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. 

The World Championships 2023: sprints, relays, hurdles

N. Lyles was the male sprint star of these championships with (count them) three gold medals: he won the 100 m with 9.83 s, the 200 m with 19.52 s and anchored the US relay (37.38 s). Don't ask me about his time in the relay. The "race analysis" offered by World Athletics is a joke. We are transported back to the era of manual time-keeping. The only thing that figures in the race analysis is the final time. No splits, no relative positions, no nothing. What a shame!

Anyhow, the 100 m saw the world and the olympic champions (F. Kerley and M. Jacobs) exiting in the semis. But they did not go home empty-handed since they participated in the relays that won gold and silver respectively. L. Tebogo was the revelation of the championships. At just 20 years of age he won silver in the 100 m and bronze in the 200 m. In the latter he was beaten by someone even younger than himself, E. Knighton who is shaping up to become the heir of Lyles. The final of the 200 m was run with 9 athletes, A. Hudson getting a bye, after being injured in a collision of the car transporting the athletes to the stadium.

O. Seville is the new name for Jamaica, and I will keep an eye open for him in he future. He barely missed a medal in the 100 m but secured a bronze one in the relay. For Z. Hughes the exact opposite situation prevailed. He got the bronze medal in the 100 m but finished 4th in the 200 m and again 4th with the UK team in the relay. 

S. Jackson is the greatest female sprinter today. Still she had to go home with only one gold and two silver medals. Just before the start of the women's 100 m final I was looking at the two jamaicans, Jackson and Fraser-Pryce, the sure-fire medalists, and then the tv turned to S. Richardson. She had managed to make the final not on place but on time (just as E. Swoboda and D. Asher-Smith as I explained in a recent article of mine). And my first thought was that she was capable of anything. Ten seconds later we had the proof, as she won the 100 m with panache in 10.65 s. I was impressed by J. Alfred whom I was seeing for the first time. She finished 5th in the 100 m and 4th in the 200 m: she is definitely someone to follow in the next years. G. Thomas was back in shape this year, finishing second behind S.Jackson, while S. Richardson gleaned another medal, a bronze, in the 200 m, dipping under 22 seconds. However the queen of the 200 m is S. Jackson who, with 21.41 s, is just 7/100 s off Flo-Jo's haunted world record.

The women's 4x100 m relay was a most exciting race. The US team had, for once, excellent relay exchanges and when it came to the last one they were 2 m ahead of the jamaican team. Jackson could not catch Richardson and the US won 41.03 to 41.21 s. Everybody expected the team of Côte d'Ivoire to be on the podium after a great African record of 41.90 s in the semis. Unfortunately they managed to fumble the second exchange, with TaLou stumbling and falling, precipitating Gbaï to the ground.

The women's 400 m was marked by absences: McLaughlin was injured just before the championships, just as S. Eid Naser (back from a two year ban for whereabout failures), while F. Bol was concentrating on the hurdles. Add to this that S. Miller-Uibo had given birth to her first child on April 20 and it became immediately clear that M. Paulino was the number one favourite of the event. (Miller-Uibo being the reigning champion was present in Budapest, but exited in the heats with a quite respectable season best of 52.65 s, which she improved to 51.83 s two weeks later). The main disappointment of this championship was B. Wilson who finished last in her heat with 53.87 s. She had had a great season up to that point, with 9 races under-50 and a second place in the US Trials, beaten only by S. McLaughlin. She holds the US indoor record for 400 m with 49.48 s. I had spotted her last year in the final of the 400 m hurdles and was expecting her to shine in Budapest. Unfortunately her flat 400 m time there was even worse than her personal best in the hurdles (53.08 s).

Behind Paulino 48.76 s, Kaczmarek confirmed her excellent shape this year winning silver, and S. Williams was once again bronze medalist. I was impressed by R. Adeleke and C. Bolingo: they are both candidates for a place of next year's European podium. L. Klaver had a great season but managed once again to miss out when it counted. Running too fast the first half of the race, she ran out of steam in the final stretch. Fortunately she could redeem herself in the 4x400 m relay.

