Carles Baronet re-launches a newsletter

If you are a regular reader of my blog you have certainly met the name of Carles Baronet. He is a renowned Catalan Athletics statistician and for many years he was publishing the blog Trackinsun. Then he switched from the blog to a newsletter. From 2023 his newsletter became subscription-only, but after two years he decided that having subscribers was too much of a stress and decided to go back to the previous, free, formula.

So, from January 2026, the newsletter is completely free, allowing Carles to work on the statistics without pressure and with a lower depth of marks. Having more time he plans to compile the year's top 300 marks (well, up to) in each event, as well as a thorough selection of European athletes who are in the United States.

The name Trackinsun is always present. And the first newsletter of 2026 is just out. It's a very detailed one, with results from all over the World. It comes in two versions, pdf and docx. The author believes that the pictures are best viewed in the docx version, but, frankly, those of the pdf are perfectly viewable.

If you are interested in Athletics (otherwise, why are you reading this blog?) I suggest that you send a mail to C. Baronet (just click here) and subscribe to his newsletter. You will discover a whole world of Athletics that you haven't suspected till that moment. People are competing in Athletics all over the world. And not all of them are (or hope to become) big stars who figure (or hope to) in the World Athletics website. I find that really uplifting and thanks to Carles Baronet this information is coming to your mailbox every month. Subscribe!

The 4x100 women's 2000 olympic relay, or how France's medal was stolen

The reason I decided to write this article was this superb photo.

Some time ago World athletics published an article entitled "Saluting the Bahamian Golden Girls 25 years on". It was celebrating the victory of the Bahamas' women team in the 4x100 m relay of the 2000, Sydney, Olympics. It's a very nice article and I highly recommend it (all the more so, if you are of the generation who has experienced the Sydney Olympics live). And if you wish to revisit the race, the video is on YouTube. (If you are younger, you will be surprised by the bad quality of the video. This was the era of the crappy NTSC, an analog system with 480 lines and 4:3 aspect ratio. We have made an incredible progress since that time).

The team of Bahamas were the logical favourite, having won the world title the previous year in Sevilla. France was second on that occasion with Jamaica third and the US fourth. But the Sydney final was a totally different matter. The US team had as anchor none other than Marion Jones who had dominated the 100 m race (and 200 m and had won bronze in the long jump). 

The regular readers of my blog know that there are athletes that I like and others that I don't. M. Jones was part of the second group from the very first day. The media were ecstatic when speaking about her, something I could not stand. (Just as I could not stand the total absence of style in her long jump. You know my feelings about King Carl. But I have always granted that he was the best stylist ever in the long jump. Jones was one of the worst). 

M. Jones went to Sydney announcing that she intended to win five gold medals. (She was also part of the 4x400 m relay that won the race). So she managed to realise 60% of her prediction. And a few years later that was transformed to 0%. I will not go into all the sordid details of the M. Jones doping affair. Jones had been accused of doping from the outset of her career. Already at high school she missed a random drug test and was banned for four years from track and field competitions. She claimed that she was never informed about the test and managed to get the ban overturned. In Sydney there was a minor scandal involving her then husband, shot-putter C.J. Hunter. He was present as Jones' coach, having withdrawn from competition for an alleged knee injury. And then the real reason became known: he had, prior to the Olympics, failed antidoping tests, being positive for steroids. (As a result his coaching accreditation was revoked). Things came to a head years later, when V. Conte, the founder of BALCO, stated publicly, in 2004, that Jones had been doping already before the 2000 Olympics. Jones denied the accusations but in 2006 a sample of her urine tested positive in EPO. She was cleared of doping allegations after the examination of the B sample but the cogs of justice were turning. And finally in 2007 Jones confessed that she had been using steroids, already before the Sydney Olympics. She was suspended for two years and all her results from September 1, 2000 were anuled. And so the career of one of the first T&F female millionaire came to a sad end. 

But this article is not about M. Jones. It's about the disqualification and the medals. M. Jones was active till 2006, participating in high-level competitions. Her results were, quite understandably anuled. But just try to find them anywhere. World Athletics has decided to publish pages upon pages like the screenshot below, where no results are given but just the mention -(DQ).

I cannot imagine a worse display of disrespect for Athletics than this. How can anybody who supposedly loves Athletics do this? What is the point in telling us that M. Jones participated in this and that competition without giving her performances? Would have been so difficult to keep them, adding on each line the code DQ, indicating that the performances were anulled? By making tabula rasa of all post 01/09/2000 performances, WA reminds me of the rewriting of history that is so popular in autocratic states.

The IAAF (that's what World Athletics was called at the time) recommended to the IOC that the two US women's relays be disqualified, due to the presence of M. Jones. That's what happened. Initially. France, having finished fourth in the 4x100 m was promoted to third. Same for Nigeria, who was fourth in the 4x400 m relay. Alas, that was short lived. The US brought the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, invoking a legal vacuum (there was no clear rule disqualifying a team because of a doping offense of one of its members) and obtained a favourable judgement. So M. Jones appears in the official World Athletics page with Olympic honours, gold and bronze medals in Sydney. What a shame!

And the unfair decision of CAS robbed France (and Nigeria) of a medal. Still we have this great photo where one can see D. Ferguson celebrating, ahead of M. Ottey and C. Arron, with M. Onyali on the left and half of M. Jones. (I cannot imagine why WA did things halfway. They could have taken Jones completely out of the picture). Both Ottey and Arron look clearly disappointed. Ottey would have hoped to win the gold medal for Jamaica. (No, I am not going to tell the story of the controversy around M. Ottey's participation in the 4x100 m relay final. I am too big a fan of Ottey to enter these unsavoury gossips. If you are interested you have to find out for yourselves). And Arron was unfortunately no match for the steroid-enhanced Jones. But she got her vengeance three years later in the Paris World Championships.

