Kerley wins world 100m gold in US cleansweep

EUGENE, United States -- 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 meters of the tight race, but managed to outdip 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 clean sweep 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.

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 realized it was a US clean sweep, 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 medalist, 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 semi-finals 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".

Agence France-Presse

Felix wins 19th world medal, Kerley scorches 100m heats

American veteran Allyson Felix will hang up her spikes having sealed a remarkable 19th world medal on Friday, while Fred Kerley laid down an impressive marker in the heats for the 100m in Oregon.

Was it the perfect swansong for Felix? Not quite, as she and Kennedy Simon were both reeled in on their resepctive legs, leaving the Dominican Republic to take victory in the 4x400m mixed relay, the Dutch quartet edging the US for silver.

Her bronze is Felix's 19th at world champs in a career that started almost two decades ago and also included 11 Olympic medals.

"It was very special to be able to run in front of a home crowd for my last race," said Felix.

"It was so cool. My daughter was in the stands. It was a night I will cherish."

Felix added: "I've had such good memories. I know it is time and these guys will carry it on into the future.

"I am at peace stepping into this next stage and have tremendous gratitude for this sport."

Two-time Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser had high praise for his US team co-captain.

"She’s done so much for the sport and especially for women athletes, attracting attention to some really important issues we have in the sport," Crouser said of Felix.

"She's a fantastic athlete, but also a fantastic person. She does stuff the right way, she is just a class act, and kind of the definition of integrity."

In-form Kerley ran a sensational heat-winning 9.79 seconds in a warning to potential rivals for the 100m crown.

He advanced to Saturday's semi-finals along with teammates Marvin Bracey, Trayvon Bromell and defending champion Christian Coleman, who missed the Tokyo Olympics after missing three doping tests.

"It’s going to take something fast to win," predicted Canada's reigning Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse, also twice a 100m bronze medallist.

Reigning Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, a shock winner in Tokyo who has struggled with injury this season, acknowledged that he had struggled in his heat.

"I am not at my 100%," the Italian said. "Running 10.04 at half capacity of what I can run, I can say my physical shape is fine. I just need to get my legs ready."

- History for Peru -

There was a historic first ever world medal for Peru as Kimberly Garcia Leon won the women's 20km race walk, the first medal event at the Eugene worlds.

"This is the first medal for us at the world championships and I hope it won't be the last one," said the Peruvian, also entered into the 35km race walk.

The second medal event of the champs saw Toshikazu Yamanishi produce a brutal final kick to defend his world men's 20km race walk title.

In a Japanese 1-2, compatriot Koki Ikeda took silver, seven seconds off the winning pace, in a repeat of the result at March's World Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat.

Home hopes of gold in the men's shot put were kept alive as world record holder Crouser qualified for Sunday's final with a 22.28m effort.

Dutch distance sensation Sifan Hassan is defending champion in the women's 1500m, but she has opted out of defending her title in Eugene.

She will instead concentrate on the 5,000-10,000m double, which she pulled off at last year's Tokyo Olympics.

Hassan also won bronze in the 1500m in the Japanese capital, a race won by Kenya's Faith Kipyegon ahead of Briton Laura Muir.

Both Kipyegon and Muir qualified smoothly for Saturday's semi-final, with the final scheduled for Monday.

Agence France-Presse

NFL: Ted Ginn Jr. claims he beat Bolt in high school race

Ted Ginn Jr. has been turning heads with his speed throughout his NFL career, and now the veteran wide receiver is doing the same with his recent comments to TMZ.

Ginn, 35, told TMZ that he defeated Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt in a race during high school.

"Well I ran against Usain Bolt. I got him when we was in the 12th grade. All of the top guys that won in the Olympics between 2004 until now, I basically had a chance to race them guys in high school," Ginn said.

When asked to confirm that he indeed defeated Bolt -- who is generally regarded as the fastest human being alive -- Ginn was quick with his response.

"Yeah. I got that. You can go look that up," he said.

Ginn's bragging didn't end there. He said had he not gone to the NFL that an Olympic gold medal "for sure" would have been in his future.

Bolt, 33, is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist.

The Chicago Bears signed Ginn to a one-year contract earlier this month. He caught 30 passes for 421 yards and two touchdowns for the New Orleans Saints in 2019, and has 409 career receptions for 5,702 yards and 33 scores in 187 games with six teams since 2007.

Field Level Media/Reuters

Bolt continues quest as Taylor, Perkovic retain titles

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Usain Bolt took the next step in his quest for a "triple triple" of sprint golds on Tuesday as American Christian Taylor and Croat Sandra Perkovic both retained their Olympic crowns.

Bolt, fresh from winning the 100m title for an unprecedented third time, safely came through the first round of his favoured event, the 200m.

Running in lane five of heat eight of 10, the 29-year-old coasted home in 20.28 seconds. American rivals Justin Gatlin and Lashawn Merritt also qualified for Wednesday's semi-finals, with the final slated for Thursday.

"It's a morning session and I'm not really a morning person. I just came out to qualify and that's what I did," said Bolt, praising the scheduling.

"I'm surprised it's so settled. Normally we have to do two rounds in one day. It's actually much better for the 200m so we have time to recover over the days.

"For me it's easy I've been doing it for years. You just celebrate on the night, just be happy and then you refocus the next day to go again."

The morning session's two medal events went the way of defending champions.

In the triple jump, Taylor set a season's best 17.86 metres with his first leap, good enough to beat compatriot Will Claye in a repeat of their one-two finish in London four years ago.

"The job is done," said Taylor. "Back to back, it's very special."

Claye celebrated his silver by proposing to long-time girlfriend, hurdler Queen Harrison.

