Here are some of our content plans for the World Championships…

CITIUS MAG LIVE AT WORLDS: Our hit show from last year is back! The way we described it was “think of the TODAY Show but for track and field die-hard fans” and it delivered, featuring interviews with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Rai Benjamin, Michael Johnson, Seb Coe, Hellen Obiri, Malcolm Gladwell and many more notable friends. And this time around should be no different – every day of the World Championships, we will be inviting athletes, coaches and fellow media personalities to sit back and chat with Chris Chavez and Kyle Merber.

The show will air on the CITIUS MAG YouTube Channel between the morning and evening sessions of competition (Every day at 8 a.m. EST in the U.S.)

CHAMPS CHATS ON THE CITIUS MAG PODCAST DAILY: The CITIUS MAG team of Chris, Kyle, David McCarthy, Jasmine Todd and Katelyn Hutchison will unpack all of the day’s biggest surprises and offer up their insights and analysis from being at the new National Athletics Centre and interviewing athletes each day. The podcast recording will be streamed on YouTube at the end of every day and will be also available on The CITIUS MAG Podcast feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to shows.

MORNING RUNS: If you’re in Budapest, there will be two chances to catch some miles with the CITIUS MAG team in partnership with ASICS: one on Aug. 21 and another on Aug. 24. We’ll have giveaways, coffee and treats for people who are in town. The runs will start at 8 a.m. from ASICS House at Erzsébet tér, 1051 Budapest.

DAILY CITIUS MAG NEWSLETTER: David Melly will recap all of the biggest moments, highlighting his must-watch athletes and events for each day while also pulling together some of our best content, photos and social moments that the CITIUS MAG team captures. You can sign up for the newsletter here.

Without further ado, here are the highlights, plotlines, and athletes to watch in the sprint events at Worlds:

Men’s 100m

Final: Sunday, 8/20, 1:10pm E.T.

All of a sudden, this race is looking a lot more open than it did a month or two ago. Reigning champ Fred Kerley was thought to be the favorite headed into Budapest, but after a rare 100m loss in Poland in July and a 4th-place finish in the 200m at the U.S. Championships, questions have started to emerge about his health and fitness. The Asics star is certainly still in the gold medal conversation, but with a season’s best of only 9.88, he’s not the start and end of the story.

The world leader is Brit Zharnel Hughes, who’s been on an absolute tear this summer, breaking longstanding national records in the 100m and 200m and knocking huge chunks off his personal bests. Just behind him is Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala at 9.84, but Omanyala has had trouble performing in championship scenarios, failing to make the final in both 2022 and 2021. Another young star who’s struggled to get it done is Ackeem Blake, who, after beating Christian Coleman earlier this season and running 9.89, won’t be on Jamaica’s 100m team after only finishing 4th at their national championships.

Instead, the other major medal contenders all hail from the United States, which, despite missing 2/3 of the 2022 podium sweep trio, still has a shot to replicate its dominant performance from last year thanks to Coleman, Noah Lyles, and Cravont Charleston. Charleston, the U.S. champ, is rumored to have picked up some injury issues at the Team USA relay camp, so keep an eye on the start list to see if he makes it to the first round in one piece. Lyles and Coleman have plenty of championship experience, but neither looked to be at the top of their form at USAs so we’ll have to wait and see how another few weeks of training pays off.

Women’s 100m

Final: Monday, 8/21, 3:50pm E.T.

This event has been one of the most hotly contested and closely watched of the 2023 season. At least five different women have credible cases to be made for gold, and it’s hard to say if there’s a favorite. Defending champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is going for an unprecedented 6th World title in the event, and although she missed much of the early season with injury issues, she clocked back-to-back 10.8 victories in late July that seemed to put any concerns to rest.

Her teammate, world leader Shericka Jackson, is last year’s silver medalist, and she’s only gotten better at her shorter event this year, clocking a 10.65 PB at the Jamaican Championships. But she’s also lost twice this season to U.S. champ Sha’Carri Richardson, who has looked untouchable when on top of her game but had to withdraw from a few competitions in July with precautionary health concerns.

