Field events at the Tokyo World's

Greece went to Tokyo expecting to garner between 1 and 3 medals. It turned out that it was the most conservative estimate that was realised.     

M. Karalis was, once more, second to the great Duplantis. But that silver medal in pole vault came only after some nail-bitting moments. A 5.75 m jump was enough to qualify for the final and exactly 12 athletes managed that. Among the victims were J. Obiena and P. Lisek, both with 6 m personal records. The final started with E. Sasma fouling out at 5.55 m and 7 athletes reaching 5.90 m. The next height, 5.95 m turned out to be crucial with Duplantis clearing it at his first try, Marshall and Kendricks at their second, while Karalis failed twice. Had he not passed at his third attempt he would have been pushed out of the podium. But he managed on his third try and then went on to clear 6 m on his first jump securing his second place, Marshall and Kendricks (as well as Collet who had gambled after missing twice at 5.95 m) missing this height. Both Duplantis and Karalis moved to 6.10 m and when Duplaintis cleared it, after Karalis had missed, the latter moved to 6.15 m and then to 6.20 m, instead of going for 6.10 m and Greek record. He explained later that although Duplantis is his close friend, when it comes to the competition he is there to beat him. Duplantis (who had jumped 6.15 m to make sure to keep the lead in the competition) moved to 6.30 m after Karalis went out at 6.20 m, passed it on his third try and the rest is history. 

The women's pole vault started with the injury of M. Caudery during the warm-up of the qualifiers. And given that reigning olympic champion, N. Kennedy,  was out due to injury, K. Stefanidi absent due to pregnancy and W. Murto in bad shape (she no-heighted at 4.25 m in the qualifiers) the event was more open than usual. And with E. McKartney (third performer among those present in Tokyo) out of the final due to injury, this removed one more favourite from the event. The good news was the return to great shape of S. Morris. She proved this by winning silver jumping 4.85 m on her first try while K. Moon failed once and let the remaining attempts for 4.90. Moon passed on her second attempt (which was her last), Morris failed and went for broke at 4.95 m. But she did not pass and K. Moon was once more world champion. (The two american twins, Amanda and Hana Moll, that I have been following since the Trials, did exactly the same jumps in the final and ended tied in 6th place with 4.65 m, just above M.J. Bonnin who has had a so-so outdoors season and could do no better than 8th). 

The year 2025 has not been a good one for M. Tentoglou. With recurring injuries, he managed just one good competition, jumping a world-lead 8.46 m in Madrid in June. After his disastrous Diamond League final, one could not reasonably expect him to shine in Tokyo. But his 8.17 m jump in the qualifiers allowed some timid hopes. The qualifiers saw the elimination of L. Adcock, and O. McLeod who figured among the favourites (to which one should add the absence of W. Pinnock who had just changed alliance). Unfortunately even the slim hopes were shattered when Tentoglou, in clear discomfort, could not manage a decent jump and could not even make the first 10. The event was won by M. Furlani with 8.39 m ahead of T. Gayle, 8.33 m. S. Ehammer, with 8.30 m, was fourth, and after his failure in the decathlon, went home medal-less. 

At this point I must explain the new structure of the finals introduced in Tokyo and which I find much better than the previous ones. It applies to horizontal jumps and throws, where the maximum number of attempts is six. Previously the 12 finalists had three attempts and the 8 first went on to the remaining three. Now after the first three, the first 10 are allowed a fourth, then the first 8 a fifth and only the first 6 are given a final sixth attempt. The overall number of jumps or throws is the same as with the previous system but I find this organisation more fair. (It would be interesting, once we have more data from the new organisation, to compare to the ancient one, i.e. how many times an athlete classified 9th or 10th with the new system managed to improve his position to one among the first 8 in the fourth attempt and how many times an athlete in the 7th or 8th position with the ancient system managed to move among the first 6 in his sixth attempt).

