Key events
It’s fast and furious now. The men’s hammer final is just getting going, while the women’s 400m semis are coming up in six minutes; I can’t wait to see how the big three of Paulino, Naser and McLaughlin-Levrone pull up.
Oooh, Mason’s winning time of 13.12, the quickest of the round, was a PB. Biggup!
Holloway’s dicky knee just didn’t give him the stability he needed to time his jumps. He ended up sixth; the champ is out.
Mason wins, Muratake takes second, just, with third and fourth – Tharp of USA and Kwaou-Mathey of France taking both fastest-loser spots.
Muratake gets away well but Holloway is nowhere and Mason of Jamaica is going to win!
Right, what does Grant Holloway have for us? We’ll soon find out, but the crowd are more interested in Rachid Muratake; can he bring it home for Japan?
It’s amazing really, Tinch was slow out of the blocks and yet well in front by the first obstacle. Joseph came back at him well, though, and Colin reckons if he’s still in the final at 50m, he’s a serious danger.
Tinch takes it in 13.16, with Joseph of Switzerland second; Prince and Simonelli are third and fourth, and I think that’ll be the end of Beard. Yup, he and Namoto are gawn.
Tinch staggers at the gun but he recovers and he’s going to win…
Semi two is good to go, Cordell Tinch in lane three.
What a race this was, in the 1993 worlds.
…but he fades as Bennett of Jamaica powers to victory in 13.27, with Llopis of Spain second. I’m not sure Beard even got third … and the roar tells us he didn’t, Nomoto of Japan edging him. He’s in big trouble.
Dylan Beard, also of USA, looks the favourite here and he leads at halfway…
The final of the men’s high jump is just starting while, on the track, we’ve the three heats of the men’s 110m hurdles. Grant Holloway didn’t enjoy his heat performance and earlier, Colin Jackson explained that his timing is off, legs not working in concert and the trail coming over too slowly. We’ll see how he’s set shortly, likewise Cordell Tinch, who goes in heat two and looked terrific yesterday.
I can’t wait for this: tomorrow, Gout Gout makes his major tournament debut. A PB and/or a final spot would be a pretty good return, as he continues exploring the extent of his talent.
Heat seven is away and Brazier of USA, who won in Doha in 2019 but has been struggling with injury, looks pretty good. He wins, from Moula of Algeria, who came from a long way back, with Bloudek of Croatia taking third; Kebenei of Kenya qualifies too, as a fastest loser, likewise the aforementioned Meziane and Crestan.
Burgin tells BBC that he’s happy with his race. He ran it “nice and safely” to finish in the automatic spot, but the heats are always stressful. He knew he needed to run 1:44 –sorry, your 1:44s to qualify – and did, “textbook, really”. He knows he’s capable of getting a medal having raced these lads all year, and the gap between warming up and arriving at the track is taking a bit of getting used to, but you can tell he’s feeling great.
Also going on:
Burgin wins from Masalela in 1:44.73, the fastest time so far, with Anderson of Jamaica third. Meziane of France and Crestan of Belgium have a decent chance of going through too, as fastest losers.
Burgin sits second at the bell, Masalela of Botswana leading. The pace is pretty quick, but the front two look strong.
Heat six of the men’s 800 features Max Burgin, seventh-fastest in the world this year and finally fully fit. He’ll fancy himself for a medal here, having had a really good season, but first things first.
I should say, I enjoyed BBC’s field commentator – apologies, I missed them telling us who it is – saying for the coaches, it’s like playing a video game and moving your hands in the direction you hope your character goes in. I spent chunks of my childhood doing that playing Mario on the NES.
This is a swift one, Gouned of Algeria stretching it out with violence. But he ties up in the last 50m, Wanyonyi taking it from English of Ireland and Pernici of Italy.
But stop everything: Steve Cram has just delivered a delicious piece of exhibition pluralisation, talking about “your 1.45s” to describe the kind of time it’ll take to qualify as a fastest loser.
Heat five of the men’s 800m heat features Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the fastest in the world this year, while Peyton Craig, the 20-year-old Aussie, is also worth watching out for.
Out of nowhere, Cian McPhillips of Ireland powers down the home straight to win easily; he looked great there. Hoppel is second, with Taylor of Jamaica third. Bol of Australia has to wait.
Bryce Hoppel of USA, sixth fastest in the world this year, is the favourite for heat four; his PB of 1:41.67 is not to be messed with.
Pattison says he hadn’t planned to control the race, but he got to the front and thought he’d slow it down, trusting his kick. He made sure not to get boxed, adding that he felt better than in a long time warming up – he’s been injured – but has a medal to defend and a job to do. On Lutkenhaus, he says “I saw 2008 on the start list and I was almost sick,” adding that if he’d run in this kind of race at 16, he’d have been 100m off the back. He sounds really confident.
Lutkenhaus has left himself too much to do, too reliant on a kick he didn’t quite time. Wyderka of Poland wins, from Pattison, from Tual of France.
Lutkenhaus is really wide and still at the back as they move round the bend into the home straight; Pattison is second.
