The 2017 IAAF World Championships have begun in London and we’re still in the U.S. but here to provide the most entertaining and informative analysis and results from the championships.

The first day offers some of the early and qualifying rounds of events but we will see Mo Farah run his final 10,000 meter final. He has won every world championship title in this event since 2012. It’s fitting that his final world championship race will come before a home crowd in London.

The meet will be broadcast on NBC Sports Network and can be streamed online using the $69 (#nice) NBC Sports Gold package.

Here are some key links that can help:

Our full Day 2 preview from Jesse Squire

Our full Day 1 recap from Ryan Sterner is here.

Schedule and results can be found here.

The IAAF will also offer a live stream via YouTube and Facebook which will be available in a large number of nations (which includes Canada but not the USA).

Radio: The IAAF Radio service will be available globally and can be accessed through both the IAAF website and the IAAF mobile app.

Let’s get rolling!

2:10PM

That’ll be it for me today. And what a day it was. Bye bye Bolt.

Men’s 100m Final

2:00PM

Here’s a fun fact: Usain Bolt had the 2nd worst reaction time in the field. The person that was worse? The guy who got dead last and ran 10.27.

1:52PM

Justin Gatlin is on the track weeping, but his reaction is overshadowed by Bolts farewell tour. Even with a bronze medal around his neck, despite what some NBC announcers think, his reputation will not be sullied. He will forever be remembered as the greatest.

1:48PM

Wow. Well. Looks like Justin Gatlin is your World Champion. He’s old. He served a lengthy doping ban. The London stadium has booed him every time his name is mentioned, and he looked great as he dismantled Bolt, who had another atrocious start.

Look at this awkward embrace, which was preceded by Gatlin bowing down to Bolt.

This one is going to be a barn burner. Here’s the field:

1:37PM

Luvo Manyonga of South Africa has just won the long jump. He’s a world champion after overcoming an addiction to Tik, a South African variant of crystal meth, and serving an 18 month doping ban as a result of it. He completed rehab, and competed in his first track season since 2012, last year. At Rio he took away a silver medal, and today he’s a gold medalist.

From a lot of after school specials and high school assemblies I feel like a meth addiction is a near certain death sentence. I find Manyonga’s story truly incredible.

1:30PM

Hey y’all. We have about 15 minutes before the 100m final and I’d like to address something that has been bothering me. I feel like at the past few Olympics and World Championships we’ve had a mascots that were a bit more gregarious–trying to get up close and personal with the athletes, delivering some slapstick humor, maybe even some dancing.

London’s mascot is Hero the Hedgehog. It was named and designed by a child, which is why we’re going to let slide the blatant creative theft of universally beloved Sonic the Hedgehog.

But now to my bone: Hero hasn’t done anything noteworthy yet, and we’re already more than 48 hours into the 2017 games. If I were the London Mascot Manager I’d be in the back chastising their performance thus far, and demand that they get a selfie with Bolt within seconds of him crossing the finish line for the final time.

Alright. I guess that’s all. See you in 15 minutes.

12:50PM

American Mason Finley has snapped an 18 year medal drought in the men’s discus by taking away a Bronze this afternoon. He’s a Buena Vista, Colo. native, 26-years old, and looks to be a very nice young man. Good on him.

There’s a bit of a break right now until the final event of the night: Usain Bolt’s 100m Retirement Party ft. a bunch of other people Londoners don’t really care about. It’s going to be a great time.

12:45PM

Here are some good tweets about the women’s 10,000m

Ayana's 5k from 4k to 9k was 14:24. That's the #2 time in the world in the 5k this year…in the middle of the 10k!

— Steve Magness (@stevemagness) August 5, 2017

Ayana's last 3k was 8:33 (from 5k to 8k). That's 14:15 5k pace. If it was just a 3k, it would be the #4 3k time in the world this year

— Steve Magness (@stevemagness) August 5, 2017

That was truly silly.

— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) August 5, 2017

Women’s 10,000m Final

Almaz Ayana is your gold medalist in 30:16.33 a full 50 seconds ahead of 2nd place.

12:43PM

Ayana has just lapped all three Americans.

12:39PM

This is Ayana’s first race since her Rio 10,000m and she’s putting on a clinic. She is about 200 meters ahead of the chase pack, which is about 100m ahead of the second chase pack that includes all three Americans.

She’s got 800m to go in 28:01. Unless she has a 1:17 800m in her legs, it seems the World Record is out of the question. Too bad.

12:35PM

Almaz Ayana is about to lap her first competitor. There’s about a four person “chase pack” literally 100m behind her.

12:32PM

Okay. Back again, and Ayana shows us why she is the world record holder. She just threw down a 69 second lap, and has taken the lead. 13 laps to go, and again she just went 67 over the last lap. It doesn’t look like anyone is going to catch her, unless she completely implodes, or someone in that chase pack finds a couple of 65 second laps in them over the next mile.

12:30PM

While NBC shows the final throws of the men’s discus finals, I’m left to resort to Twitter for 10,000m updates. This is what our own Jesse Squire’s has to say:

Looks like we're in the "who's getting silver and bronze?" stage of this race.

— Jesse Squire (@tracksuperfan) August 5, 2017

12:26PM

After a quick NBC commercial break we’re back. Ayana takes the lead with 16 laps to go. They hit the 3600m mark in 12:00. It looks like Ayana and Can of Turkey are going to try to make this a bit of a race.

12:22PM

Can of Turkey leads the women through the mile in 5:29. This is a very slow pace.

12:20PM

They pass the 1,000m mark in 3:30, with Esthete of Bahrain leading all 33 women. Still nothing interesting happening. Everyone that matters is mid pack as they wait for the race to unfold before them.

12:19PM

Fun fact: this is Almaz Ayana’s 3rd 10,000m ever. She ran one to qualify for the Kenyan Olympic team, one to win her gold medal in Rio, and now today. Nuts.

12:18PM

This race is going so slow that there are women out in basically lane four trying to get position. A lot of shuffling and bumping and hands being thrown in the air as people are touching elbows, ankles, etc. I’ll give you an update when something definitive happens.

12:14PM

The race is about to kick off. The three Americans in this race are Molly Huddle, Emily Sisson, and Emily Infeld. As they announce who is in this race, NBC shows the footage of 2015 World Championships where Infeld nipped Huddle at the line for the bronze medal. It’s too bad that that didn’t brew any bad blood between the two, because that would be a great storyline to pursue. On the contrary, I imagine they are great friends.

The favorite in this race is not any of the aforementioned Americans. It’s the 2016 gold medalist and world record holder, Almaz Ayana. There are 33 women in this race, though, which is an enormous field, I think.

12:01PM

This is a good time to discuss what happened this morning. The qualifying rounds for both the men’s 800m and 400m took place, while we in America were all sleeping.

At a glance, looks like all the Americans made it through in both the events. Donavan Brazier had the fastest qualifying time of the day, taking his heat out in 51.40 and closing well.

I don’t really see any notable non-qualifiers. Perhaps Luguelin Santos from the Dominican Republic will be missed in the 400m, as the 2012 Olympic silver medalist failed to get out of the first round. Last year in Rio, he didn’t make it out of the semi-final.

Women’s 1500M Semi-final

We’ll have a final with just a lone American. But it’s a good American to have in the final: Jenny MF Simpson.

11:50AM

Holy crap. Okay. So My stream was behind. I just hit the “live” button and Klosterhalfen is 20 meters ahead of the field. It’s about 3:00 at the bell and she is still very much ahead. She is turning this one into a wild card, as you can see the pack already throwing on the afterburners to try and catch her to ensure their spot in the field.

With 100m to go they catch Klosterhalfen. Simpson is running a very sound race and looks like she’ll get a spot. Just based on the times, it looks like Dibaba is safe. She’ll have some time to figure out what went wrong in her heat.

