Oregon22 - 100m Hurdles Preview

Women's 100m hurdles

Timetable | world rankings | 2022 world list | world all-time list | how it works

Irish Athlete: Sarah Lavin (Day 9: 7.20pm Irish time)

Ireland's Sarah Lavin comes into the week in flying form having set a 12.84PB at last week's Cork City Sports Meet. The performance follows on from her 7th national outdoor title which she secured last month. Lavin has already had a season to remember, finishing 7th in the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships back in March. Her SB of 12.84 (+1.3) ranks 41st in the World, but Lavin is another who thrives on championship racing.

Full Preview:

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn owns the Olympic gold medal. Kendra Harrison holds the world record. What neither has is a world outdoor title.

That could easily change at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 when both chase victory in the 100m hurdles, an event that is loaded with top performers and contenders and shapes up as one of the meet’s must-see competitions.

Camacho-Quinn has been in top form all season after capturing the Olympic title in Tokyo last year in dominant fashion, clocking an Olympic record 12.26 in the semifinals (fourth on the all-time list) and then running 12.37 in the final to become the first athlete from Puerto Rico to win an Olympic track and field gold. Harrison took the silver in Tokyo in 12.52.

This will be the first World Championships for Camacho-Quinn, a three-time NCAA champion who was born and raised in South Carolina. The 25-year-old competes for Puerto Rico, her mother’s native home.

Camacho-Quinn has won eight of the nine hurdles races she has finished this year, including a season’s best 12.37 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on 9 June. She also won at the Prefontaine Classic in May at Eugene’s Hayward Field – the World Championships venue – in 12.45.
 

But Camacho-Quinn will face a daunting quartet of US challengers for the world title. The Olympic champion’s 12.37 stood as the world-leading time this year until Harrison and Alaysha Johnson both went faster in finishing 1-2 in the final of the US Championships on 25 June. Harrison out-leaned Johnson to win in 12.34, with Johnson clocking 12.35 to move into a tie for fifth place on the all-time US performer list. NCAA champion Alia Armstrong took third in a personal best 12.47.

Reigning world champion Nia Ali won her semifinal in 12.49 and skipped the final as she had a bye into the World Championships as the winner in Doha three years ago. The 33-year-old Ali has struggled to find her best form this year, winning only one of her 10 races, but will be determined to defend her title.

Oregon could mark a defining moment on home soil for Harrison, who is looking for that elusive gold at the age of 29. She set the world record of 12.20 in 2016, just weeks after the disappointment of failing to make the US team for the Rio Olympic Games.

Harrison has silver medals from Tokyo and the 2019 World Championships in Doha. She is also a five-time national champion and won the world indoor 60m hurdles title in 2018. A world outdoor title would be a crowning achievement on an already stellar career. 

The deep field also includes Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, the 2018 Commonwealth Games champion and 2021 Diamond Trophy winner. She finished fourth at the Tokyo Games and Doha World Championships, but should challenge for a podium place in Eugene.

The 25-year-old Amusan has been in superb form, winning a Diamond League race in Paris on 18 June in 12.41, the fourth-fastest time of the year. She finished a close second to Camacho-Quinn in Stockholm on 20 June, with the Puerto Rican winning in 12.46 to her 12.50.

The field also includes Jamaica’s new national champion, Britany Anderson, who has a season’s best of 12.45.

Overall, at least half a dozen athletes have a realistic shot at winning the star-studded event. The preliminary rounds take place on 23 July, with the semifinals and final contested on the final day of the championships.

Preview via https://worldathletics.org