S. Gardiner won easily his heat and was the favourite for the men's 400 m gold medal. Unfortunately in the middle of the semi-final he fell on the track clutching his thigh. W. Van Niekerk barely made the final, while K. James did not look as if he could add one more medal to his collection. That left just M. Hudson-Smith who, in his semi-final, with 44.26 s improved the European record of Schoenlebe that had stood for 36(!) years, and A. Watson who had the fastest time, 44.13 s, in the semis. In the final Watson prevailed thanks to a blistering finish, Hudson-Smith contenting himself with silver. K. James was disqualified for lane violation and what I find ridiculous is that on the photo-finish the corresponding vertical green line has been erased. In case you are wondering, his time was 44.52 s. (And James showed that he still has his place among the 400 m superstars by winning th Diamond League final a few weeks later). Van Niekerk finished last. Given his 44.08 s season's best in July, one could have expected something better. 

The consolation of the US quarter-milers came in the 4x400 m relay where they won easily with 2:57.31 (not a time to write home about).

The mixed 4x400 m relay was a gripping event with the Netherlands leading most of the way, Holmes, the anchoring US runner, catching Bol on the final stretch. And while they were  battling it out, at less than 20 m from the finish line, for no apparent reason, Bol tripped and fell. The US won with a world record 3:08.80.

Usually it's the men's 4x100 m US team the one that fumbles the exchanges, and gets disqualified. This time it was the women's 4x400 m team who got disqualified. I do not know what would have happened if the americans were present in the final but, who cares, the race was breath-taking as it was. The Dutch team was at first position after the second exchange (thanks to a sub-49 relay by Klaver) and was third after the third exchange, trailing Jamaica and the UK. However Bol was unbeatable and this time she crossed the line first with a most impressive finish and a sub-49 split.

K. Harrison ran a world-leading 12.24 s in the heats and went on to win her semi with 12.33 s. J. Camacho-Quinn responded with 12.41 s while both N. Ali and T. Amusan did not look as if they were going to offer great resistance. D. Kambundji made the final having the best time of non-automatic qualifiers, together with the 2015 world champion D. Williams. And, to the amazement of everybody, it was the latter, running in lane 1, who piped Camacho-Quinn and Harrison on the line, adding a second world title to her collection. 

H. Parchment had deprived G. Holloway of the olympic title in the 110 m hurdles, but he was not able to stop him from winning a third world title. He took his vengeance two weeks later in a Diamond League race where he won with 12.96 s the very same time of Holloway in Budapest.

Coming to Budapest, and in the absence of McLaughlin, F. Bol was the undisputed favourite for the women's 400 m hurdles. D. Muhammad is past her prime (and in fact she could not make it to the final, exiting in the semis) while S. Little has never beaten Bol (at least in the last two-three years). The final was uneventful with Bol winning easily in 51.70 s, Little securing the silver medal but just barely, since R. Clayton finished very strongly almost catching her, 52.80 to 52.81 s.

Reigning world champion A. Dos Santos was injured earlier this year and thus K. Warholm (who was injured last year) had one fewer opponent to fear. In the end he won easily with 46.89 s, the surprise coming from K. McMaster who beat R. Benjamin for the silver medal, and who went on to beat Warholm, one week later, in the Zürich Diamond League race. (R. Benjamin won a late revenge by beating both Warholm and McMaster at the Diamon League final). The one athlete I am going to keep an eye open for is R. Clarke who at 19 years of age managed to finish 4th beating the reigning world champion, after having run an U20 world record of 47.34 in the semis. The men's 400 m hurdles is always an exciting event and I will, in a near future, publish a special article on the topic.

Combined events at the World Championships 2023

I decided to follow the pattern introduced last year, namely to start my report with the combined events. After all you know that I am a decathlon fan (but much, much less a heptathlon one). 

Last year the first day was dominated by a new talent, A. Owens-Delerme who finished first with 4606 and, in particular, with a blistering 45.07 s in the 400 m. At that point the number one favourite, D. Warner had dropped out and Mayer was trailing at 6th. Things changed on the second day with Mayer finishing at the first place and Owens-Delerme just out of the medals despite a great 4:13.02 1500 m.

This year's decathlon borrowed heavily of last year's one. The first day was dominated by a new talent, L. Neugebauer who managed to do even better than Owens-Delerme with 4640 points (and two great performances in the long jump with 8.00 m and the shot put with 17.04 m). And one of the favourites, none other than the reigning world champion K. Mayer, dropped out just after two events. As for L. Neugebauer, he could do no better than 5th at the end of the second day (he would have finished 2nd with his score of 8836 obtained at the NCAA championships, but a disastrous discus performance pushed him out of the medals).  

