There were no surprises, as Jamaica’s trio of Oblique Seville, Rohan Watson and Ryiem Forde all secured their spot in the men’s 100 metres semi-finals, along with Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald, after all safely navigated their respective heats on the opening day of the World Athletic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday.

After a series of delays and false starts, Seville, who just missed the podium in Eugene, ran a comfortable race from lane seven in heat five and stopped the clock in 9.86s, which equalled his personal best.

The 22-year-old, who was the fastest qualifier across all seven heats, won ahead of one of the gold medal favourites in American Fred Kerley, who cruised to 9.99s. Belize’s Brandon Jones, who was also in the heat, placed seventh in 10.95s.

Seville pointed out that he had no concerns about the delays, as the experience gained over the years prepared him for what transpired.

“It is something that happens often in Jamaica, so it actually prepared me for now on the big stage. It was just for me to go out and execute and run a good time, I didn’t expect it but my coach did because he told me I am in the best of shape, so it was just for me to go out there and do what I have to,” Seville said shortly after performance.

Jamaica’s national championship Watson recovered from a slight stumble at the start to place second in the following heat.

He clocked 10.11s, behind Japan’s Sani Brown, who clocked a season’s best 10.07s, with Italy’s Lamonth Jacobs, also finishing in a season’s best 10.15s, as he continues to work his way back to form.

British Virgin Islands Rikkoi Brathwaite (10.18s) and Terrence Jones (10.32s) of Bahamas, fifth and sixth respectively in the same heat.

Earlier, another Jamaican Forde, also comfortably secured his spot, clocking 10.01s for second behind Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who clocked a flat 10.00s in winning heat one.

Favourite Noah Lyles was the second fastest in qualifying, as he stormed to 9.95s in heat two, with the powerfully built Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala (9.97s), joining him.

Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda’s Cejhae Greene (10.23s) missed out on the semi-finals after placing sixth in heat four, which was won by Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo in 10.11s.

Guyana’s Emanuel Archibald, who ran earlier this morning to progress to the heats, successfully went one step further as he booked his spot in the semi-finals.

Archibald was given joint third with a time of 10.20s, along with Japan’s Hiroki Yanagita, behind South Africa’s Akani Simbine, who won the final heat in 9.97s, just edging American Cristian Coleman (9.98s).

The semi-finals are scheduled for Sunday at 9:35am Jamaica time.

You can catch live action of the 2023 World Athletic Championships by downloading the Sportsmax App.

Not since Paris in 2003 has the men’s 100m title been claimed by a sprinter from outside the US or Jamaica. Could 2023 in Budapest be the time and place for someone to follow in the footsteps of Kim Collins by bringing an end to the 20-year-old duopoly?

The event appears to be as open as it was in the French capital two decades ago, when Collins put St Kitts and Nevis on the global track and field map. No-one stands out as a clear favourite, though Fred Kerley perhaps ought to be considered the main contender.

The 6ft 3in Texan is the reigning champion, having led a US medal sweep on home soil in Oregon last year ahead of Marvin Bracy-Williams and Trayvon Bromell. US sprinters have won the last three golds and Kerley will lead the starred and striped challenge in Budapest, supported this time by Cravont Charleston, the 2019 world champion Christian Coleman and two-time world 200m champion Noah Lyles, a potential ‘surprise’ packet.

Kerley has contested just five 100m races this season, two of them in the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Yokohama in May, where he clocked a season’s best of 9.88. He registered comfortable victories on the Diamond League circuit in Rabat and Florence, both in 9.94, but was edged out in a tight finish in Silesia on 16 July, South Africa’s Akani Simbine taking the win in 9.97 with Kerley and Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme clocking 9.98 in second and third, and the newly-crowned US champion Charleston fourth in 9.99.

Ahead of Kerley on the 2023 world list stand two potential challengers in Britain’s Zharnel Hughes (9.83) and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala (9.84).

When Hughes, a qualified pilot, flew to his 9.83 clocking in New York on 24 June, he sliced 0.04 off the ancient national record held by the only British sprinter to have claimed the world 100m title, Linford Christie, who triumphed in Stuttgart 30 years ago. Should he strike gold in Budapest, the native Anguillan would make it five wins in the event for his Jamaican coach, Glen Mills, the sprint guru who guided Usain Bolt to victory in 2009, 2013 and 2015, and also Yohan Blake in 2011.

“Obviously people are going to target the time I’ve run,” said Hughes, who won the European 200m title last year, “but I don’t put pressure on myself. That’s when things can go topsy turvy.”

