Budapest WACs 2023 Day 2: No repeat champion in the men’s 100

BUDAPEST – Fred Kerley will not be defending his world title in the men’s 100 meters. The 28-year-old American was many people’s favorite to win gold in the event, leaving few doubts that he would repeat atop the podium.

Kerley looked strong in his qualifying heat, gliding into the semifinal round in 9.99 seconds. However, the defending world champ fell short in the final heat of the semis, finishing in 9th place with a time of 10.02 seconds. The eighth-place finisher overall, Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, earned a little q to move onto the final with a time just 0.01 seconds ahead of Kerley.

“On to the next one, I’m healthy, and that’s all that matters,” Kerley said. “I think everything was good. I’m healthy, and they got better. I should’ve been there.”

Kerley was edged out of his heat’s top two spots (automatic qualifiers) by 22-year-old Jamaican Oblique Seville and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. He was 0.12 seconds behind Seville, the heat winner.

Team USA members Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman were able to qualify for the final event, earning the top two times of the heats and both running season bests. Lyles crossed in 9.87 seconds to win the first heat, and Coleman won heat two in 9.88 seconds.

“If Noah runs 9.65, I’m running faster,” Kerley had said ahead of the Budapest world champs. “I’m Fred Kerley, and this is my title.”

Now, it is up to Lyles and Coleman to prove they can live up to the hype they have created around themselves in the final just two and a half hours after the semi-final heats concluded.

Joining Lyles, Coleman, Seville, Tebogo, and Omanyala in the final event will be Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, Jamaica’s Ryiem Forde, and Japan’s Abdul Hakim Sani Brown. It will certainly be interesting to see who the new world title holder will be at the end of the day.

The other finals on day two of the Budapest World Athletics Championships are the men’s 10,000 meters, men’s hammer throw, women’s long jump, and women’s heptathlon. The women’s 20km race walk final occurred at the start of day two, with Spain’s Maria Perez taking home gold for her country.

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