- Kishane Thompson has run the fastest time for the 100m for a decade with a season’s best 9.75
- The Jamaican goes head to head with his Paris Olympics nemesis, Noah Lyles, going for a repeat of his sprint double
- The pair’s teammates Oblique Seville and Kenny Bednarek also look likely to be in the medal mix
Kishane Thompson is not an athlete lacking in confidence, the form male sprinter of 2025 even suggesting Usain Bolt’s world record could tumble in Tokyo in the coming days.
Such a prediction might not be so outlandish. When winning at the Jamaican Championships, he clocked 9.75, the fastest by anyone on the planet in 10 years to place him sixth on the world all-time list. Dissecting that run in the aftermath, there is enough to suggest he could go quicker yet at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
He goes into the championships with the knowledge that he has beaten Noah Lyles, who pipped him to Olympic gold last summer by the barest of margins, already this season. In a rematch in Silesia recently, Thompson came out on top. In Lyles’ defence, his racing schedule this season has been fairly limited and he described his second place to his rival as “a great stepping stone”.
The question is whether Thompson can deliver on the biggest stage. He clearly thinks so, despite a recent setback with a slight shin injury. After winning his trials, he said: “I’m never going to surprise myself because I know how capable I am. I am very confident. Even if I broke the world record, it wouldn’t surprise me because I am that confident, and I’m working to achieve all my goals and the accolades.”
Another athlete who it’s fair to say does not lack for confidence is Lyles, arguably sprinting’s greatest showman currently. The defending world champion is again going for the sprint double he achieved in Budapest but couldn’t pull off in Paris last summer.
Thompson’s teammate Oblique Seville, meanwhile, beat Lyles in his first 100m at the Diamond League in London a few weeks back in a time of 9.86 and then produced a similarly convincing win in Lausanne in 9.87 with Lyles once again finishing second (10.02). Seville heads to Tokyo with a season’s best of 9.83.
South Africa’s Akani Simbine is desperate to make it on to the podium. He has finished in the top five, yet out of the medals, in the past seven global championship 100m finals he’s contested. A model of consistency, he has now run sub-10 for 11 years in a row, one better than Bolt.
There was some friction between Lyles and compatriot Kenny Bednarek at the US Championships, albeit over 200m, when the latter shoved Lyles in the back after he thought he was unsportsmanlike in his glance across to his rival when crossing the line for the win.
Bednarek, who has habitually shone at the longer sprint distance, is the second fastest man this season with a time of 9.79.
Two other US runners are likely to challenge too: Courtney Lindsay and T’Mars McCallum with best times of 9.82 and 9.83 respectively this season.
There have been 27 men under the 10-second mark this season so there will be no shortage of athletes potentially in the mix, including Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, a bronze medallist at the last World Championships, Ackeem Blake of Jamaica, and Ghanian Abdul-Rasheed Saminu.
South American hopes appear to rest on the shoulders of Brazil’s Erik Cardoso, a 9.93 runner this year already, as well as Colombia’s Ronal Long (9.96). Also look out for Puerto Rico’s Eloy Benitez, who looked set to do something special at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year before injury struck in the final.
Matt Majendie for World Athletics