World Athletics Championships | Distance Preview: Athletes, Storylines To Watch

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The start of #WCHOREGON22 is now only 3 days away, as events kick off Friday morning with the qualifying rounds of the hammer throw, the mixed-gender 4x400 (hi Allison Felix!), and the men’s high jump. Today, our CITIUS MAG event previews continue as newsletter guru David Melly breaks down the men’s and women’s distance and middle distance events from the 800m to the marathon.

In case you missed it, you can read yesterday’s preview of the sprint events to watch here. Make sure you’re subscribed and pass our name along to any fellow track and field fans who might be tuning in. Be sure to follow along on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for interviews and insights from the mixed zone.

FOLLOW ALONG WITH OUR SPECIAL COVERAGE:

CITIUS MAG LIVE AT WORLDS: Think of the TODAY Show but for track and field die-hard fans. Every day of the World Championships, we will invite athletes, coaches and fellow media members to kick back for fun interviews with Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber and ESPN SportsCenter host John Anderson. The show will air on the CITIUS MAG YouTube Channel between the morning and evening sessions of competition (most days from 5:30 pm to 7 pm ET).

CHAMPS CHATS ON THE CITIUS MAG PODCAST DAILY: The CITIUS MAG team of me, Kyle Merber, Dana Giordano, Jasmine Todd and Katelyn Hutchison unpack all of the day’s biggest surprises and offer up their insights and analysis from being at Hayward Field and interviewing athletes each day.

DAILY MORNING RUNS: If you’re in Eugene, catch some miles with The CITIUS MAG team in partnership with Garmin and Tracksmith Running. We’ll have giveaways, coffee and treats for people in town. On most days, we will meet in front of the CITIUS MAG House at 1981 Moss Street and go for some easy miles along Pre’s Trail, the Amazon Trail. We’ll also have a special day at Dorris Ranch. We’ll plan to start these runs at 8:30 a.m. each day.

Here’s the full broadcast schedule and how to watch as shared. | A full schedule of events and results can be found here via World Athletics.

Women’s 800m (1st round Thu 7/21 8:10p ET):

Until the last few weeks, it looked like the women’s 800m was shaping up to be a rematch of the heavy-hitting 20-year-old stars, Tokyo gold medalist Athing Mu vs. silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson. And it very well might still be, as the pair are both running great and winning races. Mu is the world leader at 1:57.01 and hasn’t lost an 800m race since February 2020.

But two other competitors have entered the conversation in a big way. The first: Ajee’ Wilson, is far from new to the 800m scene, having first competed at Worlds way back in 2013 but at USAs this year, she got a lot closer to Athing Mu than anyone else has in a long time, which forced the Olympic champ to dig deep to hold off a late charge and hang onto her title. It’s easy to forget that Wilson, who has been on the pro scene for a decade, is still only 28 years old. She captured her first World Indoor title this past winter and has shown she’s only improved as a tactician in recent years.

The other contender to watch is Mary Moraa of Kenya. She is a newcomer to the global stage and dropped her PB from 2:03 to 1:57 in just two years. She got more attention in the leadup to Worlds by taking down Hodgkinson at the Stockholm Diamond League meet. She’s the only woman outside of Mu and Hodgkinson to creak the 1:58 barrier on multiple occasions this year and we can’t wait to see how she fares against a crowded field of studs.

Men’s 800m (1st round Wed 7/20 8:20p ET):

This race is the definition of “wide open.” The men’s 800m in Tokyo was a wild and messy affair and no clear favorite has emerged on the Diamond League circuit this season. Defending world champion Donavan Brazier has battled injuries for much of the last year and did not contest all three rounds of the 800m at USAs. He did look strong in his lone race by winning in 1:46.49. Just six men have broken 1:44 so far this year but none of them have much of a championship pedigree to speak of. Current world leader Max Burgin of Great Britain is only 20 years old and looking to become the first British man to medal in the 800m at the World Championships since Peter Elliott in 1987.

The gold and bronze medalists from Tokyo are entered: Emmanuel Korir of Kenya and Patryk Dobek of Poland. Peter Bol, who finished fourth in Tokyo, has run well so far in 2022. 10 years after his breakout silver medal behind David Rudisha in the 2012 London Olympics, Nigel Amos of Botswana is entered as well.

