshorn Walcott, former Olympic champion, and Kenya’s former world champion Julius Yego. All three have had some success this season.

Among the not-so-accomplished throwers who have made a huge impact this season are Brazil’s Louis Da Silva who registered an Area record of 91.00m on August 3, and Curtis Thompson of the US (87.76m). Sri Lankans Rumesh Tharanga (86.50m) and Sumedha Ranasinghe (85.78m) also had success this season but going by past performances their inconsistency has been notable. Czehia’s Yakub Vadlejch, after having restricted himself to just one meet this year due to an injury, has come back in August with 82.33m that is encouraging.

The battle for the gold should revolve around Chopra, Weber and Nadeem with Peters capable of coming up with one of his surprises in global meets.

Winfred Yavi clocked a world-leading 8:45.25, one second shy of the WR, in winning the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, the venue of the 2022 World championships. Her main opponents in Tokyo, Peruth Chemutai, of Uganda, 26, Olympic champion in 2021, and silver medallist 2024, and Faith Cherotich of Kenya, World bronze medallist in 2023, came behind her in Eugene. Yavi has a 9-4 record against Cherotich but most significantly, two of those losses came this season, at Doha and Oslo. Cherotich is No. 2 in this season’s lists with 8:48.71,

Bahrain has another major contender for a medal in Salwa Eid Naser: in the 400 metres. She will be thirsting for a title after having missed the 2022 and 2023 editions because of a doping ban related to whereabouts failures. She set an Asian record of 48.14s in winning the world title at Doha in 2019 and once again is showing signs of touching her peak form, leading the season lists with a 48.17s clocked at Kingston in April.

Naser will have to tackle defending champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, who is No. 2 in the season lists with 48.81s and the peerless American, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who decided to concentrate on the flat one-lap race rather than her pet hurdles event this year towards establishing herself as a more accomplished athlete.

Paulino is the world and Olympic champion while McLaughlin-Levrone has two golds in the hurdles at the Olympics and one from the Worlds apart from relay gold medals. The American clocked 48.90s while winning her National title at Eugene. All three have excellent records this season and they looked ready to go for the gold in what could turn out to be a classic contest.

The incomparable Soufiane El Bakkali is seeking his third World title. He had limited his competitions to just three this season before going for the Tokyo challenge, but notably he clocked a world-leading 8:00.70 in winning the title at home in Rabat, Morocco.

El Bakkali’s closest challenger through the years, Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia competed in only one meet this year, winning it in Paris in 8:07.01.

In coming a close second to El Bakkali in Monaco, in a national record of 8:03.43, Miura projected himself as a possible contender for a medal in the World championships. The 23-year-old Japanese was sixth at the last edition and he was also finalist in the 2021 and 2024 Olympic Games.

The home advantage should also see Yamanishi, one of the greatest racewalkers, going for his third World title at the ripe age of 29. He has excellent credentials to challenge the best in the business, though some of them would be absent in Tokyo for some reason or the other. The defending champion, Alvaro Martin of Spain has retired and also missing would be Olympic champion, Brian Pintado of Ecuador.

The temperatures in Tokyo, in the high 30 degrees, may hamper all racewalkers and this time, unlike the Olympic Games, when the walks were shifted to Sapporo much in advance to provide a cooler climate, here is no shift in venue though start times have been adjusted.

Japan also has a strong contender in the women’s 20km walk in Nanako Fujii who is the topper this season among those eligible to compete in Tokyo, at 1:26:33. Maria Perez of Spain will be defending both her 20km and 35km titles and apart from Fujii, she could expect a fight in 20km from China’s world record holder and Olympic champion Yang Jiayu, who is opening her season.

In Hayato Katsuki, Japan will also have a medal contender in the men’s 35km walk event with Evan Dunfee of Canada, a former Olympic bronze medallist in 50km, and Miguel Angle Lopez of Spain, a former world champion in 20km, being among the favourites.

Kitaguchi has recovered from a right elbow injury that robbed her of nearly two months of precious build-up period for these championships at home. The expectations of the home crowd could be crushing inside the National Stadium.

She has stiff competition expected from European champion Victoria Hudson of Austria, (67.76m season best), Adriana Vilagos of Serbia (67.22m) and Sigrid Borge of Norway (65.66m). Chinese Yan Ziyi who threw 65.89m, a world under-20 record, in the National championships is ineligible to compete because at 17, she is too young to compete in the World championships!

Woo Sang-Yeok of Korea could be a major contender for a medal in men’s high jump. He did a 2.34m to be second in the season lists behind Russian Danil Lysenko at 2.35m. Lysenko is not eligible for these championships and at higher heights, Woo may possibly have the company of Ukrainian Oleh Doroshchuk who has a 2.34m indoors.

Italian Gianmarco Tamberi and Barshim, who famously shared the Olympic gold in 2021 are no longer the forces they were. Barshim, bronze medallist at Budapest, who is also three-time world champion, and Tamberi have been entered in the high jump lists in Tokyo.

The triple jump field is stacked with medal winners of various hues from global championships in the recent past. Italy’s Andy Diaz Hernandez, former Cuban, took the world indoor title this year in Nanjing, China, with a 17.80m and should be a strong contender to add the outdoor title as well.

Chinese Wu Ruiting reached 17.68m in the National championships in Quzhou to edge the more experienced Zhu Yaming (17.37m) for the gold. He had been a World championships finalist in 2017 and 2019 but does not have the kind of success Zhu Yaming has had on the global stage.

Zhu Yaming , Olympic silver medallist in Tokyo in 2021, is also a bronze medallist from the 2022 World championships. He has five results over 17.0m this year, indoors and out, and as always should be a contender to push the top men.

The other prominent figures would be defending champion Hugues Fabricio Zhango of Burundi, who has a best of 17.21m this season, Pedro Pablo Pichardo of Portugal, the Olympic champion in 2021, and world champion in 2022, and Jordan Scott of Jamaica, who posted 17.52m in winning the Diamond League title in Monaco this year. Frenchman Melvin Raffin who jumped 17.52m this year should also be a contender.

India’s Praveen Chithravel, joint seventh with Zhu Yaming in this year’s world lists, with 17.37m would be hoping his lean spell in global championships since 2022 would finally be broken at Tokyo. The Indian National record holder has jumped over 17.0m seven times in a career in which he was also Asian Games bronze medallist in 2023 and silver medallist in the Asian championships at Gumi, Korea, this year.

Chinese Gong Lijiao would be making her tenth appearance in the World championships. Except for her debut in 2007, she has won a medal at every edition she has competed in with gold medals in 2017 and 2019, silver in 2015 and 2022 and bronze in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2023.

At 36, this has to be Gong’s last edition. She has an enviable record that would be hard to match. She has thrown 19.79m this year and has a PB of 20.58m recorded in Tokyo while winning the Olympic gold four years ago.

American Chase Jackson, champion in the last two editions, is in awesome form with a world-leading 20.95m at her National championships. Dutchwoman Jessica Schilder (19.47m) and Canadian Sarah Mitton (20.39m) are expected to be the other contenders for a medal. But throws often produce surprises, athletes failing to come close to season best performances at global championships.

There are many razor-sharp contesting awaiting us over the next nine days, not least of all the women’s 100m dash in which Olympic champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia would be taking on season leader Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the US (10.65s) and Jamaican Tina Clayton (10.81s). We should not be forgetting five-time champion Shelly-Ann Fracer-Price poised to make her ninth and last appearance. She is happy with playing the second fiddle nowadays.

China and Japan, will have stakes in the relays, too. They have to shore up the Asian spirits. The rest of the continent has to rise to the occasion.