On race-walking stupidity

Let me start with a warning. In the photo below one can see the 2023 world champions. They are great athletes. I am deeply convinced of this. Any critique I am raising concerning race-walking is not addressed at the athletes but at the discipline itself. The athletes compete within the rules set by the international instances. They train (very) hard and make sacrifices in order to reach the summit of their discipline. They have my unquestionable admiration. What I am criticising is the set of rules which allow for an unnatural sport to exist.

In 2018 World Athletics, in the name of men-women parity (while they steadfastly refuse to do anything about women's decathlon) decided to open the 50 km race-walking event to women. Women have been competing on that distance well before that date. On the World Athletics page with the best performances one finds the name of Sandra Brown with a 4:50:51 performance from 1991. The world record is held by Y. Lashmanova with 3:50:42. Inês Henriques won the first world title in 2017. 

However, after the proposal for the inclusion of the events in the Tokyo Olympics was rejected, the event was discontinued and World Athletics decided to revise the distances of the race-walking events. There have been several conflicting announcements on this point and most turned out to be inaccurate. 

The initial Paris Olympics athletics program did not contain any individual event. It was later revised so as to include the 20 km for both men and women. However, the 50 km has definitely disappeared. It was replaced by a relay event, for a mixed team of two, each athlete running two legs. Now, this is the interesting part. The IOC page talks about a marathon,i.e. a 42195 m race. But the program of the Paris Olympics announces a 35 km. 

When I wrote "each athlete running" in the paragraph just above I hesitated just a bit but then I decided to let it pass. After all, it is clear that all high-level race-walking involves running. And this is the reason why I am always criticising this unnatural discipline.  But here I am not going to pursue this line of criticism. Rather I would like to point out why the World Athletics choice of distances for the individual events, 20 and 35 km is absurd. 

First, compare last year's women's World Championships results. Do you remark something? 

Next, in my post on my choice of 2022 best athletes, I included A. Drisbioti who had won both the 20 and the 35 km in last year's Europeans. And this year both distances were won by the same athlete in the men's category (Álvaro Marín) and women's (Maria Pérez). Is that a simple coincidence? I do not think so. For me, this is a stupid choice of World Athletics. The two distances are too similar when it comes to the effort involved and an athlete can train perfectly and be in top shape for both. Had they chosen, say 10 and 35 km, the situation could have been different. It would be preferable to remove one distance altogether and keep just the longer one, perhaps even shortened to 30 km. 

But what would have been even better would be to forget altogether about race-walking. 

The 2023 World Athletics Awards

World Athletics sprung a surprise upon us by nominating not one but three athletes of the year. They decided to nominate the best athletes for track, field and road. This had the advantage of providing a solution to the Duplantis-Lyles dilemma. By this decision, both were nominated and WA did not have to choose (a choice that would have been unsatisfactory in every case). So Lyles carried away the award for track and Duplantis for field. The road awards went to Kiptum and Assefa who established new world records in the marathon. As expected, Kipyegon won the award for women's track. 

My only objection is the nomination of Rojas for the women's field award.  If I had to choose a female field specialist among the WA chosen ones I would unhesitantly choose Nageotte. But Rojas appears to somehow be the "blue-eyed" girl of World Athletics: she has already won the title once and she obtained another one this year when her performances have been far from stellar. 

And, of course, I regret the fact that Jackson could not get a distinction beyond being included in the finalist list, but in the end, I would have chosen Kipyegon myself (in fact, I did).

There was no surprise in the Rising Star Awards. As I predicted Wanyonyi obtained the men's title. Knighton could have won, but the fact that he had already been nominated in 2021 and 2022 put him at a slight disadvantage. Topic also was at a relative disadvantage since she had already obtained the European title. So the choice went to Cherotich as I had predicted (well, after having forgotten her in my initial choice).

The remaining World Athletics nominations for the 2023 awards (at least the ones I am interested in) were not really to my taste. The only possible exception is that of L. Meuwly's nomination for the Coaching Achievement award. Meuwly is the coach of F. Bol (who shined in the low hurdles this year) and, in fact, of most of the Dutch 400 m male and female stars.  

The World Athletics photograph of the year was a pure let-down. I will not even show the photo that won the prize. (If you care about having a look at it, here is the link). As far as I am concerned, I still prefer the one with Bol's fall in the mixed 4x400 m relay, and if I had to choose another one, I would opt for the photo of G. Tamberi celebrating his victory.

L. Gidey won the Fair Play award. The reason for this was that, after winning silver behind Tsegay in the women's 10000 m, Gidey went back to comfort S. Hassan after the latter fell on the track during the sprint for first place. Does this count as fair play? I am not convinced.

Now we have to wait till the end of 2024 to see if the decision to nominate the best athletes for track, field and road will become the rule (in which case the initial selection and that of finalists should be broader) or if it was a one-shot thing meant to avoid a difficult choice in the case of men's title.

PS. And if you wonder what is a great sports photo, here is one

by the famous photographer of l'Equipe, R. Legros, who passed away a few days ago.

Where are the talents of yesteryear?

Warning! This article was written before the 2023 World's 1500 m final where Kerr managed to beat Ingebrigtsen for the world title. Nothing has changed as far as the conclusions of the present article are concerned, and my comments on what went on in the 2023 World's can be found in the corresponding article.

The origin of this post is somewhat complicated, so I feel that some explanations are in order. As you know I am a big fan of Pierre-Jean Vazel and I follow regularly his tweets. There is always something interesting there. However, with the turmoil Twitter is undergoing I have resorted to asking Google whenever I was looking for something specific. And, during one of my searches, Google pointed me to an article by Vazel on the Simplifaster site. It was an analysis of Keni Harrison’s, 2016, 12.20 s world record 100 m hurdles race. That was not what I was looking for, but I was intrigued and I decided to read it. As usual, Vazel's analysis is great and I do recommend that you give it a try.

Vazel explains that Harrison dipped and one of the two photoelectric cells on the finish line could not detect her. So the initially announced time was wrong (based on the second finisher). Of course, once the photo finish was analysed all went back to normal and Harrison got the world record. This led Vazel to comment on a similar situation when in the women(s 400 m race at the Rio, 2016, Olympics, Shaunae Miller dived across the finish line, causing a timing bug. The screen displayed Miller’s time as 49.51, but that was Allyson Felix's time. Of course, the photo finish gave the correct times 49.44 to 49.51, and the victory to Miller. Vazel then went on to cite Kumari Taki’s dive during the 1500 m final at the 2016 World U20 Championships. (Vazel is talking about 5000 m, a curious mistake for somebody of his experience). I had never heard of this and I decided to look for the video. Fortunately, it did exist and I discovered that among the participants of the final was one Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

Ingebrigtsen finished 9th in that race (he was just 16 years old) and went on to become one of the best middle-distance runners of all time, winning olympic and world titles. When I read Vazel's article I was following the 2023 European U20 championships and I was wondering how many of the protagonists would survive the transition to senior category. The 1500 m final of the 2016 World U20 Championships was a good test case. So I decided to find out what has become of the finishers. 

