EUGENE, Oregon (July 16) — The Olympic silver medalist Fred Kerley became the world champion as the United States swept the men’s 100m at the World Athletics Championships 2022 at Hayward Field on Saturday (16). Kerley won the gold medal in 9.86 seconds with Marvin Bracy taking the silver in 9.88 and Trayvon Bromell collecting the bronze with 9.88 as well.
“We said we were going to do it and we did! USA, baby!” Kerley said.
He added afterward: “I got the work done this time around and the gold medal means more than anything.
“It’s amazing to do it on home soil with the home crowd behind us. It’s a wonderful blessing to get a clean sweep. I feel we can dominate again at (next year’s) World Championships.”
Kerley didn’t get the best start, but he didn’t panic. Instead, he kept his composure to blow past his competitors in the closing meters and then timed his dip perfectly to improve on the silver medal he won at the Olympics in Tokyo last summer.
“I lost the Olympics by (0.04). I saw Bracy in front of me, he dipped early and I picked the right time and got the job done today,” he said.
The former 400m specialist entered the world championships as the world leader after clocking 9.76 seconds at the USATF Championships last month. He ran 9.79 secs in the heat.
It was the first since 1991 that a nation was sweeping the 100m on the men’s side.
After failing to make the final at the Olympics last summer Bromell, who started from lane 8 and away from the spotlight in the final, was happy get on the podium –winning his second world championships bronze medal after also taking bronze in 2015.
“My mind is a lot stronger this year. And I knew what I was missing that now I expect more from myself,” he told Reuters.
“I got hurt and I was out of sport for so long, and then came back and happened to just come back during the biggest time of the year, the Olympics … it is good to come out here and get it done.”
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s Oblique Seville ran 9.97 seconds for fourth place with the defending champion Christian Coleman fading to sixth in 10.01, the same time posted by South Africa’s Akani Simbine.
Earlier, Italian Olympic 100m champion Lamont Jacobs withdrew from the semi-finals of the event after continuing to struggle with a thigh injury he picked up last month.
“I am a fighter and this is why I decided to be in Eugene,” he wrote on Twitter, [but it had been a] “painful choice, I am forced to stop.”
PHOTO: Fred Kerley (C), Marvin Bracy (R) and Trayvon Bromell (L) after the Men’s 100m final at the World Athletics Championships. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images for World Athletics)
