Usually, I start my selection of the year's best athletes with the senior ones. But I had noticed in the previous years that ,when it came to the choice of the rising stars, I hadn't been paying sufficient attention and I struggled to establish my list. So, as I did last year, I decided to keep an eye open for the young and upcoming athletes and as a result I am again presenting a post focusing exclusively on the new talents.
While the rising stars are, in principle, athletes still in their teens, I am always ready to make an exception for somebody who is just 20 years old. This is the case for E. Wanyonyi who was second last year behind L. Tebogo. He is my number one for this year. He has won the 800 m in the Olympics and shares, with W. Kipketer, the second place in the all-time list of the distance, with a 1:41.11 performance, at just 0.2 s from the world record.
I hesitated a little bit for the remaining places but in the end it's M. Furlani who figures in second place. He had en excellent year winning silver in the Europeans (with a 8.38 m long jump world U20 record) and bronze in the Olympics.
B. Mehary finished 6th in the 5000 m final in the Paris Olympics but, during the Kenyan Trials, had broken the 10000 m world U20 record with 26:37.93 (he is now fifteenth in the all-time list for the distance) but, finishing 4th in the longer distance, he could not make the national team.
Q. Wilson would have been among the first three were it not for his catastrophic performance in the Olympic 4x400 m relay. He came in Paris, at just 16 years of age, with a 44.20 s personal best in the 400 m (world U18 best performance) but ran a 47.27 s first relay leg, and Norwood had to surpass himself in order to get the US into the final. Thanks to the US team winning the final, Wilson became the youngest athletics Olympic gold medalist in history.
I will complement my list of rising stars with cypriot hammer thrower I. Kesidis. He won the World U20 2024 title throwing 82.80 m, more than 7 metres beyond the silver medalist.
For the women's list my preference goes to L.G. Manuel (one cannot guess from her name that she is an athlete from Czechia, but her father is from Angola, and this explains that). I noticed her at the Rome, 2024, Europeans where she qualified easily for the 400 m final in which, with 50.52 s, she finished fourth behind Kaczmarek, Adeleke and Klaver. She reached the semi-final in the Olympics and then went to Lima for the world U20 championships winning gold (just as she had done in the 2023 U20 Europeans).
A. Topic was my 2023 female rising star. This year she is in second position but she is always my preferred athlete. In 2924 she was unlucky, injuring herself during the warm-up of the high-jump in the Paris Olympics. Still she competed in the qualifiers and managed to make the final, but had to withdraw. With the bronze medal being adjudicated at just 1.95 m, Topic, who had jumped 1.98 m a few weeks before the Olympics, had serious chances for a place on the podium. Less than one month after her injury in Paris, Topic participated in the World U20 Championships and won the gold medal.
Ph. Gill won the british national 800 m title with 1:57.86 at just 17 years of age. She has now the European U18 record for the distance. She did not participate in the Europeans due to school exams but went to the Olympics, where she reached the semi-final. It would have been interesting to see Gill running together with S. Moraa in the World U20 Championships, but the former did not pursue her season after the Olympics. Sarah Moraa (a cousin of world champion over the same 800 m distance Mary Moraa) did win the U20 title and thus figures by right in my 2024 rising star list.
I will complete the list of female rising stars with M. Eisa who, after finishing 7th in the 5000 m at the Olympics, went on to win gold over the same distance in World U20 Championships (just as she had done two years before).
A. Vilagos won the European Rising Star title. She was my choice as number one rising star already in 2022. She is an athlete I am always following closely.
Before concluding this article it is interesting to mention a new award that aims at honouring the best performing male and female U23 athletes at the Diamond League Final. It is called the Jesse Owens Rising Star Award and has the support of the Jesse Owens Foundation. (J. Owens was just 23 years old when he won four gold medals at the Berlin, 1936, Olympics). The first recipients of the Jesse Owens award are L. Tebogo and D. Welteji. Tebogo was the olympic champion over 200 m while Welteji was fourth in the 1500 m final. She has also three Diamond League victories (two over 1500 m and one in the 3000 m) but in the Diamond League final she could only finish second behind the great F. Kipyegon.
