The World Track and Field Championships begin on Saturday in Budapest, Hungary. 

Below, we preview the men’s field events. 

High Jump

Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, the reigning World and Olympic champion, is looking to win his fourth consecutive World title. Barshim cleared 2.37 meters to win the World Championships last year in Eugene, one year after he and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi shared the gold at the Olympics. Barshim’s personal-best of 2.43m from 2014 is the second highest jump in history, only trailing Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 meters in 1993.

Tamberi is entered in the field, as is U.S. star JuVaughn Harrison, who cleared 2.35m to win a Diamond League meet in London on July 23. That 2.35m mark is the second-best jump in the world this year behind Barshim’s 2.36m. Harrison won USA Outdoor Championships last month.

Other athletes to watch include Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo, who was second at last year’s World Championships, as well as Germany’s Tobias Potye and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, who have the world’s fourth- and fifth-best jumps this season, respectively. 

Pole Vault

All eyes will be on Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, the 2021 Olympic champion who set a world outdoor record of 6.21 meters to win last year’s World title in Eugene. In February, Duplantis set a world indoor record with a mark of 6.22m at a meet in France.

Chris Nilsen, who finished second behind Duplantis at last year’s Worlds Championships -- he was also second at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 -- is looking to pull off the upset. Nilsen won the past two USATF Outdoor Championships and cleared 5.91m last month.

Sam Kendricks is another American to watch. He missed last year’s World Championships after undergoing knee surgery, but he won the two previous World titles in 2017 and 2019. Kendricks tied for fourth at last month’s USATF Outdoor meet.

Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, a 2023 Princeton graduate who was a three-time NCAA champion, and EJ Obiena of the Phillipenes, who was third at last year’s Worlds meet, should also be in medal contention.

Long Jump

This event should be wide open as the top five long jumps of this season are between 8.40m and 8.42m. India’s Jeswin Aldrin (8.42m) and Murali Sreeshankar (8.41m) have the first- and second-best outdoor long jumps this year, although neither have much experience at this level. They both competed at last year’s World Championships for the first time, with Sreeshankar finishing seventh and Aldrin failing to qualify for the finals.

China’s Wang Jianan, the reigning World gold medalist, and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, who won the Olympic title two years ago in Tokyo and was second at last year’s World Championships, are entered in the field, too. Tentoglou has a season-best mark of 8.41m, which he set indoors in February, while Wang’s best this year is 8.26m in winning the Chinese Championships in June.

Marquis Dendy, who won the USATF Outdoor title last month, is the top American. Dendy, at 31, is the third-oldest jumper in the field. 

Triple Jump

Jamaica’s Jaydon Hibbert, who turns 19 in January, is the youngest competitor in this event by three and a half years. But Hibbert could be considered a favorite for a medal, as he has the world’s longest triple jump this year with a mark of 17.87 meters. Coincidentally, that mark came at the SEC Outdoor Championships in May. As a freshman at Arkansas this year, Hibbert won the NCAA indoor (17.54m) and outdoor (17.56m) titles.

Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo, who won the World title (17.95m) last year and the Olympic gold medal (17.98m) two years ago, is in the field, too. He has an indoor season best of 17.60m, which is third in the world this year, but he’s only competed in one outdoor meet, jumping 17.91m (wind-aided) to win a Diamond League meet in May in Qatar.

Burkinabe’s Hugues Fabrice Zango, who was the silver medalist at the Olympics in 2021 and at again the World Championships in Eugene, is another one who could break through.

The U.S. contingent consists of Donald Scott, Will Claye and Chris Benard. The trio were the top three triple jumpers at last month’s USATF Outdoors meet. 

Claye is the most decorated of the three, winning silver medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships. Claye was fourth at the 2021 Olympics. 

Shot Put

The U.S. is looking to sweep the medals in this event for the second consecutive year. At last year’s World Championships, Ryan Crouser won gold, Joe Kovacs won silver and Josh Awotunde earned bronze.

Crouser, the gold medalist at the past two Olympics, is the heavy favorite. In late May, he set the outdoor World record of 23.56 meters at a meet in Los Angeles. Last month, he won the USATF Outdoor title for the third consecutive year.

