Must-Watch Event: Women’s 100m

The hyped-up rematch Jamaican and American track fans both wanted isn’t coming in August; it’s happening this week. The two fastest women of 2023 are both on the entry list: Shericka Jackson (10.65) and Sha’Carri Richardson (10.71), with Americans Aleia Hobbs and TeeTee Terry entered for good measure. In a way, it’s good that World champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and NCAA champ Julien Alfred didn’t make the trip, just to keep their wild cards in hand a little longer to stretch out what’s shaping up to be a banner year in the event. With Jackson looking so strong at her national champs (and Jamaican track fans ready to flood my Twitter mentions at a moment’s notice), the safe bet would be to say that she’s the favorite in this one. But she’s actually lost both Diamond League 100ms she’s contested this season, to Richardson in Doha and Marie-Josée Ta Lou in Oslo. Ta Lou was initially entered here, but withdrew earlier this week. Among the entrants, the only athlete undefeated in the 100m this year is Richardson. So it’s really anyone’s guess who comes out on top on Sunday, which makes this already-thrilling event all the more exciting.

Must-Watch Athletes: Alison Dos Santos and Wayde Van Niekerk

The 1-2 from USAs are both here in Bryce Deadmon and Vernon Norwood, but all eyes will be on two intriguing figures from Brazil and South Africa. Reigning 400m hurdles World champion Alison Dos Santos opens up his season with a flat race after suffering a meniscus injury early in 2023, and 400m world record holder Wayde Van Niekerk, no stranger to injury himself, continues to build on the longest stretch of healthy training he’s had since 2017. For Dos Santos, a win is probably unlikely as his PB is only 44.54 and this is his first race of the season, but hurdles fans will be looking closely to see if he has any chance of returning to form in time to pose a threat to rivals Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin, both of whom are clocking some of their fastest mid-season times ever this year. And Van Niekerk, who’s undefeated in 3 competitions this season but hasn’t faced a truly serious challenge yet, will want to show that he’s not just back in the conversation, he is the conversation when it comes to 400m gold in Budapest.

Must-Watch Rematch: Women’s 100m Hurdles

Fans who watched USAs will get a little déjà vu in the women’s hurdles, as the U.S. trio of Nia Ali, Keni Harrison and Alaysha Johnson are racing each other for the second time in 8 days after finishing 1st, 2nd, and 4th at the U.S. championships. It’s easy to look at recent results and expect Ali to go back-to-back, but Harrison is typically quite strong in Diamond League competitions and finished 2nd at this meet last year behind World/Olympic champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. Others who could play spoiler are world record holder and reigning world champ Tobi Amusan (12.47 season’s best) or Jamaican Danielle Williams, whose PB is 12.32 but has had a bit of a rocky season, only finishing third at the Jamaican champs. No matter who comes out on top, the women’s 100m hurdles is consistently a bright spot for head-to-head matchups in a sport where the biggest stars are frequently accused of dodging one another before the postseason.

Must-Watch GOATs: Ryan Crouser, Mondo Duplantis, and Yulimar Rojas

Is it boring to watch greatness happen over and over again, so frequently that it becomes routine? Not when three of the best in history continue to raise their own bars for excellence. Ryan Crouser (men’s shot put), Mondo Duplantis (men’s pole vault), and Yulimar Rojas (women’s triple jump), all of whom are the reigning world record holders and World/Olympic champs in their respective events, are back in action in Silesia. The excitement comes not from who will win the competition (collectively, the trio are 21-0 this year) but just how far can they push the outer limits of the events they’ve mastered. Crouser has set the world record once already this season and, after a comparatively quiet USAs, everyone believes there’s more in the tank. Duplantis broke his own WR indoors in February with a 6.22m leap, one centimeter higher than his outdoor record. And Rojas has “only” jumped 15.16m so far, over half a meter off her PB, but she only opened up her season a month ago and is just finding her stride (literally and figuratively) now.

Must-Watch Dual Meet: Men’s 100m

The men’s 100m in Silesia is basically shaping up to be a U.S. v. Jamaica exhibition, with 7 of 9 entrants from one of the two countries. 2022 World champ Fred Kerley, silver medalist Marvin Bracy-Williams, U.S. champ Cravont Charleston, and Florida’s Pjai Austin will be toeing the line against the 1-2 from Jamaican champs, Kishane Johnson and Ackeem Blake, and the second-fastest man ever in the event, Yohan Blake (no relation). Bracy-Williams and the elder Blake will be on the hunt for redemption from their respective national champs, as Bracy-Williams pulled up in the prelims at USAs with what looked like an injury and Yohan was disqualified in his semifinal. And although he hasn’t lost a 100-meter race all year, Kerley’s surprise 4th-place finish at USAs might still be stinging a little and raise the slightest of eyebrows about his fitness. A par performance here for the World champ will put any whispers to rest, however.

Must-Watch Record Chasers: Soufiane El Bakkali and Jakob Ingrebrigtsen

With no Lamecha Girma in the steeplechase this week, all eyes turn to Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali. The World and Olympic champ has the second fastest time this year at 7:56.68 and a 7-1 record against Girma head-to-head, but it’s got to chafe him a bit that his Ethiopian rival knocked out a world record performance before he could take it down himself. So now that the mark to chase is 7:52.11, the question becomes whether El Bakkali will go hunting for time or rest on the laurels of his heavy shelf of hardware.

Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, on the other hand, has made no secret of his penchant for record-chasing, knocking out the world record in the men’s 2 mile earlier this season and taking serious swings at the all-time list in the 1500m. The big question for him is how he can close the 1.95-second gap between his PB in Oslo two weeks earlier and the world record of 3:26.00, and whether it’s a question of fitness, pacing, competition, or some combination of the three is unclear at this point. Monaco feels like the more promising candidate for a serious record attempt, though, particularly with only 1 of the 9 other sub-3:30 men this year entered in this race (Frenchman Azeddine Habz, whose highest DL finish this year is only 4th).

Must-Watch Mystery: Mutaz Essa Barshim

Barshim is the 3x reigning World champ and famously the co-gold medalist in the men’s high jump in Tokyo. But he’s dealt with injury problems in the past and his season’s best of 2.24m was only good for 3rd at the Doha Diamond League meet back in May. He hasn’t competed since then, so this weekend’s meet will be a good indicator of whether Barshim has any chance of making it four in a row in Budapest. Gianmarco Tamberi, his Italian co-champion in Tokyo, and Kiwi Hamish Kerr should provide good competition, and it will likely take a clearance over 2.30m to claim victory in this field. If Barshim can’t muster a performance at that level at this point in the season, his odds for Worlds are not looking good.