The first medal in Peru, Felix’s 19th award in his career. Main events of the day of the World Championships in Athletics / Article

The first prizes were shared by the women in the 20-kilometer walk, where Garcia-Leon secured the laurels of the world champion. Finishing in one hour, 26 minutes and 58 seconds, Garcia-Leon won Peru’s first medal in world championship history. Polish woman Katarzyna Zdzieblo, who was 33 seconds slower, earned the silver, but the bronze medalist was the 2012 Olympic champion Chinese track and field athlete Qiyana Shijie, who was separated from the champion by 58 seconds. The reigning champion, Liu Hun of China, finished fifth, falling short of her hopes of becoming a four-time world champion in walking.

On the other hand, in the same long walking distance for men on the streets of Eugene, the Japanese Toshikazu Yamanishi successfully defended his laurels as the world champion, who crossed the finish line after one hour, 19 minutes and seven seconds. His compatriot Koki Ikeda finished seven seconds behind, while bronze medalist Perseus Carlström of Sweden lost 11 seconds to the champion.

In the preliminaries in the 100-meter sprint, participation in the semifinals was ensured by all the favorites, the best result – 9.79 seconds – was achieved by the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympic Games and the season leader of the American Fred Kerley.

The semi-finals and the final race will take place early Sunday morning Latvian time.

At the end of the first day of the competition, the runners of the Dominican Republic, Lidio Andres Feliz, Marylady Paulinho, Alexander Ogando and Fiordaliza Cofila, became the world champions in the mixed 4×400 meter relay. The winner’s time at the finish line in the medal race was three minutes and 9.82 seconds. Eight hundredths of a second slower, the Dutch quartet earned silver, while Team USA took bronze 0.34 seconds behind the winners.

In the US relay team, Felix, the most titled athlete in the world championships, added to her collection of awards – the 36-year-old runner has 19 medals, including 13 championship titles, three silver and three bronze medals.

Felix did not qualify for the start in any individual distance in the last world championship in her career, but she was given the opportunity to participate in the final of the mixed relay. Felix ran a second leg where she did not hold the minimum lead, but the US quartet had a good chance for gold in the rest of the race. However, Kennedy Simon did not hold onto the lead in the final stage and dropped to third place at the finish line.

Runner Gunta Vaičule will be the first Latvian athlete to compete in the 400-meter distance, where the preliminaries will take place on Sunday, July 17. Latvia will also be represented in the javelin with Līna Mūzi, Madara Palameikas, Patrikas Gailums and Rolands Štrobinders, while Arnis Rumbenieks will compete in the 35-kilometer walk at the end of the championship.

The World Championships will last until July 24, with the participation of approximately 1,900 track and field athletes from 192 countries and territories. Not everything is going smoothly for the organizers, because about 100 athletes and officials were delayed in getting US visas. The African record holder in the 100 meters race, Ferdinand Omanjala of Kenya, arrived at the venue of the competition only three hours before the start of the preliminaries, which did not prevent him from entering the semi-finals.

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