It was the leap that affirmed his ambition.
Soaring 8.12m at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi last August, Erwan Konate surpassed the eight-metre mark for the first time in his career to get gold, roaring with delight when the French U20 record figures flashed up on the scoreboard.
That moment made the talented teenager certain that his future lay in the long jump. 
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 Winning at the age of 18, and with two editions of the global U20 event taking place in consecutive years due to the pandemic, means that Konate has the chance to defend his title at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 in August. That&rsquo;s one of many targets this season, with his win in Kenya acting as the catalyst.
&ldquo;After I jumped eight metres in Nairobi, I said 'okay, that is a good choice!'&rdquo; smiles Konate, who is also a business student and model. &ldquo;Last year was totally crazy. My performance was so crazy for my age &ndash; it was a world lead for U20, a French U20 record. Now it is a new time with new goals.&rdquo;
That jump in Kenya added 21cm to Konate&rsquo;s previous best, set when claiming European U20 bronze in Tallinn in July.
Opening with a leap of 7.75m, his consistent series also included jumps of 7.80m, 7.90m, 8.00m and 7.98m, as well as his fourth-round 8.12m. He won by 15cm ahead of Jhon Andres Berrio, whose 7.97m was a Colombian U20 record, while Jamaica&rsquo;s Kavian Kerr bagged bronze thanks to a 7.90m PB. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/611ffdf45344ec56169050d6.jpg" alt="Erwan Konate soars to world U20 long jump gold in Nairobi" />
Erwan Konate soars to world U20 long jump gold in Nairobi (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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After that competition, Konate went on to make his Diamond League debut in Brussels in September, the same month he teamed up with a new coach &ndash; 1987 world long jump silver medallist Robert Emmiyan.
That also gave Konate another target to shoot for &ndash; Emmiyan&rsquo;s European record of 8.86m, a mark that places him fourth on the world all-time list.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s another level, another world!&rdquo; says Konate, who further proved his record-breaking ability earlier this year when he leapt 7.98m to finish second at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe in January. That added 5cm to the ratified European indoor U20 record that had been set by Emmiyan in 1984.
While a performance like Emmiyan&rsquo;s 8.86m is a long-term goal, Konate currently has two significant figures in mind &ndash; first the 8.22m qualifying standard for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, taking place the month before the U20 event in Cali, and also the world U20 record of 8.35m that has stood since 2012.
&ldquo;Those are my goals, but my first goal is to live my life and enjoy my life,&rdquo; Konate adds. Happy in his current set-up, the French rising star appears to be doing just that. 
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 Born in Amiens in northern France in 2003, Konate has spent his whole life in athletics. His father Papa Ladji Konate is a former triple jumper while his mother Virginie Scribe Konate specialises in the hammer throw.
&ldquo;All the time, I have been in the stadium with my parents,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;After their wedding, my parents went to the stadium! It is our life.&rdquo;
Early on, he showed strength in the discus throw but was most passionate about the long jump. Konate gives great credit to his former coach Erwan Mouaddib but felt that joining Emmiyan and being based at France's National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP) in Paris was an important next step in his career.
From the three sessions per week training he did in the lead up to the European and World U20 Championships, Konate says he now trains &ldquo;like a professional athlete&rdquo;. He recently joined Emmiyan and his training partner Jules Pommery on a camp in Corsica to prepare for his busy outdoor campaign.
&ldquo;He is so talented,&rdquo; says Emmiyan, who is also president of the Armenian athletics federation. &ldquo;I was so happy that he won the World U20 Championships last year in Kenya and that this year he broke my European U20 record. Now this season is very important because he can become a two-time world U20 champion.
&ldquo;He also has the capacity to qualify for the senior world championships and has a lot of different invitations regarding international competitions.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627aa1f9a7249c49e5d817d5.jpg" alt="Erwan Konate competes at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe" />
Erwan Konate competes at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe (&copy; Getty Images)
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During the camp, Konate was training twice a day, five times a week, with a focus on speed and transition.
&ldquo;Erwan comes from a wonderful athletic family,&rdquo; Emmiyan adds. &ldquo;They support at all times. His mother writes the power training programme. We cooperate very well. This is important.&rdquo;
And Konate&rsquo;s relationship with Emmiyan means they too have become like family.
&ldquo;Erwan is also speaking a little bit of Armenian!&rdquo; Emmiyan laughs. &ldquo;The relationship between coach and athletes is so important. We stay like family.
&ldquo;I trust him, I see his motivation, and he trusts me. We feel comfortable together and with the group.&rdquo;
Konate agrees. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s very important for me. I live my life all the time with one guy &ndash; my coach and my partner. For me he is an inspiration.&rdquo;
With so much to aim for &ndash; including a home Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 &ndash; that support network will remain key as Konate prioritises his happiness.
&ldquo;I trained very hard on my mentality because it was tough after Nairobi, because I had a lot of pressure,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;I try, with my body and with my head, to jump far. I don&rsquo;t have a barrier in my mind, I just say jump. Maybe you win, maybe you lose, but you jump.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

World Athletics U20 Championships

8.12m – it was the leap that affirmed his ambition.

World U20 title just the start for long jump talent Konate

Such is the significance of the moment, people remember precisely where they were and exactly how they felt when Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi united to share the Olympic high jump gold in Tokyo.
Nine months have passed since that distinguished display of friendship, respect and top-class competition, but the emotion has not diminished. If anything, it has intensified, as the duo turn the page to start the next chapter in their tale of tenacity and solidarity.
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t go anywhere without someone stopping me and telling me where they were, how they felt and what their reaction was, exactly at the time it happened,&rdquo; Barshim says with a smile. &ldquo;Somebody said they cried, somebody said they broke the TV. I&rsquo;m really glad that we could inspire so many people.&rdquo;
So much so that Qatar&rsquo;s Barshim and Italy&rsquo;s Tamberi were named winners of the World Athletics Inspiration Award at the end of last year, receiving recognition for that superb show of sportsmanship between two great friends and rivals. 
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 Now, with just four days until the opening meeting of the 2022 Wanda Diamond League series, the pair are preparing to reunite on the runway for the first time since Tokyo &ndash; first in Doha on Friday (13) and then the following month in Rome as they once again welcome each other to their home countries.
&ldquo;I celebrated the best moment of my life so far with Mutaz in Tokyo, but it&rsquo;s important to move on from that and focus on the new goals I&rsquo;ve set myself for the World and European Championships this summer,&rdquo; says 2021 Wanda Diamond League champion Tamberi, who spent a spell training in Qatar in March and April.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve enjoyed learning more about this great country. Every time I come here it feels like home because of my friendship with Mutaz and the warm welcome I&rsquo;ve received, so it means a lot to me to open my Diamond League campaign and summer season in Doha.
&ldquo;How high will I jump? I don't know, we'll see. We will evaluate in the coming days whether to compete with a full run or with nine steps.&rdquo;
The Golden Gala Pietro Mennea then takes place in Rome on 9 June &ndash; just five weeks out from the World Athletics Championships Oregon 22.
"Rome is a beautiful stage to better prepare for the World Championships,&rdquo; Tamberi adds. &ldquo;Having the Golden Gala before Eugene is essential for me.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6256fc74c8759fb543082a43.jpg" alt="Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi" />
Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi (&copy; Getty Images / AFP)
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The outdoor head-to-head record between the two high jump stars currently stands at 10-4 in Barshim&rsquo;s favour, but the last time they met in Diamond League competition &ndash; at last year&rsquo;s Golden Gala &ndash; Tamberi had the upper hand, finishing third as Barshim was fifth.
They may not have things all their own way in Doha, either, as they will face joint world leaders Sanghyeok Woo and Hamish Kerr. Korea&rsquo;s Olympic fourth-place finisher Woo cleared 2.34m to win the world indoor title in Belgrade in March, while New Zealand&rsquo;s Kerr claimed joint bronze alongside Tamberi. 
<h2>Brothers in arms</h2>
The friendship between Barshim and Tamberi began over a decade ago, when their high jump talent took them to the 2010 World U20 Championships in Moncton, Canada. Barshim won that title and has gone on to claim five senior world medals &ndash; including three golds &ndash; along with his three Olympic medals. Tamberi, meanwhile, has become a world indoor and European champion, recently adding world indoor bronze to his CV at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62796854e37fa9aaed08c059.jpg" alt="Mutaz Barshim competes at the 2010 World U20 Championships in Moncton" />
Mutaz Barshim competes at the 2010 World U20 Championships in Moncton (&copy; Getty Images)
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But it has not all been plain sailing and central to their story is the support they have shown each other during the highs and &ndash; most significantly &ndash; the lows, particularly when it comes to their shared experience of career-threatening injury.
&ldquo;I think 99% of people thought it was impossible for me to achieve that gold medal in Tokyo,&rdquo; says Tamberi, the Italian record-holder with his best of 2.39m, who tore a ligament in his left ankle just weeks out from the Rio Olympics.
&ldquo;And now, if I saw that story from the outside, I would say that I agree! But it is a wonderful story with a magical ending. I always try to say that until the last day you have one chance, one opportunity &ndash; until the last day, it is not finished.&rdquo;
Barshim, who suffered the same injury in 2018, feels the same. &ldquo;When I got injured and I was laying in the hospital bed after surgery, you start thinking, &lsquo;am I ever going to be able to do what I love again?&rsquo;&rdquo; says the Qatari record-holder, whose PB of 2.43m puts him second on the world all-time list.
&ldquo;Something changed in me, and you start to appreciate things more and approach things differently. In that moment, that&rsquo;s what came to me.&rdquo;
In the highest-quality men's high jump competition in Olympic history, six athletes were still active when the bar went up to 2.39m inside Tokyo&rsquo;s National Stadium. Both Barshim and Tamberi had flawless performances up to 2.37m, but when neither were able to go two centimetres higher, the multiple Asian champion asked the judge a five-word question that electrified a global audience of millions.
&ldquo;Can we have two golds?&rdquo;
They barely waited for his reply as Tamberi leapt into his friend and rival&rsquo;s arms to celebrate. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627968fc703d5c7696975c60.jpg" alt="Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi celebrate their joint Olympic high jump gold in Tokyo" />
Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi celebrate their joint Olympic high jump gold in Tokyo (&copy; Getty Images)
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&ldquo;It was such a genuine moment,&rdquo; explains Barshim. &ldquo;People love the fact that you can be so competitive and so selfish &ndash; because you have to have some selfishness in a positive way as we both want the best &ndash; but at the same time, we didn&rsquo;t forget the true spirit of sport.
&ldquo;That is what people really love. Winning Olympic gold, of course it is a great feeling, but that moment to share &ndash; it touched so many people&rsquo;s hearts.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We just looked into each other&rsquo;s eyes and in one tenth of a second, we decided,&rdquo; remembers Tamberi. &ldquo;After the Olympic Games, this big friendship became like family. He will forever be my brother.&rdquo;
Now the brothers in arms have a new target &ndash; the World Championships in Oregon in July.
&ldquo;We made history with our Olympic gold, but my focus is now entirely on defending my world title in Eugene later this summer,&rdquo; says Barshim. &ldquo;The men&rsquo;s high jump is currently at a very high standard. We must all continue to work hard if we&rsquo;re to push the boundaries of our sport.&rdquo;
The 30-year-old will be going for a third consecutive title after his wins in London in 2017 and on home soil in Doha in 2019, while Tamberi seeks the only major title missing from his collection.
But &ndash; as the Olympics in Tokyo proved &ndash; who says it has to be one or the other?
&ldquo;Of course, this year the main goal is the outdoor World Championships where I want to share the gold medal with Mutaz again,&rdquo; says 29-year-old Tamberi.
Whether or not history repeats in Oregon, the next chapter will be equally fascinating.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Nine months have passed since their joint Olympic triumph and now the friends and rivals are preparing to start their season in Doha.