The women's long jump saw the elimination in qualifiers of one of the favourites L. Iapichino, together with J. Saywers and E. Brume, all of them 7-plusers. Given that M. Beck-Romantchuk is suspended for a doping offence and the reigning champion I. Spanovic, not in great shape this year, has opted for the triple jump, this made the final somewhat more open. T. Davis-Woodhal announced from the outset her intentions with 7.08 m. She improved to 7.13 m, winning the event ahead of M. Mihambo who was one cm shy of 7 metres. N. Linares with 6.92 m pushed H. Kaptcha out of the medals (the latter being, before the championships, probably the most serious french hope for a medal at the World's).  

Rojas is back

In the women's triple a jump of 14 m was necessary for the qualification to the final and the favorites managed that without problems, although it was clear that S. Ricketts was not in top condition. The big question was that of Y. Rojas who was coming back after two year's absence and serious injuries. Rojas is a great competitor and although I don't like her style (at all) I acknowledge her great talent and tenacity. She finished third with 14.76 m. Will she go back to her 15+ performances? Time will tell. L. Perez-Hernandez won with a 14.94 m jump. She is very strong but I don't particularly like her style which I find rather heavy. T. Lafond is exactly the opposite with probably the best style I have seen in a female triple jumper. I have been closely following her since the beginning of the season and rejoicing seeing that she was steadily progressing. In Tokyo her final jump was over 15 m but she left a small mark behind and, with 14.89 m, she had to content herself with silver. 

In men's triple jump J. Diaz-Fortun dropped out injured already at the qualifiers and W. Claye could not make it to the final (both being 18-plusers). F. Zango could not jump over 17 m and finished in 7th place, and A. Diaz-Hernandez was 6th with 17.19 m. The unlucky one was Y. Triki who with 17.25 m had a place on the podium up to the last jump only to see A. Dallavalle push him out with a 17.64 m personal best jump (L. Martinez being third with 17.49 m). P. Pichardo, who was leading up to Dallavalle's jump riposted with 17.91 m (and celebrated it with one more manifestation of his not so nice character, screaming "who's the best?").

G. Tamberi finally presented himself at the high jump event (he had hesitated for quite some time) but he exited at the qualifiers in an event where O. Doroshchuk and J. Harrisson missed the podium, an event won by H.Kerr with 2.36 m (I don't like him so I will not spend more time on the high jump). In women's high jump the interesting things started at 1.97 m. M. Lake, with 1.93 m was already out (which did not astonish me, despite her 2 m jump at the Diamond League). Patterson and Levchenko with one missed try were tied at 5th place while Olyslagers, Topic and Mahuchikh were first, Zodzik (ex-Bielorussian now jumping for Poland) was second on count-back. At 2 m Olyslagers succeeded at her first try while Mahuchikh failed and decided to continue at 2.02 m. And then rain started pouring. When the competition started again, 40 minutes later, Patterson, Topic and Levchenko failed at 2 m but Zodzik passed at her third try, moving to second place. And it was really interesting to follow the anxiety of Topic, taking refuge under the umbrella of Patterson, waiting for the outcome of the attempts at 2.02 m. Long story short, Mahuchikh failed and Topic won her fist major medal, tying with her for bronze.

Before the championships I had voiced, on more than one occasions, my worries concerning R. Crouser's health. The news were not encouraging given the gravity of his elbow injury. I have thus written that if Crouser could not, after all, participate in the championships the USATF should consider replacing him with Kovacs. But Crouser is a great champion, to my eyes the greatest shot putter of all times. He prepared cautiously without straining himself. After his victory he explained that the first time he threw "hard" this year was in the qualifiers of the event. P. Otterdahl did not make the final but the US still had three athletes in it. In the end only Crouser made it to the podium. T. Walsh was, one more time, unlucky, being pushed out of the medals by the last throw of 21.97 m of U. Muñoz and on count-back from L. Fabbri both having thrown 21.94 m. Crouser leading the event with 21.99 m, consolidated his victory with a 5th throw of 22.34 m, winning his third title in a row. (He will be 36 in 2028 in Los Angeles and it would be great if he could fetch a fourth olympic title there).

