Fred Kerley runs 9.79 in World Championships opening round
Fred Kerley narrowly missed being the fastest man in the world in 2021, but he's right in the thick of the competition for that title in 2022.
The former South Plains College sprinter, second in the 100 meters last year at the Tokyo Olympics, opened his campaign in the World Championships with another eye-opening performance Friday night in first-round heats in Eugene, Oregon.
The 27-year-old from the Austin-area town of Taylor finished his race in 9.79 seconds — a blazing-fast time for a preliminary round that was only 0.03 off his season high and was 0.01 faster than Italian Marcel Jacobs' victory last year in Tokyo. Kerley is an older brother of Texas Tech sprinter-jumper Virginia Kerley.
Friday was day one of the 10-day meet at Hayward Field.
Another former South Plains standout medaled on opening night with Vernon Norwood getting a bronze with the U.S. mixed 1,600-meter relay team, the last major race for 36-year-old Allyson Felix, a face of track and field over the past two decades. She passed the baton to Norwood.
Norwood recaptured the lead on the third leg, but the Dominican Republic's Fiordaliza Cofil overtook American Kennedy Simon on the anchor, and then hurdler Femke Bol made a huge late charge to give The Netherlands the silver. The Dominican Republic won in 3 minutes, 9.82 seconds, with a margin of 0.08 seconds.
The third-place finish still gave Felix her 19th medal at World Championships, extending a record she already held. Adding it to the 11 she’s taken at the Olympics, she’ll end her career with an even 30 at her sport’s biggest events.
Some might say a bronze medal feels like a letdown for the most decorated sprinter in U.S. history. Others, though, including Felix herself, compare it to the bronze she won in the women's 400 last year at the Tokyo Olympics — a medal she ranks as one of her most cherished triumphs.
“It's a similar emotion,” she said. “The last couple of years, I’ve stepped outside of just the clock and the medals, and I never would have imagined that would have been a place where I would come to.”
Another former South Plains College star advanced Saturday to the semifinals in the men's 400-meter hurdles. Moitalel Mpoke ran 50.19 and advanced automatically as a top-four finisher in his heat. Mpoke, representing Kenya in Eugene, was a two-time NJCAA champion at South Plains, for whom he competed in 2019 and 2020.
Several former and current Texas Tech athletes are competing in the meet. Benard Keter failed to advance out of the first round in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, running a time of 8:21.94. Keter, who trains with the U.S. Army team, was 11th at the Olympics.
Ruth Usoro, Tech's two-time NCAA champion in the triple jump, failed to advance Saturday in her signature event, finishing 21st with a mark of 45 feet, 8 1/2 inches.
Former Tech all-American Shane Brathwaite, running for Barbados, advanced to the semifinals in the 110-meter hurdles, running a 13.47. It's the fifth World Championships for the 32-year-old Brathwaite, who also has competed in the past two Olympics.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Fred Kerley runs 9.79 in World Championships opening round