From Tokyo to Oregon, the next chapter for Tamberi and Barshim begins in Doha

The first time Favour Ofili had an inkling she could make a name for herself in athletics was when she made her first national team in 2018.
Just a couple of years prior, she was just a high school student in Delta State, southern Nigeria, with nothing to her name except a firm belief in her talent, ignited in her by her high school coach, Anne Otutu.
Ofili, who is still a teenager, is now rewriting the history books and breaking records. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62723a1e151a99fbd9666d45.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in action at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games" />
Favour Ofili in action at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (&copy; Lukas Schulze for OIS/IOC)
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 In 2019 she came close to breaking the Nigerian U18 400m best, clocking 51.51 on her way to advancing to the semifinals at the World Championships in Doha. Just a few months after starting her sports administration major at Louisiana State University (LSU), she set an African indoor 200m record of 22.75 and established herself as one of the leading sprinters on the US collegiate circuit.
It&rsquo;s little wonder she has been nicknamed &lsquo;Star Girl&rsquo; by followers of the sport in her home country.
At the end of last month, Ofili stormed to her first legal sub-11-second run in the 100m, racing to a lifetime best of 10.93 (2.0m/s) in Baton Rouge. It puts her third on the Nigerian all-time list, fifth on the African all-time list and fourth on this year&rsquo;s world list.
Earlier in the month, Ofili had registered PBs of 11.11 and 11.00, followed by a wind-assisted 10.90 (4.2m/s). And in Gainesville on 15 April she stormed to a national record of 21.96 over 200m, becoming the first collegiate athlete in history to break 22 seconds in the discipline.
Ofili refuses to get caught up in the excitement of her feats, though.
&ldquo;Since my Nigerian record, nothing has really changed; nothing special has changed,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I am trying to keep my head down and not allow whatever is happening online (the buzz) get to my head. I am just happy and grateful to God for making me the first Nigerian woman to do it (sub-22).
&ldquo;When I ran and I saw the time, 21.96, I was like &lsquo;Oh, okay&rsquo;,&rdquo; she explained in an interview with lsusports.net. &ldquo;It was an expectation that was meant to happen because of hard work. If it (21.96) came now, that means there are still more things that are coming for me when it comes to the 200m. All these things I have achieved now are nothing. People have done it before; I&rsquo;m not the first person to do it.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6272416a3f2f67e625b54c73.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 During her early years in the sport, Ofili started out in the 400m. She won the girls&rsquo; 400m title at the 2017 National Youth Games, and then made her international debut at the 2018 African Youth Games in Algiers where she won the 400m in 53.57.
She went on to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, finishing 10th overall, and then enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2019, starting at the African U18 Championships in Abidjan where she won the 200m and 400m in PBs of 23.38 and 52.28. She was later named the most outstanding female athlete of the championships.
Ofili contested both events at the senior Nigerian Championships later in the year, winning the 200m in 23.32 (-1.6m/s) and placing second in the 400m in a PB of 51.90. The latter performance earned Ofili a spot on the team for the African Games in Rabat, where she went on to claim 400m silver in another PB, 51.68, before anchoring Nigeria to gold in the 4x400m. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627241a83f2f67e625b54c79.jpg" alt="Nigeria's victorious 4x400m team at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
Nigeria's victorious 4x400m team at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 But it was when she secured an athletics scholarship to LSU in 2020 that her career really started to take off.
&ldquo;I had always believed that with God everything thing is possible, and that I will be great in track and break records,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But I knew that everything was going to start falling into place when I decided to come to the States. I knew that was the starting point.&rdquo;
In her freshman (first) year, Ofili won the 200m at the SEC Indoor Championships in 22.75 and reached the final at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She narrowly missed a podium place at the outdoor NCAA Championships, placing fourth in 22.45. Earlier in the season, she reduced her 400m PB to 51.49.
Ofili was looking forward to making her Olympic debut in Tokyo but she was among 10 Nigerian athletes who were barred from competing at the Games as the Nigerian Athletics Federation had not met its target of out-of-competition tests for its athletes.
But Ofili soon brushed aside that disappointment and channelled her energy into the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6272413f3f2f67e625b54c70.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Roger Sedres)
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 She dominated her 200m heat (22.74) and semifinal (22.37) and then earned bronze in the final in a lifetime best of 22.23, finishing behind Olympic silver medallist Christine Mboma and Olympic finalist Beatrice Masilingi of Namibia.
One day after the 200m final, Ofili took bronze in the 4x100m and gold in the 4x400m, anchoring Nigeria to a world U20 lead of 3:31.46, just 0.62 shy of the African U20 record.
&ldquo;The World U20 Championships was a miracle competition for me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Going into the competition, I was not physically or mentally okay because of what happened with my place on the Olympic team. I went to Nairobi to have fun and, to my greatest surprise, it turned out to be great. I learned a lot from that competition and it helped changed my mind-set.&rdquo;
As the owner of sub-11, sub-22 and sub-52 PBs for 100m, 200m and 400m, Ofili has already displayed remarkable range for a sprinter so young. For now, though, she doesn&rsquo;t want to specialise in one discipline, nor does she want to compare herself to other versatile sprinters such as Allyson Felix and Shericka Jackson. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627240cc3f2f67e625b54c6d.jpg" alt="Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili" />
Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili (&copy; Roger Sedres)
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 &ldquo;For now I don&rsquo;t have a permanent event,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I see myself achieving the speed for the shorter sprint events because that's what we (my coach and I) started focusing on from the indoors so we just have to maintain it and keep it going.
&ldquo;Allyson Felix is someone most athletes look up to because she is the most decorated US track and field Olympian,&rdquo; added Ofili. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t see myself as &lsquo;the next&rsquo; anyone; I see myself as me, Favour Chukwuka Ofili, who is coming up with the grace of God in my life. It&rsquo;s another motivation for me.&rdquo;
As the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 beckons, Ofili is excited at the prospect of returning to Hayward Field. When she competed there last year at the NCAA Championships, she finished just 0.03 shy of a medal.
&ldquo;The track felt good when I competed there last year,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It will be a great honour to compete there again for the World Championships.&rdquo;
She has even bigger goals in the long term, and feels she has only just scratched the surface.
&ldquo;As I get deeper into this track and field career of mine, I just want to keep my head down, focus on my studies which brought me here to the States and stay healthy,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;If you are healthy, you can really do anything.&rdquo;
Yemi Olus for World Athletics

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

The teenage sprinter from Nigeria is rewriting the record books

Breaking records is just the starting point for Ofili as she reaches for the stars