Along with Brazier, Team USA will be sending World Indoor Championship bronze medalist Bryce Hoppel, who has performed well all year and picked up a U.S. title in June, plus two newcomers to the international scene in Jonah Koech and Brandon Miller.

Unlike the women’s race, where the clear favorites are rock-solid and perform consistently all season, trying to pick the medalists in the men’s field is about as accurate as throwing darts at a bunch of pictures on the wall. Hoppel and Brazier have a good shot at the podium if they can make it through the rounds healthy, but there are no easy picks and plenty of uncertainty in this one.

Women’s 1500m (1st round Fri 7/15 9:10p ET):

Probably one of the safest bets in all the distance events is that Faith Kipyegon will reclaim her title of 1500m World champion. The Kenyan star won the 1500m in Rio and Tokyo, as well as the 2017 World Championships in London. She “only” took silver in Doha in 2019, but that performance is somewhat justified when considering that she had given birth 12 months earlier. The woman who defeated her, Sifan Hassan, is back to defend her title, but although the two are 9-9 in head-to-head matchups over 1500m, Kipyegon has won three of their four matchups since Doha. She broke her own meet record at the Prefontaine Classic earlier this spring with a world-leading 3:52.59 – and now claims 5 of the 15 fastest 1500ms ever run.

Hassan is a bigger mystery, as she’s triple-entered in the 1500m, 5000m, and 10,000m in Eugene but only opened up her 2022 season at the Stumptown Twilight meet this past weekend. Hassan’s debut was unimpressive as she notched a 15:13.41 victory by a wide margin in what she called a ‘tempo effort,’ so it’s hard to draw any major conclusions one way or the other. In Hassan’s quest to pick up the triple crown in Tokyo, the 1500m was the only event where she fell short by losing to Kipyegon and Great Britain’s Laura Muir. So if Hassan is trying to maximize hardware while playing it safe, skipping the competition and multiple rounds of racing in the 1500m would be the move.

As for the other contenders, Ethiopia has entered four women at 3:58 or faster, led by World Indoor champion Gudaf Tsegay. Muir is back to pick up another medal, but the loss of Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, the Canadian who finished 5th in Tokyo, to injury is a bummer. If it’s a slightly slower race (or the gap behind Kipyegon is wide), look to the U.S. trio of Sinclaire Johnson, Elle St. Pierre and Cory McGee or the Australian contingent of Jessica Hull, Linden Hall and Georgia Griffiths to be in the mix.

Men’s 1500m (1st round Sat 7/16 9:30p ET):

Three medalists return from Tokyo with another decent shot at the podium led by the Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The Norweigan star only got fourth place the last time this race was contested, but in fairness, he had just turned 19 years old. In the three years since then, he’s run the No. 8 all-time 1500m at 3:28.32, the No. 6 all-time mile at 3:46.46, won Olympic gold and quickly entered the conversation as one of the all-time great middle-distance runners. Don’t forget that he’s still only 21.

Ingebrigtsen is not unbeatable., Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera took him down at World Indoors this year (Note: Ingebrigtsen later reported that he tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after the race) and he’s only defeated Timothy Cheruiyot once in 12 matchups over 1500m. It just so happens that the only time was the Tokyo final. Ingebrigtsen is also not the only one entering the championships undefeated outdoors in the 1500m: Abel Kipsang of Kenya, who finished 4th in Tokyo, has raced eight 1500ms outdoors this year and won all 8 (Note: He did finish 4th in the Bowerman mile). If anyone can take the Olympic champion down, it’ll likely be one of those three.

Tokyo bronze medalist Josh Kerr always seems to perform well on the big stage, but he looked uncharacteristically out of his depth at the British trials, having to sprint hard in the final meters to barely hang onto third place. Did Kerr coast a little too hard at the U.K. championships or is his fitness not where it needs to be for him to factor into the medals? One man who’s proven serious fitness, on the other hand, is Australia and On Athletic Club’s Olli Hoare, who has twice finished second behind Ingebrigtsen in big mile races at Prefontaine and the Oslo Dream Mile.

On the American side, it will be interesting to see how Cooper Teare fares against multiple rounds of steep competition but the home-field advantage of Hayward Field will surely help the former Oregon Duck.

