World track and field championships: 5 men’s events to watch

By OlympicTalkSep 24, 2019, 10:26 AM EDT

Five men’s events to watch at the world track and field championships that begin Friday in Doha, airing live daily on NBC Sports (TV/stream schedule here) In addition, NBC Sports Gold streams live coverage of every event over the 10-day meet….

100m (Final: Saturday)
2016 Olympics: Usain Bolt (9.81), Justin Gatlin (9.89), Andre De Grasse (9.91)
2017 Worlds: Justin Gatlin (9.92), Christian Coleman (9.94), Usain Bolt (9.95)
2019 Rankings: Christian Coleman (9.81), Noah Lyles (9.86), Divine Oduduru (9.86)

An event that appeared clear-cut five weeks ago was shaken a bit early this month. Coleman, the world’s fastest man in 2017, 2018 and 2019, was cleared in a case of missed drug tests but still had to sit out what would have been his last two prep meets. He last raced at the USATF Outdoor Championships on July 28. Still, Coleman is a clear favorite in part due to a lack of competition.

Lyles, the only man to beat him this year, is racing solely the 200m at worlds. The silver-medal favorite a month ago, 37-year-old defending champion Gatlin, pulled up while grabbing his leg for the second time this season on Sept. 3, though his manager reportedly deemed him OK. With Bolt retired, Jamaica is likely to miss the podium for the first time since 2003.

400m Hurdles (Final: Monday)
2016 Olympics: Kerron Clement (47.73), Boniface Mucheru Tumuti (47.78), Yasmani Copello (47.92)
2017 Worlds: Karsten Warholm (48.35), Yasmani Copello (48.49), Kerron Clement (48.52)
2019 Rankings: Karsten Warholm (46.92), Rai Benjamin (46.98), Abderrahman Samba (47.27)

The oldest world record in men’s track is under threat. Kevin Young‘s mark from the 1992 Olympics — 46.78 seconds — could be broken by any of the three fastest men in the world this year — the Norwegian Warholm, the American (formerly Antiguan) Benjamin and the Qatari Samba. This event sped up incredibly in this Olympic cycle. The winning time in Rio was the slowest for an Olympic final since 1984. Warholm’s winning time two years ago (in the rain) was the slowest in world championships history.

In the last two seasons, Warholm, Benjamin and Samba combined to clock five of the nine fastest times in history, pushing Edwin Moses from the second-fastest man ever to No. 5. The home-favorite Samba is the wild card, having not cleared hurdles in competition since May 18 due to injury.

Pole Vault (Final: Tuesday)
2016 Olympics: Thiago Braz (6.03), Renaud Lavillenie (5.98), Sam Kendricks (5.85)
2017 Worlds: Sam Kendricks (5.95), Piotr Lisek (5.89), Renaud Lavillenie (5.89)
2019 Rankings: Sam Kendricks (6.06), Piotr Lisek (6.02), Mondo Duplantis (6.00)

The marquee field event with stars from around the globe. Kendricks, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve, has been the most consistent this Olympic cycle, capped by breaking the American record at USATF Outdoors two months ago.

Duplantis, the 19-year-old, Louisiana-raised Swede, is 3-3 head-to-head against Kendricks this year, according to Tilastopaja.org. The world-record holder Lavillenie from France has been slowed by injury, failing to win a top-level competition since July 2018.

200m (Final: Tuesday)
2016 Olympics: Usain Bolt (19.78), Andre De Grasse (20.02), Christophe Lemaitre (20.12)
2017 Worlds: Ramil Guliyev (20.09), Wayde van Niekerk (20.11), Jereem Richards (20.11)
2019 Rankings: Noah Lyles (19.50), Michael Norman (19.70), Divine Oduduru (19.73)

Lyles might be the biggest favorite among all events in Doha. The only man to beat him since he finished fourth at the 2016 Olympic trials is Norman, who is only contesting the 400m at worlds.

Coleman is entered here, too, but is stronger in the 100m and will likely have already raced three rounds of that event before the 200m starts. How close can Lyles get to Bolt’s world record 19.19? That 19.50 from July 5 was into a slight headwind.