Kenya is known as a distance running powerhouse. Now that strength in endurance events is filtering through to the world of race walking.
Given that Kenya's athletes have won everything from 4x400m races to the marathon over the past six decades, it is surprising that there has not been more race walk success. Kenya has claimed 106 Olympic medals on the track and road alone since 1964. That includes 34 gold medals, despite the nation missing two Olympiads.
You might have thought that an event requiring the steady beat of aerobic effort would find more proponents than currently exists. Samuel Gathimba believes he knows why.
The 34-year-old won Kenya&rsquo;s first senior medal on a global level when he came third at last month&rsquo;s World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22 in Oman. He had already won Commonwealth bronze in 2018, but in March his effort in the desert saw him bide his time before making a push over the final five kilometres of the 20km. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622376ce951aac81845d5361.jpg" alt="Kenya's Samuel Gathimba celebrates his 20km bronze in Muscat" />
Kenya's Samuel Gathimba celebrates his 20km bronze in Muscat (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 After 20 years of endeavour and often lonely walks, he sank to his knees in gratitude that his unstinting effort had finally paid off. But ask Gathimba to guess the number of race walkers in a population of more than 55 million, and he estimates &lsquo;about 50&rsquo;.
Compare that to the thousands of Kenyan runners, and the percentage is minuscule. There is clearly a vast amount of untapped potential.
In Kenya, children start running a few steps after the cradle. Early on, they run to school and back, often covering four or more miles a day when at primary school.
It&rsquo;s almost natural that the best graduate to distance running. But not race walking, at least not in any kind of numbers until the last few years.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a technical event. Technical with rules, and that isn&rsquo;t for a lot of kids,&rdquo; Gathimba explains. &ldquo;I found my talent at a young age. I started walking at primary school, but I saw it more as a hobby then, but I kept going through secondary school.&rdquo;
An early inkling that race walking was for her is echoed by Emily Ngii. She too started at primary school. &ldquo;I found myself walking, and I just came to love the event,&rdquo; says the 2014 African silver medallist.
The 35-year-old recorded 1:42:39 for the 20km event at the World Race Walking Team Championships in Muscat. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62715dc689011e84f99004ed.jpg" alt="Kenya's Emily Ngii at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22" />
Kenya's Emily Ngii at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22 (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 She also has a PB of 1:30:56, set in June last year. That should have been a result to savour, but her performance at the Moi International Sports Centre in Nairobi didn&rsquo;t leave Ngii with her targeted outcome.
Sadly, Kenya was not able to send her and Gathimba to the Olympics &ndash; the latter after he notched a fabulous 1:18:26 in the men&rsquo;s 20km at the same time &ndash; as the event didn't fulfil the technical requirements for qualifying performances.
&ldquo;Covid made it difficult for everyone &ndash; not just international race walk judges &ndash; to travel, and we needed three from different countries for qualifying times that counted,&rdquo; explains George Kariuki, Kenya&rsquo;s head of race walking.
&ldquo;There was also a hope we could send Samuel and Emily to the La Coruna race in Spain, in early June. But our application got held up, and I needed to get other athletic managers who were sending walkers to help us out.
&ldquo;When we did finally get the invite, it was two days before the race and impossible to arrange travel.&rdquo;
Kariuki insists it won&rsquo;t happen again and has already pencilled in the African Championships in Mauritius in early June as a qualifying race to send Kenyan athletes to the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
The head coach insists there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful for Kenyan race walking. Apart from Gathimba&rsquo;s Muscat success, the nation boasts the men's world U20 10,000m race walk champion.
Heristone Wanyonyi strode to victory on home soil in 42:10.84 last June, and he had barely turned 18. He followed that with a fourth-place finish in the U20 event in Muscat. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6120e47bc07b59b0aeca5abe.jpg" alt="Heristone Wanyonyi celebrates his world U20 10,000m race walk win in Nairobi" />
Heristone Wanyonyi celebrates his world U20 10,000m race walk win in Nairobi (&copy; Roger Sedres)
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 Kariuki hopes both successes will provide the "little boost" race walking needs at home.
What "little boost" means in practical terms is increased funding to create more bubble camps where all the top race walkers get together, along with the means to compete at more international competitions.
In the world of baby steps, Kenya recently took a few.
&ldquo;Last year the federation, through the national Olympic committee, accorded three race walkers an opportunity to train at a bubble camp to improve on their performance," says Kariuki. "It certainly did. Samuel and others were walking times that made me look at the stopwatch twice to make sure I had it correct. It was amazing.
&ldquo;This year, they facilitated the walkers who took part at Muscat. It was the first time we had a team at the World Team Championships.
&ldquo;What we now need are more camps and competition at the highest level.&rdquo;
Despite this success, there remains little or no funding for race walkers in Kenya. Any coach that does offer their services, does so for free. Even Kariuki, based in Nairobi, sends training programmes to the likes of Gathimba, based three hours away in Nyeri.
&ldquo;Kenyan race walkers have what it takes to compete at the top level and win medals, but they lack proper coaches,&rdquo; said Ngii. "The authorities concerned wait until we make the national team before offering us coaches and other facilities, hence this has stalled their progress.&rdquo;
Simon Wachira and Dominic Ndigiti are another two athletes starting to make themselves heard on a global level. Kariuki also has hopes for Stephen Ndangili, an 18-year-old race walker with a PB of 45:56 for the 10,000m event. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62715eb6421279b446bf0056.jpg" alt="Kenya's Simon Wachira at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22" />
Kenya's Simon Wachira at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22 (&copy; Dan Vernon)
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 &ldquo;If they are supported and put together in a training camp, I am confident we can do much better,&rdquo; says Kariuki. &ldquo;Sometimes hard training goes to waste due to a lack of international competitions.&rdquo;
He adds: &ldquo;Many countries of the world see race walking as a second-rate event. It sadly discourages potential walkers from excelling, hence the reason for few race walkers.
&ldquo;But with Kenya&rsquo;s talent and heritage as a great athletics nation, I&rsquo;m sure we can begin to make serious progress at walking. The success for Heristone and Samuel has been a motivating factor to the rest of Kenyan walkers and possibly to others in a country that is so good at running.&rdquo;
Paul Warburton for World Athletics

Kenya is known as a distance running powerhouse. Now that strength in endurance events is filtering through to the world of race walking.

The rise of race walking in Kenya

As an 18-year-old in 2014, US high jumper Rachel McCoy finished fourth at the World U20 Championships in Eugene, only missing a medal on countback. Eight years later, she&rsquo;s targeting a return to Hayward field for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, fuelled by memories of that U20 competition and her journey since.
But her story could have been very different if the former basketball player had acted on her initial reaction to the world record in her eventual sporting specialism.
&ldquo;When I was in high school, I was debating whether to be a basketball player or a high jumper and for some reason my go-to was &lsquo;let me look at the world record for high jump and see how high it is&rsquo;,&rdquo; she explains, with that world record mark standing at 2.09m. &ldquo;So, at that point, I was like: &lsquo;Oh that doesn&rsquo;t seem feasible, I&rsquo;m going to stick to basketball!&rsquo;&rdquo; Luckily for the sport, her path led her back to the high jump.
Growing up in Fontana, California, McCoy first demonstrated her jumping ability by being able to grab the basketball rim in eighth grade, at the age of 13 or 14. She took up the team sport but was introduced to the high jump by one of her fellow basketball players in her freshman year of high school and won her first state title in 2011. She went on to take up a basketball scholarship at Long Island University but high jump would soon take over. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626ff39ad0628dd65adeb897.jpg" alt="Rachel McCoy at the 2014 World U20 Championships" />
Rachel McCoy at the 2014 World U20 Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
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 &ldquo;I gave up that scholarship and made it to junior nationals for the high jump the following year,&rdquo; the 26-year-old explains. &ldquo;Then I made the World U20 Championships and it kind of went off from there. It was certainly not planned!&rdquo;
So much so, that initially the idea of the event took some getting used to.
&ldquo;I could always jump really high and I could dunk, and I was persuaded to go to the track team,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I always thought it was quite weird going over backwards but you know, if you&rsquo;re good at something, then it becomes likeable!&rdquo;
It was the World U20 Championships that really opened McCoy&rsquo;s eyes to what she might be able to achieve in the sport. Improving her PB to 1.88m, she matched the bronze medal-winning height and finished fourth on countback.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what I was doing out there,&rdquo; she smiles. &ldquo;I think I just eyeballed the mark, I didn&rsquo;t even have a real mark (from which to start her approach).
&ldquo;I remember when the bar got to 6ft 2in (1.88m) and I went over to the coach, I had to lean against the rail because I couldn&rsquo;t feel my legs, that&rsquo;s how nervous I was!
&ldquo;Making the team, I just thought you got a t-shirt,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;That influenced me to make the team, but turns out I got a whole uniform!&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626ff2c0d0628dd65adeb88e.jpg" alt="Rachel McCoy in action at the Tokyo Olympics" />
Rachel McCoy in action at the Tokyo Olympics (&copy; Getty Images)
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 More US vests would follow under the guidance of Sue Humphrey, the 2004 US Olympic women&rsquo;s team head coach, with whom McCoy first crossed paths at the US U20 Championships in Eugene and now calls her &ldquo;guardian angel&rdquo;.
&ldquo;She saw me at junior nationals and was like, &lsquo;oh wow, this person has potential, just very raw talent&rsquo;,&rdquo; explains the Texas-based athlete. &ldquo;After the World U20 Championships, where she was a judge and couldn&rsquo;t really speak with me after I exited the competition, she shared with me who she was. I remarkably remembered her name two months later and I Google searched her before reaching out.&rdquo;
McCoy made the final of the US Olympic Trials in 2016 and then spent some time doing other disciplines before a high jump breakthrough in 2021 led her to the Olympic Games. Her improvement to 1.96m to win at the USATF Invitational at Prairie View in May that year was hugely significant as it secured her an Olympic qualifying standard and she was awarded a place on the team after her fourth-place finish at her second US Olympic Trials.
With two global championships to aim for in 2022, McCoy was determined to carry that momentum into the new year and her next international vest came at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. After a 12th-place finish in the Serbian capital, she described having &ldquo;conflicting feelings&rdquo; but an appreciation for the experience of again taking on the best in the world. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626ff2d9d0628dd65adeb891.jpg" alt="US high jumper Rachel McCoy" />
US high jumper Rachel McCoy (&copy; Getty Images)
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 That&rsquo;s exactly what she hopes to do again in July, when global track and field action returns to Oregon. Joint second on the US top list behind 2016 world indoor champion Vashti Cunningham last year, McCoy also relishes the domestic competition.
&ldquo;As far as the nation goes, there&rsquo;s always Vashti, now there&rsquo;s Jelena (Rowe) and me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;So it&rsquo;s typically going to be us three in the mix. I have always had a bullseye on Vashti but competing internationally broadened my realm of competition. You see Vashti as the best in the nation but there&rsquo;s several more as far as the best in the world. I have my domestic bullseye and I then have my international goals as well.
&ldquo;My aim this season is to really get to Europe and go compete,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;I do feel like the best in the world in my event is in Europe, so the more I see and compete against them, the more used to it I will get.&rdquo;
McCoy started her outdoor season on a winning note, clearing 1.84m to triumph at a blustery USATF Bermuda Games, the first World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting of 2022, and followed that with runner-up finishes at the USATF Golden Games in California and the Drake Relays.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very exciting,&rdquo; she says, on the prospect of competing again on home soil at the World Athletics Championships. &ldquo;Hayward Field is so beautiful, especially since they have reconstructed it. It&rsquo;s one of the only &lsquo;track and field&rsquo; stadiums I&rsquo;ve been in, so that&rsquo;s really cool. It&rsquo;s kind of like returning to home and then, of course, the atmosphere &ndash; Oregon loves track, so we love Oregon!&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626ff3b5d0628dd65adeb89a.jpg" alt="Rachel McCoy at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22" />
Rachel McCoy at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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 But while her focus might be on the World Championships this year, she won&rsquo;t allow the sport to become all-consuming.
&ldquo;I love to draw,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know where it&rsquo;s going to take me, but I recently got into watercolour, so I really enjoy that, as well as fashion and design.
&ldquo;I also recently got into neuroplasticity, so I would like to go back to school and study neuroscience and eventually get my PhD in neuropsychology.
&ldquo;One of my good friends is Gabby Thomas,&rdquo; she adds, referencing her US teammate, the Olympic 200m bronze medallist and Harvard-educated neurobiologist. &ldquo;I was having dinner with her, and we were discussing track and having other things to do. I was taking three classes at a community college but due to schedule conflicts I had to drop a few. I wanted to make sure that I kept one so that all of my focus wasn&rsquo;t on track.
&ldquo;You need to have something to decompress with. Gabby adamantly agreed, so that made me feel like I was at least doing something right, when an Olympic medallist agrees with me!&rdquo;
Although she strives to compete in a US vest, it&rsquo;s not only her nation McCoy is passionate about representing, and she has a tattoo to prove it. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626ff348d0628dd65adeb894.jpg" alt="US high jumper Rachel McCoy" />
US high jumper Rachel McCoy (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
 &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough where I&rsquo;m from, the Inland Empire, and it&rsquo;s easy to feel overlooked, so I just want to make sure that everybody back home knows that it&rsquo;s possible,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I stumbled upon the Olympics, so anybody can do it.
&ldquo;I would just like to thank everybody that has stuck by my side. It&rsquo;s been a really long journey and it&rsquo;s really easy to get down on yourself in an individual sport. I really appreciate the support that I continue to get.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

She dropped basketball for the high jump. Now the US Olympian is targeting another national vest.

