It all starts on Friday night! The World Track & Field Championships in Oregon, which were originally supposed to take place last year, will finally get underway! It's the biggest international sporting event (in terms of athletes and countries) outside the Olympics, and it's being held on American soil for the first time!
In case you haven't been able to tell over the years I've been writing this blog, I love track & field. So, needless to say, I'm a little excited. So excited, in fact, that I'll be in the stadium for each of the first six days. It'll be my first trip to Hayward Field, and I'll hopefully get the chance to explore everything else Track Town USA has to offer, too.
I went through a number of different ideas about how I wanted to do a preview. For a while, I was thinking I'd do the 10 events I'm looking forward to the most. But I had a hard time narrowing it down. Then it dawned on me! The meet's 10 days long! So why not just do it by day!
Day 1: On Day 1, the only final in the stadium is the mixed 4x400 relay. That's enough, though. Because it'll likely be the last time Allyson Felix runs at a World Championships. It's the only event she'll be contesting in Oregon, so she'll close out her legendary career on opening night. I'm also psyched to see how far Oregon's own Ryan Crouser can throw. Although, it's only qualifying, so I may have to wait until the final for him to really do something special.
Day 2: The men's 100 final is always the marquee event of an Olympics or World Championships. That will certainly be the case here. Lamont Marcell Jacobs won the Olympic gold, but all of the top performers this year are American. The women's 10,000 final is during the day session, and I'm curious to see if that will have any impact. (The marathons are at 6:15 am Pacific time, when it will presumably be at least a little less hot.)
Day 3: Sunday night could end up being my favorite session of the entire competition. Ryan Crouser vs. the world record in the men's shot put! Sandi vs. Katie in the women's pole vault! Grant Holloway vs. Devon Allen in the he men's 110 hurdles! And the women's 100 final. Can the Jamaicans sweep like they did in Tokyo?
Day 4: After the women's marathon in the morning, the rest of the finals are at night, highlighted by the women's 1500 meters. Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas will also go for the world record in the women's triple jump, and men's high jump co-Olympic gold medalists Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi will duke it out. It's also the opening heats of the 200, so I get to see Abby Steiner and the Noah Lyles/Erryon Knighton rivalry.
Day 5: There's no day session for the four weekdays in the middle of the meet, which is probably a good thing since I'll likely be exhausted by that point! Once action gets underway, it's the women's high jump final, where the Ukrainians are favored. And what a story that would be! The men's 400 hurdles final in Tokyo was one of the greatest races I've ever seen! Karsten Warholm's been injured and Rai Benjamin had COVID, but I wouldn't put it past them to do something special again.
Day 6: My final night before heading home (with a stop in Houston for Yankees-Astros first). And the final event I'll see live is the women's steeplechase final, starring Emma Coburn and Courtney Frerichs. The only other final on the day is the women's discus, where American Valarie Allman is the Olympic champion and could easily back it up with her first World title.
Day 7: Too bad I won't still be around for the 200 finals! Because that Lyles vs. Knighton showdown could be EPIC! And I'm not even including Fred Kerley and Olympic champion Andre De Grasse, who both could definitely have something to say about that! On the women's side, Abby Steiner has the fastest time in the world this year. But we all know how those Jamaican women perform in global finals!
Day 8: Every time Sydney McLaughlin steps on the track, she sets a world record. Not really, but it sure seems that way. She blew away the field at U.S. Nationals, but has never won a World Championship in the event. That should change. Everybody else is racing for silver. If she does get her hurdles gold, her coach, Bobby Kersee, has indicated a move to the open 400. Shaunae Miller Uibo goes for gold in that event.
Day 9: Not surprisingly, there are a lot of finals on the final weekend of the meet. The men's and women's 4x100 relays cap the night, but four others are also on tap--the men's 800, women's 5000, men's triple jump and men's javelin.
Day 10: While they're keeping with tradition by having the 4x400 relays close the meet, they did switch it up and put the women last. Which makes complete sense when you consider what the U.S. women did in Tokyo! Although, Athing Mu won't be available for that relay since the women's 800 final is also on the final night. She'll be just one of the many stars on display. Mondo Duplantis should put on a show of his own in the men's pole vault, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be in the men's 5000.
That's just a sampling of what's to come. There are 49 events at the Track & Field World Championships, so there are plenty of stories to be written in Oregon. Who will write them? And how? One thing I know for sure, though, is that it promises to be exciting!
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