Heat three of the men’s 800 features Cooper Lutkenhaus, a 16-year-old prodigy from Texas, as well as Ben Pattison of GB, who won a surprise bronze in Budapest.
It’s Rojas time! Here she comes … and lands at 14.49m, easily exceeding the automatic qualifying mark of 14.35. Welcome back, old mate.
So Attaoui of Spain wins, from Loti of Kenya, with Arop joining them in the next round. He has an interesting story, by the way, escaping Sudan during the civil war for Egypt, before moving to Canada, where he excelled at basketball – then his high school coach suggested he focus on track, and here he is.
Crorken gets a shift on in the last 100m but he won’t quire get there; meantime, Attaoui surges to the front and Arop, suddenly in third, is under pressure from Chapple … but he hangs in there to seal the final semi-final spot. Just as well, because he’d not have been a fastest loser.
Arop, the defending champ and Olympic silver medallist, leads at the bell, Kelvin Lotai of Kenya alongside.
The second heat is away and, after a swift start they settle, Arop at the front.
In comms, they note that on the circuit, most races have pacemakers, and running without them is a leveller because it offers those not capable of the fastest times a chance to compete. Exhibit A:
Tiarnan Crorken of GB goes in heat two. He only hit the qualifying standard just in time; the in-form runners are Marco Arop of Canada and Mohamed Attaoui of Spain.
Sedjati looks strong down the home straight and he eases up on the line to finish second; Barroso of Spain wins, with Haingura of Botswana fourth. Chuot of Qatar left himself too much to do, and he’ll have regrets – he’s not totally spent, and had the race gone another 5-10m, he’d have been asking a serious question of those in front. Instead, he has to wait.
And off they go…
We’re almost ready to start with heat one of seven in the men’s 800m. The first three in each heat go through to the semis, along with the three fastest losers. Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, the Olympic silver medallist, is the class of this field.
Hudson-Smith, we learn, tightened up on the bus to the stadium, hence his relatively poor run in the heat. Presumably he’ll have taken steps to recuperate and avoid the same problem; hopefully for him, two days was enough to get things sorted.
Today, though, we’ll have to make do with the final of the men’s high jump, which looks likely to feature a three-way battle for gold between Sangyhyeok Woo of South Korea, Hamish Kerr of New Zealand and Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine.
On the women’s side, we’ve triple jump qualifying, which means a chance to enjoy Yulimar Rojas, who missed the Paris Olympics with a ruptured Achilles but won gold in Tokyo – and in the last four editions of this competition. She’s not competed since getting hurt, so we’ve not a clue how she might go, but no one loves the big occasion more.
Tomorrow is the men’s long jump final. I’m not on then, so I’m afraid I’m going to have to post this today, from the 1991 edition of this meet: the greatest field event competition of all time.
Mondo isn’t just great at pole vaulting – he’s also a neologian, saying that after breaking the world record again, he was “super-overwhelmed”. File above “over-exaggerate”.
Now it’s on to Faith, perhaps the greatest all-round athlete on the planet – she’s hoping to do the 1500m and 5000m double here, and her own world record in the former, set earlier this year, is also under threat tonight. The time to aim for is 3:48.68.
Meantime, Jess Ennis, in the studio, reckons that if you’re driven, you have mum strength after giving birth because everything you do you’re doing for your kid. Kipyegon has a daughter, Alyn – born in 2018 – with her husband, Timothy Kitum, who won bronze in the 800m at the London Olympics.
Of course BBC open their broadcast with talk of Mondo. Has anyone ever been better at anything than he is at pole vault? At least he’s not devilishly handsome; that’d be really unfair if that were also so.
Order of events
Preamble
こんにちは – kon’nichiwa – and welcome to the World Athletics Championships – night four!
And, of course, it’s another nicky banger. Matt Hudson-Smith, Olympic 400m silver medallist, found it tough in qualifying, a leggy last 150m leaving him reliant on a fastest loser’s semi-final spot. But he made it, the question now what he’s got left – but he’s had a little more luck: he runs in heat three, with Jacory Patterson, so impressive on Sunday night, in heat two and Zakithi Nene, fastest in the world this year, in one.
The women’s event looks just as exciting, our three favourites kept apart. In heat one goes Marieldy Paulino, the Olympic champ, while in two, we’ve Salwa Eid Naser, this year’s fastest, and in three, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympic gold medallist in the 400m hurdles having switched to flat in search of a new event to dominate. It’s going to be hot.
Those, though, are our appetisers. The centrepiece of the evening could well be the men’s 110m hurdles, in which Rachid Muratake, the home favourite, is chasing gold. He’ll do well to get by USA’s Grant Holloway and Cordell Tinch, but he’s got a chance.
Our other track final comes in the women’s 1500m with the frankly wondrous Faith Kipyegon, undefeated over the distance in more than four years, looking to make (yet more) history. Should she win, the three-time Olympic and three-time world champion will draw level with Hicham El Guerrouj, who won this race at this meet on four occasions, and at 31, it’s incumbent upon us to savour her while we still can.
Or, in other words, Mondo needs to budge up, because there are others planning to take out a des res inside our heads.
Action starts: 7.35pm local, 11.35am BST
