World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025: USA vs. the world for the reign of speed

(AFP) Without delay, the sprint stars will already be on the track in the men's and women's 100 meters on Saturday, the first day of the World Championships in Athletics, where the United States will try to repeat its great record of two years ago in Budapest.

The heats will kick off the battle, before the men's and women's semifinals and finals take place on Sunday to coronate the fastest on the planet.

Noah Lyles was the overall star at the 2023 World Championships in the Hungarian capital, taking the men's triple crown of golds in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, the same as the legendary Usain Bolt used to do in major events.

At last year's Paris Olympics, Lyles also triumphed in the 100 meters, before falling ill with COVID-19, which physically weakened him and relegated him to bronze in the 200 meters.

Thompson and Seville, on the prowl

Jamaicans Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville look like the prime candidates to unseat him in the sprints, as well as American Kenny Bednarek.

Since his Olympic gold last year, Lyles has won Diamond League events he has contested in the 200m, but not so in the 100m, where in the weeks leading up to Tokyo he lost once to Thompson (Chorzow) and twice to Seville (London and Lausanne).

"In every race I'm better. It's about polishing the details, especially my start, thinking about Tokyo," said Lyles, keeping calm, after the Lausanne defeat.

Thompson arrives as the fastest man of the current season, with a 2025 best time of 9.75 seconds, while Lyles has just the 12th best time of the year so far (9.90).

"Kishane and Oblique have shown this season that they are doing really well," Lyles said Thursday at a press event in Tokyo.

"They can be first and second because of what they've shown this year. They are in shape and running very fast times. It will all depend on the execution now," he estimated.

Jefferson-Wooden vs. Alfred, at last

One new detail in the World Championships is that the men's and women's 100m finals will take place on the same day and not on separate evenings as on previous occasions.

In the women's 100 meters category, there will finally be the long-awaited duel between American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and the Olympic champion from Saint Lucia Julien Alfred.

The latter has had a low-key outdoor season but in late August gained confidence, taking the season's Diamond League title, in Jefferson-Wooden's absence.

Winner of the 2024 Olympic 100m bronze, the American has made great progress this year and has won all nine events she has contested at that distance, even dominating the year with a great time of 10.65, making her the fifth-fastest sprinter in history.

"The plan is to get the gold in Tokyo. I dream about it after such a successful year," the South Carolina native admitted at the end of August after winning in Brussels.

The Sha'Carri Richardson enigma

The defending world champion in the 100m is another American, Sha'Carri Richardson, who has not exactly had her best year, making her arrive as more of an outsider than a favorite.

Also raising questions is the performance of Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, a living athletics legend who at 38 is preparing to retire after the World Championships.

Before that, she wants to add to her impressive haul of 16 World Cup medals, 10 of them gold, among all the distances in which she has participated.