1. Kumari Taki, PB 3:34.14 (2020). He was 4th at the 2022 African Championships. No performances in 2023 but this may be due to injury.

2. Taresa Tolosa, PB 3:34.47 (2017). He was 5th at the 2016 African Championships.  Won a Diamond League event in 2018. He moved to longer distances from 2020.

3. Anthony Kiptoo, PB 3:35.33 (2015). Disappeared after 2018.

4. Baptiste Mischler, PB 3:32.42 (2021). He is still in activity but only at a national level.

5. Ajay Kumar Saroj, PB 3:39.19 (2023). He was Asian champion in 2017 and again in 2023.

6. Matthew Ramsden, PB 3:34.08 (2021). He was the Oceania champion in 2021.

7. Jordi Torrents, PB 3:40.92 (2016). He dropped out in 2018, then came back in 2022 but did not have any performance in 2023.

8. Asres Guadie, PB 3:41.9 (2017). Disappeared after 2018.

10. Josh Kerr, PB 3:29.05 (2021). He was 3rd in the Tokyo Olympics. (And world champion in 2023).

11. Elzan Bibic, PB 3:34.20 (2023). He was 3rd in the European Indoors 2023.

12. Ayoub Sniba, PB 3:39.42 (2018). Disappeared after 2018. (He had the best time in the heats, a time sufficient for first place in the final, but apparently, the slow, tactical, race in the latter did not suit him).

So, out of the 12 finalists, we have one superstar, one who is part of the middle-distance elite, 3 who have distinctions at a continental level, 3 who are still active albeit with no great success, and 4 who just dropped out. Is that representative of athletics in general? Should one expect fewer than half of the athletes who were distinguished when junior to have a successful career as senior? I don't know the answer to these questions. However, it is clear that many of the athletes we admired in Jerusalem, during the U20 Europeans, will turn out to be early bloomers, withering soon after.

World Athletics 2023 finalists

I have been waiting for World Athletics to publish the list of finalists for the photograph of the year (initially planned for November 16th) before presenting a summary of this year's finalists. They were one week late with respect to what they had promised. But, let us start with the photos. Only three photos were given in the finalists' list while I would have liked to have access to all those that have been shortlisted. World Athletics promises that there will be a digital exhibition on the website later this month. Given that the end of the month is just one week away, I do not understand why they did not present the shortlisted photos right away. Be that as it may, when they make these photos available, if there are ones I like particularly, I will take care to include them in my article on the WA Athlete of the Year. For the time being, my preferred photo is the one with Bol's fall in the 4x400 m mixed relay.

But I must admit that the photo of Tamberi is also excellent.

The finalists of the Female Athlete of the Year title are

Tigist Assefa
Femke Bol
Shericka Jackson
Faith Kipyegon
Yulimar Rojas

Kipyegon and Jackson were first and second in my selection. I believe that one of those two will win the Athlete of the Year title. All the more so, since Rojas has already won in 2020, Assefa is a newcomer and Bol just won (for the second year in a row) the European title.

The list of the male athletes is

Neeraj Chopra
Ryan Crouser
Mondo Duplantis
Kelvin Kiptum
Noah Lyles

Again Duplantis and Lyles were first and second in my list. But Duplantis won in 2020 and 2022, so, perhaps, WA will choose Lyles this time. (In fact, European Athletics chose Ingebrigtsen for this year's title although Duplantis was among the finalists). Chopra, Grouser and Kiptum are great athletes but I don't think they hold a chance compared to Duplantis and Lyles.

I wrote in my article that sharing the gold medals in the women's pole vault was a display of fair play. And in fact, Moon and Kennedy did appear on the shortlist for the fair-play award. However (and in particular since Moon had received the prize last year), they did not make the list of finalists, which comprises 

Daniel Ebenyo
Letesenbet Gidey
Jessica Warner-Judd

My favourite is J. Warner-Judd, who waited and shook hands with the final-placed runner in the women's 10000 m, in Budapest.

Finally, there is the Rising Star Award. In the women's category, the three finalists are

Faith Cherotich
Medina Eisa
Angelina Topic

Topic was my number-one choice (but I am worried that, since she obtained the European title, she may be passed over for the World one). I preferred Haylom over Eisa and I stand by my choice. On the other hand, I realise that I overlooked Cherotich (who will probably win the title) but this is perhaps due to the fact that I had eyes only for the two great champion steeplechasers Chepkoech and Yavi. 

In the men's list, one finds 

Roshawn Clarke
Erriyon Knighton
Emmanuel Wanyonyi

Knighton is the obvious choice, but he was Rising Star laureate in 2021 and 2022, so I preferred to give him a pass. For me, Wanyonyi is this year's favourite but it's a pity that Tebogo could not be selected according to the World Athletics' criteria.

On December 11 World Athletics will announce the choices for the various awards. And I will definitely report with my comments.

On millimeter stupidity (the Ackelia Smith case)

I could not resist the temptation, after having written about millisecond stupidity, to write an article on a, roughly, analogous situation for field events.

But let us start at the beginning. I was following the long jump women's world championships final and noticed that there were 9 athletes participating in the last three jumps. The person who was commenting on the championships did not give any explanation, and in any case, the presentation was at best fragmentary, focusing on the attempts of the best athletes. When the results were published on the World Athletics site there was no mention of the 9th jumper and if you try today to find any trace of this you will find none. 

I was intrigued and tried to understand what had happened. Fortunately, the livestream of that particular event existed and the video had all the details. So here is the story.  

Ackelia Smith is a jamaican long and triple jumper with personal bests of 7.08 m and 14.54 m respectively. She won the NCAA indoors this year with 6.88 m. She qualified for the long jump final with 6.78 m (but could not qualify for the triple jump where she managed only 13.95 m). In the long jump final she started with a foul and a 6.49 m jump and then she had a third attempt at around 6.85 m. That would have given her access to the final three jumps and even made her a candidate for a medal. 