And how about the World Athletics Rising Stars?

In my previous post I revisited the list of European Athletics Rising Stars in order to find whether they had all risen to the initial expectations. (They hadn't, I mean, not all of them. But most did, and some of them did become the great champions of today). While the list of top European young athletes goes back to 2007, that of World Athletics starts already at 1998. 

There was no female rising star on the very first year, no award at all in 1999 and 2004 (I wonder why), while from 2005 to 2008 included there were two male and two female athletes covering the four years. And of course there was no award during the epidemic-ridden 2020. Most names in the list are those of (at the time, future) world or olympic champions but some did not immediately ring a bell and I had to look them up. This post is essentially about them.

The first athlete I had to look up was Hamdan Al-Bishi. I vaguely remember a saudi 400 m runner several years back but without further details. Al-Bishi ran his personal best, 44.66 s, in 2000, when he was 19 years old. He finished 5th in the 2005 World Championships and went on to win the Asian Games in 2002 and 2006. He was second in the Asian Championships of 2000, 2002 and 2003. He ran up to 2009 but did not manage to improve his 2000 time.

Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, was the 2005 Rising Star. I included in this post because he is still active despite his 37 years of age. And not only that but just three years back, in 2022, he was on the european podium with the UK 4x100 relay; just as he had done in 2014 and 2018. Aryeetey has also a World Relay title from 2009 and an individual European bronze, over 100 m, from 2014. He is a very nice example of sprinter longevity.

When I saw the name of Margus Hunt with the Estonian flag next to him I thought, well, probably another of those estonian decathletes. Well I was wrong. Hunt was a discus thrower. To tell the truth, I had never heard of him (or at least, not to my memory). He had a brief career in athletics, the Rising Star award being due to the fact that he won both the shot put and the discus throw at the 2006 world junior championship. He threw up to 2010 with a personal best of 61.33 m at the discus. He started playing American Football professionally in 2013 and disappeared from Athletics.

In 2007 and 2008 there are no male rising stars. The two female ones are Ruth Bosibori-Nyangau and Pamela Jelimo. Ruth Bosibori exploded upon the international scene in 2007 winning the 3000 m steeplechase at the African Games and finishing 4th over the same event at the World Championships. She was bronze medalist in 2008 and finished 5th at the Olympics. But while she ran up to 2017 she never repeated the success of the first years. Pamela Jelimo's career was even shorter than that of Bosibori but one with more splendour. She won gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics over 800 m at just 18 years of age. The same year she won the African title and, with a personal best of 1:54.01 moved to third place in the all-time list. She won the world indoor title in 2012 but, due the presence of DSD Caster Semenya and doping offenders Savinova and Guliyeva, Jelimo found herself at 4th place. Savinova and Guliyeva has been stripped of their medals but unfortunately Semenya is keeping hers. In the end of the story Jelimo was just a shooting star in the firmament of athletics her last (very low key) race being in 2014. 

I really love this photo. The arms behind Jelimo are those of the reigning 2007 world champion, Janeth Jepkosgei who finished second in Beijing. Jepkosgei went on to win silver in the 2009 and 2011 World's but, since she lost to Semenya, she is to my eyes the world champion. She ran up to 2015 and, amazingly, she was back to athletics in 2023 competing over a 400 m. 

In 2010 Till Wöschler and Angelica Bengtsson were the Rising Stars. I have followed Bengtsson through her whole career and I will never forget the mishap at the 2019 World's when her pole broke at her third attempt at 4.80 m and she re-tried using a pole borrowed from Guillon-Romarin. And passed. 

But Wöschler was nigh unknown to me. He was one more promising javelin thrower, fruit of the great german javelin tradition. Unfortunately his personal best of 84.38 m was registered when he was just 20 years old and he put an end to his career in 2016. (While I am writing these lines I cannot help thinking of the great Johannes Vetter who may never come back to his 90+ level. What a pity! We have several excellent 90+ throwers but the only solid hope for a 100+ throw was Vetter). 

From 2011 onwards the Rising Stars are still active and in some cases, like Morgan Lake and Candace Hill, who haven't yet risen to real prominence, I think that they have a few good years ahead of them and may fulfil the promises. (In fact, I wonder why Morgan Lake does not devote herself more seriously to the pentathlon, following T. Hellebaut's example. But, at least, she managed to join the 2 m club in 2025, so she can be optimistic about the future).

The last case I would like to visit is that of Mary Cain, 2013 female Rising Star (another year without a male counterpart). The story of Cain is a sad one. In 2013 she was, at 17 years old, the youngest athlete selected for the US team. She participated in the 1500 m of the World Championships and she made it to the final. She joined the Nike Oregon project, training under the direction of Alberto Salazar. And then all the trouble started. She hadn't been able to improve her 2013 personal best, 4:04.62, over 1500 m. She ran up to 2016 in constant decline. And in 2019, in an interview, she explained that the training regimen imposed by Salazar combined with an emotional abuse led to her physical and psychological degradation. In 2021 Cain filled a lawsuit against Salazar and Nike (which was settled financially out of court). Salazar was condemned in 2015 for doping offences and in 2021 was banned for life from coaching for emotional and sexual misconduct. And Mary Cain in all this? Well, she is, in principle, back on track, switched her allegiance to Ireland but, although eligible to compete, she hasn't participated yet in an official race under her new colours. As time goes by, one fears that she is one more promise not kept.