All of a sudden I realised that October was the proper moment for the publication of my list of the year's best athletes. Last year's November publication was due to the fact that the World Championships took place unusually late, in October. In fact I asked myself if World Athletics are going to go through their usual selection of the year's best given the unique situation forced upon us by the epidemic. But, whatever they decide, I felt that I had to go through my yearly report and choose the athletes I appreciated most during the 2020 season.
For men's top three the choice was easy. Three athletes really distinguished themselves this year. Foremost is A. Duplantis.
He started with two superb world records arriving at 6.18 m, indoors (but, for vertical jumps, indoor world records do count as absolute ones). And then in order to silence those who were thinking that he had not yet surpassed Bubka he did jump 6.15 m outdoors becoming the indisputable ruler of pole vault.
J. Cheptegei began the season with a road 5 km world record in February. But the serious things came later when he erased Bekele's name from the world record tablets with two superb performances over 5000 m (12:35.36) and 10000 m (26:11.00). Had he managed to win the World Championship of half-Marathon (he finished 4th) he would have shared the first place with Duplantis. As things stand he is in second place.
The third place goes to K. Warholm who has chased the 400 m hurdles world record ending up at less than a tenth of a second with his excellent 46.87 s. What would have occurred had he not stumbled over the last hurdle is still a matter of debate. The record over 300 m hurdles (33.78 s), obtained early in the season, is a consolation.
The remaining 7 athletes of the top-ten are usually given without any special order. This time I will make an exception and give J. Vetter the 4th place. With his 97.76 m javelin throw he showed us that the 24-years old record of Zelezny is not unattainable.
R. Grouser has been going after the world record in shot put but he finally had to settle for an 22.91 m.
T. Cheruiyot was unbeaten over the 1500 m this year obtaining a 3:28.45 in the Monaco Herculis meeting in an epic battle with J. Ingebrigtsen where the latter established a European record with 3:28.68. Both have won their place in the top ten.
D. Stahl dominated the discus throw, winning 18 out of 20 competitions, with a year's best of 71.37 m.
H.F. Zango has won his place in the top-ten for his superb African indoor record in triple jump with 17.77 m at just 15 cm from his coach's (T. Tamgho) world record of 17.92 m.
The last place goes to N. Lyles for his 19.76 s over 200 m together with D. Brazier for his world leading 1:43.15 over 800 m.
As always there is also a "rising star" category, focusing on young, typically U20 (but I do not always apply this rule), athletes.
The first place is a no-brainer. By winning the World Half-Marathon championships, J. Kiplimo established himself as one of the best long-distance runners. He would have won a place in the men's top ten had I not reserved him for the rising star crown.
The second place goes to M. Volkov (son of 1980 olympic silver medalist K. Volkov) who at 15 years of age jumped a U16 world record of 5.50 m in pole vault.
Finally, for third place, we have S. Zhoya who improved the U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.34 s.
For the women's top the things were less clear. I finally opted for a first place to S. Hassan who improved the 1 hour world record with 18930 m and made a serious attempt at the 10000 m record of Ayana, finally settling, due also to the disastrous meteorological conditions, for "just" a European one with 29:36.67.
The second place goes to P. Jepchirchir who repeated her 2016 victory by winning the 2020 edition of the half-Marathon World Championship, this time accompanied by a (women's only race) world record 1:05:16.
L. Gidey, who broke the 5000 m world record with 14:06.62 occupies the third place in my list of the year's best athletes.
There is no particular order from here onwards. E. Thompson and S. Miller were the best sprinters this year. The first with 10.85 s over 100 m and a brief appearance in the european Diamond League circuits, while the second did not cross the Atlantic, favouring the US circuits, where she ran a 21.98 s 200 m.
F. Kipyegon has been chasing Masterkova's 1000 m record during all summer. In the end she had to settle for an African record of 2:29.15, just 17/100 s off the World one.
M. Lasitskene jumped only during the winter season but managed a world leading 2.05 m in high jump confirming her position at the top of the discipline. Let us hope that the ANA program is not scrapped and that she'll be allowed to participate in the Tokyo Olympics next summer (provided they are held, of course, which is not at all obvious at this point in time).
Y. Rojas improved the indoor triple jump world record with 15.43 m and then she went on to a so-so summer season. If only she had profited from this season's lack of competitions in order to improve her technique ...
V. Allman surprised everybody with a US discus record of 70.15 m . With this throw she became the 25th member of the event’s still-exclusive 70-metre club. Allman, trained in dancing, believes that having a deep connection with body movement through dance has been “incredibly beneficial” during her discus career.
I had to choose the tenth athlete among a slew of women who have had a great season: B. Kosgei (winner of the London Marathon and second at the half-Marathon championships), M. Mihambo (who jumped 7.03 m outdoors and 7.07 indoors in the long jump), K. Klosterhalfen (who, with 14:30.79, established a European record over 5000 m indoor), L. Muir (who won all her races over 1500 m, and had a world best of 3:57.40), H. Obiri, undefeated over 3000 m and 5000 m, the two dutch hurdlers, N. Visser (and her world-leading 12.68 s over 100 m hurdles, winning 13 of her 14 races) and F. Bol (who won all her six races, and registered a world leading 53.79 over 400 m hurdles) and A. Sidorova (who jumped a world leading 4.95 m, indoors, in pole vault).
Finally I settled for the heptathlete I. Dadic. She has the world-leading performance in heptathlon with 6419 points but, what is really impressive, she completed a one-hour heptathlon in July obtaining 6235 points. Her performances are impressive: 13.64 s, 1.80 m, 14.84 m, 24.32 s, 5.76 m, 47.60 m and 2:19.10. Were it not for the slightly below par long jump (where she lost probably 150 points) she would have done almost equally well in the one-hour compared to the two-days event.
For the women's rising star the first place goes to Y. Machuchikh, thanks to her U20 2.02 (indoor) record obtained in February. Unfortunately the remaining season was not on par with this performance since she managed "only" 2.00 m outdoors. So my recommendation is less enthusiastic than the last year's one.
I have reserved the second place to a greek athlete, E. Tzengko. She threw a 63.96 m in the javelin throw improving the U20 world record. Unfortunately due to some technicality (the anti-doping test was performed the following morning) her record cannot be homologated.
In the third place we have L. Iapichino, the daughter of F. May and G. Iapichino, who, by jumping 6.80 m this summer, showed that she is following in her mother's footsteps.
G. Stark improved the indoor U20 60 m hurdles world record with 7.91 s. A. Shukh (she is 21, but as I said I do not abide WA's rule of under 20) is, at last, starting to show her real potential as heptathlete with a 6386 performance this summer. If she manages to improve her basic speed there is no limit to what she can do. S. Richardson, at 20 years of age, is constantly improving, with 10.95 and 22.00 s over 100 and 200 m. All of them are rising stars.
When (if) World Athletics publish their top-ten list I will definitely report on that, comparing their list to mine.
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