Women’s steeplechase (Semifinal Sat 7/16 1:35p ET):

All indications point toward this being Norah Jeruto’s year. The Kenyan-born Kazakh athlete was not able to contest the Olympics last year as her transfer of allegiance was processing. The last time Jeruto lost a steeplechase was way back in August 2019 and she looked phenomenal running 8:57.97 at the 2022 Prefontaine Classic in May. Jeruto is far from a lock for gold, but the third-fastest steeplechaser of all-time is definitely the favorite.

World record holder and defending champion Beatrice Chepkoech is entered in the race as well, but she has only raced sparingly this year and looked a bit out of her depth running 8:50.74 for the flat 3000m in May. It wouldn’t be a huge shock to see her back on the podium, but in 2021 Chepkoech never quite looked like the same runner she was a few years prior, finishing only 16th in Tokyo. Other contenders include Winfred Yavi of Bahrain, the current world leader who finished second behind Jeruto at Pre, surprise Olympic champ Peruth Chemutai of Uganda, and of course, the Americans.

2017 world champ Emma Coburn bounced back from her rocky start to the season at Pre to win her 10th U.S. title in the event a few weeks later, an emotional victory after a disappointing performance at Tokyo. Tokyo silver medalist Courtney Frerichs has had an up-and-down year as she’s struggled to manage a Celiac disease diagnosis, but she does enter the competition with the fourth-fastest personal best in the field. We still don’t even know where the ceiling is for recent collegian-turned-pro Courtney Wayment Smith, who knocked seven seconds off her PB at NCAAs and then another four at USAs. Jeruto and Yavi are the only two in the field who have been consistently at the sub-9 minute level all season, leaving the third spot on that podium well within reach of any of the three Team USA women.

Men’s steeplechase (Semifinal Fri 7/15 8:15p ET):

The men’s steeplechase has experienced something of a renaissance this year after a multi-year lull. Olympic gold and silver medalists Soufiane El Bakkali and Lamecha Girma clocked the first sub-8-minute times in four years earlier this summer. The two heavy-hitters matched up at the Rabat Diamond League meet, where the Moroccan Olympic champ defended his home turf with his signature kick. Girma, on the other hand, broke eight minutes three times in the span of 10 days. If anyone is well-prepared for championship wear and tear, it’s him.

Behind the two biggest names are several other talented East Africans including Kenya’s Conseslus Kipruto and Ethiopia’s Getnet Wale. Kipruto, the defending champion, has had a series of personal and physical setbacks over the last several years, but he returned to form earlier this season with an 8:08.76 at the Rome Diamond League (however, he only finished 4th in that race). Kenya has won 13 of the 17 world titles in this event since it was first contested in 1983 and every title since 2007.

Americans who could sneak into the medals including two-time U.S. champ Hillary Bor, Tokyo 11th-place finisher Bernard Keter or American record holder Evan Jager, who would never have been considered a factor until his clutch performance at USAs, where he knocked 10+ seconds off his season’s best in three days and grabbed second place + the World standard in the final. If he continues his upward trend, the Rio silver medalist could find himself back in the mix like the good ol’ days.

Women’s 5000m (Semifinal Wed 7/20 7:25p ET):

There are a lot of interesting question marks hovering over the women’s 5000m this year. Two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri is opting to run just the 10,000m and world record holder Letesenbet Gidey looking decidedly beatable this season. Add in continuing uncertainty over Olympic champion Sifan Hassan’s racing plans and a rotating cast of Ethiopian studs who’ve all shown flashes of greatness at the distance this year…this could be one of the hardest events to predict without some intel from the women’s 10,000m, which will be contested four days earlier.

Ejgayehu Taye is the world leader at 14:12.98, which she picked up by hijacking Gidey’s world record attempt at the Prefontaine Classic in May, but the two more lethal guns in a championship race are likely Dawit Seyaum and Gudaf Tsegay, who are 1500m specialists that have looked good moving up in distance this season. Tsegay is double-entered in the 1500m and the 5000m for now, and the Ethiopian federation is notoriously averse to allowing its athletes to double, but if she comes back and the race is slow, the world indoor record holder at 1500m will surely be a threat.