"I woke up this morning and said today is going to be the best day of my life," he said. "It was stressful, man, because I didn't know if she was going to say yes or not."

The women's discus went the way of Perkovic, the Croat in imperious form as she dominated the competition, her best of 69.21m out-distancing France's Melina Robert Michon (66.73m) and world champion Denia Caballero of Cuba (65.34) by some way.

Elsewhere on the track, Ethiopia's newly-crowned 10,000m champion and world record holder Almaz Ayana moved closer to a distance double as she won her 5000m heat in 15:04.35 to progress to Friday's final.

Defending silver medallist and two-time former world champion Vivian Cheruiyot, silver medallist behind Ayana in the longer distance in Rio, Hellen Obiri and Mercy Cherono will make up a strong Kenyan contingent.

Algerian defending champion Taoufik Makhloufi overcame just two hours sleep after bagging silver in the 800m to advance from round one of the 1500m.

Makhloufi, who came in second in the 800m behind David Rudisha late Monday, timed 3min 47.07sec to win his heat.

"I had some massage after the 800m," he said.

"I was in my bed at 4 o'clock in the morning and I slept only two hours!

"This part between the 800m and the heats of the 1500m was always going to be the most difficult part in qualifying for the semi-finals of the latter."

Makhloufi's main rival will likely be Kenyan Asbel Kiprop, 2008 gold medallist and three-time defending world champion, who won his 1500m heat easily in 3:38.97.

Brazilian hopes of an Olympic pole vault double came to an abrupt end when home medal hope Fabiana Murer bombed out of the women's qualifying competition after failing to register a mark.

Rio's Olympic Stadium lit up Monday when Murer's teammate Thiago Braz Da Silva trumped Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie for gold in the men's competition with an Olympic record of 6.03m.

Murer, world silver medallist last year in Beijing, failed to live up to expectations however.

The 35-year-old skipped the three first entry marks of 4.15, 4.30 and 4.45m, coming in at 4.55m.

But she failed with her three attempts at the height, well below her personal best of 4.87m which she vaulted this season.

There was no such drama for current world and Olympic champion Jennifer Suhr of the United States, Cuba's defending Olympic silver medallist Yarisley Silva and European champion Ekaterini Stefanidi who all comfortably vaulted the qualifying mark of 4.60m.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Gay mows down Bromell to book World Championships return

Tyson Gay powered past teenaged challenger Trayvon Bromell to win the US 100m crown in 9.87sec and book his first trip to the World Championships since 2009.

Gay, 32 and trying to regain the sport's summit after a one-year drugs ban, rated the triumph as perhaps the most important of his career.

"I feel like it was the toughest," he said, noting that rising talents like Bromell were raising the stakes in US sprinting.

He credited his veteran skills with getting him through the rounds with enough left to overhaul the 19-year-old Bromell, relegating him to second in 9.96.

"He got out good, it was just one of those 10-years-of-experience, dig-down moments -- I had to get him," Gay said. "It felt good though."

Mike Rodgers was third in 9.97 to grab the final berth on offer for the August 22-30 World Championships in Beijing.

They'll join teammate Justin Gatlin, who has a bye into the 100m in Beijing thanks to his 2014 Diamond League title and is focusing this week on the 200m and a possible double world championships challenge to Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.

Gay won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the 2007 World Championships and took 100m silver behind Bolt at the 2009 Worlds.

He missed the 2011 World Championships after a hip injury forced him out of trials, and withdrew from the 2013 World Championships in Moscow as he awaited the verdict in his doping case.

"Just being able to come back from a mistake, show the world that you can make up for the mistake -- it means a lot," Gay said.

America's women sprinters sent a strong signal in a women's 100m won by Tori Bowie in 10.81sec.

Bowie powered past English Gardner, who finished second in 10.86 with collegiate standout Jasmine Todd third in 10.92.

- Making a statement -
The six women under 11 seconds was a first in a US 100m final, topping the five at the 2013 championships in Des Moines.

"I for sure think we made a statement to the world today," Bowie said.

Carmelita Jeter, the 2011 world champion and three-time Olympic medallist, missed out on a Beijing berth, finishing seventh in 11.01.

The final, in a legal wind of 1.2 metres per second, followed a scintillating semi-final show in which Bowie's wind-aided 10.72sec was the top qualifying time, ahead of Jeter's 10.76 for second in the same heat.

Gardner had won her semi-final in 10.79, the fastest time in the world this year with a legal wind that was matched by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Jamaican trials in Kingston on Friday.

There was a shocker in the women's 400m semi-finals, as reigning Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross failed to make the final, finishing fifth in her heat in 50.95sec.

Richards-Ross could still get a 4x400 relay berth for Beijing -- a chance to add to her tally of five world titles.

But it was a blow for the runner who missed the 2013 Worlds in Moscow with a foot injury.

Francena McCorory led the way into Saturday's final with a time of 49.85 -- shaving one-hundredth of a second off her own world-leading time of 2015.

Olympic 200m gold medallist Allyson Felix made it safely into the final as she attempts to give herself the option of contesting the 400m in Beijing, where she has a bye into the 200m.

Sharika Nelvis clocked a season-leading 12.34 to top the times in the women's 100m hurdles heats.

She improved on the 12.35 posted by Jasmin Stowers in Doha on May 15.

Keni Harrison followed Nelvis into the semi-finals with a time of 12.46, followed by Stowers (12.47), and last year's Diamond League winner in the event Dawn Harper-Nelson (12.48).

Reigning world champion Brianna Rollins also made it into the semi-finals with a time of 12.72.

Nelvis said the depth of talent in the event was a constant motivator.

"Every round I'm trying to kill it," she said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com