It is a great classic of international meetings between sprinters: the strongest in the 100m is also, a few days later, the boss in the 200m. A ritual inaugurated during the third edition of the modern Olympic Games in 1904 in Saint-Louis, with the victories of Archie Hahn.
Then perpetuated, among others, by Jesse Owens at the Berlin Games (1936), Carl Lewis at the Los Angeles Games (1984), Tyson Gay at the Osaka Worlds (2007) and, of course, Usain Bolt at the Beijing Games ( 2008), London (2012) and Rio (2016) as well as at the Worlds in Moscow (2009) and Beijing (2015).
World bronze, Olympic silver
From Tuesday, for the start of the 200m series, it is the brand new 100m world champion, Fred Kerley, who will try to register his name on this prestigious list in Eugene (United States) (final Friday 22 July at 4:50 a.m.). To write, in fact, the first main line of his prize list over the distance.
Because like the oldest champion of the Olympic era – Thomas Burke, double gold medalist at the Athens Games in 1896 in the 100 and 400m – Fred Kerley has so far distinguished himself internationally on the queen event and on the lap.
At the Doha Worlds in 2019, the sprinter finished 3rd in the 400m, and won the 4×400 relay alongside Michael Cherry, Wilbert London and Rai Benjamin. At the Tokyo Games last year, Kerley finished 2nd in the 100m, behind the Italian Marcel Jacobs, who had to withdraw before the semi-finals for these World Championships.
But in the 200m, to date, no real benchmark for the 27-year-old Texan.
Handyman
If not a time: 19”76. A personal best achieved on September 18 in Nairobi (Kenya). A personal best under 20 seconds, which allows Fred Kerley to appear on the (very) restricted list of athletes capable of completing 100m in less than 10 seconds (record at 9”76), 200m in less than 20 seconds and 400 m in less than 44 seconds (43”64).
An American hat-trick, a first since 1991
On Sunday, Americans Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell stood on the podium in the 100 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene (Oregon). It is the first time since 1991 and the Carl Lewis – Leroy Burell – Dennis Mitchell trio that the United States have claimed the first three places in the queen discipline in the final of the World Championships. Final which was also won 31 years ago at the same time as that won by Kerley this weekend, in 9”86. The silver medal was also disputed in the same second, in 9”88…
During the last three decades, American hegemony has only been undermined in 1995 and 2003, with no man on the podium. She then broke her teeth on a certain Usain Bolt, who won everything between 2009 and 2015, except for his false start in 2011 which benefited his compatriot Yohan Blake. But since 2015, the crown has returned to Uncle Sam, won back by Justin Gatlin, passed on to Christian Coleman, then, this Sunday, to Fred Kerley.
In history, only three have achieved this feat in official competition: Kerley, his compatriot Michael Norman and the double South African 400m world champion Wayde van Niekerk, also Olympic champion in the distance in Rio.
But neither of these two other athletes can claim to have climbed on a world or Olympic podium on the three distances. Among the men, no athlete has actually achieved such a performance. “I am the story,” Kerley writes in his Twitter biography.
In the starting blocks of the 200m, the sprinter made an appointment.