The best of the best of 2025 (according to Athletics Podium)

On several occasions I mentioned in this blog the excellent site "Athletics Podium". It is run by the turkish sports journalist S.F. Erbay, accompanied by a team of contributing editors. I cannot think of any better athletics-oriented site on the web. My Turkish neighbours are really the best and, on several occasions, they have pleasantly surprised me with the originality of their articles. (I must confess that quite often I am jealous when I compare the quality of their site to my blog, but, I console myself with the thought that I am a one-man operation).

At the end of the year they published their year's best athletes list and I must say that I found it original to the point that I had to share it with you. 

They did not follow the World Athletics classification of track, field and out-of-stadium, neither one like mine that lists, roughly, the ten best of each sex. The Athletics Podium people decided to list the best by continent, with America split, as usual to South America and NACAC (which stands for North America, Central America and the Caribbeans). They ended up with the following lists

WOMEN

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (NACAC) and World
Maria Perez (EUR)
Beatrice Chebet(AFR)
Salwa Eid Naser (ASI)
Natalia Linares (S.AM)
Nicola Olyslagers (OCE)

MEN

Armand Duplantis(EUR) and World
Busang Kebinatshipi (AFR)
Sang-Hyeok Woo (ASI)
Caio Bonfim (S.AM)
Geordie Beamish (OCE)
Ethan Katzberg (NACAC)

I find the list interesting but also somewhat surprising. M. Jefferson-Wooden best of the World?  I would put at least three athletes ahead of her. At least B. Chebet gets plaudits for Africa, but this left no place for F. Kipyegon. (Sometimes choices are hard). N. Linares instead of J. Angulo, M. Perez instead of F. Bol or D. Kambundji would have also been my choices but, frankly, how can one ignore S. McLaughlin?   On the men's side I was happy to see that B. Kebinatshipi did get a mention (although that was at the expense of E. Wanyonyi).

The "Rising Stars" are called "Prospects" by the Athletics Podium people. And out of the 12 names I had to look up almost half of them.

Europe: Kelly-Ann Douala Edimo and Jarno van Daalen 
Africa: Prestina Ochonogor and Justice Oratile 
Asia: Puripol Boonson and Yan Ziyi 
NACAC: Liranyi Alonso and Kamari Kennedy 
South America: Maria Maturana and Ricardo Montes de Oca 
Oceania: Reki Selita Roberts and Gout Gout 

As you may have noticed I am not very good when it comes to the Rising Stars list (although I feel that I have made some progress these last years). So, I don't have major objections to the list above. But, still, I think that if there is one young European athlete who merits the distinction that's Hubert Trościanka. (But then, I am a combined event aficionado, so this explains that). 

I mentioned F. Kipyegon, S. McLaughlin and E. Wanyonyi as being left on the shelf. Well, apart from F. Kipyegon, the other two got a mention in the "Top Performances" list. I reproduce it below but I don't know if the order means something.

MEN

1) Armand Duplantis - 6.30m (PV)
2) Emmanuel Wanyonyi - 1:41.86 (800 m)
3) Mykolas Alekna - 75.56m (DT)
4) Rai Benjamin - 46.52 (400 m H)
5) Jacob Kiplimo - 56:42 (Half Marathon)

WOMEN

1) Beatrice Chebet - 13:58.06 (5000 m)
2) Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone - 47.78 (400 m)
3) Anna Hall - 7032 pts (Heptathlon)
4) Ditaji Kambundji - 12.24 (100 m H)
5) Valarie Allman - 73.52m (DT)

It is my feeling that F. Kipyegon's 1500 m 3:48.68 World Record (and her 3000 m 8:07.04 one) should have secured her a place in the Top Performances list. But where I strongly disagree with the AP list is with Rai Benjamin 46.52 s performance trumping the 46.28 of K. Warholm. We are talking performance here and world champion or not, Benjamin does not have the best performance of the year. At least I console myself seeing two throwers and one combined-event athlete included in the top-5 list, as well as J. Kiplimo who was totally ignored by World Athletics in their out-of-stadium choices.

Although I do not agree with all the Athletics Podium choices, I find their approach most interesting and very well researched. But, of course, this is not astonishing: as I said already, they are the best in what they do. So, if you haven't already done so, bookmark their site and think about visiting it regularly.