After narrow miss in 2014, McCoy targets a return to Hayward Field in 2022

While the Kip Keino Classic was created to help showcase Kenya&rsquo;s best athletes to an international audience, the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nairobi has become much more than just that.
It has helped develop and build human capacities in all the fields associated with a high-level athletics event in the country; from event organisers to event technicians, to journalists, to stadium announcers, to commentators, and the camera crew, among others.
The event is named after two-time Olympic champion Kipchoge Keino, one of the country&rsquo;s pioneering athletes throughout the 1960s and 1970s, and the legendary runner&rsquo;s son will be working at the event.
Martin Keino &ndash; together with 2008 Olympic 800m champion Wilfred Bungei, as was the case last year &ndash; will be commentating at the meeting. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626bd042d25fe62b895b098b.jpg" alt="Martin Keino and Wilfred Bungei commentating in Nairobi" />
Martin Keino and Wilfred Bungei commentating in Nairobi
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 &ldquo;The experience for me last year was amazing,&rdquo; said Keino, who himself was an international middle-distance runner. &ldquo;I got to commentate when the event happened at the end of the 2021 season when the world&rsquo;s top athletes were coming back from the Olympic Games and after ending their Diamond League season, so the interaction and discussion with the runners after having had a fabulous year &ndash; like with Soufiane El Bakkali, having beaten the Kenyans at the Olympics &ndash; was wonderful.
&ldquo;I saw Ferdinand Omanyala open doors to the local sprint talents in the country after his record-breaking 100m run. I sat down with other world&rsquo;s best sprinters like Trayvon Bromell and they said that Nairobi is the destination to run fast times.
&ldquo;Next month, I am looking forward to commentating again on Omanyala and on other distance events,&rdquo; added Keino, looking ahead to the third edition of the meeting, due to take place on 7 May. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m eager to see how the athletes will be approaching the beginning of the season with high hopes and other great ambitions ahead of the year. The interest among Kenyan fans also seems to be bigger this year. I am getting a lot of phone calls with people expressing interest to be at the event.&rdquo;
As an athlete, Keino was a regular on the international circuit throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, recording PBs of 3:33.00 for 1500m, 3:52.33 for the mile, 4:53.84 for 2000m and 7:35.97 for 3000m &ndash; all faster than his father&rsquo;s bests. His career as a commentator began at the 2007 World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, just a year or so after he retired from competitive running. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626bcfe2d25fe62b895b0985.jpg" alt="Kenyan middle-distance runner Martin Keino" />
Kenyan middle-distance runner Martin Keino (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
 &ldquo;The BBC had asked me to help with their commentary, so my journey in commentating started then, almost by accident,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The interest has grown over time as I have been helping with some post-event analysis for different media houses.
&ldquo;Coming from an athletics background, I&rsquo;ve always been interested in researching other athletes. I enjoy being a commentator and I look up to people like Paul Walker and Steve Cram.&rdquo;
Keino is so excited about the upcoming event which he terms the best athletics event in Africa, &ldquo;perhaps even bigger than some of the diamond league events elsewhere.&rdquo;
The high probability of running fast times in the altitude of Nairobi at the city&rsquo;s Kasarani Stadium continues to attract some of the world&rsquo;s best sprinters to the only World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Africa. World 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek are among the leading sprinters that have already been announced by the meeting organiser, Barnaba Korir.
And while altitude isn&rsquo;t necessarily conducive to fast times in distance events, Nairobi&rsquo;s location &ndash; close to most of the distance training camps in east Africa &ndash; makes it an attractive prospect to the world&rsquo;s leading endurance athletes. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626bd023d25fe62b895b0988.jpg" alt="A fan in the stands at Kasarani Stadium" />
A fan in the stands at Kasarani Stadium (&copy; Organisers)
</div>
 Unlike the last edition when spectators were unable to attend due to Covid restrictions, this year&rsquo;s meeting is expected to spark an electric atmosphere on 7 May. It also means that there will be some extra work for the organisers to manage the large crowds that are anticipated.
&ldquo;A full stadium will be a bigger challenge for the media this year,&rdquo; said Elias Makori, who is in charge of the media for the event. &ldquo;We need to get the media tribune right, the accreditation, the manning of the mixed zone, and the flow of the interviews.
Makori believes that the more high-profile athletics events happen in the country, the more production teams, the cameramen, and the journalists improve on their skills.
&ldquo;The Kip Keino Classic brings the world&rsquo;s best runners to our local media, which is great exposure for them to improve on their expertise since most of them don&rsquo;t usually travel to meet them in other high-level events out of the country,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;As part of the legacy of the event and for an even better event this year, we need to develop commentators and stadium announcers in Kenya, so we&rsquo;ll be having a workshop to train some selected commentators and stadium announcers a few days to the Kip Keino Classic to make sure that it will be a great event,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;This should equip the commentators and the stadium announcers on getting vital skills to make their work even better. We are hoping to recruit some female commentators as well.&rdquo;
Like many of the fans who&rsquo;ll be heading to the Kasarini Stadium on 7 May, Makori is expecting bigger and better things from this year&rsquo;s meeting.
&ldquo;This year, I am looking forward to some even better performances,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Omanyala will now be under pressure given that he is now more known. And being a championship year, I think the stakes are higher for the runners given that some will be chasing the qualification times.&rdquo;
Justin Lagat for World Athletics

Martin Keino, son of the legendary Kip Keino, explains why the meeting means so much to Kenya

Kip Keino Classic – more than a celebration of Kenya’s athletics excellence

Fred Kerley is an international man of mystery. He&rsquo;s a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it&rsquo;s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.
&ldquo;Fred is a Swiss Army knife,&rdquo; says US teammate Michael Cherry. &ldquo;He can do a lot of different sprint events.&rdquo;
Naturally, inquisitive minds want to know: What will Kerley run in June at the US Championships, where the team will be selected for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22?
&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to wait and see,&rdquo; he says.
The meeting is only four days, with three rounds in each of Kerley&rsquo;s events. He quickly puts to rest any notion he&rsquo;d attempt the triple: &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s a lot on the body.&rdquo;
And so the guessing game begins. Kerley is the only man in history who has won Wanda Diamond League races in the 100m, 200m and 400m.
In 2019, he contested only 400m races, culminating in the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.
Then Kerley stunned the athletics world by skipping the 400m at the US Olympic Trials and placing third in the 100m and fourth in the 200m. He became the surprise silver medallist in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics with a PB of 9.84. Switching back and forth between the two events, he finished his season with a spectacular 19.76 in the 200m at altitude in Nairobi. 
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6268010b2b23f0f3232fb15d.jpg" alt="USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
On 16 April, the 26-year-old ran a sizzling 19.80 in the 200m at the USATF Golden Games in Walnut, California, bettering his own world-leading time of 20.04. Kerley chased down Michael Norman in the last 50 metres, his final burst taking him across the line at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event.
As Kerley&rsquo;s momentum carried him around the curve, he held his arms out wide as if to say, &ldquo;How do you like that?&rdquo;
&ldquo;Boy, is he a gamer,&rdquo; said Sanya Richards-Ross, the Olympic gold medallist and television commentator. &ldquo;He shows up in finals every single time. This young man always kind of has this chip on his shoulder. He keeps wanting to prove to us&hellip; &lsquo;Fred, we see you. You&rsquo;re a champion.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Norman could feel him. Kerley was on his right, methodically gaining down the stretch. &ldquo;You just kind of get a sense of presence,&rdquo; the 24-year-old says, &ldquo;you know what I mean?&rdquo;
Norman ran 19.83 in his season opener and tweeted after the race that he &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be too mad&rdquo; because of his fast time. He added: &ldquo;Much respect for @fkerley99 but I&rsquo;m going to need that rematch sometime this year,&rdquo; to which Kerley replied: &ldquo;Respect.&rdquo; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Respect <a href="https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH">https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH</a>
&mdash; Fred Kerley (@fkerley99) <a href="https://twitter.com/fkerley99/status/1515510175066517512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
 While Kerley is a prolific tweeter, favouring the hashtag #IAMHISTORY, he is a man of few words.
His thoughts on reeling in Norman? &ldquo;I got the W.&rdquo;
His goals for the rest of the season? &ldquo;Win.&rdquo;
What about time-wise? &ldquo;Win,&rdquo; Kerley repeats. &ldquo;Time is not my concern, it&rsquo;s all about the Ws that come.&rdquo;
The 6-foot-3 Kerley is undefeated so far this season across all three distances. In early March, he clocked 44.47 in the 400m in a meeting in Grenada, a time that was No.1 until Cherry went 44.28 at the Golden Games, while Olympic champion Steven Gardiner has since improved the world lead to 44.22. Kerley posted a time of 9.99 in the 100m, which ranks fifth on the world list, in a meet in Florida in late March.
His next race will be a 100m on 7 May at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, this season&rsquo;s next World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.
<h2>Renewed rivalries</h2>
Kerley says he decides which distance to run based on where his training is taking him. Of course, the 100m and the 400m place different demands on his body. One requires explosiveness, the other a tolerance to pain.
&ldquo;Both of them got to give and take,&rdquo; Kerley adds. &ldquo;One got your head spinning and one got your legs spinning, too.&rdquo;
Kerley believes his versatility can help promote his sport. He has rivals at every distance, from Norman, Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman in the US to Kirani James, Marcell Jacobs and Andre De Grasse from the international ranks.
&ldquo;Hey, I like to compete, so rivalry&rsquo;s rivalry,&rdquo; Kerley says. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s very important to have a rivalry in the sport because that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s going to get more attention to track and field&mdash; like football and basketball. They&rsquo;ve got rivalries. But if we have rivalries between us, we&rsquo;re going to be big.&rdquo; 
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626801f365219027c99d31f3.jpg" alt="Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games" />
Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Kerley and Norman are two of the three members of the exclusive, sub-10, sub-20, sub-44 second club. The other is Wayde van Niekerk, the 29-year-old 2016 Olympic champion from South Africa.
Head-to-head, Kerley has the faster time in the 100m &mdash; 9.84 to 9.86 &mdash; while Norman is quicker at the 200m &mdash; 19.70 to 19.76. Norman also has the better 400m time of 43.45 to 43.64. Van Niekerk&rsquo;s times, meanwhile, are 9.94, 19.84 and the world record of 43.03.
While Kerley and Norman are cordial, they are both also supremely competitive. &ldquo;He does the same events as me &mdash; everybody is my enemy once you touch the track,&rdquo; Kerley says.
Norman has a similar mindset. &ldquo;Nobody wants to lose to anybody,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So every time we race each other, it&rsquo;s like who&rsquo;s going to get the best of who that race.&rdquo;
He adds of Kerley: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s cool. All respect to Fred, no beef or animosity, or nothing like that. He&rsquo;s a great competitor, he&rsquo;s a good guy.&rdquo;
Norman says their rivalry keeps the sport &ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo;.
&ldquo;When it comes having somebody who does an extremely similar thing as you,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;it just brings out the best in both of us and it elevates each other, so there&rsquo;ll be plenty more races down the road.&rdquo;
Kerley adds that marketability and popularity &mdash; the 100m is the more glamorous event in the public eye &mdash; will have no bearing on which events he will choose for the World Championships.
However, he did acknowledge last year that he does have a long-term goal.
&ldquo;I want to be a legend, like Usain Bolt,&rdquo; Kerley said.
<h2>No secret to success</h2>
Originally a 200m runner coming out of high school, Kerley moved up to the full lap in college. At Texas A&amp;M, he won two NCAA titles. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626803120805e5d0c23187f2.jpg" alt="US sprinter Fred Kerley" />
US sprinter Fred Kerley (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
He says there&rsquo;s no secret to how he is able to compete in three distances now. &ldquo;Training,&rdquo; Kerley explains. &ldquo;Training. And training.&rdquo;
But there has to be something else.
Michael Johnson was the Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder in both the 200m (19.32) and 400m (43.18), but his best time in the 100m was 10.09.
Usain Bolt holds the world records in the 100m (9.58) and 200m (19.19), but went no faster than 45.28 in the 400m. Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens were triple threats combined with the long jump, not the quarter-mile.
Kenny Bednarek, the Olympic silver medallist in the 200m, is a member of the sub-10, sub-20 and sub-45 club.
&ldquo;What Fred&rsquo;s been doing is pretty incredible,&rdquo; Bednarek says.
He adds that the transition between events requires a lot of adjustments. &ldquo;In the 400,&rdquo; Bednarek says, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re never really explosive. It&rsquo;s more maintaining your rhythm and the lactate and see who has the most guts to finish that last 150 stretch. In the 400, you can make a mistake, but you can correct it. In the 200 and the 100, you don&rsquo;t really have time.&rdquo;
After Kerley completed his Diamond League triple last year by winning the 100m at the Brussels meeting, a certain Twitter account posed a question.
&ldquo;So&hellip; which event will @fkerley99 focus on next year? Asking for a friend,&rdquo; wrote the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
&ldquo;800,&rdquo; Kerley replied, followed by three laughing emojis. &ldquo;Naw I just playing.&rdquo;
Karen Rosen for World Athletics

