Friday highlights from Oregon22 track championships

Kenya sprinter advances despite getting to Eugene 2 hours before race

Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala started Friday with a marathon and ended with a sprint as the Kenyan runner needed three flights totaling more than 20 hours to get to Eugene in time to race in the last heat of the 100-meter prelims.

Omanyala finished third in his heat in 10.10 seconds, advancing to the semifinals, which start early Saturday evening. The 100 final is the last event Saturday night.

Omanyala’s trip would have sidelined most people: Five-hour flight to Doha, six-hour layover, 14-hour flight to Seattle, three-hour layover and finally, a one-hour flight to Eugene. He landed around 4:15 p.m. local time and was immediately ferried to Hayward, where he arrived by 5 p.m. Heats started at 6:50.

“I never knew I was tired until I ran that race,” Omanyala said, laughing. He said he did not run up and down airplane aisles to stay loose, but acknowledged that his seat in business class helped him doze. “I don’t think I could have done that in economy.”

More:Visa issues cause headaches for hundreds of athletes, officials at track world championships

As Omanyala spoke to the media afterward, Liemarvin Bonevacia from the Netherlands ran by and jostled him playfully while shouting, “Hero! 100 meters for the people!” Omanyala laughed, and said he felt “elevated” when the Hayward Field crowd roared for him at the start line.

While he was grateful to eventually get his visa, Omanyala also had a warning.

“If you are hosting a championship, you need to waive (visa requirements) for athletes,” he said. “It’s a lesson for the host country in the future, and the U.S. is hosting the Olympics in 2028, so they need to learn from this and do better next time.”

-Lindsey Schnell, USA Today

Crouser coasts into shot put final

Ryan Crouser spent more time fishing for trout Thursday afternoon than what he spent in the shot put ring Friday night at Hayward Field.

The world record holder and two-time Olympic champion took one attempt during the qualifying rounds as his throw of 73 feet, 1¼ inches easily met the automatic qualifying standard of 69-6¾ for Sunday’s final.

Not surprisingly, no one recorded a better mark, though fellow Americans Joe Kovacs — reigning world champion — Josh Awotunde and Adrian Piperi also made the final.

“A very good showing,” Crouser said. “It was exciting to see.”

See also:Crouser is the best shot putter in the history of track and field. He's also a nerd.

It was also good showing for Crouser on river Thursday afternoon as he reeled in several rainbow trout, though none for eating.

“It’s catch-and-release only fishing on the Lower McKenzie,” he said. “Also, I’m in a hotel room so I don’t think anyone wants to eat microwave trout.”

-Chris Hansen

Hull and Sinclaire move into 1,500 semifinal

It could be a busy week for Jessica Hull, as the former Oregon Ducks star hopes to get in five races between the 1,500 and 5,000.

She got started Friday with a smooth showing in her 1,500 prelim, finishing second in 4:04.68 as she rode the pace set by Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon, who won their heat in 4:04.53

“The first one is always the nerve wracking one,” Hull said. “I got to get out there, I got to feel the track, got to feel the welcome home, so I think I’m going to be better for it tomorrow for having done it. I’ve got a big program this week so just trying to enjoy it as much as I can.”

The semifinals are Saturday night and in the heat opposite Hull will be U.S. champion Sinclaire Johnson, who was fourth in her prelim in 4:07.65.

Hull and Johnson are training partners with the Portland-based Union Athletics Club.

“I got through and did what I needed to do today,” Johnson said. “Just looking forward to tomorrow and beyond.”

-Chris Hansen

Peru wins first gold medal of Oregon22 in women’s race walk

The first gold medal of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 was awarded Friday afternoon, and Kimberly García León couldn’t have been more excited to see it hanging from her neck.

“The win hasn’t sunk in yet. I can’t believe it,” García said through a translator after winning the women’s 20-kilometer race walk with a time of 1 hour, 26 minutes and 58 seconds, becoming the first athlete from Peru to ever win a World Championship medal.

“I guess when I go back to Peru and when I’m with my family we will celebrate. I don’t know how I’m going to celebrate yet but I’m sure we will.”

García and China’s Shijie Qieyang broke from the pack on the second lap and slowly pulled away from the rest of the field. Those two raced stride-for-stride for 14km before García picked up the pace over the final six laps to leave everyone else behind.

“I dedicate this medal to my country,” said García, who broke her own Peruvian national record. “It’s been long, tough and full of sacrifice but it’s a world that I love because I love what I do. I’ve been doing this since I was 5 years old and I’ve been dreaming of this – becoming a world champion.”

