The World Athletics Rising Stars finalists

I was planning to publish my Rising Star list somewhat later in the month, closer to the nomination of the athletes of the year. But World Athletics surprised me once more publishing a finalist list for the Rising Star award and thus I felt I had to publish mine. And once that was online I had to comment on the WA choices.

First, let me state clearly that WA and myself do not have the same criteria. Perusing their finalists list it is clear that they limit their Rising Star selection to athletes who are under 20 years old. I find this too restrictive. For me athletes who 20 and 21 are still eligible and in fact my selection for this year, B. Kebinatsipi and F. Cherotich are both 21 years old. World Athletics have been unfair in their choice by ignoring both these athletes in their selection of the year's best and then eliminating them from the Rising Star final on age-related arguments.

At least F. Cherotich won the 2025 Jesse Owens Rising Star Award which honours the best U23 athlete at the Diamond League Final. And, in case you wonder, the Jesse Owens award for the best male went to L. Tebogo.

But let us see who did make the World Athletics list.

Phanuel Koech
Biniam Mehary
Edmund Serem

and 

Birke Haylom
Yan Ziyi
Zhang Jiale

I haven't at all considered Koech, despite his victory in the London Diamond League over 1500 m. Mehary was in my last year's list, but I found his performance in Tokyo underwhelming. He was qualified for the 10000, an event where he had won a Diamond League event this year, and opted to neglect the longer race in favour of the 5000 m. And he went on to finish a disappointing sixth in the shorter race. Serem is part of my Rising Star List, where I wrote that, for me, he is the rebirth of the kenyan steeplechase. I hope he wins the WA title. 

Haylom was out in the heats of the 5000 m in Tokyo, so I did not for a moment considered her for my list. J. Zhang, who won bronze in Tokyo, earned a mention on my list not only for her individual success but also because her medal accounted for 25% of China’s total haul.

The absence of Z. Yan from my lists is not easily explainable, all the more so since I am complaining about the low level of present-day female javelin throwers. Yan with a 65.89 m U20 WR should have been in my list. But, she was not present in Tokyo and somehow she slipped out of my mind. While working on this article, I decided to find out why she was absent from Tokyo. Well, that's due to the crazy WA rule that stipulates that, in order to participate, the athletes must be at least 18 years old. And Yan was still 17 in September. I now hope that she will go on to win the award.

The rising stars of 2025

I don't have a very precise rule concerning the age limit for the athletes I consider for nomination to my Rising Stars list. I definitely include 20-year old athletes but on occasion I may include somewhat older ones. I feel that it is not just the age that counts but also when the athlete starts "blooming". With that said let's move top this years list.

The top male rising star is none other than the world champion of the 400 m, B. Kebinatshipi. He not only won the individual race but he managed to bring the gold relay medal to Botswana in a fabulous finish where he passed R. Benjamin just before the line.

M. Furlani deserves the second place. His world title, although obtained in a year where Tentoglou was far from optimal shape, amply deserves this distinction. He gave proof of a great constancy, jumping beyond 8 m in 14 of his 16 competitions this year.

E. Serem is, for me, the rebirth of the kenyan steeplechase. He has been competing at high level for just two years and he is already world bronze medallist. It goes without saying that I will keep a close eye at him.

There are several young athletes that should be mentioned here. H. Troscianka was the revelation of the World U20 championships. He is a very complete decathlete and by progressing technically he will be among tomorrow's protagonists. J. Tharp was only 6th in the 110 m hurdles final in Tokyo but he had won the US Trials in August barely missing a sub-13 performance. E. Nathaniel finished 4th of the 400 m hurdles final of the World's and his time of 47.11 s could have been better were it not for the hurdle toppled by Benjamin into his lane. G. Gout barely missed the 200 m final in Tokyo. At 18 years of age he is considered by many as the new Bolt. I will definitely follow him over the next years. 

I will wind up my list with two talented athletes who in a sense did not live up to expectations. Still, they are definitely rising stars. C. Lutkenhaus, born in 2008, created the surprise when he qualified for the US team in the 800 m with 1:42.27. (He did not confirm in Tokyo but this is most probably an effect of the US Trials I have written about on several occasions). Q. Wilson is also born in 2008. Last year he did qualify for the US team and participated in the 4x400 m relay in Paris (although his race was, to tell the truth, disastrous). This year he improved the world best performance with 44.10 s but in the US Trials he ran in 45.39 s missing a place in the final. Let's see what these two will do next year.

F. Cherotich is for me the number one female rising star. In Tokyo she added the world title to her bronze olympic and world (2023) medals she already possesses. Her personal best of 8:48.71 is the fourth best performance of all times. She won the Diamond League final, just like she had done last year (and had 4 more victories in the Diamond League meetings). To my eyes she is the heir of the great B. Chepkoech (just like W. Yavi, who is also kenyan but running for Bahrain).