But her jump was declared a foul. My worst fears, which I voiced in my article aptly entitled  "Are they trying to kill the horizontal jumps? (I think so)", were coming true. Smith's jump was declared a foul for 1 mm! Look for yourself at the photo below and try to find the culprit millimetre.

This is the problem with World Athletics: they introduce a rule which looks good on paper and have blind faith in technology, deluding themselves as to the precision that can be offered by the instruments of measure. I can see the picture: the representatives of the company offering the measuring apparatus, all of them vendors with scant technical knowledge, brainwash the WA hierarchy insisting on the fantastic precision of their apparatus. And from there onwards it's the athletes who suffer the consequences. 

Back to A. Smith. She protested when her jump was declared a foul but during the time it took her to protest the trace was erased in the pit. So the judges could only allow her to pursue the competition "under protest" and she took three more jumps. Unfortunately for her, all of them were in the 6.50 m region. Thus she was classified at the 11th place and that was that. 

It is practically impossible to find anything about what I explained above. The World Athletics site does not contain any detail on Smith's attempts under protest. The same is true about the Wikipedia page, which is usually more detailed than the official WA one. 

That was an unfortunate incident which shows that the WA decision to do away with the plasticine was a downright stupid one. Trusting measurements down to one-millimetre precision is absurd. But things are even worse. When a jump is declared a foul the pit assistants erase the trace in the sand preparing the pit for the next athlete. So, unless the athlete reacts with lightning speed, once the trace is erased it is too late for protests. In an old post of mine, I told the story of how King Carl was robbed of a 9+ m world record. The case of A. Smith shows that something is rotten in the WA decision to remove the plasticine. Previously, when there was a foul, the athlete had the time to see the trace on the plasticine board and during that time the pit assistants were waiting before erasing the trace in the sand. (This is not what happened in the case of King Carl: I tell the detailed story in my article). Now there is practically no possibility of protest. We are trusting millimetres and disasters are lurking.

What can be done? The most sensible thing to do (we are talking here about major competitions) is, whenever an automatic detection of fouls is used, instead of just flashing a red colour, to provide also a photo of the foul step on a screen next to the pit. In this way all persons involved (athlete, judges, pit assistants) can have a clear view of the situation and, if the latter is not clear, the assistants must wait before erasing the athlete's trace in the sand until the responsible judge gives them the authorisation. So, the athlete has the time to protest and also obtain a measurement of his performance, under protest. Declaring a foul, and then allowing the athlete to take one extra attempt, or as in the case of A. Smith joining the 8 finalists, is like putting a poultice on a wooden leg.

The 400 m hurdles musketeers

A few years back (hey, it's already five years) I wrote an article entitled "The three musketeers of the 400 m hurdles". The literary reference is obvious, and the idea is that, just as in the novel of A. Dumas, there were four of them: A. Samba, K. Warholm and K. McMaster, joined by the R. Benjamin who had run in the NCAA championships an incredible 47.02 s. Samba was the one who inspired that post with his 46.98 s performance at the 2018 Paris Diamond League at a mere 0.2 seconds from the then world record. McMaster was second in that race and Warholm third. Warholm was the 2017 world champion, in a final where Samba stumbled on the 9th hurdle, finishing 7th and McMaster was disqualified in the heats for a lane infringement. In that article I was predicting that Samba, the best technician among the four, was the one who had the biggest chance for a world record. (My prediction turned out to be wrong). 

But then at around the same time a fifth "musketeer" made his appearance: A. Dos Santos, just 18 years old at the time. He confirmed his talent the next year in the Doha, 2019, World's finishing 7th. In that championship, Warholm won his second title, Benjamin was second and Samba third, McMaster missing out on the honours with a 4th place.

Then the epidemic perturbed everything and the athletes had to train without a clear objective. Samba was the main victim of that perturbation. He was already injured a first time in the summer of 2019, but managed to be present in Doha. (He had won the Asian Games in the same city in spring. In case you wish to look him up please bear in mind that his full name is Abderrahman Samba Alsaleck and contrary to what I say in my article he is not mauritanian: he was born in Saudi Arabia to a Mauritanian father and chose initially to compete for that country, before transferring allegiance to Qatar).

The 2021 Tokyo "2020" Olympics, saw all five hurdle stars present. They shared the first five places in the final, and inspired (half of) the article "The fabulous 400 m hurdles". McMaster was once again 4th and Samba, not quite back in top shape 5th. R. Benjamin was, once again second, while Dos Santos won his first major medal finishing third. And of course, everybody remembers the out-of-this-world 45.94 s world record of Warholm.

While things started getting back to normal in 2022, Samba injured himself once more and stayed out of competition the whole year. Warholm injured himself in his first outing and could barely get back in shape for the championships where he finished a distant 7th in the final. McMaster ran the heats but, feeling some discomfort, did not present himself to the semis. That turned out to be a good choice since less than a mont later he won the low hurdles in the Commonwealth Games (he had won the same event four years earlier). In Eugene Dos Santos won the world title ahead of Benjamin.

Dos  Santos was not going to repeat his 2022 feat in 2023. He injured himself early in the season and while he participated in Budapest he was far from top shape in the championships, finishing 5th. With Samba out and Warholm back in top condition I was going to focus on McMaster. He was, after all, the only one of the five "musketeers" without a global medal. (Don't get me wrong. The Commonwealth Games are a fine competition, perhaps on par with the European Championships, but they do not stand the comparison with the World Championships or the Olympics). 

Well, 2023 was going to be McMaster's year. He entered the final stretch in third position, but caught up with Benjamin at the last hurdle and went on to pass him in the final sprint. At long last he obtained his global medal and, cherry on the cake, it was a silver one. 

This is what I got when I looked up the results in the WA page

The end of the season was even more interesting. First, McMaster managed to beat Warholm in the Zürich Diamond League competition, 47.27 to 47.30, with Dos Santos third in 47.62 s. Then, In the Eugene DL final, Benjamin beat them both 46.39 to 46.53 for Warholm and 47.31 s for McMaster. And Samba in all this? Well, he came back in 2023 but did not manage to reach top shape early enough and so was absent from the world championships. But he was ready for the Asian Games, held in early October, and he successfully defended his title with 48.04 s. 

I will keep an eye open for the five musketeers next year in the Paris Olympics, hoping that they will be in great shape, able to reproduce (in any order) the Tokyo magic. 