Fred Kerley is a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it’s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.

Versatile sprint force Kerley keeps Oregon options open

Jamaica&rsquo;s Jaydon Hibbert has been extremely successful in a relatively short period.&nbsp;In the space of two years, the young triple jumper has earned a world U20 silver medal to go with his North American, Central American and Caribbean Association (NACAC) U18 and CARIFTA U20 titles.
In Colombia, less than a year after his second place finish at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi, he will have the opportunity to target another global podium place at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22, being held at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium in Colombia from 1-6 August.
And the 17-year-old will do so off the back of some highly promising results.
His winning effort of 16.66m at the recent ISSA/Grace Kennedy Boys&rsquo; and Girls&rsquo; Athletics Championships &ndash; known as 'Champs' &ndash; was not only a championship record but also a Jamaican U18 best that moved him to fifth on the world U18 all-time list.
In his formative years, Hibbert progressed from being an unpredictable talent, having tried several disciplines while at RJR Basic School and Vaz Preparatory School in Kingston, before finally finding his niche years later at Kingston College.
&ldquo;I participated in the 100m, 200m, 400m, long jump and high jump at prep school,&rdquo; Hibbert explains.
Interestingly, though, Hibbert did not compete for Kingston College, the most successful school in Champs history, until grade 10. According to Hibbert, it was not his fate to compete before the appointed time and he stayed firm for his opportunity to shine.
"It was a long wait and nobody really knew me before," declares the polite and modest Hibbert. "I struggled to identify the event that worked best for me, but I finally discovered that jumps (long and triple) were my calling." 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6263bb81fd4416b481bcc8c0.jpg" alt="Jaydon Hibbert competes at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
Jaydon Hibbert competes at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Dan Vernon)
</div>
Champs, with its prestige and history, undoubtedly represents one of the greatest milestones at which any high school Jamaican athlete can dream of showing their talent. In 2021, his first year at Champs, Hibbert achieved&nbsp;mixed results.
&ldquo;I was predicted to win both events,&rdquo; says Hibbert, who contested the long jump and triple jump. "However, I had muscle contractions all over my body and could not compete effectively.&rdquo;
First, he failed to make it to the long jump final after finishing 11th in the preliminary round, before bouncing back to claim silver in the triple jump.
Hibbert believed his season had ended after Champs until one&nbsp;day his telephone rang. &ldquo;My coach (Jeremy Dellisser) called and asked&nbsp;me to return to&nbsp;training for two upcoming championships in Costa Rica and Kenya,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;So, I trained, but I wasn&rsquo;t optimistic because of my unsatisfactory Champs results. Anyway, I proceeded to win the national U18 trials with a personal best of 15.68m. Afterwards, I sat down&nbsp;and watched the rest of the trials without knowing&nbsp;that I had achieved the world U20 qualifying standard. I was notified five hours later by my coach that I was on the national team."
Although Hibbert was still relatively new to the sport, his unwavering faith in God, self-confidence and powerful school motto &ndash; &lsquo;The brave may fall, but never yield&rsquo; &ndash; gave him the assurance of succeeding at international level in his breakout season.
In August, a very excited Hibbert travelled to Nairobi for the World U20 Championships. To say the trip and the conditions were foreign to him would aptly describe the experience.
"I've never sat in a tight space for 16 hours before," says Hibbert, who is not a fan of long flights.
&ldquo;I had difficulty sleeping when I landed, as my body did not adjust immediately to the eight-hour time zone difference between Kenya and Jamaica. In fact, I had to stay awake and wait until the following night to sleep. I also had to wear jackets throughout the day as it was really cold given the altitude (1795m above sea level).&rdquo;
In the triple jump final, the then 16-year-old Jamaican was the youngest participant of the 11 finalists.&nbsp;Nevertheless, he was undaunted by their seniority, especially knowing he was capable of going beyond 16&nbsp;metres, a feat he had achieved while winning the NACAC U18 title in San Jose, Costa Rica, a month earlier.
On the eve of the global championships, he learned he was second in the rankings. In spite of&nbsp;this revelation, he remained focused, knowing he had a great opportunity to do something special.
&ldquo;My confidence was boosted somewhat after registering a personal best at the national trials and afterwards I kept improving, so I knew everything was coming together,&rdquo; he says.
&ldquo;Despite the weather being what it was, it did not faze me too much, as I knew I had a job to do. I adjusted really well, surprisingly, and then it got warmer on the last two days of the championships, which suited me as the triple jump final was on the last day.&rdquo;&nbsp; &nbsp;
He bounded out to 16.05m in the second round and led the competition until the fourth round, when eventual winner Gabriel Wallmark (16.43m) of Sweden overtook him. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6263bc01fd4416b481bcc8c3.jpg" alt="Bronze medallist Simon Gore, winner Gabriel Wallmark and silver medallist Jaydon Hibbert in Nairobi" />
Bronze medallist Simon Gore, winner Gabriel Wallmark and silver medallist Jaydon Hibbert in Nairobi (&copy; Dan Vernon)
</div>
The silver medal crowned an extraordinary year for Hibbert, who took advantage of the opportunities presented to him. But he almost did not have the chance to build on that, with injuries afflicting him prior to the 2022 season and nearly denying him the chance to compete.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I got injured in November last year. I had two back strains and a hip injury along with some shin splints and knee pains,&rdquo; explains Hibbert, who had to fast track his training schedule due to the amount of time lost.
&ldquo;I prayed and worked tirelessly in the gym as well as visited the physiotherapist regularly to get back into shape to compete and dominate at Champs,&rdquo; he adds.
After his subpar showing in the long jump at Champs in 2021, Hibbert, who takes pride in his results, was determined to redeem himself with a performance that would simply restore the faith placed in him.
&ldquo;This was my second year at Champs and I wanted it to count,&rdquo; says Hibbert, who won titles in both the long jump and triple jump with lifetime best and world-leading efforts in his age group &ndash; 7.87m in the long jump as well as his 16.66m in the triple jump.
Two weeks later, in front of his home crowd, he established a CARIFTA Games triple jump record after bounding out to 16.46m, which came after a wind-assisted 17.05m (+2.8m/s) in the previous round. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/625e77e3860eccdb05cd7142.jpg" alt="Jaydon Hibbert in the triple jump at the 49th edition of the Carifta Games in Kingston" />
Jaydon Hibbert in the triple jump at the 49th edition of the Carifta Games in Kingston (&copy; Athelstan Bellamy)
</div>
The teenager, though technically sound, sets high standards and is constantly in search of knowledge to improve in his discipline.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m good technically,&rdquo; says Hibbert. &ldquo;As far as speed is concerned, I am working on it. Last year, I was really slow and weak. My coach has identified these two areas and this season we have been working on both my speed and strength.&rdquo;&nbsp;
With age on his side, he has time to work on his weaknesses as he looks to follow in the footsteps of athletes such as world and Olympic champions Christian Taylor and Jonathan Edwards, who he watches on YouTube while searching for the perfect technique.
The World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 is next on the horizon and Hibbert is looking forward to peaking at the right time.
&ldquo;I am more confident than I was last year, given that I&rsquo;m jumping really well so early in the season,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;My aspirations are to get a personal best and to make my mom proud.&rdquo;
Noel Francis for World Athletics

Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert has been extremely successful in a relatively short period. 

