IAAF World Championships: Top College Subplots To Watch

Over the course of the nine-day IAAF World Championships in Beijing beginning August 22, a bunch of collegiate track & field stars will take on the planet’s best for international glory.

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While the pursuit of worldwide accolades is each athlete’s main objective in China, that doesn’t mean that us fans and media can’t enjoy some of the collegian-vs.-collegian subplots that have presented themselves.

From the rematches we’ve been anxiously awaiting (cough cough Bromell vs. De Grasse cough cough) to the continuations of historic years in such events as the pole vault and combined events, here’s our top six storylines that pit collegiate rivals against one another.

And be sure to check back tomorrow for collegians in the medal hunt: the favorites, the contenders & the dark horses.

Men’s 100:
Andre De Grasse (Southern California) vs. Trayvon Bromell (Baylor)

Prelim round: Friday, Aug. 21 – 12:40am ET
Heats: Saturday, Aug. 22 – 7:20am ET
Semifinals: Sunday, Aug. 23 – 7:10am ET
Final: Sunday, Aug. 23 – 9:15am ET

It’s finally happening. This is the rivalry rematch we’ve wanted to see ever since De Grasse (Canada) exploded for a pair of historically fast national titles at June’s NCAA Championships in Eugene, unseating Bromell (United States) as college’s fastest man at 100 meters. How fast was he? Albeit windy, his 9.75 and 19.58 at 100 and 200 meters are the No. 2 and No. 1 all-time, all-conditions performances in college history.

This is the rematch we’ve been clamoring for all summer as Bromell ran the fastest-ever wind-legal time by a collegian at 9.84 and clocked a windy 9.76 at the USATF Championships, and as De Grasse racked up Canadian and Pan American Games titles.

The writing for what this rivalry could eventually become was on the wall as far back as the NCAA Indoor Championships, when Bromell blazed to the 200 meters national crown after holding off a hard-charging De Grasse down the straightaway. At 20.19 and 20.26, both men ended up among the top five in the history of the world.

Ramping up the stakes in this rivalry is the fact that both men are medal contenders and likely finalists. Bromell comes in No. 3 based on 2015 wind-legal performances, while De Grasse enters at No. 12.

Men’s 400:
Vernon Norwood (LSU) vs. Deon Lendore (Texas A&M)

Heats: Saturday, Aug. 22 – 11:10pm ET
Semifinal: Monday, Aug. 24 – 8:05am ET
Final: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – 9:25am ET

Norwood (United States) swept the indoor and outdoor 400 meters national titles in 2015, taking the broom from 2014 double national champion and Bowerman Trophy winner Lendore (Trinidad and Tobago).

While Norwood had a tremendous season and deserves both of those trophies, there remains a shadow of a doubt in the rivalry between the two: what would have happened if Lendore was healthy this year?

Though he made it back for the NCAA Indoor Championships to finish fourth, the reigning Bowerman Trophy winner had dropped out of the SEC Championships just two weeks prior, and at the NCAA Outdoor Championships he pulled up in the final with an injury just a month after defeating Norwood head-to-head at SECs.

Assuming both men are health and in top fitness heading into Beijing next week, this event could be the exclamation point for Norwood’s season or a measure of redemption for Lendore.

On paper very little separates the two men this season. Lendore is seeded No. 8 at 44.41, followed by Norwood at No. 10 in 44.44.

Super Sophomore Women’s 400-Meter Hurdlers

Heats: Saturday, Aug. 22 – 10:25pm ET
Semifinals: Monday, Aug. 24 – 7:10am ET
Final: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – 8:10am ET

The phenomenal success of Texas A&M’s Shamier Little (United States) in her two short years in College Station is well-documented – two-time NCAA Champion, IAAF World Junior Champion, youngest woman in world history to break 54 seconds, and the 2015 world leader entering the World Championships.

But did you know she’s just one of three first-team All-American rising junior 400-meter hurdlers set to compete in Beijing next week?

Joining Little are Canada’s Sage Watson (formerly of Florida State, now at Arizona) and Norway’s Amalie Iuel (Southern California), who finished fourth and seventh at NCAAs, respectively.

The future of the event is now.

Women’s Pole Vault:
The Year of the Vault – The Final Chapter

Qualification: Sunday, Aug. 23 – 9:30pm ET
Final: Wednesday, Aug. 26 – 7am ET

2015 has been The Year of the Vault, and what a year it’s been – thanks largely to the rivalry between Sandi Morris of Arkansas and Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin.

The two have combined for nine collegiate record jumps in 2015 and nearly every single one of the all-time top-10 jumps both indoors and outdoors, while split the national titles right down the middle – Morris winning indoors and Payne taking the crown outdoors.

Morris edged Payne at the USATF Outdoor Championships – second to third – and then went to Europe and vaulted 4.76m (15-7¼) for the best vault in collegiate history, topping the indoor mark of 4.75m (15-7) set by – who else? –  Demi Payne.

 In the meantime, Payne is coming off of a fourth-place finish at a windy Pan American Games in Toronto in late July.

Both have realistic potential to reach the medal stand, with Morris seeded No. 7 and Payne at No. 9.

Women’s Heptathlon Showdown

Start: Friday, Aug. 21 – 9pm ET
Finishes: Sunday, Aug. 23 – 7:40am ET
Full Schedule

A staggering 11 women broke the 6000-point barrier in this event in 2015, including four at the NCAA Championships alone and the first NCAA Division II woman to surpass that milestone.

Want more proof this is a stacked event? That fourth-place finisher – Erica Bougard of Mississippi State – will be competing at these World Championships after finishing third at the USATF National Championships. Oh, and she’s the reigning SEC Champion and the No. 6 collegian of all-time.

Perhaps the most exciting facet of this heptathlon revolution is the woman leading the charge: NCAA Champion Akela Jones (Barbados) of Kansas State. If you can believe this, she moved to No. 4 on the all-time college performers list (including the college and post-college seasons) with a score of 6317 points in her second career heptathlon.

This will be her first combined event competition since NCAAs, and third overall in her career.

Bougard (United States) will be in the field, as will the NCAA DII record holder Salcia Slack (Jamaica) of New Mexico Highlands, who finished the season fifth on the 2015 collegiate descending order list.

Maicel Uibo (Georgia) vs. The Challengers to the Decathlon Crown

Starts: Thursday, Aug. 27 – 9pm ET
Finishes: Saturday, Aug. 29 – 8:10am ET

Uibo (Estonia) is the two-time defending NCAA Champion in the decathlon and owns two of the six best scores in collegiate history with a pair of 8300+ efforts this season (including the all-dates No. 5 score of 8356 to win at NCAAs).

The Estonian rising senior will look for the three-peat in 2016, and he’ll have a good look this week at the two men who will likely be his stiffest competition: Pau Tonnesen (Spain) of Arizona and Zack Ziemek (United States) of Wisconsin.

In finishing runner-up to Uibo this year, Tonnesen posted 8247 points for the best-ever score by a runner-up at the NCAA Championships. Also a rising senior, Tonnesen also won the Pac-12 conference crown.

Absent from the 2015 collegiate scene was Ziemek, who was the fifth-place finisher at NCAAs in 2014 but redshirted this past season. He didn’t spend the season in idle, however, as he won the Drake Relays decathlon and took third at USATF with a score of 8107.