The rising stars of 2023

E. Knighton would have been an obvious choice for the number one rising star. He was silver medalist in the world championships beaten only by an exceptional runner like N. Lyles. However as I have already chosen him (in fact two years ago) as the rising star of the year I will give him a pass this time. So, my choice for this year male rising star is L. Tebogo.

He shined at the world championships winning silver and bronze over 100 m and 200 m. In fact his personal best over the longer distance is just 1/100 s large than Knighton's 19.50 to 19.49. 

E. Wanyonyi occupies the second place. He was the favourite for the gold medal in the 800 m. He lost that race but he took his vengeance winning the Diamond League final in 1:42.80.

For the third place nominee I have two rather than one. J. Hibbert has the world leading performance for 2023 with 17.87 m in the triple jump. And he is just 18 years old. He qualified for the World Championships final with an impressive 17.70 m and then he injured himself at the very first attempt in the final. R. Clarke on the other hand improved the U20 400 m hurdles not once but twice with a great 47.34 s in the semi-finals on teh World Championships. And then he went on to obtain a 4th place in the final beating ex-world champion Dos Santos with a great finish.

Several new talents would have warranted a place in my rising star list: M. Alekna (he was last year's number one), M. Furlani (he was named european rising star), S. Zhoya, M. Laros to name but a few. But I am limiting the list to just three (well, four), so ...

My choice for the female rising star of the year is A. Topic. She is just 18 and has already jumped 1.97 m. I will not surprised if already next year she is a 2 m jumper. (But she was named european rising star, so I am afraid that she has no chance at a world distinction).

B. Haylom is just 17 years old and has a personal best of sub-3:55 in the 1500 m. And she has already a Diamond League victory. She occupies the second place on my list. 

The third rising star is none other than N. Ndubuisi, whom I spotted in the European U20 championships. At 19 years of age, a baby by shot put standards, she has a personal best of 17.97 m. 

Had I presented a longer list I would have written about the duo A. Mu and K. Hodgkinson. After all, they are just 21 years old. L. Iapicchino is the same age, just as R. Adeleke. All these girls would make excellent candidates for the rising star title. But, wait, there are also younger contenders. I am thinking about A. Werro the talented 800 m runner and also about A. Caune who was the sensation of the world championships 5000 m qualifiers. (Read the Wikipedia article about that race, or, better yet, try to find the video of the race).

I will follow all these young talents and report on their progress.

Deji Ogeyingbo is rewriting the history of Athletics

I have already posted about RunBlogRun, a blog curated by Larry Eder, active since 2007, publishing dozens of articles each month. I am regularly visiting the blog and I find many of its articles quite interesting.

Unfortunately today I was in for a great disappointment. While perusing RunBlogRun I stumbled upon an article on S.A. Fraser-Pryce. As the faithful readers of my blog know, I am not a Fraser-Pryce fan. And the existing infatuation with the "pocket rocket" raises my hackles. I decided to read the article that was about Fraser-Pryce's injuries and how they may compromise a bid for a third gold medal over 100 m in the Paris Olympics. 

A parenthesis is necessary here. Fraser-Pryce won the Olympics for the last time in 2012. She won the world title in 2019 and 2022 and has more gold medals than anybody else in the 100 m event. But when it comes to the Olympics one should not forget that it was E. Thompson who won the title in 2016 and 2020 (well, 2021). So, given the fact that in Budapest, despite an explosive start, Fraser-Pryce could offer no resistance to S. Jackson and S. Richardson, I don't see how one can consider her seriously as a contender for a gold medal in Paris. (But then this position of mine is perhaps due to the fact that I am not a Fraser-Pryce fan).

But it's not the talk about the olympic chances of Fraser-Pryce that is setting my teeth on edge. It's a sentence in the article that I find insulting to the great women champions of the past.

Deji Ogeyingbo, a Nigerian T&F Journalist and frequent contributor to RunBlogRun, decided to rewrite the history of Athletics. The alternative would be that he simply ignores that history, but I cannot believe that somebody who presents himself as an athletics specialist can ignore such basic facts. Anyhow, one reads in the article that Fraser-Pryce was the first woman to win back-to-back olympic titles in the 100 m. Nothing is further from the truth. Not only Fraser-Pryce is not the first, but she is not even the second.  

World Athletics published an article entitled "Wyomia Tyus: Still fighting for recognition as the first back-to-back Olympic 100 m champion". The opening lines of that article are great.

Quick: Name the first athlete to win the 100 m at consecutive Olympic Games.

Carl Lewis? Wrong.

Usain Bolt? Nope.

The first person – man or woman – to accomplish the feat was Wyomia Tyus, the US sprinter who unexpectedly won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Games and successfully defended her title four years later in Mexico City.

And yet, more than half a century later, Tyus’s place in Olympic history as the first back-to-back 100 m champion is often overlooked.

Her feat has by now been replicated by C. Lewis (but as we know he obtained the 1988 title due to the disqualification of B. Johnson, while himself having been the recipient of an, at the time, prohibited substance), G. Devers, S.A. Fraser-Pryce, U. Bolt, and E. Thompson-Herah. But even if we limit ourselves to the women olympians, one cannot ignore the two victories of G. Devers in 1992 and 1996.

So, why did Mr. Ogeyingbo do this blunder? I am afraid that there is a certain hagiographical tendency when it comes to S.A. Fraser-Pryce. This is partly due to the way she is promoting the image of herself. But the facts are there and she is definitely not the first woman to win the gold medal in consecutive Olympics in the 100 m event. As for her Paris chances? Well, as you may have guessed, she is definitely not my favourite.

The World Athletics choice of the year's best

World Athletics published their list of the best athletes of the year. As always, some names appear in both my list and the WA one. Of course, my list is based on my preferences and thus subjective. And I am convinced that the one of World Athletics is not totally objective either. Here is the list of the ten best men according to WA. 

Neeraj Chopra
Ryan Crouser
Mondo Duplantis
Soufiane El Bakkali
Jakob Ingebrigtsen
Kelvin Kiptum
Pierce LePage
Noah Lyles
Alvaro Martin
Miltiadis Tentoglou
Karsten Warholm

It is not possible to establish the overlap between the two lists, since this year WA decided to produce a list of 11 instead of the usual 10 (and I for once decided to limit y choice to strictly 10). 