Can you tell who is Tina and who is Tia?

Tina Clayton qualified for the world championships and went on to win silver in the 100 m behind M. Jefferson-Wooden. Her twin sister, Tia, had not qualified for the individual event in the jamaican trials. She tried to obtain a wild card by winning the Diamond League final but was beaten in by J. Alfred and had to contend herself with a place in the 4x100 m relay. I have trouble separating the two sisters: they are both rising stars.

A. Topic has already figured in my rising stars list. This time she won her place thanks to her bronze medal obtained in Tokyo after a nail-bitting event. Now, I expect a 2 m jump from her, why not already next year.

S. Moraa and A. Werro finished 4th and 6th of the 800 m. They are worth a mention here, all the more so since Werro is the winner of the Diamond League final while S. Moraa had not run outside Kenya this summer. S. Almayew is probably the Ethiopia's response to Kenya in women's 3000 m steeple. She won the bronze medal in Tokyo dipping under 9 minutes. J. Zhang also won bronze in Tokyo with a 77+ throw in the women's hammer throw. She was one of only four Chinese athletes to win a medal, an impressively low number.

And I will finish the women's list again with two twins, Hana and Amanda Moll who tied for 6th place in the pole vault competition in Tokyo. I have been following them since the US Trials. Hana has a 4.81 m personal best while Amanda's is an impressive 4.91 m. As I wrote above, it will be interesting to see what they will do next year.

All in all it was a great year for Athletics. Usually the year after the Olympics is so-so but 2025 proved to opposite. There are many new talents, many more than the ones who figured in my list, and the coming years will be exciting. (Although I cannot make any prediction about the Ultimate Championship that Lord Sebastian has planned for next year. Will it be a success? I guess we'll have to wait till next year to see what happens). 

The bewildering choices of World Athletics

World Athletics published the list of finalists for the athlete of the year and I must say that I am shocked. I am not surprised to see Noah Lyles in the track athlete selection. For unfathomable reasons, Sir Sebastian considers him the best track athlete, and perhaps the best overall. So, I will not be astonished if, at the end of the month, Lyles is crowned athlete of the year surpassing M. Duplantis.

But while Lyles' selection was, more or less, expected, there are other choices that I find shocking. F. Bol accompanies S. McLaughlin in the track short list. Yes, you read correctly. Not Chebet, not Kipyegon, not Jefferson-Wooden. What is the logic of this? Bol won the world title because McLaughlin opted for the flat race. Pushing Chebet out of the short list is unforgivable. 

In men's field events it's M. Furlani who accompanies Duplantis. What is the rationale behind his selection? He just won the world title. He lost the Diamond League final, and he lost the European indoors. And the European team championships. And he does not have the world leading performance. I guess I have to add him to the list of Lord Sebastian's protégé's (Lyles, Machuchikh, Rojas, and now, probably, Bol and Furlani).

For women's field events my critique is not about persons. N. Olyslagers and T. Davis-Woodhall are 100% worth their selection. My gripe is that none of the two throwers present in the initial list, V. Allman and C. Rogers, was selected (to say nothing of the heptathlete A. Hall). And given the selection for men's track, no thrower at all figures in the finalist's list. (One must go back to 2000 for men and 2014 for women in order to find a thrower nominated athlete of the year. And I have manifested time and again my discontent for the blatant neglect of the great A. Wlodarczyk, who has never received an official distinction from World Athletics). 

Simbu and Sawe were logical choices for the men's out of stadium finalists. (If only J. Kiplimo had succeeded in his bid for a world record in Chicago. He passed in 1:00:16 at mid-point and was ahead of Kiptum's pace at 30 km. But he could not maintain that pace and Sawe will most probably be chosen as year's best). In the women's case the finalists were P. Jepchrichir and M. Perez. Now I must confess that, while I dislike race-walking, I do admire M. Perez. In fact if I had to choose two finalists out of the five World Athletics nominees I would have chosen Perez to accompany Jepchirchir (the latter being clearly my first choice).

When I published my article on the WA nominees, I wrote that I would either update the post or, if it was justified, write a short article with my comments on their choices. Given the level of my irritation when I saw the finalists' list I consider this post amply justified.

The World Athletics Athlete of the Year nominees

Since 2023 World Athletics has changed their year's best athlete classification introducing separate lists for track, field and road (what they call "out of stadium"). And last year they went back and introduced also an overall year's best. This year they kept the three specialties classification, but the nominees' list was globally parred down from 6+6 ro 5+5. This lead to a lopsided list in the case of men's field list with four jumpers and just one thrower. (But more on this later).

