Sawt Falasteen - Lyles leads US medal charge in Tokyo, Kipyegon eyes fourth title

They will be followed by some of the sport's biggest names -- Faith Kipyegon, Karsten Warholm and Femke Bol among them -- as they seek to etch their names into the history books over nine days of action.

This world championships, for which all female athletes will have undergone a mandatory gene test, will close a season that has featured 15 thrilling Diamond League meets and Michael Johnson's fledgling Grand Slam Track series.

Grand Slam was launched in the hope of bringing the top track performers together, but it floundered and the fourth of the four-meet series was cancelled due to financial difficulties.

Olympic 100m champions Lyles and Julien Alfred opted out of the series, instead focusing on the Diamond League, and both notched up morale-boosting victories at the circuit's finals in Zurich this month.

Lyles said he would head to Tokyo "with a lot of energy (and) I will use that to my advantage", after outstripping Botswana's Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo over the longer sprint.

But Kishane Thompson of Jamaica, who lost to Lyles by just five thousandths of a second at the Paris Olympics, is the fastest man this year at 100m having clocked 9.75sec.

Tebogo and Alfred will be seeking to repeat their feats in Paris when both claimed golds in firsts for Botswana and Saint Lucia.

"I feel like I want to add another gold in my collection," Alfred said. "I am much fitter than before and also mentally, I am in the right place where I want to be."

The US track and field team has a lot to live up to -- the Americans have topped the medals table at the world championships 15 times in the 19 editions.

The then-East Germany finished top in the opening two worlds in 1983 and 1987 while Russia dominated in 2001 and Kenya did in 2015.

McLaughlin-Levrone, the Olympic 400m hurdles champion, world record holder and the dominant performer in that event, has opted to compete in the 400m flat in Tokyo.

In her absence, Dutchwoman Femke Bol is the locked-in favourite for the hurdles: the only woman to have dipped under the 52sec mark this season arrives in Japan on the back of eight successive victories.

- 'I'm greedy' -

Men's 400m hurdles world record holder Warholm goes up against Olympic champion Rai Benjamin and former world champion Alison dos Santos in one of the most keenly anticipated races.

Warholm clocked the third-fastest time in history -- 46.28sec -- at the Silesia Diamond League meet, getting close to the stunning world record of 45.94sec he set when winning gold at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in the same stadium where these world championships are being held.

"I have three titles as world champion and I want more. I'm greedy," said the Norwegian.

Duplantis is being pushed by Greece's Emmanouil Karalis in the pole vault, but the US-born Swede is untouchable on his day. The question is whether he will be able to better his own world record for a 14th time.

There will be hopes for double Kenyan delight in the men's 800m and the women's 1,500m through Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Faith Kipyegon.

Despite having contested only three official races this year, albeit one in a world record time, Kipyegon is fancied to win a fourth world 1,500m title and draw level with Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj.

- Two-lap rivalry -

Olympic champion Wanyonyi headlines a crop of talented athletes in the 800m, with David Rudisha's world record of 1min 40.91sec from the 2012 London Olympics seriously under threat.

Such is the current rivalry over the two-lap race that when the athletes line up for the heats next week at the National Stadium, there will be not only Wanyonyi, but defending world champion Marco Arop and 11 other men who have dipped below 1:43 this year.

Missing through injury will be American Olympic 200m gold medallist Gabby Thomas and Australia's Olympic and world pole vault champion Nina Kennedy.

Dutch phenomenon Sifan Hassan, who has won three golds and three bronzes at the last two Olympics from 1,500m to the marathon, chose to prioritise last month's Sydney marathon.

And Uganda's half-marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo and double Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei have not made the trip to Tokyo due to personal reasons.

K.Hassan--SF-PST