1500m (Final: Sunday, Oct. 6)
2016 Olympics: Matthew Centrowitz (3:50.00), Taoufik Makhloufi (3:50.11), Nick Willis (3:50.24)
2017 Worlds: Elijah Manangoi (3:33.61), Timothy Cheruiyot (3:33.99), Filip Ingebrigtsen (3:34.53)
2019 Rankings: Timothy Cheruiyot (3:28.77), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (3:30.16), Ronald Musagala (3:30.58)

The only men’s flat race featuring the reigning Olympic champion. Centrowitz, who in Rio became the first U.S. Olympic 1500m champion since 1908, faces a major obstacle to his first world title: Cheruiyot. The Kenyan’s 1500/mile record over the last two years, via Tilastopaja: 16 wins, three runners-up in 19 meets. The only defeats were to Manangoi, who is out of worlds with a reported ankle injury.

The Norwegian 19-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who ran a 3:52 mile at age 17, is a medal favorite after finishing second to Cheruiyot in the Kenyan’s last three Diamond League meets.

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French Open: Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk says crowd ‘should be embarrassed’ for booing her

Associated PressMay 28, 2023, 12:28 PM EDT

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus (left) and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine before their French Open first round match./Getty

Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the Grand Slam tournament’s No. 2 seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv.

At least one person was killed when the capital of Kostyuk’s country was subjected to the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of its war, launched with an invasion assisted by Belarus in February 2022.

“It’s something I cannot describe, probably. I try to put my emotions aside any time I go out on court. I think I’m better than before, and I don’t think it affects me as much on a daily basis, but yeah, it’s just — I don’t know,” Kostyuk said, shaking her head. “There is not much to say, really. It’s just part of my life.”

That, then, is why Kostyuk has decided she will not exchange the usual postmatch pleasantries with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that is why she avoided a handshake — avoided any eye contact, even — after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Roland Garros.

What surprised the 20-year-old, 39th-ranked Kostyuk on Sunday was the reaction she received from the spectators in Court Philippe Chatrier: They loudly booed and derisively whistled at her as she walked directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire instead of congratulating the winner after the lopsided result. The negative response grew louder as she gathered her belongings and walked off the court toward the locker room.

“I have to say,” Kostyuk said, “I didn’t expect it. … People should be, honestly, embarrassed.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Kostyuk is based now in Monaco, and her mother and sister are there, too, but her father and grandfather are still in Kyiv. Perhaps the fans on hand at the clay-court event’s main stadium were unaware of the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow usual tennis etiquette.

Initially, Sabalenka — who had approached the net as if anticipating some sort of exchange with Kostyuk — thought the noise was directed at her.

“At first, I thought they were booing me,” Sabalenka said. “I was a little confused, and I was, like, ’OK, what should I do?”

Sabalenka tried to ask the chair umpire what was going on. She looked up at her entourage in the stands, too. Then she realized that while she is aware Kostyuk and other Ukrainian tennis players have been declining to greet opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match, the spectators might not have known — and so responded in a way Sabalenka didn’t think was deserved.

“They saw it,” she surmised, “as disrespect (for) me.”

All in all, if the tennis itself was not particularly memorable, the whole scene, including the lack of the customary prematch photo of the players following the coin toss, became the most noteworthy development on Day 1 in Paris.

The highest-seeded player to go home was No. 7 Maria Sakkari, who lost 7-6 (5), 7-5 to 42nd-ranked Karolina Muchova in what wasn’t necessarily that momentous of an upset. Both have been major semifinalists, and Muchova has won her past four Slam matches against players ranked in the top 10 — including beating Sakkari at the French Open last year. Also out: No. 21 Magda Linette, a semifinalist at the Australian Open, who was beat 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 by 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, and No. 29 Zhang Shuai.

The first seeded man to bow out was No. 20 Dan Evans, eliminated 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 by wild-card entry Thanasi Kokkinakis. No. 11 Karen Khachanov, a semifinalist at the past two majors, came all the way back after dropping the opening two sets to beat Constant Lestienne, a French player once banned for gambling, by a 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 score in front of a boisterous crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. Two-time Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas came within a point of being forced to a fifth set, too, but got past Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7). No. 24 Sebastian Korda, who missed three months after hurting his wrist at the Australian Open, was a straight-set winner in an all-American matchup against Mackenzie McDonald, the last player to face — and beat — Rafael Nadal. The 14-time French Open champion has been sidelined with a hip injury since that match in January.

