Kerley leads USA 100m sweep

American Fred Kerley led a US clean sweep as he stormed to victory in the men’s 100m at the World Championships in Oregon on Saturday.

Kerley, in lane four, trailed Marvin Bracy for 95 metres of the tight race, but managed to outdip his teammate for victory in 9.86sec at Eugene’s Hayward Field.

Bracy took silver in 9.88sec, Trayvon Bromell bronze in the same time for a third-ever 100m world championship cleansweep for US after 1983 and 1991.

The fourth of the strong US quartet, Christian Coleman, the world champion from Doha in 2019 who was banned from the Tokyo Olympics for missing three doping tests, finished sixth (10.01) despite an electric start.

“We said we were going to do it and we did! USA, baby!” Olympic silver medallist Kerley said to roars of approval and applause from a partisan home crowd.

“I didn’t know until I looked up and saw the clock with my name ‘Fred Kerley’ on it,” added Kerley.
The last US cleansweep featured Carl Lewis, Leroy Burrell and Dennis Mitchell, something not lost on the modest Kerley or silver medallist Bracy.

“It’s amazing to be among the great, they did it in 1991, we did in 2022,” Bracy said. “This is history, to be part of something that has only happened three times just means the world to me.”
Bracy meanwhile paid tribute to Kerley’s remarkable versatility. The 27-year-old started his career as a 400m specialist before switching down to the shorter 100m.

“The guy’s special, he’s a rare talent to be able to do all three events, his range is limitless. He might do 800m next year, we don’t know! He’s a special cat, among an elite group of people like the (Usain) Bolts the Wayde van Niekerks.”

Kerley has set his sights on the 200m starting today, and is also not ruling out runs in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.

“If the coach allows me!” Kerley said.

Late-charging Kerley

It was far from plain sailing for the in-form Kerley, who set out his stall with a heat-winning 9.79sec on Friday, as all the sprinters got off to a good start.

Bracy and Coleman looked like they might deprive Kerley of a gold many had predicted he would win. But they hadn’t counted on his savage finishing, the former 400m runner showing all his strength at the line. Bromell also left it late to sneak onto the podium from lane eight.

As the crowd realised it was a US cleansweep, chants of “U-S-A” rang out.

Jamaica’s Oblique Seville finished fourth in 9.97sec, just ahead of South African Akani Simbine, who was clocked at 10.01 like Coleman in sixth.

Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse, and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake of Jamaica failed to advance to the final.

Oregon 2022 Worlds 

Men’s 100m final result
1.Fred Kerley    USA    9.86
2.Marvin Bracy    USA    9.88
3.Trayvon Bromell    USA    9.88

Jacobs pulls out

The build-up to the final was rocked by the decision of Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs to withdraw just hours before the semi-finals with tightness in his right thigh. Italian team doctor Andrea Billi said that evaluation of the contraction had found a “clinical picture that can put muscle integrity at risk and lead to injury”. Jacobs, who pulled off one of the shocks of the Tokyo Olympics last year when he stormed to victory in the 100m in 9.80sec, has struggled with injury since.