From Nairobi to Cali for Jamaican triple jump talent Hibbert

There was perhaps no better indication of Marybeth Sant-Price&rsquo;s inexperience on the global stage than when she took to the podium at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
The US sprinter&rsquo;s name was announced, but she hesitated before stepping on to the platform, looking around for some sort of confirmation that that&rsquo;s what she was supposed to do. After a brief nod and smile from her fellow medallists, Sant-Price took her place on the podium and received her bronze medal.
Those hesitant and uncertain few steps on to the podium were somewhat symbolic of the journey she had been on to reach that point. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a51192cf24aa77910d1.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Sant-Price&rsquo;s speed was initially discovered on the soccer pitch when she was 10 years old. Raised in the town of Parker, Colorado, she attended Valor Christian High School where she made a name for herself on the school&rsquo;s athletics team.
Before turning 18, and while in her final year of high school, Sant-Price reached the 60m final at the 2013 senior US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, clocking a PB of 7.36. Outdoors, she went on to clock a 100m PB of 11.25 &ndash; the fastest time in the world by an U20 athlete that year.
She also earned an invitation to compete in the high school girls&rsquo; race at the Diamond League meeting in New York, where she placed second, just 0.03 behind Ky Westbrook, who went on to win the world U18 title that year. In a highly competitive field, Sant-Price beat several athletes who went on to achieve great things in the years that followed, including 2021 Olympic 4x100m silver medallist Javianne Oliver, 2014 world U20 200m champion Kaylin Whitney, 2017 world 4x100m champion Aaliyah Brown, and world indoor 60m silver medallist Mikiah Brisco.
But instead of thriving after that season like her fellow competitors, Sant-Price started to struggle.
She was recruited by the University of Oregon at the end of 2013 and she competed on the collegiate circuit throughout 2014. She became the university&rsquo;s lead leg runner in the 4x100m, teaming up with Phyllis Francis, Jenna Prandini and Jasmine Todd. But towards the end of that season, Sant-Price was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right foot.
The 2015 season played out in similar fashion. Oregon reached the 4x100m final at the NCAA Championships on home soil in Eugene, and Sant-Price ran a strong lead leg for the hosts, but a botched second exchange ended in a disqualification for the team.
Further disappointment came when Sant-Price was diagnosed with another stress fracture, this time in her left shin. A follow-up bone density scan confirmed she had osteopenia (weak bones).
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when the doctor said to me, &lsquo;for your health further down the road, I think you should consider medically retiring&rsquo;,&rdquo; recalls Sant-Price. &ldquo;So I did; I listened, and I took two years off.&rdquo;
She was put on a &lsquo;medical&rsquo; break, which allowed her to retain her scholarship while continuing to receive treatment for her injuries.
During her time away from competition, she called Karim Abdel Wahab, the sprints coach at Colorado State University (CSU), who had shown interest in Sant-Price when she was a high school athlete. Her sisters, Kristen and Emily, had also studied at CSU, so Sant-Price was familiar with the institution. But Brian Bedard, the head coach at CSU, was somewhat reluctant because of Sant-Price&rsquo;s unproven collegiate seasons to date.
Bedard asked Sant-Price to do a time trial in the summer of 2017 and told her that if she broke 12 seconds then she could join the squad. After Sant-Price clocked just 12.4, Wahab asked Bedard to reconsider and Sant-Price was eventually welcomed on to the team. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556abf192cf24aa77910d7.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;My time at Oregon was a really tough period of my life,&rdquo; says Sant-Price. &ldquo;There was definitely a point in time where I thought I&rsquo;d never be where I am now. In about 2016, when I was told to medically retire, I thought that I was done. And once I thought I was done, I thought I was never going to reach my goals and dreams and the things I knew I was capable of.
&ldquo;Once I started at Colorado State University and decided to return to track, I feel like that&rsquo;s where my comeback started.&rdquo;
A bone density scan in late 2017 showed clear progress and Sant-Price was given the all-clear to resume training and competing. Although she didn&rsquo;t set any PBs in 2018, her first full season at CSU, she was simply pleased and relieved to be back competing, doing what she loves most.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say 2019 was the turning point for me and things started moving in a positive direction,&rdquo; says Sant-Price, who is married to Hunter Price, a decathlete with a PB of 8035 and a fourth-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships.
When Wahab got a coaching job at South Carolina and left CSU, Sant-Price started training with Ryan Baily, the combined events coach at CSU (not to be confused with the former international sprinter with a similar name), and they clicked almost immediately.
Sant-Price set 60m PBs in her early season races, reducing her best to 7.31, then 7.26 and 7.18. For the first time in her career, she earned an individual spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where she competed in the 60m.
Her collegiate career concluded at the outdoor NCAA Championships later that year, where she competed in the 4x100m. CSU may not have reached the finals, but their relay team safely got the baton around in their heat, which went some way towards banishing the demons of Sant-Price&rsquo;s NCAAs experience from four years prior. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a95192cf24aa77910d4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
<h2> World stage</h2>
With her collegiate career &ndash; and her injuries &ndash; finally behind her, Sant-Price embarked on a professional career in 2020.
She competed outside the US for the first time, earning top-five finishes at races in Karlsruhe, Paris and Dusseldorf, and then finished sixth at the US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque &ndash; her highest placing at a national championships.
The Covid-19 pandemic effectively put an end to her 2020 competitive campaign, but she re-emerged in 2021, gradually chipping away at her times before clocking a 100m PB of 11.09. It was an ideal launch pad for the 2022 season.
Sant-Price&rsquo;s early season outings were encouraging to say the least. In mid-December last year, she set 60m PBs of 7.15 and 7.12. In January she set world-leading times of 7.11 and 7.08, then went even quicker in Fayetteville in February, running 7.06 and 7.04 to move into the top 30 on the world indoor all-time list.
Because she was still something of an unknown name internationally, she wasn&rsquo;t invited to compete on the international circuit, so all of her races were at collegiate invitational meetings. But Sant-Price was undeterred.
&ldquo;The race in Arkansas really showed me and taught me more about where I&rsquo;m at, the confidence I have in myself, and how fun this whole journey has been,&rdquo; she said at the time. 
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYKd6e_BHrC/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
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<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYKd6e_BHrC/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Marybeth (Sant) Price (@_mbprice)</a>
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 She finished second at the US Indoor Championships in 7.08, earning a spot on the US team for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. And her good form continued in the Serbian capital, winning her heat (7.07), placing second in her semifinal (7.05) and finishing third in a highly competitive and high quality final in an equal PB of 7.04, just behind Mujinga Kambundji and Mikiah Brisco.
In an extremely close finish, four women clocked 7.04 and had to be separated by a photofinish. Sant-Price was two thousandths of a second ahead of pre-event favourite Ewa Swoboda. She also beat the likes of Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson and double world U20 champion Briana Williams.
All the pent-up determination and frustration from her years on the sidelines could well have been what gave Sant-Price the edge over her competitors in that close finish.
&ldquo;It has taken a lot of determination and confidence to mentally and physically get back to the point where I&rsquo;m at now,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really proud of myself and how I went out and competed. It&rsquo;s my first senior team and my first World Championships, so I&rsquo;m happy to be on the podium.
&ldquo;I feel very proud of myself for how I handled the whole situation. We had three rounds and it was a long day, but I came out and competed really well &ndash; even though, physically, my hip didn&rsquo;t feel 100%. I still showed up and performed and that really gave me a lot of confidence.
&ldquo;I feel so vindicated and excited for outdoors and ready for what is next,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;And I know there&rsquo;s more, so that&rsquo;s even more exciting.&rdquo;
<h2>Surprise package</h2>
Usually when Sant-Price tells people she does athletics, they assume she competes in middle or long distances.
Standing at just 1.55m tall (5ft 1in), Sant-Price doesn&rsquo;t look like a typical sprinter. But she enjoys challenging people&rsquo;s perceptions of what a power-based athlete should be. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6255697d192cf24aa77910cb.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t look the part for a sprinter, but that drives me and makes me excited,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I like to go out and prove to people that you don&rsquo;t have to look a certain way; if you have a talent, you have a talent. I&rsquo;m tiny, but I like to go out there and compete and use my talent.&rdquo;
But with a global medal now in her possession, it won&rsquo;t be long before the wider athletics world starts to take note of the deceptively strong and speedy Sant-Price.
The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 is a huge goal for her. Not just because it&rsquo;s a global event on home soil; but because it is also where, back in 2015, her career as a promising collegiate sprinter started to unravel. To say Sant-Price has unfinished business at Hayward Field is an understatement.
&ldquo;Never let anyone define your path,&rdquo; says Sant-Price, who is still unsponsored but currently exploring her options. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m just touching my potential, and I could have been done a long time ago. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a31192cf24aa77910ce.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;The possibilities are endless and I&rsquo;m just going to take it meet by meet. I think my form from the indoor season is going to translate really well. I feel like I&rsquo;m running confidently now, I&rsquo;m running healthy now, and I&rsquo;m really excited to see what I can do outdoors.
&ldquo;I feel vindicated now, but I want to feel vindicated in Oregon this year. I want to go back and be on US soil, especially in Eugene where I originally started, and prove to myself and to everybody else that I belong, I&rsquo;m ready and I&rsquo;m here.&rdquo;
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

With years of injuries now behind her, the US sprinter hopes to keep surprising people

Following global medal in Belgrade, Sant-Price ready to prove she belongs on world stage