Sabalenka called Sunday “emotionally tough” — because of mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the nerves that come with any first-round match, but more significantly because of the unusual circumstances involving the war.

“You’re playing against (a) Ukrainian and you never know what’s going to happen. You never know how people will — will they support you or not?” explained Sabalenka, who went down an early break and trailed 3-2 before reeling off six consecutive games with powerful first-strike hitting. “I was worried, like, people will be against me, and I don’t like to play when people (are) so much against me.”

A journalist from Ukraine asked Sabalenka what her message to the world is with regard to the war, particularly in this context: She can overtake Iga Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings based on results over the next two weeks and, therefore, serves as a role model.

“Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Nobody — normal people — will never support it. Why (do) we have to go loud and say that things? This is like: ‘One plus one (is) two.’ Of course we don’t support war,” Sabalenka said. “If it could affect anyhow the war, if it could like stop it, we would do it. But unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”

When a portion of those comments was read to Kostyuk by a reporter, she responded in calm, measured tones that she doesn’t get why Sabalenka does not come out and say that “she personally doesn’t support this war.”

Kostyuk also rejected the notion that players from Russia or Belarus could be in a tough spot upon returning to those countries if they were to speak out about what is happening in Ukraine.

“I don’t know why it’s a difficult situation,” Kostyuk said with a chuckle.

“I don’t know what other players are afraid of,” she said. “I go back to Ukraine, where I can die any second from drones or missiles or whatever it is.”

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Ryan Crouser breaks world record in shot put at Los Angeles Grand Prix

By OlympicTalkMay 27, 2023, 5:56 PM EDT

Two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser registered one of the greatest performances in track and field history, breaking his world record and throwing three of the six farthest shot puts of all time at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on Saturday.

Crouser unleashed throws of 23.56 meters, 23.31 and 23.23 at UCLA’s Drake Stadium. His previous world record from the Tokyo Olympic Trials was 23.37. He now owns the top four throws in history, and the 23.23 is tied for the fifth-best throw in history.

“The best thing is I’m still on high volume [training], heavy throws in the ring and heavy weights in the weight room, so we’re just starting to work in some speed,” the 6-foot-7 Crouser, who is perfecting a new technique coined the “Crouser slide,” told Lewis Johnson on NBC.

Sha’Carri Richardson won her 100m heat in 10.90 seconds into a slight headwind, then did not start the final about 90 minutes later due to cramping, Johnson said. Richardson is ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100m in 2023 (10.76) and No. 2 in the 200m (22.07).

Jamaican Ackeem Blake won the men’s 100m in a personal best 9.89 seconds. He now ranks third in the world this year behind Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala and American Fred Kerley, who meet in the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday (2-4 p.m. ET, CNBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock).

The next major meet is the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in early July, when the top three in most individual events qualify for August’s world championships.

Richardson will bid to make her first global championships team, two years after having her Olympic Trials win stripped for testing positive for marijuana and one year after being eliminated in the first round of the 100m at USATF Outdoors.

LA GRAND PRIX: Full Results

Also Saturday, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.31, the fastest time ever this early in a year. Nigerian Tobi Amusan, who at last July’s worlds lowered the world record to 12.12, was eighth in the eight-woman field in 12.69.

Maggie Ewen upset world champion Chase Ealey in the shot put by throwing 20.45 meters, upping her personal best by more than three feet. Ewen went from 12th-best in American history to third behind 2016 Olympic champion Michelle Carter and Ealey.

Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran the fastest women’s 400m since the Tokyo Olympics, clocking 48.98 seconds. Paulino is the Olympic and world silver medalist. Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas is on a maternity break.

Rio Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy won the 800m in 1:44.75, beating a field that included most of the top Americans in the event. Notably absent was 2019 World champion Donovan Brazier, who hasn’t raced since July 20 of last year amid foot problems.

CJ Allen won the 400m hurdles in a personal best 47.91, consolidating his argument as the second-best American in the event behind Olympic and world silver medalist Rai Benjamin, who withdrew from the meet earlier this week.

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