DOHA, QATAR – After having a mural in dowtown Taylor dedicated to him in Janurary, Fred Kerley left the ceremony to continue his training as his showdown with Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs at the 2024 Olympics lurks in the distance.
Kerley has been doing his normal workouts to prepare for his upcoming Olympic race, and has had a few races in between to gain more “real race” experience.
The most recent race saw Kerley travel to Doha, the capital city of Qatar, to participate in a Diamond League race. Kerley ran in the 200meter race and would show the world again why he is one of the top sprinters in the world.
After the race started, teammate and fellow American Kenneth Bednarek and Canadian runner Aaron Brown got out ahead of Kerley, but shortly after the turn Kerley shifted into another gear. He closed the gap between him and the leader, but did not stop there once the gap was closed.
Kerley finished the race with a sizeable gap to take first place with Bednarek right behind him, giving America the gold and silver medals. This added to Kerley’s prestigious resume logging another first place finish.
Kerley is also the only man ever to win world championship gold in the 100, 200 and 400. The only thing that has illuded him is an Olympic gold medal, but he will have a chance to get one in 2024 when the Olympics go to Paris, France.
Kerley, Jacobs rivalry heats up
The track events have been in a lot of headlines when discussing the 2024 Olympics because of his matchup with Jacobs. Before that race on such a grand stage, the two sprinters will be going head-tohead in the 100 at the Diamond League meet June 2, in Florence, Italy.
According to an article from NBC Sports this will be the first time the reigining world champion and the reigning Olympic champion will face each other in the 100 since Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt beat fellow Jamacian Yohan Blake.
The artilce also stated this will be the first time in a while the Olympic gold medalist and the world champion face off in the 100 at a meet outside of the global stage. The last time this happened was in 2005 when American Justin Gatlin beat fellow countrymen Kim Collins.
The reason it has been so long is because sometimes it is difficult for non-championship meets to pay the appearance fees to get the athletes there. But also highly-ranked sprinters to face each other and risk defeat in a race they are not required to run.
But after a few social media jabs back and forth between the two athletes the stage has been set for June 2.
This will serve as a preview for the 2024 Olympics, and even though it will not be as big of a stage as the Olympics, rest assured Kerley is going to be giving his all to gain the upper hand in this rivalry.
