The 2023 World Athletics Awards

World Athletics sprung a surprise upon us by nominating not one but three athletes of the year. They decided to nominate the best athletes for track, field and road. This had the advantage of providing a solution to the Duplantis-Lyles dilemma. By this decision, both were nominated and WA did not have to choose (a choice that would have been unsatisfactory in every case). So Lyles carried away the award for track and Duplantis for field. The road awards went to Kiptum and Assefa who established new world records in the marathon. As expected, Kipyegon won the award for women's track. 

My only objection is the nomination of Rojas for the women's field award.  If I had to choose a female field specialist among the WA chosen ones I would unhesitantly choose Nageotte. But Rojas appears to somehow be the "blue-eyed" girl of World Athletics: she has already won the title once and she obtained another one this year when her performances have been far from stellar. 

And, of course, I regret the fact that Jackson could not get a distinction beyond being included in the finalist list, but in the end, I would have chosen Kipyegon myself (in fact, I did).

There was no surprise in the Rising Star Awards. As I predicted Wanyonyi obtained the men's title. Knighton could have won, but the fact that he had already been nominated in 2021 and 2022 put him at a slight disadvantage. Topic also was at a relative disadvantage since she had already obtained the European title. So the choice went to Cherotich as I had predicted (well, after having forgotten her in my initial choice).

The remaining World Athletics nominations for the 2023 awards (at least the ones I am interested in) were not really to my taste. The only possible exception is that of L. Meuwly's nomination for the Coaching Achievement award. Meuwly is the coach of F. Bol (who shined in the low hurdles this year) and, in fact, of most of the Dutch 400 m male and female stars.  

The World Athletics photograph of the year was a pure let-down. I will not even show the photo that won the prize. (If you care about having a look at it, here is the link). As far as I am concerned, I still prefer the one with Bol's fall in the mixed 4x400 m relay, and if I had to choose another one, I would opt for the photo of G. Tamberi celebrating his victory.

L. Gidey won the Fair Play award. The reason for this was that, after winning silver behind Tsegay in the women's 10000 m, Gidey went back to comfort S. Hassan after the latter fell on the track during the sprint for first place. Does this count as fair play? I am not convinced.

Now we have to wait till the end of 2024 to see if the decision to nominate the best athletes for track, field and road will become the rule (in which case the initial selection and that of finalists should be broader) or if it was a one-shot thing meant to avoid a difficult choice in the case of men's title.

PS. And if you wonder what is a great sports photo, here is one

by the famous photographer of l'Equipe, R. Legros, who passed away a few days ago.