J. Schilder had a hard time qualifying for the women's shot put final (while the qualifiers saw the elimination of two of the three US athletes, a well-known noxious effect of the US Trials that push the athletes to get in shape too early). M. Wesche took the command of the event with a 20.06 m personal best at first throw, keeping that position up to the last where first C. Jackson with 20.21 m and then J. Schilder with 20.29 m pushed her down to third. S. Mitton who was second up to that point with 19.81 m was left medal-less. V. Allman, who is to my eyes the best female discus thrower in the post-doping era, was deprived of gold in the previous two world championships by what I call "lucky throws" of her opponents. B. Feng won in 2022 while L. Tausaga, who had barely managed to obtain the qualifying minimum in the US Trials, won in 2023. All those throwers were present in Tokyo, together with S. Elkasevic(-Perkovic) who had won the world title in 2013 and 2017. (The only recent world champion absent from Tokyo was Y. Perez, who had won in 2019, and who cannot participate in official championships having deserted Cuba in 2022). Allman took control of the final from the first throw. J. Van Klinken secured the silver medal with a first throw of 67.50 m (after two fourth places in 2022 and 2023) while Elkasevic, Tausaga and Feng finished 5th, 6th and 7th respectively. Allman threw 69.48 m on her final attempt consolidating her victory (one cm less than what Tausaga threw in 2023, and far from the championships record 71.62 m of M. Hellman, going back to 1987. Note that Perkovic won in 2017 with 70.31 m).

Men's discus final was a very special event. It was the only one I could not follow. The heavy rain had the event postponed and the greek television channel I was following ran out of time. So I had to follow the event on the World Athletics radio and the live results. (I understand that WA is selling the rights to the championships broadcast and thus puts restrictions on how you can follow them live depending on your country. But now that the championships are over, not having access to the (ex-)live stream is preposterous). S. Mattis, L. Okoye, M. Ortega and F. Dacres, all 70+ m throwers did not make it to the final. Mykolas Alekna (I have to specify his given name since his brother Martynas, who finished 7th, was also present in the final) took control with 67.84 m at the second throw. K. Ceh was never in contention finishing 8th. M. Denny was third up to the 5th throw but A. Rose (who throws for Samoa) pushed him out of the medals with a 66.96 m throw. And then in the last throw D. Stahl, with 70.47 m, added a third title to the two he had won in 2019 and 2023. Alekna will have to wait for his first major title (but he is young so he can afford this).

I was hoping to see those two be the stars of javelin

Instead, we got a new star

The women's javelin throw started with the elimination of throwers who were among the best this year S. Borge, Q. Dai, M. Rotundo, of the reigning champion H. Kitaguchi, and of the only 70-pluser still active today, M. Andrejczyk. The greek hope for a medal, E. Tzengko barely made it to the final and the anguish was even bigger for A. Villagos: she could manage a decent throw only at her third attempt. Her 66.06 m would have sufficed for gold in the final but finals are different beasties. M. Little also had a qualifying throw that would have sufficed for victory. But at least she managed to take home the bronze medal. In the final V. Hudson, who has the world leading performance this year finished 10th. Villagos did only slightly better at 8th place. And Tzengko could throw no further than 62.72 m finishing 5th, just a few weeks after having dominated the Diamond League final. Olympic silver medallist J. DuPlessis was third till the last throw when A. Sietina passed her and Little with a 64.64 throw. But the gold medal went to an Ecuadorian athlete. At the qualifiers, an almost unknown South-American thrower, J. Angulo, qualified with a national record of 63.25 m. and she did even better in the final with 65.12 m which sufficed for gold. 

But in the men's event it was the old guard that shone

In the men's javelin qualifiers the only 90-pluser who did not make it was L. DaSilva. A. Peters threw 89.53 m, which would have sufficed for gold in the final, while J. Weber had a throw at 87.21 m that would have given him the bronze medal. The final was a disaster for most favourites. Olympic champion A. Nadeem finished at 10th place. Reigning world champion N. Chopra was 8th. J. Yego injured himself on his first throw and finished 6th. World leader J. Weber could do no better than 86.11 m finishing 5th. A. Peters, the world champion of 2019 and 2022, finished at second place. But it was a veteran of the event, the olympic champion of 2012, K. Walcott, who won the event with a 88.16 m throw. (Before the championships he was just 10th in the year's best list).