The ones present in my list and absent from the WA one are G. Tamberi, J. Cheptegei and E. Kipchoge. Their place in the WA list is occupied by K. Kiptum, (who established a new and impressive world record in the marathon), S. El Bakkali (the steeple-chase champion), K. Warholm and A. Martin. The latter won the world titles over the 20 and the 35 km race-walking events. Since I do not like this discipline I am not including its protagonists in my year's best list (although I am convinced that they are excellent athletes). The only exception was the inclusion (for obvious reasons) of the greek champion, A. Drisbioti, who won the two titles in last year's Europeans.

And here is the women's list

Tigist Assefa
Femke Bol
Shericka Jackson
Faith Kipyegon
Haruka Kitaguchi
Yaroslava Mahuchikh
Maria Perez
Gudaf Tsegay
Sha’Carri Richardson
Yulimar Rojas
Winfed Yavi

Four athletes of my list, I. Vuleta, K. Nageotte, S. Hassan and P. Jepchirchir are absent from the WA list. The ones present are T. Assefa (who recently established a new world record in the marathon), H. Kitaguchi (javelin world champion, but still far from the performances of the great throwers of the past decades), Y. Rojas (who once more dominated triple jump, but who was, to my eyes, less convincing this year) G. Tsegay (who established a great world record over 5000 m and would appear in my list, had I proposed 11 names) and M. Perez. What I wrote for A. Martin applies also to M. Perez. And in fact these double victories will be addressed in some future post of mine (where, you guessed it, I will be once more criticising race-walking).

The five finalists will be announced on November 13-14. I do not know if I will publish a special article in order to give the finalists list. Perhaps I will just amend this post putting a star next to the five chosen names, in which case, if you wish to keep abreast of the selection process, please revisit this post in mid-November.

My choice of the year's best athletes

It's this time of the year. World Athletics will be publishing soon their list of candidates for the athlete of the year title (most probably the list will be out by the time I publish this article) and thus I must hurry and present my own.

Faith Kipyegon is, to my eyes the undisputable favourite for the year's best athlete. She has dominated the middle distances and only at the very end of the season was she beaten in an event in which she has no experience (road running). While her world record races in the 1500 m and the mile were great, the one I prefer was the world championships 5000 m final. And since Tsegay did not manage to break the 14 min barrier in the 5000 m, when she recovered the world record that had previously been nabbed by Kipyegon, I look forward to the latter to be the first woman running a sub-14 5000 m next year.

I like partcularly this photo of S. Jackson as she reminds me M. Ottey

Shericka Jackson is the best versatile female sprinter. With personal bests at 10.70 , 21.41 and 49.47 s she has been the dominant figure in women's sprint. She has the 5 out of the 10 best performances in 200 m and if anybody can break Flo-Jo's 200 m haunted record, that's Jackson. She is number two in my list and I would have considered her for first place had she not lost the world title over 100 m.

Adding the outdoors world title to her indoor long jump ones, is for me sufficient for a position in the top three for Ivana Vuleta. She is an athlete I have been following throughout the years and I have always been appreciating the purity of her style. I just hope that she will be able to crown her career with a medal in next year's Olympics.

F. Bol was the best low hurdler of the year. She dominated the discipline and it would have been very interesting to see what she could do agaist S. McLaughlin. I look forward to such a duel in Paris, next year.

Y. Mahuchikh rebounded from last year's defeat and secured the women's high jump world title. What could have happened weren't M. Lasitskene excluded from international competitions (thanks to the unwarranted decisions of Lord Sebastian), nobody can tell. But, for the time being, Mahuchikh is the number one high jumper (although the australian duo, Patterson and Olyslagers, are there to challenge her at every step of the way).

S. Richardson was the surprise winner for the women's 100 m world title. The surprise has nothing to do with Richardson talent but more with the fact that she was barely qualified to the final. Given the mastery she displayed in the relay's final I think that she is worth a place in my top ten.

K. Nageotte has been dominating the women's pole vault for the last years. In Budapest she added a second world title to her palmarès. And given her attitude at the end of the breath-taking event in this year's World's, I will not be astonished if she were proposed for the fair-play prize.

I have been following W. Yavi for years, being convinced of her great talent. She not only confirmed this in Budapest but she went on to win the final of the Diamond League despite the presence of the great B. Chepkoech.

S. Hassan lost the 10000 m world title due to a unlucky moment. And then, after a season devoted to track events, she went on to win her second marathon, in a time that, just two weeks earlier, would have been a world record. 

P. Jepchirchir is definitely the half-marathon specialist, but this did not prevent her from winning the olympic title in the (full) marathon event. Her third victory in the event, this last month, wins her a place in my top-ten list.

Mondo Duplantis has been at the top of my list last year (and also in the 2020 one). Well, what can one do? When in presence of such a great talent who, at just 23 years of age, has rewritten the history of pole vault there is only one place for him: once more at the number one of my choice of the years best athletes. It will be interesting to see if World Athletics will award him back-to-back titles, since Duplantis was the recipient of last year's award.

Noah Lyles was the leading figure in men's sprint this year. While a 200 m specialist (which he dominated despite the presence of great young talents, E. knighton and L. Tebogo), he decided to compete in the 100 m as well and did win the world title. And then he went on to win a third gold medal anchoring the 4x100 m US relay. This earns him the second place in my year's best classification.

And for the third place I choose none other than Miltos Tentoglou who at just 25 years of age has won everything: olympic, world, european out- and indoor titles. His unique self-control in Budapest allowed him to win the only medal missing from his collection. 

R. Grouser is transforming the men's shot put. He has 13 out of the best 20 throws in history. To my eyes he is the thrower who can breach the 24 m barrier. He has already figured on the podium of my year's best athletes (in 2021).

N. Chopra added the world title to his olympic one and that sufficed for me in order to include him in my top ten. One thing I am looking forward to from him is a 90+ performance. 

G. Tamberi was absent till now from top lists (but he got a special mention in 2021). This year, after he had won the world title, I felt that it was time to include him in the list. He is a great athlete, a unique showman and an example for his courage, having rebounded from a serious injury and reaching the world summit. 

The regular readers of my blog know that I am a great fan of combined events. This time the name of the decathlon is P. LePage. He had a great competition in Budapest  finishing among the first in most events and winning the world title with more than 100 points to spare.

J. Ingebrigtsen lost once again the world title of the 1500 m. Had he won it he could have made the top three in my classification (although that would have meant pushing Tentoglou out, which I would have been reluctant to do). Still He had a great year and my gut feeling is that the 1500 m world record will not survive for much longer.

J. Cheptegei won his third straight title for men's 10000 m. The olympic title is still missing and, if all goes well for him, he will go for it in Paris. But for the time being he is worth a place among my top ten.