On 4 May 1985, Mark Plaatjes ran the fastest marathon of his life: 2:08:58.
At the time, only 11 men in history had been faster at the classic distance. And yet the performance barely registered on the global athletics stage.
Plaatjes raced that day in the dark green vest of his homeland, emblazoned with the springbok national symbol. He broke the South African record wearing a South African singlet in the South African Championship marathon race in Port Elizabeth. Today the donation of that same vest to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) will open the MOWA Track &amp; Field Heritage Exhibition Oregon22 in Portland, Oregon, USA. Plaatjes&rsquo; running top will be on display with the competition artefacts of more than 30 fellow world champions in Pioneer Place shopping mall &ndash; 700 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97204 &ndash; where the MOWA exhibition will be hosted until the end of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on 24 July.
A second MOWA exhibition will open at the EMU building in the University of Oregon in Eugene on 23 June.
<h2>&lsquo;You are as good as anyone&rsquo;</h2>
Back in 1985 &ndash; 37 years ago &ndash; Plaatjes&rsquo; performance was not welcomed in the wider athletics world. South Africa and its athletes were outlawed from competing on the international stage.
For athletes like Plaatjes, it was a dual punishment.
As someone classified as &ldquo;coloured&rdquo; or &ldquo;mixed race&rdquo;, under South Africa&rsquo;s Apartheid system of racial separation, Plaatjes &ndash; from a family of part-Portuguese origin &ndash; had marginally more privileges than black people but did not enjoy the freedoms of white citizens.
After crossing the finish line in Port Elizabeth, even as his country&rsquo;s fastest ever marathon runner, he was barred from making use of the nearby toilet facilities.
That he managed to end up, eight years later, as the internationally-acclaimed marathon champion of the world bore testament to his indomitable spirit &ndash; and to his exceptional talent.
Plaatjes was born in 1961 in the Johannesburg township of Coronationville. He was one of 10 children crowded into three bedrooms with their shoemaker father and seamstress mother. The only heat came from a coal stove.
At the age of three, he went to live with his brother, Ralph, and Ralph&rsquo;s wife, Johanna. They gave him the drive to succeed in life, instilling in him a disdain for second-class citizenship.
&ldquo;You are as good as anyone,&rdquo; they repeatedly told him.
Plaatjes made his debut as a runner in a high school 3000m race on a cinder track in 1978. He won in a pair of Converse high-top basketball shoes. Three months later he became national coloured high school champion.
He was only 17 when he entered his first long distance event: a 31-mile race from Johannesburg to Pretoria. He had never run farther than four miles before.
In preparation, Ralph drove him 18 miles from home and told him to run back. He did so but couldn&rsquo;t walk for two days afterwards. He won the junior section of the race, earning a medal, a tracksuit and a pair of waffle-soled running shoes.
<h2>&lsquo;You look people in the face&rsquo;</h2>
Plaatjes became one of his country&rsquo;s leading distance runners but could not compete outside of his homeland because of the international sporting sanctions imposed on his homeland from 1964 to 1992. He won two South African marathon championships and three national cross-country titles.
Despite death threats from anti-apartheid groups who labelled him &ldquo;a sell-out&rdquo; for competing against white people, he kept running and racing, &ldquo;seeking liberation in his own personal achievement,&rdquo; as the excellent Jere Longman put it in a New York Times Magazine feature. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62503b779243066c04e369ab.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;What better way was there to show the authorities up: to show that you were just as good as anybody,&rdquo; Plaatjes told Longman. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s all racism is: ignorance.
&ldquo;If you show people what they don&rsquo;t know, they will change. I invited white people home, to show that we slept in beds, not on rocks; that we ate the same food they did.
&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t solve conflict by turning the other way. You look people in the face.&rdquo;
<h2>Political asylum</h2>
Nonetheless, with no sign of the apartheid system being lifted, Plaatjes took the decision to move to the United States in 1988. It was the future of his young daughter, Gene, that drove him to leave South Africa, rather than the prospect of one day competing internationally.
&ldquo;How do you explain to a three-year-old that she can&rsquo;t go to an amusement park because of the colour of her skin?&rdquo; he told Longman. &ldquo;Young children are so innocent. Gene would go up to white children, and the parents would reprimand her for talking to them or touching them. I didn&rsquo;t want her to grow up feeling inferior.&rdquo;
Thanks to Glenn Latimer, one of the leading lights of the marathon scene in the United States and beyond, Plaatjes took a job as a physical therapist at a school for the disabled in suburban Chicago. He applied for political asylum, which was quickly granted, but had to wait five years for US citizenship.
He had long moved on to the distance running haven of Boulder, Colorado, with young Gene and his wife, Shirley &ndash; setting up a physical therapy practice there &ndash; by the time he received his citizenship papers.
That was on 24 July 1993. Thanks to his sixth-place finish at that year&rsquo;s Boston Marathon, he had already been provisionally selected for the US team for the World Championships in Stuttgart, which took place just three weeks later.
And so, at the age of 32, Plaatjes finally made his international debut &ndash; not in the Springbok vest of his homeland, which by then had been readmitted to global competition after the fall of apartheid, but in the red-white and blue of the United States.
<h2>&lsquo;Don&rsquo;t let it go! Don&rsquo;t let it go!&rsquo;</h2>
On an oppressively humid day in southern Germany, he bided his time but never lost sight of his goal of a place on the podium.
After 25km of the 42km race, Luckets Swartbooi of Namibia broke clear and Plaatjes found himself in the second chasing pack. At 33km Plaatjes was up into second place but still some 90 seconds back.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d catch Luckets,&rdquo; he told 1976 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist Brendan Foster in an emotional post-race interview with BBC television.
&ldquo;I thought I was running for second. At 38km I was told that Luckets had a 50-second lead. Then I got to 39km and I was told he had a 40-second lead.
&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Yes! Yes!&rsquo; I made up 40 seconds in one kilometre. I&rsquo;m going to catch him.
&ldquo;And then I caught him at 41.5km. I felt sorry doing that because he made the race. He was so gutsy and so brave.
&ldquo;Unfortunately there&rsquo;s only one winner but, hey, I&rsquo;m glad it&rsquo;s me.&rdquo;
Plaatjes crossed the line in the Gottleib-Daimler Stadium in 2:13:57 &ndash; 14 seconds ahead of the spent Swartbooi.
&ldquo;Until this year, I thought I&rsquo;d remain in limbo all my life,&rdquo; Plaatjes told Foster.
&ldquo;Last year I was completely devastated that they decided I couldn&rsquo;t run the Olympics. I was just emotionally drained after 12 years of fighting.
&ldquo;And then, after running in Boston, I had a goal. I had a goal in mind. All of a sudden, I was on the team and I had a focus.
&ldquo;When I was out there today, every time anyone made a move I was like, &lsquo;Work your ass off. You&rsquo;ve waited 12 years for this. Don&rsquo;t let it go! Don&rsquo;t let it go!&rsquo; I just kept hanging on.&rdquo;
Foster asked if a little bit of his victory was for South Africa. &ldquo;Absolutely,&rdquo; Plaatjes replied. &ldquo;This means so much to the US, but in the back of my mind there was a little bit of something that I was doing for South Africa too.&rdquo;
<h2>&lsquo;Running gave me everything I have in life&rsquo;</h2>
The 1993 marathon world champion turned 60 in June last year.
He still lives happily in Boulder with his wife and family. In 2018 he opened Motion Running, a store that offers much more than shoes and kit &ndash; physical therapy, training, inspiration, support &ndash; at the heart of what Plaatjes calls &ldquo;one of the world&rsquo;s most special running communities&rdquo;.
And yet, after 35 years in the United States, he has never forgotten his South African roots.
&ldquo;Running gave me everything I have in life,&rdquo; Plaatjes told Stephen Granger in an interview in The Cape Times on a trip back to his homeland. &ldquo;In the early days in Johannesburg, the money we could earn in road races each week made all the difference.
&ldquo;It paid for the deposit on my house, my education [as a medical student at Witswatersrand University in Johannesburg] and my subsequent opportunities in life.
&ldquo;Running also got me my wife! Shirley had seen me on my training route, running with the dogs, and one day she stopped me to ask where I was running to. We chatted a bit and the rest is history.
&ldquo;Road running in South Africa was on a high in the 1980s &ndash; probably the glory days, in spite of the international isolation. Every week I was racing against the likes of Matthews Temane, Gibeon Moshaba and Ernest Seleke.
&ldquo;We had the extra incentive of showing we were as good as the athletes in the rest of the world. We could not race against them but we could record world-class times and make comparisons.&rdquo;
Like on 4 May1985, when Plaatjes became the first South African marathon man to break 2:09.
It would have put him 12th on the world all-time list &ndash; just 53 seconds behind Steve Jones&rsquo; 2:08:05 that had stood as the world record until Carlos Lopes&rsquo; 2:07:12 run in Rotterdam just the month before.
Even now, 37 years on, Plaaatjes&rsquo; 2:08:58 stands 10th on the South African all-time list. None of his native compatriots have run faster in the past six years.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage

Back in 1985, Plaatjes’ performances were not welcomed in the wider athletics world