L. Neugebauer

P. LePage had a very good first day and managed to stay ahead of D. Warner. The funny thing is the LePage has changed his shot putting style from glide to spin, and, despite his morphology, has perfectly adapted to the new style. I guess that this has to do with the fact that LePage is an excellent discus thrower. By the way, LePage was not the only spinner decathlete. M. Nilsson was also throwing in the rotational style. Apparently this style is gaining in the combined event milieu (although it will probably meet with greater resistance in the heptathlon, where almost none of the athletes is familiar with the discus). At the end of the first day five more contestants have followed Mayer, including 2019 world champion N. Kaul, last years bronze medallist Z. Ziemek and olympic bronze medallist A. Moloney. 

Three more were to drop out after no-heighting in the pole vault. K. Garland with a 5 m pb  exited at 4.50 m and Owens-Delerme with a 4.70 m pb  exiting at 4.40 m. AOD (that's usually how the speakers are referring to him) could have started at 4 m, but, on the other hand, that wouldn't have changed much. He was nursing an injury for quite some time and that was the reason he did not compete a decathlon prior to the World's. So, unfortunately we were not going to see him in the 1500 m. At that point in the competition it was clear that Warner did not stand a chance. LePage was leading and Neugebauer was also ahead of him. 

The decathlon medalists

Victor in the meantime had put himself in a medal trajectory with a huge 54.97 m discus throw and minimised the damages with a 4.80 m jump in the pole vault. He was sitting in 4th ready to pounce, and pounce he did, throwing the javelin at 68.05 m. This moved him to second place while Tilga, thanks to the javelin, came within a breath from Neugebauer. everything from silver downwards, was going to be settled in the 1500 m. Warner and Tilga had a definite advantage while LePage just had to finish in a reasonable time. The question was whether Victor could hold off Tilga. And he did it, finishing just ahead of LePage with Neugebauer trailing the two. In the end the classification was LePage 8909 (next stop 9k), Warner 8804 (still missing the world title), Victor 8756 (his first global medal, unless you count his two Commonwealth gold), Tilda 8681 (a personal best) and Neugebauer 8645 (far from his 8836 from June). I was very glad for Victor: he is somebody I have been following him for years and I must say that I have a soft spot for throwers in decathlon. 

I am also following the two norwegian young decathletes, M. Rooth and S. Skotheim. They finished 8th and 10th respectively, but far from their personal bests of 8608 and 8590 points. But the season has been very long for them, having started with eh European U23 championships (where they obtained gold and silver). Another remarkable point of the competition was that all three estonian decathletes registered a personal best finishing Tilga 4th (8681), Oiglane 6th (8524) and Erm 9th (8424).

I was afraid that the women's heptathlon was going to be underwhelming, in the absence of N. Thiam (injured) and A. Sulek (pregnant). In fact, I was thinking that it was going to be a walk in the park for A. Hall. She had scored 6988 points at the end of May in Götzis where she had five personal bests in the track events, including a fabulous 2:02.97 in the 800 m, and in the jumps. (And do not forget that she is a 5k performer in the indoor pentathlon). Things turned out to be quite different.

It all started well for the US team. Brooks, Hall and Hawkins finished in the first three places in the 100 m hurdles. Then came the high jump and things started falling apart. Hall could be seen slightly limping after each jump and she could not manage a height better than 1.83 m (her personal best being 1.92 m). Still, with a personal best in the shot put and a not-too-bad 200 m, she managed to finish the first day in first place with 3998 points, K. Johnson-Thompson being second with 3905 and C. Hawkins third with 3900. 

That's when we realised that something was not quite right with Hall

But when the second day arrived the situation got worse. Hall jumped a mediocre 6.19 m in the long jumped and KJT with 6.54 m took the lead of the event. Hawkins was still clinging at the third place but she was going to fade to 8th in the two remaining events (but, still, score a personal best of 6366 points). As for T. Brooks, she was out of the competition after fouling out in the long jump. The game changer was the javelin throw. KHT managed to beat hall 46.14 to 44.88 m building a difference of 43 points. And A. Vetter with a huge 59.57 m throw moved to second place, 7 points ahead of Hall. E. Oosterwegel, who is an excellent javelin thrower, could do no better than 54.88 m which meant that she could not entertain any hope for a medal (she was going to finish 5th in the end). 