I have saved the great E. Kipchoge for last. Just a few weeks ago he won for the fifth time the Berlin marathon. Although he did not break his world record this time (and in fact saw this become property of K. Kiptum a few days later), Kipchoge has a place among the top ten, just as last year and the year before that.

As last year I will publish the rising star list separately. World Athletics decided last year to split the two lists and I am following suit.

The blog is 10 years old

Ten years ago I decided to publish a blog on athletics. That idea came while reading A. Juilland's book "Rethinking Track and Field". Juilland main argument is that we must change the way we are doing athletics if we wish to make the discipline again attractive to spectators. I also felt that athletics needed changes (and that World Athletics was too timorous to implement revolutionary ones) and decided to present my ideas in a series of blog articles. As a tribute to the genius of Juilland, I decided to plagiarise the title of his book. 

The blog evolved, as every living entity does, and, over the years, became something I could not have predicted from the outset. As I could never have predicted that after ten years it would be alive and thriving. I have published more than 400 different articles and the blog has been visited 227 thousand times. Now, the statistics of this are somewhat curious. From time to time there is a spurt of visits that I have trouble explaining. At the end of August there was one day with almost 6 thousand visits. Was that an effect of the World Championships? Anyhow, I consider that a thousand visits per month is the normal traffic for the blog and I am happy when the number of visitors reaches four figures.

Some posts have been consistently popular. The champion of visibility is my post entitled "The javelin controversy" with 7.2 thousand visits. Then comes "Pole vault: before and after" with 5.7 k and "Before the olympic medals: the olive wreath" with 3.6 k. In between there is the post "Before the curtain falls: a jaunt into gerontology" which has garnered 6.9 k visitors, but I don't think those were athletics fans. More probably it was the word "gerontology" that triggered the search engines and oriented people towards my article. (I just hope they read it: it's a good one). Speaking about good articles, I am frustrated that one of the best pieces I have ever written "Eleven wretched women, or how fake news almost killed women athletics" has had only 182 visits. The article tells the story of the women's 800 m at the Amsterdam, 1928, Olympics and how a bunch of stupid, dishonest, sexist journalists almost killed women athletics. (If you haven't read it, do it now). This article spurred a whole series I published on the "The long and arduous road of women to the Olympics", complemented by the "Gallery of Shame" where I present the portraits of those who did whatever was possible to thwart the women's efforts to join competitive sports.

Every year, at the anniversary of the blog's creation, I write a short article and end it by asking the question of where I am going to go from here. Ten years look like a good cycle (and way longer that what I could have imagined ten years ago). So I could stop publishing the blog here, settle back and admire the work done. But the fact is that I like writing this blog and I would be really frustrated if it were to end at this point. So, as long as my health allows it, I will continue writing the blog, be it only for my personal pleasure and that of the bunch of my faithful readers. 

The World Championships 2023: jumps and throws

I have written a special article on Tentoglou's victory at the championships. As I explained there, Tentoglou almost did not make it to the final: after the two first attempts he was sitting at the 13th place. Fortunately he kept his cool and qualified with his third jump at 8.25 m. But the qualifiers had several victims, among them Shreesankar, who was 7th at last year's World's and has a 8.41 m personal best, to say nothing of the young talents M. Furlani and B. Saraboyukov. And in the final a minor surprise was the below-par performance of S. Ehammer who could not make it to the final 8.

The regular readers of this blog know that I am a great fan of I. Vuleta (Spanovic). For me, she is the best female long jumper of the past decade. She has a perfect style and now that she is able to produce regularly 7+ m jumps she is accumulating gold medals. The qualifications saw J. Sawyers, M. Bekh-Romanchuk, Q. Burks, M. Gardasevic and M. Vicente eliminated. In the final Vuleta opened with a foul at 7+ m and T. Davis-Woodhall took the lead with 6.91 m (which was enough for silver). But at the second jump already Vuleta showed that she was going for the gold with 7.05 m. And she consolidated her place with a 7.14 m jump at her fifth attempt. E. Brume was 3rd up to the last jump but then A. Rotaru-Kottmann pushed her out of the medals with a 6.88 m jump. L. Iapichino, following in the steps of her mother, F. May, was fifth, a net improvement over her last year's performance in Eugene. There was a minor drama in the final with, as protagonist, A. Smith. But this is a story I will tell in some other article of mine. 

There was also some drama in the men's triple jump. P. Pichardo being absent due to injury, the main favourite was 18 years old jamaican jumper J. Hibbert. He qualified with a 17.70 m (which would have sufficed for gold in the final). But then he got injured in his very first jump, which he could not complete, and had to be carried out of the stadium. Following this the way was clear for H.F. Jango who won his first world title with a 17.64 m jump, succeeding thus his coach T. Tamgho who had won the world title in 2013.

Women's triple jump almost turned into a huge surprise. The indisputable favourite, Y. Rojas, world champion in the past three editions, started the competition by fouling a 15+ m jump and then had two bizarre jumps at 14.33 and 14.26 m. But she got lucky. K. Orji had just one valid jump at 14.33 m and so, thanks to her 14.26, Rojas could progress for the final three attempts as 8th. And she went on to foul her next two jumps. I had to, a posteriori, peruse the livestream of the women's triple jump in order to follow Rojas' efforts. In fact her fouled jumps were one at around 15.20 m and one at slightly over 15 m.  So entering the last attempt Rojas was sitting at 8th place while M. Bekh-Romanchuk was first with 15.00 m, L. Pérez-Hernandez second with 14.96 m and T. Lafond third with 14.90 m. And then Rojas had a valid jump at 15.08 m ending the suspense and winning her fourth world title. S. Ricketts jumped 14.93 m at her sixth attempt but that was no more sufficient for a medal.

Barshim and Tamberi carrying Barshim's young son

Two years ago G. Tamberi and M. Barshim shared an olympic gold in Tokyo for men's high jump at 2.37 m, not missing a single attempt up to that height. Last year Barshim was alone at the highest position on the podium winning the world title with 2.37 m, Tamberi losing the bronze medal on countback. This year the outcome was different. It started with a big scare for Tamberi who needed three tries at 2.28 m in order to qualify for the final. However once in the final he had an (almost) exemplary competition winning with 2.36 m before two tries at 2.38 and one at 2.40 m. J. Harrison was leading up to 2.33 m but missing the first try at 2.36 m lost the first place on countback (but this was still a redemption after his failure last year in Eugene, where he had finished 9th). Barshim, curiously, had three unsuccessful attempts at 2.36 m and had to content himself with bronze. 