The U.S. has a formidable trio of kickers in Elise Cranny, Karissa Schweizer, and Emily Infeld. Infeld returns to the World Championships for the first time since 2017 but don’t forget that she earned a bronze medal in the 10,000m at Worlds in 2015. The Bowerman Track Club pair will probably thrive most under a very specific kind of race. Cranny and Schweizer’s best shot at a medal is probably in a race where the pace isn’t hot from the gun nor a messy final lap, but rather a 1600-2400m grindfest that takes the sting out of the fast milers and drops some of the tired legs coming back from the 10,000m. It will be interesting to see if they attempt team tactics here or if they’re too far out of their depth to control a race with so many 14:20-level runners.

Men’s 5000m (Semifinal Thu 7/21 9:10p ET):

Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s commitment to the 1500m-5000m double makes this event markedly more interesting, as the Norwegian stud has a 12:48 PB and plenty of closing speed. He’ll have his work cut out for him as the entry list features a whopping seven(!) men with sub-12:50 personal bests, including world record holder Joshua Cheptegei. Cheptegei has proven his championship credibility by winning gold in Tokyo in the 5,000m and silver in Doha in the 10,000m. At 25 years old, he’s not going anywhere any time soon.

One interesting phenomenon that emerged this year is the resurgence of Kenyan 5000m runners. Kenya, long considered a distance powerhouse, has not medaled in the 5000m at a global championship since 2015. But when Nicholas Kipkorir and Jacob Krop notched a pair of 12:46s this season, it was the fastest any Kenyan man had run since 2004. With Ethiopians Berihu Aregawi (12:50.05 at Pre), Selemon Barega (Tokyo champ at 10,000m), and defending champ Muktar Edris on the starting line, however, they’ll have their work cut out for them. The resurgence of the Kenya-Ethiopia rivalry in this event should make for a very entertaining final.

Tokyo silver medalist Moh Ahmed is back for more hardware and his Bowerman Track Club teammates Grant Fisher, Woody Kincaid, Marc Scott, and Kieran Tuntivate are on the start list as well. Fisher, who ran 12:53 this indoor season, probably has the best shot at a global medal among the Americans, but if the race is pedestrian, the fabled kick of Woody Kincaid could turn some heads on the world stage as well.

Women’s 10,000m (Saturday 7/16 3:20p ET):

As with the 1500m and 5000m, how this race plays out could depend heavily on Sifan Hassan’s choice of events to focus on. If she’s in the mix, the Olympic champ with a 29:06 personal best will probably be the one to watch at pretty much any pace, but world record holder Letesenbet Gidey will likely be out for revenge after Hassan denied her gold in Tokyo. Interestingly, surprise silver medalist Kalkidan Gezahegne of Bahrain is not entered and has not raced this year.

The other intriguing name to watch in this event is Hellen Obiri of Kenya, the two-time 5000m world champ who’s opted to focus on the 10,000m this year. Obiri, who made headlines earlier this year by signing with On, has five global medals already and 3:57 1500m speed, but she’s mainly concentrated on longer distances this season, running 30:15 for 10k and 64:22 for the half marathon on the roads. Obiri’s trademark blades-out kick cannot be discounted in any track race of any distance, however.

As the 10,000m is early in the program, U.S. champ Karissa Schweizer, who is also running the 5000m, will be fresh for this event. Along with On’s Alicia Monson, who’s had a breakout year on top of a breakout year with her 14:31.11 PB in Oslo, and Hansons-Brooks’s Natosha Rogers, the U.S. contingent is strong, but the number of women with sub-30 10k speed and sub-4 1500m speed in the race means landing on the podium will be a formidable challenge.

Men’s 10,000m (Sunday 7/17 4:00p ET):

This field is full of heavy hitters as defending world champion and world record holder Joshua Cheptegei matches back up against Olympic champ Selemon Barega after the Ethiopian took down the two Ugandans (Cheptegei and his teammate Jacob Kiplimo) to win in Tokyo. None of these men have run as fast as the Bowerman duo of Grant Fisher (USA) and Moh Ahmed (Canada), however, and for Fisher in particular, who finished 5th in this event in Tokyo, this represents an opportunity for the American to prove his racing ability beyond the domestic scene.

It’s hard to bet against Barega, the Ethiopian champion at 10,000m who also picked up a victory in the 3,000m at World Indoors back in March. Not many 26:44 runners have also run 3:32.97 in the 1500m. But anything can happen over 25 long, grueling laps, particularly if the weather is as hot as Eugene in July tends to be, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Barega felled by any of the men mentioned above or either of his two teammates, upstart youngster Tadese Worku and 5km world record holder on the roads Berihu Aregawi. In fact, Aregawi took down Barega and a talented field at Hayward in May when he won the 5000m at the Prefontaine Classic (Cheptegei was in an exhibition version of the race the evening prior, but ran 7 seconds slower). So anything could happen on race day.

