Thursday, March 28

He with the shoes that stops Yulimar Rojas and other oddities of the Nike World Cup


Updated

Eugene, the town where the American company was born, hosts the championship that starts this Friday and where the USA wants to recover speed. Without Russians, Rojas, Duplantis or Ingebrigtsen are the stars

Rojas, during the Tokyo Games.AP
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Eugene, Oregon, west coast of the United States. 170,400 inhabitants, less than Alcorcn. Half a dozen hotels, no more. And more than two hours by car from Portland, the nearest big city. What is the World Athletics Championship doing here? The answer is Nike, simply Nike. The company was created in Eugene, specifically at the University of Oregon, in Eugene it began manufacturing and, although in the 1990s it moved its offices to the side of Portland – not to mention its production – its soul continues in Eugene. The remodeling of Hayward Field, the stadium that will host the competition, with almost 25,000 seats, was financed by Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, and many other links still link town, university and brand. This Athletics World Cup is the Nike World Cup and starting this Friday (at a bad time in Spain, almost always at dawn) its athletes will seek to show that on the track. Who specifically?

Well, first of all the American team, always with the swoosh on the chest, which goes with everything. After a somewhat disappointing Olympic Games in Tokyo, with a historical vacuum in speed, Team USA seeks redemption in the first World Cup at its home in history. Everything is ready to recover the titles lost in Tokyo in the 100 meters (Fred KerleyTrayvon Bromell…), the 200 meters (Erriyon Knighton Y Noah Lyles) or the 110 meter hurdles (Grant Holloway) and to celebrate triumphs and even world records in the women’s 400 meter hurdles (Sydney McLaughlin), the men’s shot put (Ryan Crouser) and up to the women’s 800 meters (Athing Mu). The United States has led the medal table in every edition of the World Cup with only two exceptions in the modern era (Russia in 2001 and Kenya in 2015), and this time there is no doubt that it will dominate widely, although most of the stars, those who they will cross the borders of athletics and reach the general public, they will not be yankees.

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The Rojas case

Because at the moment there is not an American or an American who has the power of attraction of the quartet that monopolizes more spotlights: the Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Prycethe norwegian Jakob IngebrigtsenSwedish Mondo Duplantis and the Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas. The four, each in their speciality, are called to set the agenda due to the importance of the World Cup in their careers. In the 100 meters, Fraser-Pryce could win her fifth title 13 years after winning her first, a milestone never achieved by a woman. Ingebrigtsen is aiming for a 1,500-5,000 double that only one man celebrated, bernard lagat, in 2007. At 22 years old, Duplantis wants the gold he lacks, since he failed three years ago in the Doha World Cup. And Rojas, well, Rojas. The jumper based in Guadalajara wanted this year to do the trick: to win again in the triple jump, perhaps even with another world record, and at the same time win in the long jump. But the rules of the International Athletics Federation left it halfway. As announced by the agency last week, Rojas’s minimum length was not accepted because to achieve it he used triple jump shoes, which are five millimeters higher.

In any case, the jumper will be a reference to a World Cup with resounding casualties due, like so many other things, to the invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. On the one hand, no Russian athletes will compete, even those who had permission to do so as neutrals, so the current champions in the high jump and pole vault will be missing, that is, Mariya Lasitskene Y Anzhelika Sidorova. And on the other, after testing positive for covid this week, the current 400-meter champion, the Bahamian, will not be there either. Steven Gardineror the Olympic marathon champion, the Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir. With all the athletes -and the coaches, and the judges, and the journalists…- gathered on the campus of the University of Oregon, the Eugene World Cup, the Nike World Cup, it seems like a purely American World Cup, although the idols they will come from other countries.

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