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 With most of sprinting's biggest names, including double Olympic
champion Bolt and Americans Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, deciding to
bypass the worlds the 20-year-old Bromell clocked a winning time of
6.47 seconds ahead of Jamaican Asafa Powell.
Bromell was reluctant to cast himself as the next American sprint
king but clearly he will not be overawed on the biggest stage in
Rio.
"I have always had confidence," said Bromell, who announced his
arrival on the sprint scene last year tying for the 100m bronze at
the outdoor worlds in Beijing.
"At the end of the day if you cut our skin, we all bleed red. Nobody
is Superman, nobody is superhuman.
"At the end of the day anybody can win."
Bromell's victory provided a thrilling nightcap to Day Two of the
four-day meeting but it was track and field's golden couple, local
boy Ashton Eaton and his Canadian wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who
were in the spotlight.
 The pair, who could become the first married couple to win
multi-event golds at the same world championships, spent much of
Friday competing at opposite sides of the arena, cheering each other
on and comparing notes between events.
Theisen-Eaton, silver medalist at the 2014 worlds, took gold in the
pentathlon with a winning total of 4,881 points, 34 ahead of
Ukraine's Anastasiya Mokhnyuk.
She opened with a personal best of 8.04 seconds in the hurdles and
led after the high jump but going into the final event, the 800m,
she found herself trailing by 150 points after the Ukrainian
recorded personal bests in four straight events.
However, with her husband urging her on trackside, Theisen-Eaton
came home in a time of 2 minutes, 9.99 seconds, crossing 13 seconds
clear of Mokhnyuk to finally take gold after three consecutive world
championship silvers.
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"With 150 meters left I heard Ashton and the other heptathletes say
'You can win, you can win,'" said Theisen-Eaton. "I had no idea
where anybody else was.
"I was delirious. I was looking at the clock but I couldn’t figure
out in my mind ... it was all a blur."
On Saturday, her husband will get the chance to win gold of his own
when he completes the final three events of the heptathlon. Eaton
holds a 63 point lead and is within striking distance of his own
world record.
With the hugely popular 'March Madness' college basketball
tournament in full swing, and Oregon State and the University of
Oregon in action, it was another challenging day for organizers.
Close to half the seats in the 7,000 seat venue were empty in the
morning session, though a better crowd turned out for the evening
session.
Brittney Reese, the 2012 Olympic long jump champion, claimed a sixth
world title with a leap of 7.22 while Nia Ali led a one-two U.S.
finish in the 60m hurdles, defending her title by 1/100th of a
second ahead of compatriot Brianna Rollins.
New Zealand's Tom Walsh, shot put bronze medalist at the 2014 indoor
worlds, won gold on Friday with a heave of 21.78m.
(Additional reporting Gene Cherry; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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