Hughes, who false started in the Olympic final two years ago, has no other official sub-10 to his name in 2023, although he won the British title in 10.03 in monsoon conditions and smashed John Regis’ 30-year-old national 200m record with 19.73 for third place behind Lyles (19.47) and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo (19.50) in the London Diamond League meeting on 23 July.

Omanyala is the only man who has dipped under 9.90 twice this year, the Commonwealth champion backing up his 9.84 from the Kip Keino Classic in May with 9.85 in the Kenyan trials on 8 July. The former rugby player has yet to make a global 100m final but has been a consistent performer on the Diamond League stage, placing third in Rabat, second in Florence and Paris and first in Monaco, and is not lacking in confidence.

Simbine’s victory ahead of Kerley in Silesia will have raised his hopes of finally making a global podium – and winning the race to become Africa’s first medal winner in the event. The 29-year-old South African has long been the ‘nearly’ man of the 100m: fifth in London in 2017, fourth in Doha in 2019 and fifth in Oregon last year, as well as fourth and fifth in the last two Olympic finals. With four successive wins behind him (in Kladno, Ostrava, Stockholm and Silesia), he heads to Hungary with serious momentum.

The African challenge promises to be fierce. Like Simbine and Omanyala, Eseme and Tebogo have also notched top three finishes on the Diamond League circuit, while Simbine’s South African teammate Shaun Maswanganyi has a 9.91 clocking to his name.

A place on the podium might not be beyond the scope of all four US sprinters – including Lyles, who beat Omanyala and Tebogo to win the 100m at the Paris Diamond League and was recovering from Covid when he took third place in the US Championships. He boasts a PB of 9.86.

A new kid on the senior international block, the 20-year-old Bahamian Terrence Jones who won the NCAA indoor 60m title in March, has run 9.91.

The Jamaican challenge will be led by Oblique Seville, who finished fourth in Oregon last year, and the emerging Rohan Watson, who started the year with a best of 10.41 but won the Jamaican title in 9.91. Ackeem Blake stands fourth on the world list with 9.89 but, having placed fourth in the trials, is on the entry list as a reserve.

Dina Asher-Smith is relishing the opportunity to compete in a field featuring reigning world 200 metres champion Shericka Jackson when the Diamond League begins in Doha on Friday.

Asher-Smith will line up in a 100m field featuring some of the world’s best during the opener in Qatar, after improving her British 60m record in an unbeaten indoor season.

The 27-year-old took her time to 7.03 seconds ahead of competing in Doha.

“I’m very much a competitor so I love challenging races,” said Asher-Smith. “I don’t think you improve without running against the best in the world.

“There are so many women in the sprints running fantastic times.

“Almost every Diamond League for the past three or four seasons has been super-fast with loads of depth in each race. I’m very much used to it.”

Asher-Smith became the first British woman to win a major global sprint title when she won in the 200m in Doha in 2019.

There is the prospect in Qatar of elite athletes facing off in one-on-one races.

The men’s world 100m champion Fred Kerley has said on social media that he hopes to get the chance to go up against Olympic gold medallist Lamont Marcell Jacobs.

Asked who she would like to face given the opportunity, Asher-Smith said Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce would be her ideal opponent.

She was runner-up to the Jamaican over 100m at the 2019 World Championship.

“I really like racing Shelly,” she said. ”She is an incredible athlete and an incredible competitor.

“I really enjoy racing against her, mainly because I really like her race model compared to mine. It’s like a training exercise.”

Reigning World 100m champion Fred Kerley has described Jamaica’s Usain Bolt as the gold standard of sprinting, saying he and others have been inspired by the iconic Jamaican, who holds the world records in both 100 and 200m.

Kerley returned to the United States recently after a stint in Australia where he clocked a fast 20.32 in a 200m race at the Maurie Plant Meet in February before storming to victory in 44.65 over 400m at the Sydney Track Classic last Saturday.

In a subsequent interview on ABC Radio in Australia, Kerley, who has a wild-card entry to the World Championships in Budapest in August, said he plans to add to the gold medal he won last year in Oregon but ultimately wants to win Olympic gold in Paris in 2024.

His career goal, however, is surpassing Usain Bolt’s accomplishments. The Jamaican is the only man to win the sprint double at three consecutive Olympic Games and holds the Olympic records of 9.63 and 19.30 in the 100m and 200m, respectively.

“He inspired a lot of generations,” Kerley said of Bolt. “We try to duplicate or step foot where he stepped foot on. He is the golden standard for track and field. We all try to achieve all he achieved in his lifetime.”