Kovacs was second behind Crouser at last year’s Worlds Championships -- and also across the past two Olympic GAmes -- and he has the second-best throw this year with a mark of 22.69m. He finished fourth at the USATF Outdoor Championships last month, but he should be in medal contention.

Awotunde was second at the USATF Outdoor Championships with a season-best mark of 22.10m, while Payton Otterdahl was third with a personal best 22.09m. Those two men will be competing with American Tripp Piperi, who is the fourth-youngest man in the field. 

Piperi, 24, was an All-American at the University of Texas.

The top non-U.S. shot putter is New Zealand’s Tom Walsh, who won the bronze at the Olympics two years ago and was fourth at last year’s World Championships. Walsh has a season-best of 22.58m, which is third in the world behind Crouser and Kovacs.

Discus Throw

The two favorites in this event are Slovakia’s Kristjan Ceh and Sweden’s Daniel Stahl, who have the two best throws of the year at 71.86m and 71.45m, respectively. Ceh is the reigning World champion with a mark of 71.13m, while Stahl was the gold medalist (68.90m) at the Olympics in Tokyo two years ago.

Still, others should be in the mix for a medal, including three men who have thrown over 70m this year: Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna, the silver medalist at last year’s World Championships who is the second-youngest man in the field at 20 years old; Austria’s Lukas Weibhaidinger, the bronze medalist at the Olympics in 2021; and Samoa’s Alex Rose, who was eighth at last year’s World Championships. 

Rose was born and raised in the U.S. and threw at Central Michigan. He holds dual citizenship with Samoa.

The U.S. has four men in the field: Sam Mattis, Turner Washington, Josh Syrotchen and Brian Williams. Mattis is the most decorated, having won the USATF Outdoor title last month. Mattis was the only American to make the discus finals at last year’s Worlds meet and the 2021 Olympics. 

Hammer Throw

Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki, the reigning Olympic champion, is looking to win his first World Championships gold medal. He has the season best throw of 81.92 meters and has plenty of experience, having won the silver at last year’s World Championships in Eugene and the bronze at the 2015, 2017 and 2019 meets.

American Rudy Winkler is the only other man who has thrown further than 80m this year. Winkler won the hammer (79.04) at last month’s USAT Outdoors Championships. He was sixth at last year’s event and seventh at the 2021 Olympics.

Nowicki isn’t the only Polish thrower who is a medalist favorite. There’s also Pawel Fajdek, the reigning World hammer gold medalist and the bronze medalist at the Olympics two years ago.

Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan, 22, and Canada’s Ethan Katzberg, 21, are two other throwers to watch. They have the third- and fourth-longest throws in the world this year.

Javelin Throw

Grenada’s Anderson Peters doesn’t turn 26 until October, but he has already had a decorated career. He has won the past two World javelin titles and is looking to join Czech Republic’s Jan Zelezny as the only three-time men’s javelin gold medalists. 

Peters was assaulted on a boat last August, shortly after winning the gold medal, and said at the time it would take him a while to recover. This year, he has thrown a best of 85.88m, which is well off his personal-best of 93.07m, but that’s still the sixth-longest throw in the world this year.

Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic has the world’s best throw this year at 89.51 meters and a lengthy resume. He was the silver medalist at the Olympics two years ago and the bronze medalist at last year’s World Championships.

Other competitors to watch include India’s Neeraj Chopra, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist who finished second behind Peters at last year’s Worlds meet, and Germany’s Julian Weber, who was fourth at Worlds last year and at the Olympics two years ago.

The three U.S. men in this event are Curtis Thompson, Ethan Dabbs and Capers Williamson. 

None of those men are serious medal contenders, which is common for the U.S. In fact, Breaux Greer, who finished third at the 2007 World Championships, is the last American man to win a medal in the javelin at this meet. 

Bill Schmidt, the bronze medalist at the 1972 Olympics, is the last American man to win an Olympics medal in the event.

* Tim Casey is a contributing writer to MileSplit and FloTrack