Kerley looks ahead to a bright future

EUGENE (Oregon) • Fred Kerley led a United States clean sweep as he stormed to victory in the men's 100 metres at the World Athletics Championships on Saturday.

The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist trailed Marvin Bracy for 95m of the tight race, but managed to out-dip his teammate by 0.02 seconds for a 9.86sec victory at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Compatriot Trayvon Bromell got the bronze in just the third 100m world championship sweep for the Americans after 1983 and 1991.

"We said we were going to do it and we did! USA, baby!" Kerley said to roars of approval and applause from a partisan home crowd. "I didn't know until I looked up and saw the clock with my name 'Fred Kerley' on it.

"It means a lot and I've done something not many 400m runners have done. I know today opened up many doors for me. The future is bright for me."

The last US sweep featured track legend Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell, something not lost on the modest Kerley or silver medallist Bracy.

"It's amazing to be among the great, they did it in 1991, we did in 2022," Bracy said. "This is history, to be part of something that has only happened three times ever just means the world to me."

He also paid tribute to Kerley's versatility, who started his career as a 400m specialist before switching to the shorter 100m.

"The guy's special, he's a rare talent to be able to do all three events, his range is limitless. He might do 800m next year, we don't know," Bracy said. "He's a special cat, among an elite group of people like the (Usain) Bolts, the Wayde van Niekerks."

Kerley is now the only man to have won world meet medals in both 100m and 400m - he was the 400m bronze medallist at the 2019 championships in Doha.

The 27-year-old is also one of only three men, along with South Africa's van Niekerk and fellow American Michael Norman, to have broken 10sec in the 100m, 20 in the 200m and 44 in the 400m.

Kerley has set his sights on the sprint double - the 200m starts today - and is also not ruling out runs in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

He felt he slightly mistimed his dip at last year's Olympics, losing out to Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs (9.80sec) by 0.04sec, but this time, he got his technique spot on.

Dedicating his victory in the blue-riband event to his aunt Virginia, who raised him after his father went to jail and his mother was absent early on, Kerley said: "I think about her every day because if it wasn't for her I probably would not be talking to you now.

"She's probably blowing my phone up now as we speak. She sacrificed her life for me and my brothers and sisters and cousins. We all got adopted, there were 13 of us and 26 of us in the household.

"We had one bedroom, it was 13 of us in one bedroom, we were on a palette, and at the end of the day, it was like in every other house, we all had fun, we enjoyed ourselves, and we're doing great things right now."

The build-up to the 100m final was rocked by the decision of Jacobs to withdraw just hours before the semi-finals with tightness in his right thigh.

Team doctor Andrea Billi said a medical evaluation had found a "clinical picture that can put muscle integrity at risk and lead to injury".

Jacobs, who pulled off one of the shocks of the Tokyo Games last year, was crowned world indoor 60m champion in Belgrade in March but has since struggled with injury.

He later tweeted his withdrawal had been a "painful choice" and that he was not fully fit coming into the worlds but insisted he was still "a fighter and this is why I decided to be in Eugene".

In other events, Wang Jianan of China produced a last-round leap of 8.36m to snatch the long jump title - his country's first in the event - after Olympic gold medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou looked to be cruising to victory with a jump of 8.32m.

The Greek had been seeking to complete the full house of major titles after previously also winning the indoor world title, and the European indoor and outdoor titles.

However, China's Gong Lijiao, the Tokyo Games gold medallist and two-time defending world title holder, was denied a hat-trick after American Chase Ealey bettered her by 0.10m with a throw of 20.49m in the women's shot put.

Poland's Pawel Fajdek clinched his fifth world title in the hammer throw with an effort of 81.98m, while Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey won the women's 10,000m final in 30min 9.94 sec.

There were also two alleged doping offences by Kenya's Lawrence Cherono and American Randolph Ross, resulting in suspensions being imposed by the Athletics Integrity Unit on Saturday.

Former Boston and Chicago marathons winner Cherono has tested positive for trimetazidine, the same prohibited stimulant that Chinese swimmer Sun Yang tested positive for in 2014, while 400m runner Ross has been accused of "tampering with the doping control process".

There was also another incident on Saturday. The Guardian reported that American coach Rana Reider has been cautioned by local police after he accessed the competition's warm-up area despite being unauthorised.

Reider works with Bracy and Bromell but his World Athletics accreditation has been blocked since last year after sexual misconduct claims emerged.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, XINHUA