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.
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.
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