Anyway. Sifan Hassan is the winner in 4:03.77. Klosterhalfen, the woman who fell on the sword, will not be in the final. She ran a gutsy race, though.

11:38AM

Two Brits in this first heat, Judd and Muir. The crowd very politely loses their minds. This is a very stacked first heat: Kipyegon, Dibaba, Muir, Kate Grace, Semenya, Buckman.

Jessica Judd, like in the opening heat, is taking it out. Kate Grace is nearly in lane 3.

Oh boy, we have Tsegay down on the track at about the 350 mark. Looks like she clipped Dibabas ankles. The good part is that it’s very early in the race. Let’s see what she’s made of.

Going into lap two, Judd still leading. Dibaba, and Kate Grace on her shoulder. Buckman in the back of the lead pack and Semenya back there too. Two laps to go in about 1:57.

Kate Grace is seemingly in good position as they run through 800m in 2:11. It’s Judd, Dibaba, Grace, Muir, Kipyegon, Semenya.

Going into the bell, Laura Muir is moving up, as Kate Grace fades. Dibaba and Kipyegon move up to the front. Semenya moving up too. A lot of women still in it with 200m to go.

Coming around the final bend Muir and Kipyegon are moving to the front. Dibaba drops back to about 5th, she’s not looking good, I doubt she’s going to make it unless she has a lot left. Semenya moving up on Muir and Kipyegon.

It’ll be Kipyegon, Muir, Semenya and Cichoka. Dibaba finishes in 6th in 4:05. She’ll have to wait to see if she can make it through on time. Obviously the World Championships final will not be the same if the world record holder is not in it.

11:34AM

Hello. I was running a bit behind today so we didn’t get to formally say “good morning.” I’m back for a 2nd day of track and field action, and damn glad to be here. We have plenty to look forward to today, the headliner being Usain Bolt’s final 100m race. He is obviously a favorite, but he will have a number of fresh faces (Christian Coleman) and plenty of old faces (Gatlin, Blake) that would like to take is crown.

Also we have the women’s 1500m semi’s that include three Americans, as well as the final of the women’s 10,000m. Buckle up kids.

Did you enjoy yesterday’s blog? Did you learn anything? Or did you feel like I robbed you of any intellectual integrity you’ve been holding onto? If it’s the former or the latter, I’d love to hear from you.

Please send me hate mail: ryan@citiusmag.com

100M Semifinal

11:22AM

Well folks it looks like the newly minted pro Christian Coleman is going to take the heat. Bolt gave him a look at the line like “what are you doing here, son?” Coleman did not seem phased. perhaps he’s trying to send a message, “I’m not afraid of you, old man.”

Officially it’s Coleman in 9.97. Bolt in 9.98. Bolt isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with his tactics: he still loves to give an absolutely atrocious start and make it all up the last 50 meteres. Either way we will see him in the final, where he will have very little margin for error if he’s going to want to defend his back to back to back gold medals.

11:17AM

Usain Bolt is in this last semi-final heat. Christian Coleman here as well, so he’ll get a crack at the best sprinter in history. I imagine the two favorites to auto-q out of this heat are Coleman and Bolt.

From my screen it looks like Bolt is wearing one purple and one gold shoe. We’ll see how that works out for him.

11:11AM

Yohan Blake is in this heat. People like him. Japanese sprinter Sani Brown is also in this heat. London seems to like him. Bingtian Su is in this heat as well. He doesn’t get that warm of a reception, nor does Jak Ali Harvey of Turkey. Christopher Belcher gets a pretty lukewarm amount of clapping. But the Brit Reece Prescod gets the crowd going.

They’re in the blocks. Yohan out well. The Chinamen, Su, closing well. But the Brit, Prescod nips him at the line. It’ll be Blake, Prescod, and Su.

11:08AM

Looks like Gatlin and South African Akani Simbine are the auto qualifiers out of Heat 1. It’s first two from each heat and the next two fastest times after that that make it to tonights final.