Oregon22 highlights from Tuesday: Great Britain's Wightman blazes to 1,500 gold

In the field of 1,500-meter competitors with tons of talent, Great Britain’s Jake Wightman broke to the front of the pack with 200 meters to go and held on down the home stretch to win the men’s 1,500 meters Tuesday on day five of the World Athletics Championships.

Wightman came into the meet with the third-fastest time in the world this season, but left the world leader with his world title time of three minutes, 29.23 seconds.

Defending Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and Abel Kipsang of Kenya started to push the pace around the halfway mark.

Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot moved into the title mix going into the final lap, but it was Wightman who passed Ingebrigtsen on the outside heading into the final turn. Then the Brit from Nottingham held off the field down the final straightaway to win his first world title.

“I know that’s the strength for me when I race, is that if I can get there with 200 to go I’ll always make a move because that’s how I feel best running,” Wightman said. “I felt so good up until that point, so as soon as the opportunity was there to go past I just wanted to be leading the bend and control the bend.

“My one thing was I didn’t want to leave this race like in Tokyo where I felt like I didn’t give a true account of how I want to run and how I believe I could run. So I just thought, ‘Screw this, I’m going to give it a go.’ If I had ended up finishing fourth, whatever, I gave it a go to try and win it. But I actually held on and I did the thing.”

With Ingebrigtsen lurking just off his shoulder coming into the final 100 meters, Wightman gave it everything he had left and hoped for the best. Ingebrigtsen finished second in 3:29.47 and Spain’s Mohamed Katir won bronze in 3:29.90, just edging countryman Mario Garcia, who was fourth in 3:30.20. Ingebrigtsen and Katir clocked season best times.

“Even when I was coming down the home straight I felt strong, but Jakob’s a beast and I never knew if he was going to come past and there was no screen to see where he was,” Wightman said. “I just had some self belief that if I hold on here and give it a go, if I get passed I’ve probably got silver – but it never happened and I’m world champion.”

So how does it feel to add world champion to his resume?

“You’ve always got to believe you can do this. I’ve never been one to outwardly showcase my belief. It’s a very personal thing that I believe I can do this sort of thing,” Wightman said. “Just the fact that the dream scenario has come off. How often do you get to be world champion?

“It’s still not sunk in yet. Being able to speak to you guys and having you guys tell me I’m world champion makes it feel a little bit more real. But it will be days, maybe months, before I actually feel like this is what’s happened.”

American Josh Thompson, who trains with Bowerman Track Club in Portland, went out fast and stayed in second place for the first 200 meters before the pace quickened and he began to fall back. Thompson eventually finished 12th in 3:35.27.

“The plan was to go out hard and try to sit in that second-place position, which I did, but I wasn’t expecting them to go out that fast,” he said. “I was just trying to stay consistent and keep calm. Those guys are really good, and now I know what I need to work on.”

No runner from the Oregon track and field program was part of the final, for the first time since the 2009 world championships in Berlin. Cooper Teare didn’t advance out of the prelims on Saturday and Johnny Gregorek didn’t make it out of the semifinals Sunday.

-Zack Palmer

Former Duck Jenna Prandini fails to move on in 200-meter

Jenna Prandini ran one of her fastest 200-meter races of the season Tuesday evening, but it wasn’t quite enough to advance out of the semifinals of that event on day five of the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field.

Prandini’s time of 22.08 seconds was just a shade off her season-best of 22.01, but she finished fourth in her heat and did not advance on time in her heat.

“It was a fast race. I’m disappointed to get fourth, but hopefully I can hang on with my time and get into that final,” Prandini said after the race. “Obviously I wanted to get top two. Now I’ve just got to hope that I hold on.”

The top two finishers from each of the three heats plus the next two fastest times advanced to Wednesday’s final. Prandini had the eighth-fastest time overall, but the final automatic qualifying spot went to Abby Steiner of the U.S., who finished second in her heat with a time of 22.15.

Jamaica will have three sprinters in the final, with Shericka Jackson posting Tuesday's fastest semifinal time of 21.67 and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce clocking second at 21.82. Tamara Clark of the U.S. finished third in 21.95 and Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain was fourth in 21.96. The last finals qualifier was Aminatou Seyni of Nigeria, who ran 22.04 to finish second in her heat. Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, who ran a national record time of 22.05 and Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah with 21.97, had the two conditional qualifying times.

Tuesday’s result was a familiar one for Prandini, who finished fourth in her 200 semifinal heat at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016 and fifth at the Tokyo Olympics last year, narrowly missing a qualifying spot each time. She also finished fourth in the 100-meter semifinals in Tokyo to miss out on a spot in the final.

The former Duck is a two-time national champion in the 200 with a lifetime best of 21.89 from last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials.

-Zack Palmer

New obstacle in steeplechase: a cameraman

EUGENE (AP) — A new obstacle appeared out of nowhere on the steeplechase course at world championships.

A cameraman.

Trying to get a great shot of the triple jump competition going on in the infield Monday night, a World Athletics cameraman stepped onto the track, unaware that there was a live race going on behind him.

As a phalanx of runners was approaching the cameramen, the runners spread out to pass him and nobody was hurt.

"I was a little worried that he was going to dart one way or another, right at the last second," said Evan Jager of the U.S., who finished sixth. "Thankfully he didn't realize we were there until we all passed him."

Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali won the race in a time of 8 minutes, 25.13 seconds.

He was involved in the strange scene, though maybe not as harrowing as seven years ago at worlds in Beijing. Usain Bolt had just won the 200 meters and a cameraman riding a portable scooter lost control of the scooter and it tumbled onto the track and upended Bolt. He jumped up and dusted himself off, no worse for wear.

World Athletics President Seb Coe said the federation is looking into what happened.

"I don't want to be cavalier about these things," he said. "But these things happen. He did actually have the presence to recognize what was going on, and he stood still, which is the most important thing. He didn't move."

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Track & field world championships Oregon22 Tuesday highlights