TOKYO :Pole vaulter extraordinaire Mondo Duplantis won his first global title at Tokyo’s National Stadium at the Olympics in 2021 and his bid for a fifth in five years will be one of the highlights of the 20th World Athletics Championships.
Postponements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic means the world’s top athletes have been able to compete for medals at the Olympics or world championships every year since the delayed Tokyo Summer Games in 2021.
The global health crisis also meant the Japanese public were locked out of the $1.4 billion arena and the athletes largely confined to the athletes’ village four years ago, leaving Duplantis, for one, feeling short-changed.
“It’s like a bucket list place to compete at and to experience the culture of the city and whatnot, and I feel like we didn’t get to experience that at the Olympics,” the Swedish-American told reporters on Thursday.
“It was very strange for everybody, very apocalyptic almost in a way, and just really not enjoyable, honestly, and just scary. So I’m very excited to be here and we get to have a more real, true experience.”
Middle distance running queen Faith Kipyegon, American shot putter Ryan Crouser and Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali are also chasing a fifth straight global title at the championships, which run for nine days from Saturday.
Kipyegon has had an iron grip on the 1,500m title and in Tokyo is targeting an unprecedented double-double by also defending the 5,000m crown she won in Budapest at the last world championships two years ago.
Individual dominance in sport does not always sell tickets, however, and the most coveted of the 60,000 seats in the stadium will be for the men’s and women’s sprint finals, which are being held back-to-back on the same nights for the first time.
Noah Lyles is the brightest star in the men’s sprints and he and fellow American Kenny Bednarek will be vying for the 100m-200m double, with Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson looking to deny them in the shorter race.
There is Caribbean-American rivalry in the women’s sprints too with Julien Alfred, who won gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m at last year’s Paris Olympics, also looking for two titles in Tokyo.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden appears the most likely to challenge the St Lucian as the in-form 24-year-old flies the American flag with Sha’Carri Richardson in the absence of Paris 200m champion Gabby Thomas, who withdrew with an Achilles injury.
TOKYO SWANSONG
Tokyo will be a swansong for 10-times world gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce but the first world championships for two schoolboys tipped to be stars of the future – Australian Gout Gout and American Cooper Lutkenhaus.
A damaged Achilles could also stymie Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s bid to defend his 5,000m crown and finally land the 1,500m world title that has eluded him in an otherwise stellar career.
His fellow Norwegian Karsten Warholm has won three of the last four world titles in the men’s 400m hurdles, but his bid to extend his dominance will be threatened by Olympic champion Rai Benjamin and Brazilian Alison dos Santos.
While records on the track can be expected, not least in that meeting of the three fastest 400m hurdlers of all time, they are unlikely in the road races where the suffocating Tokyo heat is sure to take its toll on athletes.
Record temperatures and debilitating humidity have prompted organisers to start the race walk and marathon events 30 minutes earlier on the opening weekend in a bid to beat the morning heat.
“It’s the same for all of us,” said German marathon runner Amanal Petros. “I have to accept it and I have to try to be strong mentally and push through.”
The 20th world championships will be the first where all athletes have to undergo a gene test to compete in women’s events.
There were some problems testing some athletes in Canada and France but World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe was confident all competitors would be screened by the time the championships get underway.
“We’ve been overwhelmingly supported by the athletes,” Coe told reporters last week. “Many of the female athletes have been in contact personally and thanked us for this approach.”