Last year in Eugene, E. Patterson beat Y. Mahuchikh, for the women's high jump world title, on countback with 2.02 m while Valortigara obtained bronze with 2.00 m beating I. Herashchenko on countback. This year Patterson was not at top shape having been injured in the off season. Still she fought all the way to 1.99 m, beating her compatriot N. Olyslagers on countback. Y. Mahuchikh was already leading at that height but she went on to pass 2.01 m before three unsuccessful attempts at 2.07 m. 

There was no surprise at the men's pole vault. There were five athletes at 5.90 m and still four at 5.95 m. When the bar was raised to 6.00 m Duplantis passed at the first attempt while E. Obiena needed two. The competition was essentially over at that point: Duplantis went on to pass 6.05 and 6.10 m, Obiena failing once at the first height and twice at the second. Then the bar was raised to a potential world record of 6.23 m but Duplantis could not make it. (Less than a month latter he would succeed at that height in the same venue as the 2022 World's). 

Duplantis jumping 6.23 m at the Diamond League final (after the championships)

K. Moon, still under her maiden's name of Nageotte, won last year's world title, S. Morris finishing second and N. Kennedy third.  This year the event started with a (minor) surprise of the non-qualification of K. Stefanidi who no-heighted at 4.50 m. The final saw S. Morris exiting at  4.65 m for a 7th place. At 4.80 m there were just four athletes left. W. Murto won bronze on countback from T. Sutej at that height, while K. Moon and N. Kennedy went on to pass 4.85 and 4.90 m, the latter at the third attempt. Having both just one miss at some previous height they were tied at first position. and, following the Tamberi-Barshim Tokyo example they decided, after a short friendly discussion, to stop there and share the gold. That was one of the great moments of the championships, and, to my eyes, a display of fair-play.

C. Ealey won the women's shot put world title, just as she did last year in Eugene, with a 20.43 m throw. S. Mitton was second with a 20.08 m thrown while L. Gong managed to obtain a medal with 19.69 m on countback from A. Dongmo. The latter is probably the last of the elite glider throwers since women, have followed the example of men and became in their quasi-totality spinners. M. Ewen who has the world leading performance this year with 20.45 m, could do no better than 6th, a minor disappointment.

R. Crouser led the men's shot put competition from the outset. L. Fabbri obtained silver with a 22.34 m throw in his third attempt. T. Walsh was third with 22.05 m up to the fifth throw when J. Kovacs passed him with 22.12 m. When the last throw came nothing changed and Crouser free from any tension managed a great throw of 23.51 m at just 5 cm from hi world record.

Women's hammer throw was a tad sad with the elimination of the quadruple world champion A. Wlodarczyk in the qualifiers. (Last years world champion B. Andersen was also eliminated at the qualification stage). C. Rogers won the final with 77.22 m ahead of J. Kassanavoid both upgrading their medals with respect to Eugene, while D. Price, the 2019 champion, was back on the podium obtaining the bronze medal.

The men's hammer saw a, mostly unknown, 21 years old E. Katzberg lead the qualifiers with 81.18 m. Such surprises are not rare in the qualification competition but, usually, the exceptional performances are not confirmed in the final. Well, in this case the situation was different. Five-time world champion P. Fajdek opened with a season best 80.00 m but in the end that performance was not good for a medal. B. Halasz took the lead with 80.82 m, and, in the end, that would be the only medal (a bronze) for the host nation. W. Nowicki passed him at the fourth attempt throwing just one cm further and in the fifth he increased his lead with 81.02 m. But at this point Katzberg reposted with 81.25 clinching the gold medal. Nobody could react at the last throw and Katzberg confirmed his supremacy with a 81.11 m last throw. Now we have to see how he fares in the future.

Last year V. Allman and S. Perkovic lost the women's discus throw gold medal to what I have dubbed a "lucky throw" by B. Feng. This year the nightmarish, for the favourites, scenario was repeated with L. Tausaga throwing a massive personal best 69.49 m in the fifth round and taking the lead. Allman could not improve her 69.23 m and had to settle for silver. B. Feng confirmed her progress with 68.20  for bronze, while S. Perkovic finished fifth. In my article "What is happening to the US throwers?" I had written about Tausaga pointing out that she managed to throw beyond the 64.20 m qualifying standard on her very last throw, securing thus a place in the team. Admittedly she is a rather young thrower but she has been throwing around 64 m since 2019. A 5 m jump in performance is more than surprising. Let's see if she confirms this next year. 

After his 4th place last year in Eugene one could think that D. Stahl's return at the top of the men's discus hierarchy was impossible. All the more so since K. Ceh and M. Alekna had given proof of their talent, winning the World and European titles respectively. The competition in Budapest started with nobody reaching the automatic qualifying standard. But when the final arrived there were plenty of great throws. Ceh took command of the event with 69.27 m but in the fourth round Stahl passed him with barely 10 cm to spare. Alekna secured the third place with 68.85 . And then came the last throw. Ceh and Stahl were the last two to throw starting with Ceh. And he threw a massive 70.02 m taking the lead. But Stahl had not said his last word. He responded with a championships record of 71.46 m and the gold was his. I expected him to do his short celebration sprint but apparently he is past this phase: is he becoming blasé to his victories?

In the women's javelin the two young throwers I am following, E. Tzengko and A. Vilagos, winners of the European U23 and U20 titles respectively, had a disastrous competition at the qualifiers and were out of the final. The latter started with a lucky throw of 65.47 m by F.D. Ruiz Hurtado (she has not thrown beyond 63 m in the past six years) and with this performance she led the event till the last throw when H. Kitaguchi managed a throw of 66.73 m obtaining gold (she was outside the medals up to that point). K.L. Barber the 2019 and 2022 world champion could do no better than 7th.

Before talking about the javelin competition I would like to show you a short gif showing the portuguese thrower L. Ramos and his special somersault at the end of the throw. He is a young 24-year-old thrower with a 84.78 m record. I would be following him in the future to see if his technique will allow him to reach world-class performances.

The men's javelin throw saw the elimination of ex-world champions J. Yego and A. Peters, while K. Walcott was absent due to injury. (One wonders what happened to the great german trio of J. Vetter, T. Roehler and A. Hoffman who should have been present and dominating the event. I cross my finders hoping to see them back to top shape in some near future). N. Chopra won the event with 88.17 m but that was not a easy victory since A. Nadeem threw 87.82 obtaining silver with that throw. What was really surprising was the presence of three indian throwers in the final finishing 1st (Chopra), 5th (Jena) and 6th (Manu) the last two with throws over 84 m. 

