Lyles, Hodgkinson, Warholm, Richardson: Big wins, progressions and causes for concern at Silesia Diamond League

New York Times

18 hours ago

Timing is everything.
This year's athletics World Championships, which take place in Tokyo, Japan, for eight days from September 13, are the latest in the calendar year since the 2019 edition in Doha, Qatar. While the Silesia, Poland, leg of the Diamond League meet last year was a relatively pressure-free, post-Olympics showcase, the backdrop on Saturday was very different. In a month's time, the track and field season hits its climax.
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Theoretically the lucky ones are the World Champions from Budapest, Hungary, two years ago. Winning there fast-tracked them to last summer's Games and meant they qualified automatically for Tokyo this year, too.
However, across the board, injuries have derailed and disrupted the seasons of many top athletes this year. With meet records in nearly half of the elite events (11 out of 23), Silesia was a melting pot and proving ground for six Olympic/World champions, who had question marks by their name ahead of Worlds.
Two made big statements: Keely Hodgkinson (Olympic 800m gold) and Karsten Warholm (World 400m hurdle gold and Olympic silver).
Others made progress: Noah Lyles (Olympic and World 100m and 200m gold) and Shericka Jackson (World 200m gold and 100m silver).
A couple still have a lot of work to do: Sha'Carri Richardson (World 100m gold, Olympic 100m silver) and Grant Holloway (World and Olympic 110m hurdle gold).
Season openers do not come much better than Hodgkinson's 800m win in 1:54.74s. The 23-year-old was watching from the sidelines this season, after setbacks came following a hamstring injury first sustained in February — when she had ambitions quashed for an 800m indoor world-record attempt.
With this being a non-Diamond League event (no points were scored towards qualifying for the finals in Zurich), Hodgkinson was the clear favourite. Her run was a real statement of intent, winning by 1.78s and producing a strong second 400m after the pacemaker split 56.09s at the bell (which is 1:52-low pace).
That time is Hodgkinson's second-fastest ever, only 0.13s off the British record she clocked last July at the London Diamond League. It ranks ninth of all 800m performances.
The Briton now has the world lead — the fastest time in 2025. She went nearly two seconds quicker than the 1:56.65s Tsige Duguma ran back in May, dragging round second-place Lilian Odira of Kenya, who finished in 1:56.62s.
'I planned to run a fast time because I do not have five races anymore before Tokyo, I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne (next Wednesday),' Hodgkinson said. 'It had to be fast and I am happy that it worked.'
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This is a 10th straight 800m win for the Manchester-born athlete, who had a perfect 2024 over two laps, winning European and then Olympic gold. 'I was just happy to step on the track after more than a year,' she said.
A world gold is the only medal missing from Hodgkinson's set, having been runner-up at the last two editions — beaten by Mary Moraa in 2023 and Athing Mu the year before that. After this performance and time, Hodgkinson is the athlete to beat.
In just under five weeks, Warholm will return to the track in Tokyo where he took 0.76s off his world record in 2021, when he ran 45.94s in the Olympic final.
Warholm's run in Silesia was his best performance since then. He finished in 46.28s, winning by almost an entire second (with Ezekiel Nathaniel in second running a Nigerian record of 47.31s).
It was a big world lead, nearly 0.3 quicker than Rai Benjamin's 46.54s from June, and the third-fastest time ever, smashing the Diamond League record.
This comes after the Puma athlete set a 300m hurdles 'world best' of 32.67s in Oslo this June, at his home Diamond League. By World Athletics points tables, the Silesia run was marginally better, and rated as the performance of the day.
'I was a little bit surprised that it was this good, but still I knew that I was very fast in the training camps,' Warholm said. 'I came here for fast times. It is one thing to know that it is possible and then it is another to go out and do it — it is very promising going into Tokyo.'
Warholm has won four of his five races this summer, once more flying out the blocks in his distinct, aggressive style, and a stride pattern of 13 steps means he always leads over hurdles with his left leg. The main difference for this race was the Norwegian racing out of lane eight, one over from his typical lane seven.
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It sets things up — providing no upsets in the qualifying rounds — for a phenomenal World Championships final. Warholm versus Alison dos Santos (Brazil) and Benjamin (USA) has been the hurdles battle to watch in recent years.
Benjamin won in Paris, with Warholm second in an unsuccessful Olympic title defence, and Dos Santos third. Hamstring injuries disrupted his training and racing in 2024, preventing him hitting his highest levels.
Based on his Silesia run, Benjamin or Dos Santos need the performance of a lifetime to stop Warholm defending his title and adding a fourth world gold — he won in London, 2017; Doha, 2019; Budapest, 2023.
Lyles took 0.1 off his season best to run 9.90s for 100m, but was beaten by Jamaica's Kishane Thompson (9.87s) in their first meeting since last summer's Olympic final — where Lyles famously won by five-thousandths of a second.