On the forbidden cartwheel

I have written, on several occasions, on the "spanish style" for javelin throw. It is in fact a permanent regret of mine that this style was banned and it is not used even for demonstrations. A commenter on my article "The javelin controversy" wrote:

The barra vasca [the throwing style of which led to the spanish one for javelin] was the same for javelin as Fosbury flop was for high jump. The javelin community was appalled: "That's not how you are supposed to throw it!".

With the spinners dominating the shot put, it is now clear that the rotational style is the most efficient one for all throws. So why prohibit it in the case of javelin? But this article is not about javelin. Those who are interested in the latter can read my article on the "javelin puzzle" and track my other articles on the same subject from there.

World Athletics is known for their over-conservative attitude. They only allow something revolutionary (like the fibreglass poles) when they are caught unawares by the evolution of styles or implements and cannot preempt it. 

At the beginning on the 00s, Veronika Watzek, an austrian thrower, invented a new rotational throwing technique, the cartwheel. 

(The thrower in the gif above is not V. Watzek)

Nicky Watzek was more of a discus thrower with a 58+ m personal best (and a 15 m shot put record). Googling for photos of her one finds plenty where she is throwing the discus and in fact the logo of her current enterprise "Athletic Academy" depicts a discus thrower.

It has been impossible to find out whether Watzek's shot put personal best was obtained with the cartwheel style. But I did find an article on a young german thrower who decided to try out the cartwheel style. Certainly his past as a gymnast (which by the way was true also for Nicky Watzek) was helping. Starting with a personal best of 10.98 with the 6 kg shot he had a series of shots culminating to to 13.49 m. Does this suffice in order to conclude that the cartwheel technique presents an advantage over the more conventional ones? Certainly not, but it is a clear indication that exploring different techniques, in particular ones that appear revolutionary, may lead to a progress in performances.

When Watzek introduced the cartwheel the latter obeyed perfectly the rules which stated:

The shot shall be put from the shoulder with one hand only. At the time an athlete takes a stance in the circle to commence a put, the shot shall touch or be in close proximity to the neck or the chin and the hand shall not be dropped below this position during the action of putting. The shot shall not be taken behind the line of the shoulders.

And then the codicil appeared:

Cartwheeling techniques are not permitted.

The official reason: cartwheeling is not safe enough. Of course this is pure hogwash. The real reason is that, were the cartwheel method to be proven more effective, there would have been a monstrous push-back by the existing elite who are throwing in one of the "classical", glide or spin, styles. So WA banned the cartwheel style and that's that. 

End credits for Grand Slam Track

The Grand Slam Track adventure is officially over. On December 18th, GST filed for bankruptcy, acknowledging a debt that can reach 50 million dollars. A part of this debt corresponds to payments to elite athletes, payments that have not been honoured. Big track stars like Sydney McLaughlin, Gabby Thomas or Kenny Bednarek are awaiting payments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. And I don't think that the collaterals of GST will suffice to pay them one day. 

Created by Michael Johnson the project was launched with big fanfare and the support of the World Athletic president, S. Coe. It had attracted some of the bigger names of Athletics, like the ones I cited above but also M. Jefferson-Wooden, A. Hall. M. Arop, J. Hull, S. Eid Naser, A. Dos Santos, M. Paulino, O. Seville, to name but a few. (You can find the full list at the GST website that is still online, for the time being). 

The GST circuit staged its inaugural event in Kingston (Jamaica) and it was a financial flop. Despite the participation of big stars it attracted little interest and did not manage to create a buzz. It was followed by events in Miami and Philadelphia but then the final, scheduled for Los Angeles in June, was cancelled. At that point everybody, both suppliers and athletes, became aware of the crisis. GST tried to find an arrangement with suppliers, proposing that they accept a payment of 50% of what they were due, and a rumour circulated that sponsors, injecting an emergency funding, were secured and that at least half of the athletes' outstanding payments would be covered. Well, that turned out to be wishful thinking.

So, what happens now? Well, Lord Sebastian who had welcomed the project is now more circumspect. He stated that Grand Slam Track might not be allowed to return in 2026, stressing that events must have a "sustainable, solid financial model". 

I really like this photo of Coe 

The InsidetheGames site concluded their article on the GST bankruptcy with the phrase: "The toxic mix of heavy liabilities, fractured creditors and an absence of immediate capital leaves Grand Slam Track facing one of the starkest viability crises seen in professional athletics in recent years". But every cloud has a silver lining: thanks to the disaster of GST, we will be getting rid of M. Johnson.