The three heptathlon medalists

The 43 points of difference between KJT and Hall correspond to a time difference of roughly 3 seconds in the 800 m for performances in the 2:05 range. If Hall wished to beat KJT in the total she had to finish 3 seconds earlier than her in the 800 m. She tried and she ran a great 800 m in 2:04.09. But KJT hanged on and smashed her personal best with 2:05.63. And so in the end Johnson-Thompson obtained the world title with 6740 points while Hall was second with 6720. Vetter is not a great 800 m runner, but she did ran a decent 2:20.49 for 6501 points and the bronze medal, beating Krizsán who despite her strong second day could obtain only 6479 points (fifteen more than Oosterwegel). 

I did not remark any of the other heptathletes except perhaps the french athlete A. Lazraq-Khlass (6179 points in Budapest) whom I had not noticed before, and the dutch heptathlete S. Dokter (6232 points in Budapest, but 6321 in Götzis). The fact that the latter has a national title at just 20 years of age, given the quality of the women combined events in her country make her somebody I will have to follow in the future.

The 2023 Athletics World Championships: a great vintage

The 19th Athletics World Championships were held in Budapest from August 19th to 27th and I must say that they were great, despite the paucity of world records. (In fact only one WR, the one of the 4x400 m mixed relay, was improved during the championships). I could follow the competitions on the World Athletics youtube channel and it was great experience. 

As for the Diamond League competitions, World Athletics broadcasts the video of the event to the countries where the TV rights have not been conceded. Usually it is quite easy to find such a country to point the VPN to: not so for the world championships. Fortunately the Watchathletics site was giving the information that the only country having access to the youtube livestream was Taiwan. That did suffice: I connected to Taiwan and could follow the competition on my iMac and iPad. And just in case I would like to go back to some event, when writing my report, I downloaded and saved everything (thanks to that fantastic app Downie). Speaking of videos to keep, WA was providing also complete livestreams for field events. Thus, if necessary, one could go back and have the full picture of a specific event. The technical commentaries were entrusted to H. England (1500 m silver medalist in the 2011 World's) and D. O'Brien (olympic and world decathlon champion, and world record holder). 

The new rules concerning the qualification for the final in middle distance events, athlete replacement, lane attribution, running under protest, etc. were implemented in Budapest. As I wrote in a recent article of mine, I am 100 % in favour of athlete replacement for semis or finals, instead of leaving a slot empty. In Budapest, European U20 champion A. Caune, from Latvia, ran a captivating 5000 m in the semis, running to the front, with a distance between herself and the group of chasers larger than 100 m at some point, not being caught up till the finish straight and being qualified for the final with a new personal best. Unfortunately, she had to withdraw from the final due to an injury and she was replaced by F. Niyomukunzi who was classified 17th in the semis.

The new rule that I believe everybody appreciated was that of the qualification to the next round being based on place only (and not a combination of place and time as previously). The rule applies to distances from 1500 to 5000 m and that's where I have an objection. The results of the 800 m men and women semifinals show that 3 out of 4 qualified for the final on the basis of time came from the third (and last) heat. I don't think that this is a coincidence. The 800 m is not run all-out and I think that people running in the last heat will definitely try to adapt their pace to the time needed for qualification. So, why not extend the rule of qualification through place to the 800 m as well? In fact I would suggest to apply the same rule to the 4x400 m as well. After all the overall distance is longer than 1500 m.

What I also find interesting is the new attitude of WA to give a chance to athlete who have been impeded by some incident. So, whenever that was possible there were an extra athlete or team participating in a final. Mind you, this has nothing to do with the 100 m women's final where 9 athletes took the start.

I already wrote about this in my article on "millisecond stupidity".

One thing that I appreciated hugely in this championship was the absence of hyperandrogenic, or DSD, female competitors. The new rules allowed us to do away with the athletes who have been disfiguring our sport. In my opinion the natural next step should be to erase the records of Semenya, Niyonsaba, Mboma etc. but I don't believe that WA will find the courage to do this. On a related subject, during the heats of the mixed 4x400 m relay, the team of Dominican Republic was absent. The reason is simple: a few weeks before the championship there was a leak that F. Cofil, the second female runner of the relay, was in fact DSD and could not take part in the championship. I can understand the Dominican team being unable to replace Cofil or unwilling to present a less performing team, but I do wonder why WA did not invite the next team to participate in the event.

As I wrote in the title, the 2023 championship was a great vintage, "une grande cuvée" to use the wine-related french expression. In the articles that will follow this one I will tell the story event by event (and I will have something to say even about race-walking events).