2017 IAAF World Championships – Day
One (NBC Olympic Channel, NBC Gold)
Men’s Discus Qualification: How
many can the USA advance to finals?
The USA
will have three competitors in the discus, an event that the Americans have
typically struggled to impact. However, Andrew Evans has been having a strong
season, throwing a personal best 66.61 while Mason Finley and Rodney Brown both
have thrown in the 65s this season. By season’s best rank, Evans is 7th
while Finley and Brown are 14th and 15th. The top 12 are guaranteed
a spot in the final and anyone who is able to surpass the automatic qualifying
mark of 64.50 gets to throw in the finals. Although they have shown potential,
only one American qualified for the finals in Rio (Finley). He placed 11th
in the final. The US had no finalists during the last edition of the World
Championships in Beijing.
Men’s Long Jump Qualification: How
healthy is world leader Luvo Manyonga?
The
South African long jumper has been out of action since June because of an ankle
injury, but prior to that mark he had posted an impressive 8.65 meters this
season. Manyonga is looking for revenge against American Jeff Henderson, who
defeated him by a centimeter for the gold in Rio. Speaking of Henderson, he is
one of three Americans in the event, all of whom are expected to advance to the
final. The automatic qualifying performance is 8.05 meters, with the top 12
guaranteed a spot in the final.
Women’s 1500m Heats, Men’s 100
Meter Prelims & Heats: Will any favorites go out?
Typically,
these events don’t have much drama. In fact, the worlds’ best 100 meter runners
don’t even compete in the 100 meter preliminary round as features many
competitors from third world countries without much of a track history. Barring
a false start or a fall, all the big names should advance through their
respective prelims. The semi finals on Saturday will be the true test. However,
it’s usually fun to get a look at which runners are looking sharp and which are
looking nervous on the big stage.
The
American with arguably the most to be concerned about in these rounds is Sara
Vaughn. She should be in the mix to advance to the 1500 semis, but it wouldn’t
be a surprise if she slipped through the cracks of the first round, should
other runners have a strong day. Jenny Simpson and Kate Grace are expected to
advance and will hopefully be finalists in this event. In the 100 meters, we
will see Christian Coleman race for the first time after a long post-NCAA lay
off. He is one of the biggest question marks in the entire field as he has the
potential to win gold or not even make the final.
Women’s Pole Vault Qualification:
What’s Next for Emily Grove?
The
women’s pole vault should feature two Americans with realistic chances at the
gold medal in Sandi Morris and Jenn Suhr, but the third American on the start
list should be the name to keep an eye on during qualifying. Emily Grove, who
competed at South Dakota this past NCAA season, was just 15th
overall at the collegiate championships with a best jump of 4.00 meters.
However, at the US championships, she dramatically turned things around with a
4.55 meter clearance. That put her in a tie for 3rd place and a spot
in London. In case you are wondering, that means she made it on to the World
Team via a jump-off!
Let’s
see if Grove has any magic left in her in London. She will have to match her PR
of 4.60 meters to get an automatic qualifying mark to the finals. Otherwise,
she will need to be in the top 12 overall.
**Men’s
10,000m Final: Mo Farah’s Last Hurrah?**
Running
in front of the hometown crowd, GBR’s Mo Farah will look to add to his prolific
championship resume. Since 2011, Farah has not lost a global championship at either
5,000 or 10,000. For those of you keeping score at home that gives him 9
straight gold medals in 9 championship events. There’s little reason to doubt
that the 34 year old is going to be bested in his pursuit of #10 as Mo has
showcased his usual dominant finishing ability in his races in 2017.
The
question becomes, what tactics will the others try to defeat him? The general consensus
seems to be that you can’t leave it to a kick. However, it will be tough to run
the legs out of him. In oppressive weather in Beijing in 2015, the Kenyan trio
of Kamworor, Tanui and Karoki set a blistering pace, but they were unable to
drop Mo. In fact, Mo’s 10k PR is the fastest in the entire field (26:46 from
2011) and he’s run one of the fastest 10ks in the world in 2017 (27:12 is third
behind a pair of Ethiopians: Hadis and Yimer). Quite frankly, there may not be
a way for to beat this guy no matter what you do (short of tackling him to the
track).
With no
Galen Rupp in the event, the USA will be lacking a front running medal
contender for the first time in years. We do send an experienced group in
Hassan Mead, Shadrack Kipchirchir and Leonard Korir, all of whom have competed
in a global championship 10k. However, they have yet to produce any truly fast
results in the 25 lappers. Korir is the fastest at 27:29. They’ll be long shots
for a medal, but if the pace is conservative for a decent stretch, they could
hang around and try and make a bid for the top 5.
The
better chance for a recognizable “local” name to contend for the podium is
Villanova graduate and Australian Patrick Tiernan. Although he’s only run
27:29, we’ve seen him contend consistently in both international cross country
races and diamond league affairs as short as 3,000 meters. I could definitely see
Tiernan hanging around in the lead pack until the pack really quickens in the
final laps and people start to kick. Maybe he will even surprise with a better
result than that.
The
sleeper pick worth mentioning is 20 year old Joshua Cheptegei. The Ugandan was
6th at the Olympics in 27:10 (one spot behind Rupp) and he posted a
new PR of 12:59 for 5k in Lausanne a month ago.
But Cheptegei’s biggest moment in his professional career came at the
World Cross Championships in March. With an explosive fourth 2,000 meter lap of
the course, Cheptegei opened up a 12 second advantage over defending champion
and world silver medalist in the 10k Geoffrey Kamworor. Unfortunately, he paid
the price for his bold move and broke down completely in the final half lap and
ended up barely taking 30th.
Some
may call that a stupid judge of pace, and that may be true, but it also says
that Cheptegei won’t be afraid of Mo when they take the track in London. Maybe
he will try a similarly bold move in this 10,000 meter affair and maybe this
time he will have enough to hold on through the finish.
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