Fast times, big crowds as worlds return to Europe

LONDON — Forty years after its first edition, the world athletics championships get underway in Budapest on Saturday with over 2,000 athletes from 202 countries and regions taking part over nine days of what promises to be record-breaking action.

Launched initially as a quadrennial event, the championships switched to a biennial cycle in 1993.Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this time the worlds take place for a second consecutive year following the 2022 event in Eugene, Oregon in the United States.

Poor crowds and low TV audiences undermined the impact of the first staging of the event in the US 12 months ago and, coming on the back of the sea of empty seats at Doha 2019, officials will hope the return to the sport's European heartland will give it a big lift a year out from the Paris Olympics.

Host Hungary has a poor record at the worlds, having never won a gold medal. It has claimed seven silver and seven bronze — half of them coming in the hammer throw.

However, World Athletics says ticket sales have been "strong" for the purpose-built 30,000-capacity stadium, which boasts the same bouncy Mondo track that contributed to so many fast times in Tokyo.

The fans should be in for top-quality action, with WA president Sebastian Coe saying the record-laden first half of the season points to potentially "the best world championships performance-wise of all time".

Top of the bill on the back of three world records this summer is Kenyan superstar Faith Kipyegon. The 29-year-old is appearing in her sixth world championships seeking a third gold to add to two Olympic 1,500-meter titles.

In the women's sprints, American Sha'Carri Richardson will hope to make a belated entrance onto the global stage after missing the Tokyo Olympics following a positive drugs test and failing to qualify for Eugene.

Jamaican streak

Jamaica has taken gold in six of the last eight 100m finals — five by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce — who goes again at the age of 36 but is up against it after an injury-hit season.

However, 2022 silver medalist Shericka Jackson, the season leader with 10.65 seconds, looks well-placed to continue the Jamaican streak.

Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan goes for another treble, having claimed 10,000m and 5,000m gold and 1,500 bronze in Tokyo, before winning this year's London Marathon in her debut over the distance.

The men's 100m looks as hard to call as the Tokyo Olympics, when Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs was the shock champion.

Briton Zharnel Hughes is the fastest in the world this year with 9.83 sec, closely followed by Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala. Defending champion Fred Kerly leads the US challenge after Americans swept the podium last year.

Norwegian duo Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1,500m) and Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles) are among the big names expected to triumph in the longer distances.

The field events could start with a bang with the men's shot put on opening night when American Ryan Crouser, who added a massive 19 centimeters to his own world record this season, will defend his title.

One person who won't be back is Nigeria's 100m hurdles world champion Tobi Amusan, who broke the world record in the semifinals last year, but was suspended last month after missing three drugs tests.

AFP

Coe says accepting such "negative headlines" is the price to be paid for running an effective anti-doping program and the medal table 40 years ago would have had a very different complexion had today's measures been in place.

With sprinters Marlies Goehr and Marita Koch — whose 1985 400m world record of 47.60 remains much quicker than any current athlete — leading the way, the original "state-sponsored" doping regime of East Germany topped the table with 10 golds.