The locomotive of world athletics, the United States will host the world championships from tomorrow Friday for the first time since the creation of the event nearly 40 years ago, in the delightful setting of Hayward Field in Eugene ( Oregon State). A great competition in a country of athletics and in front of an audience of connoisseurs. What should be the norm comes as a relief after the dreary and sweltering Worlds in Doha in the fall of 2019, and the Tokyo Olympics played in an empty stadium last summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Oregon, a coastal state in the northwest of the United States with endless forests, thus offers international athletics a breath of fresh air in the town of Eugene (about 176,000 inhabitants), the historic beating heart of athletics. American and nicknamed “Track Town”. The pandemic, which helped push the event back from 2021 to 2022, remains strong, a negative test is required for each participant, but it should not prevent the celebration of Olympic sport n ° 1 in the setting of Hayward Field .
The magnificent stadium, built in 1919 and renovated in 2020, usually hosts in its green and yellow ornament the University of Oregon Ducks, the local pride, whose track and field team is one of the most prestigious on the circuit. university. Hayward Field also regularly hosts the American stage of the Diamond League and the terrible American selections, the last of which in June in front of many empty seats, rekindling the controversy that Eugene is too small, too far and too expensive for a mass event.
Prefontaine et Bowerman
The usual “Go Ducks” will therefore give way to “Go USA” to encourage the collective programmed to crush the competition once again. In 2019 in Qatar, the United States had picked up 14 titles out of a possible 49. They have won a total of 381 of the 2,347 medals (or 16%) distributed since the first Worlds in Helsinki in 1983, without ever having played at home.
In Eugene, they will be able to draw inspiration from the legends that permeate the place. Hayward Field vibrated to the rhythm of the exploits of Steve Prefontaine, legendary 1970s runner at breakneck speed who died in May 1975 at the age of 24 in a car accident. His coach, Bill Bowerman, pioneered modern middle-distance training methods, designed today’s track surfaces and helped kickstart the great wave of popular running 50 years ago. The two characters are intimately linked to the first steps of the equipment manufacturer Nike, a small local company that has become an international juggernaut in sportswear. In his stadium and in his city, the comma mark is printed everywhere: on the jerseys of several countries, but especially on the feet of the athletes. In six years, the firm has revolutionized shoes for road running, middle distance and now sprinting and jumping, being at the initiative of a battle of innovations and a general boom in performance.
The region has also hosted the dark side of the brand and athletics across the Atlantic with former star coach Alberto Salazar. At the head of the Nike Oregon Project between 2001 and 2019, funded by Nike, Salazar was guilty of anti-doping rule violations, psychological abuse and sexual assault which now earned him a life ban.
Felix’s farewell
For the podiums, several stars of the last Olympics have an uncertain form, such as Marcell Jacobs in the 100m – who will be well at the start of the series on Friday evening, the Italian Federation confirmed yesterday – or Karsten Warholm in the 400m hurdles. And the list of packages grows every day, between Steven Gardiner (400m), Sam Kendricks (pole) or Anita Wlodarczyk (hammer). Also absent, the Russian Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene (height) has been banned from the main international competitions like all her compatriots since the invasion of Ukraine by her country in February, while World Athletics (the International Federation) has still not not solved the vast Russian doping scandal since 2015.
Another star (for the moment) uncertain, the Kenyan sprinter Ferdinand Omanyala, holder of the African record in the 100m, announced yesterday Wednesday that he was still waiting for his visa for the United States. “We look forward to the US Embassy issuing visas to a number of athletes, including Omanyala. I hope they can fly today (yesterday),” said Barnabas Korir, member of the executive committee of the Kenyan Athletics Federation. The exact number of members of the Kenyan delegation who did not obtain visas was not available. Part of the team flew to the United States on Tuesday. Omanyala signed in May the third best world performance of the year (9 sec 85) over 100m, eight months after setting a new African record (9 sec 77).
The stars – in the eyes and on the track – also have an appointment for the last strides of star Allyson Felix, scheduled for the curtain raiser tomorrow Friday in the mixed 4 x 400 m. At 36, the world medal record holder (18 in seven editions) will heat up the crowd before the expected exploits of her compatriot Sydney McLaughlin in the 400m hurdles, the most American of Swedes, Armand Duplantis, in the pole vault or the Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas.
Source: AFP
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The locomotive of world athletics, the United States will host the world championships from tomorrow Friday for the first time since the creation of the event nearly 40 years ago, in the delightful setting of Hayward Field in Eugene ( Oregon State). A great competition in a country of athletics and in front of an audience of connoisseurs. What should be the…
