World Athletics Championships viewing guide: What to watch on the opening days
100m battles, Canadians Ahmed and Dunfee among the standouts
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In yesterday's newsletter, we previewed the major storylines to follow at the World Athletics Championships, which start Saturday in Budapest. Today, let's focus on some key events taking place through Monday, including a couple with Canadian contenders:
Men's 100m
The chase for the title of World's Fastest Man begins Saturday at 6:35 a.m. ET with the preliminary round, where lower-ranked sprinters try to qualify for the main heats starting at 1:43 p.m. ET. The semifinals go Sunday at 10:35 a.m. ET, followed by the final at 3:10 p.m. ET.
Missing from the competition is two-time Olympic 100m bronze medallist Andre De Grasse, who failed to qualify. He'll compete in the 200m next week before defending Canada's 4x100m world title with teammates Aaron Brown, Brendon Rodney and Jerome Blake. Rodney and Blake qualified for the individual 100m event but aren't expected to contend for the podium.
American Fred Kerley is favoured to become the first man since Usain Bolt to repeat as 100m world champ. The hulking 28-year-old, who took silver at the Olympics in 2021, won 11 consecutive 100m events before South Africa's Akani Simbine beat him in a photo finish at a Diamond League meet in Poland last month.
Reigning Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs is competing, but the oft-injured Italian hasn't been the same since his surprising victory in Tokyo two years ago. Other medal hopefuls include 2019 world champ Christian Coleman of the United States, African record holder Ferdinand Omanyala and Britain's Zharnel Hughes, whose 9.83 is the fastest time in the world this year.
Kerley's loudest challenger is fellow American Noah Lyles. The reigning 200m world champ is brashly gunning for both sprint titles in Budapest, boasting on Instagram that his goal is to break Usain Bolt's world record of 19.18 in the 200 and run a 9.65 in the 100. That's just 0.07 off Bolt's record and much faster than Lyles' lifetime best of 9.86. But, hey, dream big.
Women's 100m
This event is more intriguing than the men's, with a three-way showdown brewing between Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson and American Sha'Carri Richardson.
The timeless Fraser-Pryce, 36, is going for her third consecutive 100m world title and sixth (!) of her marvelous career, which also includes a pair of 100m Olympic gold medals and a 200m world title. Jackson, 29, is eyeing the sprint double in Budapest after winning the 200 and taking silver in the 100 last year. Richardson, 23, has never competed at a major global championship. She was suspended for the Tokyo Olympics for testing positive for cannabis and then failed to qualify for last year's worlds. But she's beaten Jackson twice this year and owns the second-best time in the world, behind the Jamaican.
The women's 100m begins Sunday at 6:10 a.m. ET with the heats. The semifinals go Monday at 2:35 p.m. ET, followed by the final at 3:40 p.m. ET.
Men's 10,000m (Sunday at 12:25 p.m. ET)
Moh Ahmed's best race is the 5,000m. He won silver at the 2021 Olympics and bronze at the 2019 worlds — the only major medals ever won by a Canadian in that distance. He also came very close to the podium at the 2016 Olympics, placing fourth.
But Ahmed is a world-class 10,000m runner too, finishing sixth at the 2021 Olympics as well as the 2019 and '22 world championships (he fell to fifth in the 5,000 at last year's worlds).
As he eyes a run at the podium in both long-distance track events at next summer's Olympics in Paris, Ahmed has been taking it a little easier this season. He's raced the 5,000 only twice — placing 10th each time on the Diamond League circuit — and his only 10,000m competition came out on the road when he won the Canadian 10K championship in Ottawa in May.
Ahmed will be hard-pressed to medal in Sunday's 10,000m race, where world-record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda will try to three-peat as world champion. Ethiopians Selemon Barega (the reigning Olympic champ) and Berihu Aregawi (the fastest in the world this year) are the other top contenders for gold. But Ahmed says he's feeling good and predicts he'll be "better than last year" in his two events at worlds.
Men's 20km race walk (Saturday at 2:50 a.m. ET)
Feel free to debate the merits of a sport where the object is to go as fast as you can but not really. But don't question the fitness, dedication and sheer toughness of the athletes who grind through one of the most gruelling events in athletics.
One of these walking warriors is Canada's Evan Dunfee, who won bronze at the 2019 world championships and the 2021 Olympics. Both medals came in the 50km distance, which at the time was the longest foot race in the majors. But the 50K has since been abolished, despite Dunfee and others' lobbying to preserve it.
After finishing sixth in the 35km event at last year's worlds, Dunfee, 32, will line up in the even shorter 20K — the lone individual distance offered at next summer's Olympics in Paris.
How to watch:
All events at the world championships, from qualifying rounds through finals, will be streamed live on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app and CBCSports.ca, beginning Saturday at 2:40 a.m. ET. See the full streaming schedule here.
Watch more coverage this Saturday and Sunday from 2-4 p.m. ET on the CBC TV network, with CBC Sports' Scott Russell hosting, Mark Lee on play-by-play and a team of analysts including Canadian Olympians Donovan Bailey, Perdita Felicien, Kate Van Buskirk and Michael Smith.
For additional news, insight and analysis, look for new episodes of Athletics North with host Rob Pizzo on the CBC Sports YouTube channel.