Up-and-coming NCAA champ Julien Alfred and longtime veteran Marie-Josée Ta Lou represent a pair of wild cards, as Alfred is undefeated in the 100m this season and Ta Lou hasn’t lost since her season opener, but the long summer and three rounds of racing may present a challenge to their well-tested legs. The podium will likely feature some combination of those five women, but you also can’t count out Brit Dina Asher-Smith, Pole Ewa Swoboda, or Americans Brittany Brown and Tamari Davis as potential dark horses.

Men’s 200m

Final: Friday, 8/25, 3:50pm E.T.

For the last 2+ years, the 200m has been Noah Lyles’s world and everyone else is just visiting. The American record holder and back-to-back World champ hasn’t lost a 200m since his surprise bronze finish in the final of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, and his last loss before that was over four years ago, in June 2019.

There have been promising challengers, including U.S. champ Erriyon Knighton, rising Botswana star Letsile Tebogo, and the eternally-clutch Olympic champ Andre De Grasse, but Lyles still has to be considered the heavy, heavy favorite to threepeat headed into Budapest. The main X-factor has to be Tebogo – the 20-year-old improved his best from 19.96 to 19.50 this year and is less of a known commodity than some of his competitors with longer resumes. But with only two men ahead of him on the all-time list, Lyles has to be thinking about Usain Bolt’s 19.19 world record as one of his main targets more than anyone else on the start line.

Women’s 200m

Final: Friday, 8/25, 3:40pm E.T.

The women’s 200m features a lot of the same major players as the 100m, with one notable absence and another notable addition. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the reigning silver medalist, has announced her intention to only contest the 100m as an individual event despite qualifying in both distances.

But world champ Shericka Jackson will still have her hands full with U.S. champ Gabby Thomas, who ran a world-leading 21.60 in that championship and is entering Worlds with healthy legs and a head of steam. The title will likely come down to Jackson or Thomas, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Sha’Carri Richardson factor into the longer event as well or Dina Asher-Smith, who took bronze and gold in the last two editions of this meet, to land on the podium again.

Men’s 400m

Final: Thursday 8/24 at 3:35pm E.T.

Who can come back best from injuries large and small? That’s the question at play in the men’s 400m, where the 2017, 2019, and 2022 World champions are all lining up after a rocky couple of years, healthwise. The world leader is Olympic champion Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas, who missed last year’s Worlds with a hip injury but hasn’t lost a 400m since 2018.

He’s yet to face off with world record holder Wayde Van Niekerk in his prime, however, as the 2017 World champ and Rio Olympic champ has had a long saga of injuries over the last several years. But Van Niekerk appears to be back this year and rides an undefeated streak of his own into Worlds.

And finally there’s reigning World champ Michael Norman, who had a rocky spring with some health concerns and his first major coaching switch as a pro. Norman hasn’t raced a single 400m this season and didn’t make it out of the heats of the men’s 100m at USAs, so his fitness is probably the biggest question mark headed into Budapest. The other major enigma is Muzala Samukonga of Zambia, the only man other than Gardner to break 44 seconds this year, but the 20-year-old hasn’t quite hit the form he showed back in April over the last few months. It’ll most likely come down to Gardiner and Van Niekerk, but a lot can change over three rounds of racing.

Women’s 400m

Final: Wednesday, 8/23, 3:35pm E.T.

The huge (and disappointing) news from this event is that U.S. champ Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone withdrew from the competition late last week citing a minor knee injury. After running 48.74 at USAs, all eyes were on the world record holder in the 400-meter hurdles to see just how fast she can go in the shorter event, but fans will have to wait for another time and place.

Her main rivals, Dominican Marileidy Paulino and Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser, are now two of the big favorites, but there seem to be some indications that both women may have mistimed their fitness a bit. Paulino looked fantastic in May and June, running 48.98 at the Los Angeles Grand Prix and taking down McLaughlin-Levrone in Paris, but in her most recent Diamond League race, she could only manage a 50.00 third-place finish. Naser finished third in Paris in 49.95 on June 9th, but she hasn’t raced since then. If they aren’t in top form, all eyes will be on the trio of NCAA stars-turned-pros Britton Wilson, Rhasidat Adeleke, and Talitha Diggs to see if any of them can come out of a long collegiate season with some world-class hardware. With McLaughlin-Levrone out, it’s entirely possible that one or more of them end up on the podium.

