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Kirani James

Grenadian sprinter Kirani James who earned bronze, silver, and gold medals in three successive Olympic Games competing in the 400m event will miss the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games. He will compete in the 2022 Eugene World Athletics Championships, but the Commonwealth Games begin just three days after the Worlds end — too soon.

James earned gold during the 2012 London Olympics, silver in Rio, and bronze in Tokyo. In 2011, he took gold during the Daegu World Athletics Championships. Seventeen times he has won Diamond League meets. James owns the national records for both the 200m and the 400m events having run as fast as 20.41 and 43.74 over the two distances, respectfully.

On May 28 this year, he ran 44.02 at Hayward Field. James enters the meet ranked as the current world number one 400m sprinter.

Scheduling the Commonwealth Games just three days after the World Athletics Championships would cause many athletes to consider one over the other. Kenya is one of the few countries in the Commonwealth with enough elite athletes to compete in both meets.

The World Athletics Championships run from July 15 to the 24th in Eugene, Oregon. It is the second time the meet has been held in North America and the first time in the US. Edmonton, Alberta hosted the meet in 2001.

All Russians and Belarusians out of Eugene

Talk about being confused. The Russians believe that their own proverb “Trust, but verify,” was first uttered to Mikhail Gorbachov by American President Ronald Reagan, but this is not true. It is an old aphorism of Russia’s own making. Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin uttered the phrase during their respective reigns. Reagan was simply using word judo against the Russians during the cold war. Who knew Reagan could be cryptic.

But as Russian whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov said to Athletics Illustrated, “in Russia we do not call it cheating. We say, “we have an understanding.”

World Athletics, the IOC, and the World Anti-doping Agency as well as the Ukrainians know, one cannot trust Russia and that is indeed verified.

Russia has been banned from international events since 2015 for systematic doping. The ban has continued due to their Keystone Cops-like performance in continuing to mismanage their anti-doping agency and athletics governing body — “RUSADA” and “RAF.”

Due to the illegal attack on Ukraine, aided by Belarus (Mini-me) all athletes, officials, and coaches from these two nations are barred including the 16 from Russia who were previously permitted to compete under a neutral flag. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, Russian athletes competed under the International Olympic Committee (IOC) flag.

Eliud Kipchoge

The world’s all-time greatest marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge will return to Berlin, Germany to compete in the Berlin Marathon this September.

He has won it in the past and set the world record on the course in 2018 at 2:01:39. One year later Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele ran 2:01:41 in poorer weather.

Kipchoge had talked of wanting to win all six Marathon Majors. Fans of the icon wonder if he will continue to focus on that goal. Currently, he is missing Boston and New York. At age 37, he can still do it, however, New York 2022 may be too soon, but Boston 2023 is doable.

Kipchoge is not quite at the age-defying situation, but as he did in Austria in his attempt to run a sub-two-hour marathon (time trial), he is running against the clock on this one.

He did defend his Olympic gold medal in Tokyo with dominance, in the heat.

As it is said, time will tell.

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