There was an American 2-3-4, with training partners Kenny Bednarek and Christian Coleman both running 9.96s to finish just behind Lyles.
It builds on the 10-flat and 10.05s 100m times he recorded at the London Diamond League and US trials. Lyles said it was a 'great stepping stone,' adding that 'I needed to see a sub-10.'
Thompson is the fastest 100m man of 2025 with his 9.75s from Jamaican trials earlier this summer (which was the fastest 100m time for a decade). He has won all seven of his races over the distance in 2025, so while the Silesia meet means he has finally beaten Lyles (in their third meeting), the gap between the two this season is decreasing.
He and Thompson are scheduled to race next week over 100m again in Lausanne, Switzerland.
'Not so good, not so bad,' was Thompson's assessment of his third sub-9.90s clocking this year. 'It is all about execution. The key is to find the momentum in the race and to maintain it until the end.'
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The Jamaican led from the blocks, and while Lyles — as he always does — closed hard, Thompson's lead from the first 60m was enough.
'The more I run, the better I am getting,' Lyles said. In 2023, he was the fourth different American in a row to win men's 100m gold. Not since Maurice Green, who three-peated in 1997, 1999 and 2001, has an American man defended a 100m world title.
Jackson is quietly stitching together a promising season. She won the 200m in 22.17s, her fastest time for two years, when she won the world title.
Jackson held off the fast-finishing American Brittany Brown (22.21s), while Nigerian Favour Ofili (22.25s) outran the British pair of Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith to finish third.
'We are back! I have not run a curve this hard since 2023,' she said. 'Last year was a disappointment, but now mentally I am here and I am strong.'
Injury kept Jackson out of the Olympics last summer, a real shame for an athlete with such range, and who is an essential part of Jamaica's relay pool. The 31-year-old has won the 200m world title at the last two Championships, and also has individual medals over 100m and 400m.
Jackson ranks 12th over 100m and 200m this year, while her 36.13s clocking over 300m in April is the seventh-fastest in 2025.
She came second over 100m at the Jamaican Championships, so will race that and the 200m, for which she is wildcarded.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden continued her excellent season with a 10.66s run for first place, extending her winning streak to eight races over 100m in 2025.
The newly-crowned U.S. Champion — over 100m and 200m — won by daylight, with Jamaican Tia Clayton in second (10.82s) and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (10.87s) third.
Jefferson-Wooden took bronze in the Olympic final (10.92s) behind Richardson and Julien Alfred last summer, and her run in Silesia was just 0.01 off her 100m world lead from U.S. trials two weeks ago.
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'Everything is going great this year,' she said. 'I was genuinely shocked when I saw the time. I hope to keep this momentum.'
Some context for Richardson, the defending 100m world champion who finished sixth in a season's best time of 11.05s, and was the slowest of the three Americans (with Jacious Sears fifth in 11.00s).
Richardson, en route to U.S. trials at the end of July, was arrested at Seattle Tacoma International Airport. The case has since been cleared, with Coleman, Richardson's boyfriend, declining to press charges on fourth-degree domestic violence, as per a report obtained by The Athletic from the Port of Seattle Police Department.
Richardson won the 100m world final two years ago, in 10.65s from the outside lane. Not since 2018, when she was in college, has Richardson failed to break 11s. She came fourth at trials over 200m so, individually, will only race 100m in Tokyo.
There is work to do for Holloway. He came second in a US sweep, with Cordell Tinch taking the win in 13.03s, more than 0.1 clear of Holloway (13.15s), and Eric Edwards in third (13.20s).
Having successfully defended his World Indoor 60m crown for the second time in March, injury issues have impacted his season and made his flawless hurdling style … less flawless.
Holloway is still yet to break the 13s barrier in 2025, something he has done in each of the past four years — his races in 2024 became more about him versus the world record than other athletes.
'It was not my best day and it has not been my best year so far,' he said after coming second. 'But I am working hard on figuring it out. These competitions are just building blocks on the way to the World Championships. I am still optimistic about doing well there.'
His optimism is for good reason, having won seven of the past eight global finals, which totals three outdoor and three indoor world titles, one Olympic silver (2021) and Olympic gold (2024).
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However the same Holloway who won 21 of 23 meets last season has only won twice in nine 110m hurdles races in 2025.
Tinch, after winning in Silesia, spoke on this: 'In the U.S. it is sometimes hard to find yourself with all those fast hurdlers. In a field like that with Grant Holloway, you got to take on those wins and build on that.'
Tinch, who finished second at U.S. trials behind Ja'kobe Tharp, is the fastest 110m hurdler in the world this year, after clocking 12.87s back in May. 'My mindset this year is: I am the best,' he added.
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