EUGENE, Oregon — Fred Kerley has an active Twitter account. In it, he explains why he’s very good at running fast.
I love what I do, he says. That’s why, he goes on, I’m confident in everything I do.
To know Kerley is to understand, indeed appreciate, that he is not obnoxiously confident. He is from small-town central Texas, and he has an understated humility. “Track and field has changed my life, coming from where I come from,” he said late Saturday. “Every day I get to run track, it’s a blessing.” All the same, no one gets to be best at the 100 meters, the most alpha of alpha male disciplines, without considerable self-esteem. In that Twitter account, in which he lets the public in, at least a little, into bits and pieces of the real him, Kerley returns time and again to the notion that greatness, by implication, his, cannot be denied.
Fred Kerley (center), Marvin Bracy (right), Trayvon Bromell (far left) 1-2-3 in the men’s 100 final // Getty Images
On Saturday, before a reasonably full house at Hayward Field, Kerley made greatness manifest, winning the men’s 100 meters at the first track and field world championships held in the United States. He crossed in 9.86 seconds.
The Americans made it 1-2-3, Marvin Bracy second and Trayvon Bromell third, both in 9.88.
“I said we were going to do it and we did,” Kerley said immediately after the race, adding, “USA, baby!”
“It’s special, man,” Bromell said. “We came to represent.”
The men’s 100 1-2-3 came moments after American Chase Ealey won the women’s shot put, the first U.S. gold in Eugene. Four medals in a matter of moments, Ealey making history in the manner of Michelle Carter, the U.S. women’s shot put gold medalist in Rio in 2016.
This was the kind of script that U.S. — and world — track officials could only have dreamed of when they awarded the world championships to an American stage, the idea being to jumpstart the sport across the 50 states.
Bracy made it a career breakthrough, a first major senior international outdoors medal after dabbling with football; he had signaled at the world indoors in Belgrade in March that this might be his year, winning bronze in the 60. For Bromell, it’s a testament to longevity and fortitude. The 2015 Beijing world championships bronze medalist and 2016 world indoor champion, he had struggled to return from an Achilles tear, then been on fire in early 2021 but failed to make the Olympic final.
For all that U.S. track and field might have pulled off Saturday night, the biggest winner is, no question, Fred Kerley. He is not just now the fastest man in the world. He is also approachable, likable — immediately after crossing the line, he walked down the west stands at Hayward for selfies and high-fives, then came back out about a half-hour later for more pictures with another group at the south end of the stadium — and more than ready to step up as the big dogs of American speed reassert, with conviction, their place as No. 1 in the world.
Coming up, still: the men’s 200, with Noah Lyles, Erriyon Knighton — and Kerley. And then the men’s 4x1 and 4x4 relays. Before this meet got underway, Lyles all but guaranteed a U.S. win in the 4x1 and maybe a pass at the world record.
The Bolt era in men’s sprinting is, officially, formally, completely over. Long live the king. The big dogs are back.
Do not forget, by the way, Christian Coleman, the 2019 world 100 champ. Coming back from a whereabouts violation, he spent most of 2022 working himself back into race shape. He finished sixth, in 10.01, and anyone who counted him out would be foolish.
Meanwhile, there are any number of prisms through which one might wish to see Kerley’s victory.
There is redemption. Last season, Kerley took second at the Tokyo Games, in 9.84, behind Italy’s Marcell Jacobs, a surprise winner in 9.8 flat. Jacobs, bothered in 2022 by a groin injury, unsurprisingly scratched before Saturday’s semifinal rounds.
There is all-around excellence. Kerley is one of ony three men to have achieved a crazy triple — under 10 in the 100, under 20 in the 200 and under 44 in the 400. The others are South Africa’s Wayde Van Niekerk, the 400 world record holder and Rio 2016 champion, and American Michael Norman, a Tokyo 2020 4x4 relay gold medalist.
There is what Kerley has done this season.
At the U.S. nationals here at Hayward just a few weeks ago, Kerley went 9.83 in the heats, then 9.77 in the semis, and, two hours later in the finals, 9.76. That was arguably the best series, ever in track and field history.
The latter two stand as the two fastest times in the world in 2022.
On Friday, Kerley opened up with a 9.79. That would have won the Tokyo final by one-hundredth of a second. It was also the fastest mark, ever, in the world championships early rounds — the previous best was 9.87 in 1997 from Ato Boldon, who on Saturday was upstairs calling the race for NBC. Justin Gatlin ran 9.77 in the 2015 semis.
On Saturday, Kerley — this is the mark of a pro — did enough, just enough, to win. Kerley went 10.02 to win his semi. Bromell had gone 9.97, essentially tied with South Africa’s Akani Simbine, at the top of their round. Bracy went 9.93, three ticks behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, who at 21 is still gaining the experience of the others.
In the final, Seville would finish fourth at 9.97, Simbine fifth, 10.01.
Kerley’s 9.86 was no 9.76 like at nationals. But it didn’t have to be. It’s rare at an Olympic final or a world championships, unless your name is Usain Bolt, to run otherworldly fast in the final.
See last year’s Olympics: 9.8 got the job done. The 2015 worlds: though Gatlin went 9.77 in the semis, Bolt won the final in 9.79; Gatlin went 9.8 for second. In 2016 in Rio, Bolt 9.81 for the win. London 2017, Gatlin 9.92. An exception: Coleman in Doha in 2019, 9.76.
In the final, the 1-2-3 — Kerley, Bracey, Bromell — matched precisely how they finished at nationals.
“The job is done for today,” Kerley said. “Next I’ve got to concentrate on the 200 and then the relay.”
As for that 100, he did allow himself a moment to reflect on his greatness, and as he is genuinely given to say in his humble central Texas way, yessir: “It felt amazing. I got the work done this time around, and the gold medal means more than anything.”