IAAF World Championships

IAAF World Championships Preview: Sprints

IAAF World Championships Preview: Sprints

Aug 14, 2015 by Meg Bellino
IAAF World Championships Preview: Sprints


LIVE  |  RACES  |  RESULTS  |  ENTRIES  |  SCHEDULE  |  INTERVIEWS  |  MEDALS  |  PICKS  |  CONTEST


Usain Bolt says, "Don't worry. I got this."

2015 IAAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS PREVIEW

SPRINTS  |  MID-DISTANCE  |  DISTANCE  |  HURDLES  |  JUMPS  |  THROWS

Men’s 100m/200m

It was 2005. Justin Gatlin was the most feared sprinter in the world, winning the 100m and 200m at the world championships in Helsinki. His 100m victory in 9.88 seconds still stands as the largest margin of victory at the championships. Jamaican Michael Frater was second in 10.05.

That same year, Usain Bolt made his first appearance at the world championships. The then 18-year-old qualified for the 200m final and looked to be leading the field coming off the turn, but pulled up with an injury and finished eighth.

Ten years later, Gatlin and Bolt will attempt to win the 100m and 200m in Beijing, having taken the most different paths to get to where they are today.

Gatlin is the fastest and most dominant sprinter of 2015. He is also one of the most controversial after serving two doping bans and recording personal best marks in both the 100m and 200m this season at 33-years-old. He is attempting to replicate his 2005 double, which would make him the first man in history to win medals a decade apart.

Bolt is the fastest and most dominant sprinter of all time. He successfully competed the double in 2009 (setting the current 100m and 200m world records) and 2013. A false start in 2011 prevented the three-peat, but his four Olympic golds from 2008 and 2012 in these events means he knows how to win in these races, but has he ever had a threat like Gatlin standing in his way?

Gatlin and Bolt have yet to meet in 2015, making it one of the most anticipated match-ups in championship history.

In a sport so heavily publicized throughout the world by Bolt, can one of the most criticized men in track and field be the one to stop Bolt’s era?

Let's not forget, we have three very capable Americans of grabbing the bronze after Bolt and Gatlin (or Gatlin and Bolt?). Tyson Gay, Trayvon Bromell and Mike Rodgers have each showed strengths throughout the season and will make the final. WATCH DRIVEN: TRAYVON BROMELL EPISODE 1.

Women’s 100m/200m

Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will attempt to be the first woman to win gold at three world championships in the women’s 100m. Is she the female equivalent of Usain Bolt? Both are from Jamaica, twenty eight years of age and incredibly consistent on the championship level. SAFP doesn’t have world records to her name, but is the favorite in Beijing. She has not lost a 100m race since her season opener in May and has gone under 11.00 in her last four 100m final contests. Her winning time from Moscow 2013, 10.71, stands as the second-fastest time from any world championship. Marion Jones ran 10.70 in Sevilla 1999.


Fraser-Pryce all smiles after winning the 100m in Paris in 10.74

SAFP’s biggest threat? Perhaps it’s American Tori Bowie who ruled the summer circuit in 2014. Or 2013 fourth-place finisher English Gardner? Bowie has only raced twice since the U.S. Championships and only ran 11.05 in Stockholm - a race where SAFP won in 10.93. Gardner lost to Bowie in Eugene but won the Lausanne Diamond League meeting in 10.76 (+5.4). Windy yes, but impressive, too.

With SAFP opting to only run the 100m and defending Olympic gold medalist Allyson Felix choosing the 400m, the women’s 200m appears to be wide open.

Daphne Schippers from the Netherlands could become the first non American or Jamaican to win the women’s 200m since 2003 when Russian Anastasiya Kapachinskaya took home gold. The former heptathlete (She took home bronze in Moscow 2013) turned sprinter ran 22.09 in Monaco on July 17 and has a PB of 22.03 from 2014. At 23-years-old, she leads a crew of fresh competitors in this event. Oregon Duck Jenna Prandini was the U.S. Champion and Candyce McGrone the runner-up. Prandini is coming off one of the most decorated NCAA seasons a sprinter could ever have, culminating in her Bowerman Award nomination. McGrone won an NCAA 100m title in 2011 then suffered years of setbacks and injuries before making her first U.S. team this summer.

Men’s 400m

LaShawn Merritt is the defending champion from Moscow, but sure hasn’t looked like it in 2015. The 400m has been ruled by Africans Isaac Makwala (Botswana) and Wayde van Niekerk (South Africa), as well as Olympic champion Kirani James. Each of these three men have broken the 44-second barrier this summer. Merritt’s SB of 44.36 came recently at the Edmonton Track Classic July 12.

Merritt expressed his fitness concerns after losing to James at the Pre Classic in May stating, "I don't feel like I've been getting beat. I just feel like people just been finishing ahead of me."

Perhaps a sign that his fitness is peaking at the right time, or perhaps a realization to us that his medal chances are diminishing. Makwala and van Niekerk will need to prove themselves and make it through the three rounds, and van Niekerk looked like the best of the two when they raced in Birmingham July 25. However both failed to make it out of their respective prelims in 2013 (Makwala in the 200m, van Niekerk in the 400m), so experience may favor James and Merritt come Beijing.

Women’s 400m

Perhaps the biggest shock of the U.S. Championships was that 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Sanya Richards-Ross failed to make the 400m final. Then, 2015 world leader Francena McCorory finished fourth and 200m star Felix won the championship. After weeks of being undecided, Felix is officially entered in the 400m. She’ll will be testing her quarter mile knowledge on a big stage in Beijing.


Felix won the Pre Classic 400m in 50.05

Felix’s move up means her first world championship 400m since winning silver in 2011. Her PB of 49.59 is from Daegu and she said at the U.S. Championships that she has not yet met her potential in this event. No stranger to winning gold, Felix has three 200m world titles in addition to her 2012 Olympic gold. Richards-Ross may have the American record now (48.70) but could Felix be the one to break it? How she finishes in Beijing may determine if she attempts the Olympic 200m/400m double in 2016.

Standing in her way would be 2007/2013 world champion Christine Ohuruogu of Great Britain. If Ohuruogu wins, she would be the first woman to win three 400m golds at the world championships. However, she has only laced up the spikes at five competitions in 2015. Either something is not right or she’s simply waiting for Beijing to shine. Her SB of 50.82 is hardly medal talk at this point.

Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas could stop everyone in their tracks and emerge as a favorite in 2016. The 21-year-old ran one year at the University of Georgia before turning pro and stunning the world in 2015, running 49.92 to win Lausanne on July 9. She was the 2010 World Jr Champion and 2011 World Youth Champion in the event and if she wins a medal would be the first World Youth Champ to win a medal in the senior competition.