Though he would love to be able to break the Jamaican’s world records, winning gold medals remains his top priority, Kerley said.

“For us to step in the same journey is all about the gold medals and stuff right now,” he reasoned. “The more gold medals I get, the more I can put in the history book. Records come and go, but golds last forever.”

Jamaica’s Oblique Seville narrowly missed out on a podium spot in the men’s 100 finals an event that was entirely swept by the United States at the Oregon World Championships on Saturday.

Pre-race favourite Fred Kerley recovered late on to just edge out compatriot Marvin Bracey who seemed destined for gold after getting off to a brilliant start.  A third American Trayvon Brommel was just behind.  Timewise Kerley never quite lived up to the explosive promise of a 9.79 clocking in the first round, but still took the event in a respectable 9.86.  Just ahead of Bracey who clocked 9.88 for second place.  Brommel stopped the clock in an identical time.

Just behind Brommel was Seville who was fourth in 9.97.  Despite missing out on the podium the result capped off a strong season for the 21-year-old who broke 10 seconds for the first time earlier this year and clocked a personal best of 9.86 in May of this year.  Seville is coached by Glen Mills at the Racers Track Club the same place sprint legend Usain Bolt was conditioned.

Earlier the country’s 100m national champion Yohan Blake failed to make it to the final after finishing 6^th in the semi-finals.  

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson have both been confirmed for the World Continental Tour Gold Kip Kieno Classic at the Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya on May 7, Media Liasion Elis Makori confirmed to Sportsmax.TV on Wednesday.

Fraser-Pryce, 35, has yet to open her season as she prepares for the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July when she hopes to add another title to her collection of nine gold medals that includes an unprecedented four 100m titles as well as a 200m title.

The two-time Olympic 100m champion also confirmed her participation on social media on Wednesday.

 “One of the most asked questions on the page (Facebook) has been “when are you visiting Kenya? Kenyan fans, how does May sound? See you in Nairobi,” said Fraser-Pryce, who will be most likely going for a fifth 100m title this summer.

According to Makori, the four-time Olympic 100m medallist, will most likely be running the blue-ribbon sprint at the meet. This most likely will mean that she will be going up against upstart American ShaCarri Richardson, who has also been confirmed.

Richardson was down to compete at the Bermuda Games last weekend but was a no-show.

Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Jackson competed on the indoor circuit where she ran a lifetime best 7.04 while finishing sixth in the final of the 60m dash at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in March.

So far this outdoor season, she won the 400m in 51.29 on April 2, at the Velocity Fest at the National Stadium in Kingston and then at the Bermuda Games on April 9, she ran 51.40s for a second victory.

Namibia’s Christine Mboma, the Tokyo Olympic 200m silver medallist and Fred Kerley of the USA are also down to compete.

Christopher Taylor and Christania Williams copped second-place finishes in the 400m and 60m races, respectively at the opening meet on the American Track League circuit in Fayetteville, Arkansas earlier today.

Andre Ewers, meanwhile, finished third in the men’s 60 dash that ended in a dominant win for American Trayvon Brommell.

Taylor, who was making his debut indoors, ran 45.73 in the 400m that was won impressively by American Fred Kerley in 45.03. Kerley said afterwards that he would have gone faster had he been pressed.

The 45.73, however, would have been an encouraging start for Taylor, who spent much of the past two seasons recovering from injury after he made the move to Florida to train with Rana Reider at Tumbleweed Track Club.

Travean Caldwell was third in 46.25.

Williams, the 2018 Commonwealth Games 100m silver medalist, ended up second in a blanket-finish with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare who won in 7.17s. Williams’ 7.18 mirrored the time she ran in the preliminaries earlier. Kayla White was third in 7.20.

Ewers ran 6.74 in the preliminaries to advance along with Omar McLeod whose 6.73 made him the fastest Jamaican going into the finals. Neither of them was as impressive as Bromell, who ran 6.58 easing down as he made his way into the final.

In the final, he let it all hang out winning handsomely in 6.48. The rest of the field finished under a blanket with Nigeria’s Divine Oduduru given second in 6.65 with Ewers third in 6.67. McLeod was a further 0.03 seconds back in sixth.

Brittany Anderson, who set the U20 world record in the 100m hurdles in Finland in July 2019,  found the going at the senior level a little tougher today finishing fourth in the 60m hurdles.

Her time of 8.06s was the fastest for a Jamaican this year but Tiffany Porter (7.89), Christina Clemons (7.88), and, winner, Tonea Marshall (7.86) were that much faster.