Americans Joe Klecker and Sean McGorty will be making their world championship debuts, although Klecker raced much of the field in Tokyo in the 10,000m, where he finished 16th. This will likely be more of a quest for experience than hardware for these two, although Klecker did take down Fisher at the U.S. champs and a slower early pace could keep them in the mix for longer.

Women’s marathon (Monday 7/18 9:15a ET):

Monday saw a huge loss in the women’s marathon as the current top dog in the event, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, was forced to withdraw with a hip injury. The Olympic, New York, and Boston champion would’ve been the heavy favorite, but Kenyan distance fans need not worry as defending champ and 2021 Chicago Marathon winner Ruth Chepngetich will be on the starting line with her PB of 2:17:08. Other major contenders include Gotytom Gebreslase, the Ethiopian who ran 2:20:09 to win Berlin in her marathon debut and then lowered her PB to 2:18:18 in Tokyo this spring. If the pace is hot, two other sub-2:18 women, Ashete Bekere of Ethiopia and Angela Tanui of Kenya, could spice things up. And don’t forget about Lonah Salpeter, who represents Israel internationally, who has a PB of 2:17:45 and was with the leaders late into the Olympic marathon last summer before menstrual cramps caused her to drop off.

However, world championship marathons are rarely hammerfests from the gun, and even with a 6:15 a.m. start time, the summer heat in Eugene, combined with the lack of pacers, could open the door for a few strong racers with slightly slower PBs to land on the podium. The withdrawal of Tokyo bronze medalist Molly Seidel was a big loss for Team USA, but the trio of women representing the U.S. are all well-credentialed and battle-tested. Emma Bates and Sara Hall have each notched runner-up finishes at a World Marathon Major (Bates in Chicago ‘21 and Hall in London ‘20), and late addition Keira D’Amato, who holds the American record in the event with a 2:19:12 PB from January, is no stranger to holding onto a hot pace. I’d say they all have an outside shot at snagging a medal, and with all three of them toeing the line, it would not be a surprise to see red, white, and blue on the podium in this event.

Men’s marathon (Sunday 7/17 9:15a ET):

Any race without the great Eliud Kipchoge, even a world championship, feels like it can’t truly claim to name its winner the world’s fastest marathoner, but the absence of the GOAT makes for more exciting racing, as it re-introduces greater uncertainty into the event.

The men’s marathon in Eugene is wide open with no clear favorite, as stalwarts of the World Marathon Major circuit, including Lelisa Desisa (3x WMM champ), Lawrence Cherono (2x Boston champ), and Geoffrey Kamworor (2x NYC champ) will vie for the win in the first World championship marathon on U.S. soil. The two previous world champions, Desisa and Kenya’s Geoffrey Kirui, will be on the starting line as well, so there is no lack of players in the field who know how to win.

Abdi Negaaye of the Netherlands and Bashir Abdi of Belgium, the training partners who took silver and bronze behind Kipchoge in Tokyo, will be back to pick up more hardware. The fastest man in the field, however, is none of the names mentioned above: it’s Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia, who’s never won a major marathon but did take victory in Dubai in 2018 and sports a flashy 2:02:55 personal best, No. 4 all-time, which he picked up with a runner-up finish behind Kipchoge in London in 2019.

Of the American contingent, the most likely runner to medal is Galen Rupp, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist and 2017 Chicago Marathon champion. Colin Bennie and Elkanah Kibet are capable marathoners who’ve shown they can hang with the best in a major, but a top-10 finish will likely be a more realistic goal for them. Rupp switched coaches to NAU’s Mike Smith in 2019 and has found some success with an eighth-place finish in Tokyo and a runner-up placing at the 2021 Chicago Marathon, but Eugene will provide a more definitive answer about where the Oregon native stands at this point in his marathoning career.

🙏 Thanks again for reading and sharing. Follow along on Twitter: @chrischavez and Instagram: @chris_j_chavez. Tell your friends to sign up for the newsletter to stay in the know on what and how to watch the best track and field action.