Men’s 110m Hurdles

Final: Monday, 8/21 3:40pm E.T.

Much like his American teammate Noah Lyles, Grant Holloway is headed into this competition looking to threepeat as World champion in an event he’s mastered over the last several years. But he can’t be considered nearly as heavy a favorite as Lyles, with only the #3 time of 2023 headed into the championship and an early-season loss to Jamaican Rasheed Broadbell.

At 23 years old, Broadbell doesn’t have nearly the championship pedigree as Holloway, but he’s the world leader at 12.94 and took down Olympic champ Hansle Parchment at Jamaica’s nationals. Parchment hasn’t looked quite up to his top form this season, although you can’t count him out after taking down Holloway in Tokyo. And Holloway’s U.S. rivals, 2023 national champ Daniel Roberts and up-and-coming Division II star Cordell Tinch, are also in the mix as possible gold-medal contenders.

Women’s 100m Hurdles

Final: Thursday, 8/24 at 3:25pm E.T.

In each of the last two summers, Tobi Amusan has shocked the world: First, by winning a surprise gold in Eugene in a world-best 12.06 (wind-aided) after setting the legit world record of 12.12 in the semifinals. Then, by announcing in July 2023 that she’d been handed a provisional ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit for whereabouts failures and would only be at Worlds if successful in her appeal. It’s an unfortunate situation that, regardless of outcome, will cast serious doubt on her 2022 performances in the minds of her harsher critics and creates significant uncertainty headed into Budapest.

But with Amusan present or absent, the ever-reliable Olympic champ Jasmine Camacho-Quinn may be the favorite, as she enters Worlds with an undefeated 2023 and the world #2 time, 0.01 seconds behind U.S. champ Nia Ali’s world-leading 12.30.

Ali and teammate Keni Harrison may be the biggest barriers to Camacho-Quinn’s path to victory; although the Puerto Rican star has Olympic gold, she’s never won a World title. Ali, at 34, is the 2019 World champion and Harrison has silvers from 2019 and 2021, so they’ve shown they can perform when it counts as well. But the 100m hurdles is a notoriously unpredictable event, and with the potential for falls or clipped hurdles looming large, anything is possible.

Men’s 400m Hurdles

Final: Wednesday, 8/23 3:50pm E.T.

Once again, it’s looking like the 400m hurdles will be a battle of titans between world record holder Karsten Warholm of Norway, Brazilian World champ Alison dos Santos, and American record holder Rai Benjamin. After dealing with injuries in 2022, Warholm enters this championship season looking better than ever, clocking the two fastest non-championship times ever run (46.51 and 46.52) at the Oslo and Monaco Diamond League meets.

Dos Santos is coming back from injury as well, although the knee issue he picked up in January appears to have resolved itself quickly enough to salvage a 2023 season. He’s raced sparingly but his runner-up finish in 47.66 behind Warholm in Monaco was an indication he’s trending in the right direction.

Benjamin also hasn’t raced much, but when he has, it’s clear he is ready for battle: his 46.62 victory at USAs certainly should make even Warholm nervous. But as of right now, it looks like the Norwegian’s comeback tour will end in gold unless someone can knock him off his game.

Women’s 400m Hurdles

Final: Thursday, 8/24 3:50pm E.T.

With the reigning World champ and world record holder out of the picture, this is Femke Bol’s race to lose. The second-fastest woman of all time also has the fastest time of 2023 (51.45) by over 2 seconds, and with 8 straight wins in the event dating back to August 2022, she has to be one of the safest bets for gold in any event in Budapest.

Behind her, it’s a wide open race as there are three Jamaicans and three Americans entered who’ve run between 53.2 and 53.8 seconds this year. Dalilah Muhammad should be considered a strong contender to medal. The injury-prone 33-year-old only took second at USAs, but there’s a reason Muhammad has 6 World/Olympic medals in this event – count her out at your own peril.

Aside from her, it’s anyone’s guess, but veterans Shamier Little, the U.S. champ, and the Jamaican duo of Janieve Russell and Rushell Clayton have strong championship credentials and a lot of experience.