Poland’s Katarzyna Zdzieblo trailed the leaders by 24 seconds with five laps left but she was able to reel in Qieyang on the penultimate lap and she cruised to a second-place finish in 1:27:31, which is a new Polish national record.

“I don’t know how to say it in English, but I couldn’t believe it. A great happiness,” Zdzieblo said. “After five minutes, I felt that I achieved something that could be only my dream. I was very emotional. I’m so happy.”

Qieyang earned the bronze medal with her third-place finish in 1:27:56, with Chinese teammate Hong Lui finishing fifth in 1:29:00. Jemima Montag of Australia was the fourth-place finisher in 1:28:17.

-Zack Palmer

Japan earns first, second place in men’s 20K race walk

Toshikazu Yamanishi defended his world championship in the men’s 20-kilometer race walk and led Japan to a 1-2 finish with teammate Koki Ikeda in second.

It was the first time a nation has swept gold and silver in the 20K race walk since 2001, when Roman Rasskazov and Ilya Markov of Russia accomplished the feat.

Yamanishi won gold at the world championships in Doha in 2019 and he made it back-to-back titles with his win Friday in 1 hour, 19 minutes and 7 seconds. Ikeda was seven seconds behind the winner, while Sweden’s Perseus Karlström held off Samuel Kireri Gathimba of Kenya for the bronze medal, finishing in 1:19:18 to Gathimba’s 1:19.25.

The two Japanese race-walkers turned up the pace at the halfway mark and led a breakaway pack that also included Karlström, Gathimba and Brian Daniel Pintado of Ecuador. The group was still bunched at the 17K mark with five seconds separating the top five competitors, but Yamanishi and Ikeda opened a nine-second lead heading into the final lap.

After that it was all Yamanishi, as he surged ahead of his countryman and pulled away for the victory.

-Zack Palmer

Cuban javelin thrower defects before world championships

EUGENE — Javelin competitor Yiselena Ballar Rojas has defected from the Cuban team for the 2022 world championships, according to official media on the island.

Play Off and Swing Completo, two portals which publish information on Latin American athletes in the United States, reported this week that Ballar Rojas left the delegation in Miami, a stopover point for the Cuban delegation on the way to Oregon for worlds.

The portal Jit, official media of the National Institute of Sports, & Physical Education of Cuba (INDER), confirmed Ballar Rojas' decision when it condemned the move in a post Thursday night.

"Given her reprehensible attitude, by which she turns her back on the commitment she made, we confirm the will to strengthen ourselves in the effort to fight for a result worthy of the nobility of the Cuban people that will continue our work in the city of Eugene," it said in the post.

Ballar Rojas was set to compete in javelin at worlds. Her heat was scheduled for Wednesday.

Ballar Rojas won bronze at the U20 World Cup last year in Nairobi, Kenya. Also in 2021, she earned a silver medal at the Junior Pan American Games in Colombia.

She was included in the Cuban delegation at the last minute after Yorgelis Rodríguez retired from the heptathlon due to a knee injury.

-Associated Press

Tokyo chosen to host 2025 track world championships

EUGENE — Track and field officials awarded the 2025 world championships to Tokyo on Thursday, bringing runners, jumpers and throwers back to the home of last year's Olympics, where they competed in front of mostly empty stands.

The World Athletics Council awarded the championships in a bidding contest that also included Nairobi, Kenya; Silesia, Poland; and Singapore.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said it was a close vote, but Japan won on the strength of, among other things, "human resource" available in Tokyo to put on the event and strong commercial partnerships.

He did not rule out the possibility of track's marquee event someday making it to Kenya or another country in Africa — a continent that has never held the event.

"It is really important that we work together with Africans to make sure that their time comes, and their time comes when it's right," Coe said.

Japan spent more than $1.4 billion to build the stadium for the Olympics, which were postponed by one year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then held last summer under restrictions that prevented fans from attending.

The state-of-the-art track in Tokyo helped Sydney McLaughlin and Karsten Warholm each break world records in their 400-meter hurdle finals. Warholm ran in 45.94 seconds and McLaughlin finished in 51.46 but broke that record earlier this year (51.41) in Eugene. Elaine Thompson-Herah finished the 100 in 10.61 seconds to break Florence Griffith-Joyner's 33-year-old Olympic record.

Next year's games will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

World Athletics also awarded its cross country championships to Medulin, Croatia in 2024 and Tallahassee, Florida in 2026.

-Associated Press

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Highlights from Friday's events at Oregon22 track championships