100 meters: Fred Kerley is the fastest man in the world

When Fred Kerley took the world championship title by a tiny margin after the 100-meter sprint and his US teammates also took silver and bronze, the crowd went wild. The host country has not won three medals in the most important athletics competition for 31 years, but the spectators in the Hayward Field stadium in Eugene got their money's worth on the second day of the competition at the first World Championships in the USA.

“It felt great,” said the 27-year-old Kerley on Saturday evening (local time) after his success in 9,86 seconds. “It's great to be able to do it on home soil with the home fans behind you.” Most of them will probably only now get to know its remarkable story through the title. USA replaces Jamaica as number one sprint nation People were immediately happy about the result and the prospects for the remaining races. With silver for Marvin Bracy and bronze for Trayvon Bromell, both clocked with a time of 9,88 seconds, and former world champion Christian Coleman as the fourth American in the final, the team's confidence in the 4x100 meter relay is also huge. Despite the US quartet's mistakes in recent years: “We won't be beaten by anyone. We are putting in the work and we will achieve great things in the days to come,” Kerley predicted.

Triple success for the USA. © ANSA / Robert Ghement

Difficult life story for the world champion He has already done that himself, regardless of how many more medals he will win at the inaugural World Cup on US soil. Because Kerley grew up in circumstances that, viewed from the outside, were often given the label “difficult”: with his aunt Virgina, called Meme because her father went to prison and her mother got on the wrong track, as he said in an article a few years ago years self-reported.

Grew up in difficult circumstances: Fred Kerley. © APA/getty / EZRA SHAW

A total of 13 children shared a room in the small town in the middle of Texas. “At the end of the day it was like any other house: we wanted to have fun and a good time,” he said now. The text published three years ago made it clear how remarkable his own path is. In it he describes how all the failed existences in his immediate environment were the motivation to make something better out of his own life: “The difference was my attitude.”

Thanks to this, he now holds the unofficial title of fastest man in the world, at least until the World Championships in Budapest in a year. And because he only switched from the 400 meters to the short distance in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year, his potential does not seem to have been exhausted yet.

However, it seems questionable whether he will ever be able to fill the big shoes of Usain Bolt, into which every world champion over the 100 meters is inevitably placed. Both Bolt's world record of 9,58 seconds from the 2009 World Cup in Berlin and the Jamaican's qualities as an entertainer and star of the athletics scene seem out of reach for the rather taciturn Kerley.

“Usain Bolt is probably a role model for each of us. He has done great things. We all want to be on the podium and reach his level,” Kerley said. “He achieved something that not many have achieved: world records in the 100 and 200. I feel like we all want to be on the same level as him.”

But his own story can also serve as inspiration, and the self-confident athlete has no doubts about that: “Everyone is a role model for someone else, and my development towards a sponsorship deal with Nike and the podium places shows the kids who look up to me: If I If you can do it, you can do it too.”

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100 meters: Fred Kerley is the fastest man in the world

The USA celebrates a triple victory at the home World Championships over 100 meters. Although the Texan Fred Kerley cannot fill Usain Bolt's big shoes, he is still a good role model because of his life story.

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