Women sprinters, discus throwers to highlight second day
DOHA, Qatar — Shelly-ann Fraser-pryce will be hunting an unprecedented fourth 100m title, while Elaine Thompson will be searching for her first, and Fedrick Dacres starts his quest for a first discus medal as the World Athletics Championships continue today.
A mixed 4x400m relay team to be selected from Javon Francis, Terry Thomas, Devaughn Baker, Jeneve Russell and Tiffany James will also be making their competition debut.
But all eyes will be on the women’s 100m at 8:30 am (Jamaica time), a race in which Jamaica has the two fastest runners this season — Thompson and Fraser-pryce — and both with awesome 10.73-second clockings.
The 32-year-old Fraser-pryce, who gave birth to son Zion in 2018 and has now earned the moniker “Mommy Rocket”, will be hard to beat as she brings an unparalleled level of experience following victories in 2009, 2013 and 2015.
The Olympic champion Thompson, who defeated Fraser-pryce at the Jamaican Championships, will start favourite for gold and will run from lane six in heat three alongside Asha Phillips of Great Britain, American Morolake Akinosun, and Kelly-ann Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago.
Jamaica’s third runner in the 100m will be Jonelle Smith, who replaced Briana Williams, and she will start in a tough heat four alongside Dina Asher Smith of Great Britain who is highly fancied to upset the Jamaicans and strike gold. American English Gardner will be in lane seven. Defending champion Torie Bowie of the US will be in heat five, with Dutch Dafne Schippers in heat six.
Meanwhile, Sportsman of the Year Dacres will be aiming to stop the Swedish juggernaut Daniel Stahl, who has been in immaculate form all season and is a heavy favourite for gold.
Dacres has been drawn in Group A with compatriot Chad Wright, Belgium’s Phillip Milanov, and Mason Finley of the US. Jamaica’s third entrant, Travis Smikle, is in Group B along with Stahl.
The qualifying mark to the final is 65.50m or at least the 12 best performers.
The heats of the newly implemented mixed relay promise to be quite interesting, as it will be the first time this race involving two males and two females — running in whichever order over 1600m — will be contested at the World Championships.
Introduced at the 2017 World Relays, it is a format that has already created a good deal of excitement and uncertainty. Jamaica were third behind The Bahamas and the US. Poland and Brazil are also expected be right there at the death.
Today’s schedule
8:15 am — men’s discus throw (qualification Group A)
8:30 am — women’s 100m (heats)
9:15 am — men’s 800m (heats)
9:30 am — men’s pole vault (qualification) 9:45 am — men’s discus throw (qualification Group B)
10:05 am — men’s 400m hurdles (semi-finals)
10:45 am — men’s 100m (semi-finals) 11:15 am — women’s 800m (semi-finals) 11:25 am — women’s hammer throw (final)
12:00 pm — mixed 4x400m relay (heats) 12:40 pm — men’s long jump (final) 1:10 pm — women’s 10,000m (final) 2:15 pm — men’s 100m (final)
3:30 pm — men’s 50km race walk (final) 3:30 pm — women’s 50km race walk (final)