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.