Plaatjes – indomitable spirit, exceptional talent

There are just 100 days to go until the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 and the outdoor season starts in earnest this weekend when the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar kicks off in Bermuda.
The World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 closed the curtain on an action-packed indoor season, with some riveting rivalries and record-breaking brilliance setting the scene for all there is still to look forward to as we transition from one season to the next.
So, what have the past few months told us about the World Championships season to come? We take a look at the current state of play.
&nbsp;
<h2>Renewed rivalries</h2>
Mu vs Hodgkinson, Holloway vs Allen, Thompson-Herah vs Thomas, Duplantis vs Nilsen&hellip; need we go on? Recent action has made some of the hottest head-to-heads even more tantalising and the outdoor season offers plenty of opportunity for those rivalries to be renewed.
Last year&rsquo;s top two will be picking up from where they left off during the Olympic season when they clash outdoors over 800m again. USA&rsquo;s Athing Mu is the Olympic 800m champion who chose not to do a full indoor season. Britain&rsquo;s Keely Hodgkinson is the Olympic silver medallist who was among the favourites for the world indoor title until injury forced her to withdraw. So far, the pair have met just twice over two laps &ndash; once in the Olympic final and once at the Prefontaine Classic &ndash; with Mu winning on both occasions.
&ldquo;I am sure in the next couple of years, we are definitely going to push each other,&rdquo; said Mu after her Olympic win. &ldquo;That (world) record is going to go down, just because we are good athletes.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/624caab4441e48155a67d85f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Grant Holloway equalled his own world indoor 60m hurdles record in the semifinals in Belgrade, while such is the US strength in the event, Devon Allen didn&rsquo;t manage to qualify. They led the 110m hurdles world top list 12.81 to 12.99 in 2021. With a World Championships on home soil this season, they will be racing to prove they are the best in their country, as well as the best in the world. Holloway leads their head-to-head, 7-2.
Jamaica&rsquo;s five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah used the indoor season to work on her start, running a 60m season&rsquo;s best of 7.04 in Torun. Gabby Thomas raced just once over the distance on the boards and has already turned her attention to outdoor action, clocking a wind-assisted 21.69 for 200m at the Texas Relays. They topped the 200m season list last year, with Thompson-Herah&rsquo;s 21.53 No.1 ahead of Thomas&rsquo;s 21.61. Thompson-Herah won the Olympic 200m title and Thomas bagged bronze. The Jamaican leads their head-to-head for the distance at 3-0 but with their focus on the World Championships in Oregon, how much will the home advantage count for? 
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes-home" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/624d5e97b957eae6605f5b06.png" alt="" width="100%" /></a>
 Mondo Duplantis is the world pole vault record-holder, the Swedish star who raised his global mark to 6.20m to win the world indoor title in Belgrade. Chris Nilsen is the rising US talent who earlier this year set a North American indoor record of 6.05m, elevating him to fifth on the world indoor all-time list. Duplantis rarely loses, but Nilsen has inflicted two defeats on the Swede in recent years, and earned silver medals behind Duplantis at both the World Indoor Championships and Olympics. It will be intriguing to see what they are both capable of as they continue to push each other to new heights.
Want to learn more about the rivalries involving your favourite athletes? Head to their <a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes-home">World Athletics profile</a> and check out the &lsquo;head-to-head&rsquo; tool.
&nbsp;
<h2>World record-breakers</h2>
Four athletes achieved world records during the indoor season &ndash; Duplantis in the pole vault, Grant Holloway in the 60m hurdles, Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m and Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump. Now the world waits to see what they can do outdoors.
It took Duplantis two years and 54 attempts to raise his own world record to 6.19m in Belgrade. His improvement to 6.20m in the same Serbian city took just two weeks and three attempts. The man with an outdoor best of 6.15m will be looking to maintain that momentum as he works towards a world outdoor title. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62379e01c7114dce1c0608fd.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Mondo Duplantis and Grant Holloway at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (&copy; Getty Images) <img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6236f968391aba627ef3f0c9.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Holloway is consistent. Consistently great. In 2021 he broke Colin Jackson&rsquo;s world indoor 60m hurdles record with 7.29 in Madrid. A year later he equalled it en route to winning the world indoor title. How will that translate to the 110m hurdles? In 2021 he improved to 12.81 &ndash; the fastest time in the world that year and a mark just 0.01 off Aries Merritt&rsquo;s world record set in 2012.
Running 3:30.60 in Lievin on 17 February, Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen took almost half a second off the previous world indoor 1500m record set by Samuel Tefera in 2019. &ldquo;This is my first world record,&rdquo; he said at the time. &ldquo;Hopefully, more will come.&rdquo; His outdoor best is the 3:28.32 European record he ran to get his Olympic gold, a mark that puts him eighth on a world all-time list topped by Hicham El Guerrouj&rsquo;s 3:26.00 from 1998. 
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 First she jumped 15.43m to break the world indoor record in Madrid, then she leapt 15.67m outdoors to win the Olympic title. Then, 13 months after her magnificent Madrid mark, she did it again, soaring 15.74m for an outright world record at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. Rojas is the undisputed triple jump queen and 16 metres is in her sights. 
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&nbsp;
<h2>Unfinished business</h2>
The indoor season didn&rsquo;t go to plan for everyone. Shot put star Ryan Crouser had gone to Belgrade on the hunt for his first world indoor medal but despite his dominance, records and Olympic titles, he had to settle for a second world silver, finishing runner-up to Brazil&rsquo;s Darlan Romani.
How will he respond? Getting gold on home soil in Oregon would go some way towards redemption.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m from the US so obviously, the outdoor championships is something I am coming for,&rdquo; he said in Belgrade. &ldquo;This is something that gives me an extra motivation and I hope I stay injury free and will get ready for the next major championships on home soil."
Like Crouser, Britain&rsquo;s Keely Hodgkinson had been a big Belgrade favourite in her event, the 800m. She had improved to 1:57.20 in Birmingham the month prior, breaking the British indoor record and moving to sixth on the world indoor all-time list, and was ready to go for her first global gold. At least, most of her was. The recurrence of a quad injury put paid to those plans and she withdrew as a precaution, in view of the busy season ahead. Fully fit and with some top competition to challenge her, Hodgkinson could soon be making even more history.
Having made the decision to compete in Belgrade just five days before the competition, Gianmarco Tamberi couldn&rsquo;t be too disappointed with bronze &ndash; and another shared medal &ndash; in Belgrade, but the charismatic high jumper will be looking to return to the sort of form that saw him claim joint Olympic gold when he returns to global competition in Oregon. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/624caf591252fcf2428cc56c.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 He cleared 2.37m to win his Olympic title alongside Mutaz Barshim and had a best of 2.31m to bag bronze alongside Hamish Kerr in Belgrade.
&ldquo;I saw the results of all the guys who planned to be in Belgrade and thought the level wasn't so high. How wrong I was,&rdquo; he said in Belgrade. &ldquo;At least I fulfilled my goal to take a medal here. It was a great experience and a good kick-off for a very important season.&rdquo;
&nbsp;
<h2>MIA</h2>
Adding another layer of intrigue is that a number of 2021&rsquo;s stars decided not to compete indoors, saving themselves instead for another outdoor season with so much to fight for.
The women&rsquo;s and men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles events were both taken to another level last year and all the leading contenders will have fresh focus as they return to the track in 2022.
USA&rsquo;s Sydney McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad have pushed each other to new limits over the past few years, Muhammad beating McLaughlin to win the 2019 world title in a world record of 52.16 and McLaughlin turning the tables at last year&rsquo;s US Olympic Trials and Tokyo Games, setting respective world records of 51.90 and 51.46 at each. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610a044efa270532d9056ba7.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Both athletes sat out the indoor season, as did last year&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s top two: Norway&rsquo;s Karsten Warholm and USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin. Benjamin replaced Warholm as No.2 on the world all-time list with a 46.83 run at the 2021 US Olympic Trials but Warholm responded with 46.70 to break the world record just five days later. In Tokyo, both athletes improved even further, Warholm winning in 45.94 to Benjamin&rsquo;s 46.17.
Now they all have world titles to race for, on home soil for McLaughlin, Muhammad and Benjamin&hellip;
Another electric head-to-head in 2021 was the clash of Dutch star Sifan Hassan and Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon, who traded victories over 1500m before Kipyegon retained her Olympic title in the event in Tokyo and Hassan claimed bronze to go with her wins in the 5000m and 10,000m. They last met at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, where Kipyegon won the 1500m title ahead of Hassan, and the Diamond League series together with the Continental Tour calendar will give them plenty of high-profile rematch opportunities when they return to competition.
USA&rsquo;s Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu might have restricted her indoor action to a couple of mile races but she&rsquo;s already easing nicely into her outdoor season, where world gold on home soil is the aim. After running 1:24.13 for 600m in Arizona, she went on to clock a 50.26 leg to anchor her team of Shamier Little, Dalilah Muhammad and Raevyn Rogers to a 3:24.60 4x400m win in Texas last month. On the calendar so far for Mu in her specialist event is the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 27-28 May.
&nbsp;
<h2>When and where?</h2>
Mu is just one of the world&rsquo;s best athletes already announced for Diamond League and Continental Tour competitions over the next few months.
The Olympic 800m champion will take on Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson, Olympic bronze medallist Raevyn Rogers, world indoor champion Ajee Wilson, world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Natoya Goule and Kate Grace at the Prefontaine Classic &ndash; the season&rsquo;s third Diamond League meeting &ndash; on 28 May, when the men&rsquo;s pole vault will feature Mondo Duplantis, Chris Nilsen, Thiago Braz, Sam Kendricks, Renaud Lavillenie and KC Lightfoot.
Olympic and world champion Malaika Mihambo faces Ivana Vuleta, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and Lorraine Ugen at the Birmingham Diamond League, while Continental Tour Gold competition so far features eight individual Olympic medallists from the Tokyo Games at the&nbsp;USATF Bermuda Games on Saturday (9). 
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 Check out the calendars below to find out when and where the world&rsquo;s best will be competing. 
Gold level meetings in the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour
9 April &ndash; USATF Bermuda Games, Devonshire (BER) 16 April &ndash; Golden Games, Mt SAC (USA) 7 May &ndash; Kip Keino Classic, Nairobi (KEN) 8 May &ndash; Seiko Golden Grand Prix, Tokyo (JPN) 31 May &ndash; Ostrava Golden Spike, Ostrava (CZE) 3 June &ndash; Irena Szewinska Memorial, Bydgoszcz (POL) 6 June &ndash; FBK Games, Hengelo (NED) 12 June &ndash; New York Grand Prix, New York (USA) 14 June &ndash; Paavo Nurmi Games, Turku (FIN) 8 August &ndash; Gyulai Istvan Memorial, Szekesfehervar (HUN) 4 September &ndash; Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, Silesia (POL) 11 September &ndash; Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica, Zagreb (CRO)
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/calendar-results?competitionSubgroupId=3781">Full 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar</a> 
2022 Wanda Diamond League
13 May &ndash; Doha, QAT 21 May &ndash; Birmingham, GBR 28 May &shy;&ndash; Eugene, USA 5 June &ndash; Rabat, MAR 9 June &ndash; Rome, ITA 16 June &ndash; Oslo, NOR 18 June &ndash; Paris, FRA 30 June &ndash; Stockholm, SWE 30 July &ndash; Shanghai, CHN 6 August &ndash; Shenzhen, CHN 10 August &ndash; Monaco, MON 26 August &ndash; Lausanne, SUI 2 September &ndash; Brussels, BEL 7-8 September &ndash; Zurich, SUI&nbsp; 
World Athletics Championships Oregon22
15-24 July &ndash; Hayward Field, Oregon, USA

The outdoor season starts in earnest this weekend when the 2022 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold calendar kicks off in Bermuda. 

The state of play with 100 days to go to Oregon

Donning a novelty Swedish Viking hat in the final few hundred metres of a race has become something of a trademark for Swedish race walker Perseus Karlstrom.