Here is the official list of nominees for 2025:

Track

Femke Bol
Beatrice Chebet
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
Faith Kipyegon
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone

Rai Benjamin
Jimmy Gressier
Noah Lyles
Cordell Tinch,
Emmanuel Wanyonyi

All female champions figure in my list. In the case of men I haven't included Benjamin (but his name would have been the next I would have included) and Lyles (of whom I don't appreciate the attitude).

Field 

Valarie Allman
Tara Davis-Woodhall
Anna Hall
Nicola Olyslagers
Camryn Rogers

Mondo Duplantis
Mattia Furlani
Ethan Katzberg
Hamish Kerr
Pedro Pichardo

Again all women were part of my list. In the case of men I did not include Furlani (although he is a great athlete I don't think he was dominating). For Kerr and Pichardo, see my remark on Lyles.

There is a blatant absence for this list, that of R. Crouser. He is the athlete who dominates the men's shot put for the last five years (at least). His come-back from injury to win the world title was a unique feat. Leaving him out of the nominees is, to say the least, unfair. He should have been included in the nominees list (to the detriment of one of the jumpers).

Out of Stadium

Tigst Assefa
Sifan Hassan
Peres Jepchirchir
Agnes Ngetich
Maria Perez

Caio Bonfim
Evan Dunfee
Yomif Kejelcha
Sabastian Sawe
Alphonce Simbu

Here I must admit that I have a weakness. I don't follow the "out of stadium" events closely enough so as to have a clear view of what is happening. Only P. Jepchirchir is mentioned in my year's best list (and S. Sawe gets a mention just to fill a gap).

Once World Athletics publishes the shortlist of selected athletes I will either update this list or, if it is justified, write a short article with my comments on their choices.

The year's best athletes

Once more it's the time where we must make the balance sheet of the year, and decide which athletes have been outstanding in their performances. It goes without saying that the list I will present is 100% subjective. It corresponds to my preferences for certain athletes and the fact that there some others that I cannot stand. (But, then, I don't think that any "best of" list can ever be 100% objective) 

The year 2025 has been particularly rich due to the presence of the World Championships that focused the efforts of all the athletes who could hope to obtain a qualification for Tokyo, and for the best of them, to shine there.

Let us start with the queens of Athletics. Just as in 2024 I could not decide between the two best female athlete. And, what is more, one of them was my choice for best athlete for 2021, 2022, and 2024 already. But I cannot help it. I am convinced that S. McLaughlin(-Levrone) is the best athlete out there. 

But, just like last year, I could not really claim that this year she was better that B. Chebet. Both are great and for me, they share the top position on my year's best podium. S. McLaughlin ran the second best ever 400 m with 47.78 s. B. Chebet was the first woman to break the 14 minute barrier in the 5000 m. Both won two gold medals in the World Championships.

Faith Kipyegon was co-number one last year. She broke the 1500 m world record with 3:48.68 this year and won the same event in Tokyo. However she was beaten by Chebet in the 5000 m final and thus, in my list, she has to content herself with second place. 

I reserved the third place for the new combined events star, A. Hall. She broke the 7000 points barrier in June, tying, with 7032 points, the performance of K. Kluft, which, as I have explained, should have been the world record. And, on top of this, she improved the looong-standing heptathlon 800 m record with 2:01.23. (And to cap it all, she is an accomplished low-hurdler with a 54.42 s personal best).

P. Jepchrichir has an almost unique place among female marathoners having won both the olympic (2021) and world (2025) titles. She joins the great R. Mota in this select list, but unlike Mota, who won her titles in two consecutive years, 1987 and 88 (just like the male champions , G. Abera, 2000 and 01, and S. Kiprotich, 2012 and 13), Jepchrichir won the second title 4 years after the first, a proof of athletic longevity.

M. Jefferson-Wooden went home from Tokyo with 3 gold medals. With 10.61 s she is 4th in the all-time best list for 100 m. With 21.68 s in the 200 m she is 7th in front of A. Felix and just behind the great M. Ottey. And when you count her relay titles from 2022 and 2023, MJW has, at 24, five world titles already. 

The world discus title was what was V. Allman was missing. Despite having won the olympic title twice, in 2021 and 2024, she had to wait till 2025 in order to become world champion. Add to this the fact that, with her 73.52 m throw from April, she sits in the 6th position of the all-time list, accompanying throwers from the pre-doping-control era, and you can see why she is topping my list of field champions.

C. Rogers is the other great thrower who is making my top list. Her last defeat in major competition (world or olympic) goes back to 2022. Since then she amassed one olympic and two world titles. Her winning throw of 80.51 m in Tokyo, places her second to the great A. Wlodarczyk in the all-time hammer lists.

T. Davis-Woodhall is, step by step, becoming the number one female long jumper. She was second behind I. Spanovic in Budapest but since then she has garnered two world (indoor in 2024 and outdoor this year) and an olympic (last year) titles. Moreover she is regularly jumping over 7 m since 2021.