For those who are wondering how come indians start distinguishing themselves in this discipline, the answer is simple. The preferred pastime of indian boys is cricket. So once you become good at throwing the cricket ball, graduating to the javelin is just a matter of assimilating the technique. (Let us not forget that A. Vilagos came to javelin after having distinguished herself as a young girl in throwing the vortex. If you do not know what the latter is you can look it up in google). And of course the argument about indian throwers applies equally to pakistanis, like Nadeem. They have the same passion for cricket.

The World Championships 2023: middle and long distances

This time K. Hodgkinson managed to beat A. Mu in the women's 800 m. However she had to content herself with silver, once more, since the winner was M. Moraa, in a quite decent time of 1:56.03. Mu led from the outset but probably the Mu of 2023 was not neither the one of 2021 nor of 2022. In fact, prior to Budapest, she had run just twice once a 800 m in June and then a 1500 m in the US trials, where she finished second. Her race in Budapest showed that she was simply not in top form for this event. Having seen Hodgkinson finish 3rd in the European U23 championships (albeit in a personal best of 51.76 s) I was wondering whether she was going to be in top shape in the World's. Well, she was, but she launched her attack a tad late and Moraa's superior speed made the difference.

To tell the truth, I expected the U20 champion E. Wanyonyi to win the men's 800 m race. But when M. Arop attacked, just before 600 m, nobody could follow him. He went on to win with 1:44.24, Wanyonyi finishing second in 1:44.53.

The men's 1500 m had just one name: J. Ingebrigtsen. I expected A. Kipsang to play some role in the final and I was keeping an eye open for M. García and, of course, J. Kerr, having won olympic bronze in Tokyo was a potential medalist in Budapest but nobody in their right mind could predict that Ingebrigtsen would lose the title for the second time in a row. In Eugene he had let Wightman pass him with 150 m to go hoping to catch him on the final stretch but failed to do so. In Budapest he took early control of the race and imposed a fast pace aiming at tiring the good finishers. But in the process he managed to tire himself as well and when Kerr attacked he did not have enough reserves. Kerr went on to win with 3:29.38 and Ingebrigtsen was almost caught up on the line by his compatriot N. Nordas.

Things were completely different for the female 1500 m favourite. F. Kipyegon took command of the race from the outset and proceeded with a fast pace and when she accelerated nobody could follow her. She finished in 3:54.87 while D. Welteji held off S. Hassan 3:55.69 to 3:56.00.

Kipyegon went on to win the 5000 m race as well. The ethiopians gave a slow pace to the race. G. Tsegay, the reigning world champion reached 4600 m in 12:48.99. I cannot imagine what they were thinking: was it possible to beat Kipyegon (or Hassan) in the final sprint? Well, when Kipyegon, Hassan ans R. Chebet surged with 300 m to go nobody could follow them. M. Kipkemboi was the only one to try, but she finished a distant fourth. That was one of the most impressive moments of the championships. Of course we can simply forget the winner's time: 14:53.88. (In the middle of the race, with 7:41, I was afraid we were heading for a 15+ min final time).

Ingebrigtsen got his redemption in the 5000 m. This time he took no initiative and let the others adjust the pace of the race. When they came to the last lap there was just a small group of 7-8 runners who could hope for a medal. When at 250-300 m before the finish M Katir attacked, Ingebrigtsen just followed and did not launch his attack until the final stretch. But it was clear from his expression that he was in control and indeed he passed with 20 m to spare winning in 13:11.30 to 13:11.44. L. Grijalva, the guatemalan (but USA based) middle distance revelation, was 4th just as last year in Eugene. 

J. Cheptegei succeeded his "three-peat" in the men's 10000 m winning rather easily with 27:51.42 (the slowest of his three victories). S. Barega tried to follow him in the final sprint but without success. in fact he was so discouraged that he slowed down over the last metres and was passed on the line by D. Ebenyo downgrading thus his silver to bronze.

The women's 10000 m was pure drama. Wirth 300 m to go S. Hassan launched the sprint, followed only by the three ethiopians L. Gidey, G. Tsegay and E. Taye. Entering the final stretch only Tsegay could follow Hassan and in fact started getting closer to her. Hassan moved slightly to the right so as to make it more difficult for Tsegay to pass her. When Tsegay moved closer, Hassan had a look to her left (to make sure that there was no danger from this direction) and moved again slightly to the right. At that moment her arm bumped the one of Tsegay and mage her lose her equilibrium. She fell heavily on the track and could only watch the ethiopians trust the medals.

There was no particular drama in the Marathon, run under not very favourable conditions, temperature- and humidity-wise. This is of course reflected in the times. V. Kiplangat won the men's event in 2:08:53 while A. Shankule obtained gold in the women's race with 2:24.23. 

The men's 3000 m was a boring race with El Bakkali beating once more L. Girma 8:03.53 to 8:05.44. I dream of the time when Kenya will find again great steeple champions like M. Kiptanui, E. Kemboi, Kipruto (both Brimin an Consesius) or S. Cherono (also known as Saif Saaed Shaheen). 

Fortunately the women's race rewarded us with one of the best races of the championships. I have been following W. Yavi since her first championship London 2017, where she finished 8th at 18 years of age) and I was always convinced of her great talent. But he coud do no better than 4th in the World's 2019 and 2022. Those who follow my blog know that I am a great fan of B. Chepkoech. She holds the world records of both 3000 m and 2000 m steeple (the latter established after Budapest). She has had repeated injuries these last years leading to a so-so performance in the Tokyo Olympics and absence from last year's World's. This season she is back on track steadily improving, pushed by her namesake J. Chepkoech. Coming to Budapest I expected the two Chepkoech and Yavi to play a major role. Olympic champion P. Chemutai was also running but she did not look to be in top shape this season. It was a great race, B. Chepkoech giving a fast pace with Yavi just behind and, curiously, J. Chepkoech fading out of medal contention. Yavi attacked at the bell, securing a few metres' advantage and Chepkoech could not catch up. They finished in that order 8:5429 to 8:58.98. Only U20 world champion F. Cherotich could follow them obtaining bronze and just barely missing an under-9 performance. 

My report cannot reproduce the feelings one has when watching the races. My advice is to go to youtube and try to find the video of the races that can interest you. I have followed the championships in real time and you must believe me when I say that knowing the outcome does not make watching the races again any less interesting.