The other jumper I would like to include in my list is N. Olyslagers. A 2 m high-jumper since 2021 she has been contenting herself with places on the podium (twice silver in the Olympics, bronze in 2023 World's) but 2025 was to be her year. She won the Diamond League final with 2.04 m and went on to win the world title in Tokyo, adding the outdoor title to the two indoor ones she had won in 2024 and earlier this year.

I cannot move on to the men's list without mentioning two more great athletes who have been somewhat eclipsed by the achievements of the preceding stars. M. Paulino lost the 400 m title to S. McLaughlin. However her 47.98 s performance puts her third in the all-time list and ahead of J. Kratoshvilova who, with 47.99 s held the championships record from 1983. The second is F. Bol who won her second world title in the 400 m hurdles. Her time in 51.54 s is better than the time with which D. Muhammad won silver in the Tokyo Olympics, and Bol has a 50.95 s personal best placing her behind only McLaughlin. But still Bol has never beaten McLaughlin in a direct head-to-head race. To tell the truth, the decision to include her in my list was a last-minute one, spurred by Bol's intrepid decision to move to the 800 m from next year. I do like athletes who do not hesitate to take on a challenge. 

The men's crown goes, once more to A. Duplantis. He has been number-one in my list of year's best in 2020 and 2022-23-24 and is topping the list once more this year. He took the world record at 6.16 m and over the years he lifted it to 6.30 m. Fortunately, thanks to the presence of E. Karalis, he is not the only pole vaulter to jump regularly over 6 m. But the truth is, he is a class of his own. Somehow I am tempted to put him above the list and to attribute him not simply gold but, let's say, diamond so that I have place for one of more "first".  

And for the year's best I chose two throwers who excelled in Tokyo. R. Crouser is the best shot putter ever. He has three world and three olympic titles. He holds the world record with 23.56 m. And this year, nursing an injury, he managed to win once more the world title. 

E. Katzberg is 10 years younger than Crouser, at 23, an infant by hammer throw standards. And, still, he has already two World and one Olympic titles. His 84.70 m throw in Tokyo places him 5th in the all time list, but if we count only post-doping-control athletes he is second only to K. Murofushi.

E. Wanyonyi was my rising star last year when he won the 800 m in the Olympics. He could have kept that position this year but I preferred to move him to the podium of the "grown-ups". His race in Tokyo showed that he is not only a great runner but a fine tactician as well. If anybody can go for the 1:40 barrier, that's Wanyonyi.

I reserved the final place on the podium to L. Neugebauer. Everybody expected him to win the olympic title last year but he had to settle for silver. His decathlon victory this year came after a hard fight with A. Owens-Delerme, where the latter had a serious chance at winning. But Neugebauer resisted and kept a small margin sufficient for gold. If he manages to streamline a decathlon in a more relaxed competition he is capable to go for Mayer's world record.

Having mentioned a french champion I do not hesitate to reserve the next position in my list to the french revelation in Tokyo, J. Gressier. He ran two very clever races, winning one and obtaining bronze in the other. And he was the winner of the Diamond League final over 3000 m. 

A jamaican spinter, O. Seville, occupies the next place. I would have added also K. Thompson, since the two won the first two places in the 100 m depriving N. Lyles of gold. But the elimination of the jamaican 4x100 m was, to my eyes, due to a mistake of K. Thompson, who started too early, making it impossible to R. Forde to catch him, so it's only Seville who enters the top list.

C. Tinch dominated the 110 m hurdles. He is the world leader with 12.87 s. He did not make the final two years ago in Budapest and was not qualified last year for Paris. But 2025 was his year. He won all five Diamond League meetings in which he took part as well as the final, running five times under 13 seconds. (And he is a 8 m+ long jumper).

The final place in my list goes to a veteran of the javelin K. Walcott. We discovered him in 2012 when, after having won the World U20 championships, went to London and won the Olympic title. That was a major surprise and was waved away by many as a "lucky win". But four years later he was again on the podium, winning bronze in Rio. With 90.16 m personal best he is part of the exclusive club of 90-plusers. In Tokyo he prevailed in a final where 6 participants had better personal bests that him. He really deserves his place in the top list.

World Athletics introduced last year a new classification for the year's best athletes distinguishing track, field and, what they call, "out of stadium" best. In the case of women, given my list, the three winners would have been McLaughlin/Chebet, Hall and Jepchrichir. For men that would be Wanyonyi, Duplantis while for road events I hesitate between S. Sawe, who won in London and Berlin, and J. Kiplimo who won in Chicago, with a slight preference for the first. (Had Kiplimo managed to break the world record as he planned he would have been indisputably the number-one out of stadium runner).