In the months preceding the championships E. Katzberg was not the dominant figure in men's hammer throw. B. Halasz and R. Winkler had better performances than him and had beaten him on a few occasions. However when the final started in Tokyo it was clear that he was untouchable. M. Hummel led for just one throw with a personal best of 82.77 m (which sufficed for silver) but then Katzberg threw the 5th best performance of all times, 84.70 m, backing it up with two throws beyond 83 m. Halasz managed to save the bronze medal and Winkler finished 5th. The great A. Wlodarczyk was present at one more championship, finishing 6th in the final. The world leader B. Andersen did not make the final, just as her team-mate and third world performer R. Richeson. In the end it was the two chinese throwers J. Zhao ad J. Zhang who grabbed silver and bronze. But the protagonist of the event was the reigning olympic and world champion C. Rogers who with 80.51 m won the event and moved to second place in the all time list.

The blog is 12 years old

Twelve years ago I decided to create a blog on Athletics. I had some experience with blogging and after having read Juliand's excellent monograph "Rethinking Track and Field" I decided that I had some ideas of my own that I would like to cast into writing. I had been publishing longer articles in "New Studies in Athletics" (a journal, alas, killed by Lord Sebastian's belt tightening) but I had ideas that would not justify a full article and which were still worth publishing. So, I decided to create this blog and, as a tribute to Juliand, I plagiarised his title. (A funny remark is in order here. While writing this post I decided to go back to the original "Why rethinking" article and I discovered that the photo of Juliand's book was blurred. And I hadn't noticed that for 12 years! I replaced it and, at long last, the photo is now sharply focused). 

I would never have predicted that the blog would be alive for more than a decade. I try to publish between 30 and 50 articles per year and I have never let a month pass without publishing something. The one thing I cannot control are the views. and to tell the truth I cannot understand what is happening. Here is the history of the blog views.

I don't have any explanation for the spikes in 2017 and 2019. The huge spike in 2025 appeared at the time of the World Championships but I don't think that there was a real correlation. What one can claim is that since 2023 there are more visits to the blog. But are those due to physical readers or caused by the training of some Large language Model (that is learning how to blog in my style)? Some of the spikes are associated to huge (unexplainable) spikes in some particular article: why is the article "Before the curtain falls: a jaunt into gerontology" the third most viewed one with a huge peak of 5 k in July 2019, when it was published (and has between 0 to 3 daily views since)? Normal views look rather like the one of the pole vault history

 where there are a few decades of daily views. Anyhow the blog has surpassed 400 k views for roughly 500 articles.

The crucial question is where do we go from here. The truth is that I like writing articles for the blog. I do not hesitate to be irreverential and critical. My readers know that there are athletes that I like and others that I don't (even some that I despise). So, as long as I have ideas for new articles I will continue writing the blog. Let us meet here next year.

Combined events at the Tokyo World's

Once more, together with my Décapassion friends we made predictions for the World Championships Decathlon podium. And, once more, we could not predict what happened in the end, (although, to be fair, Pierre Gousset correctly predicted the victory of Neugebauer). Here is my prediction for the first four: 1) Garland, 2) Skotheim, 3) Neugebauer and 4) Owens-Delerme. And I had added that I did not think that LePage, Warner and Victor would play an important role. But let's start at the beginning.

Just before the first event Warner dropped out of the decathlon due to some injury sustained, supposedly, during the warm-up. Then the withdrawals started. Before the end of the first day Steinforth, Oiglane, Roosen, Ehammer and LePage had dropped out. For Ehammer and Roosen that was due to the fact they fouled out in the high jump missing the first height 1.93 and 1.81 m respectively, and in the case of Ehammer we are talking about an athlete with a 2.08 m personal best. Tilga also missed his initial height of 1.90 m but decided to continue and finish his decathlon (fouling out in the pole vault as well, and finally dropping out from the 1500 m). 

Garland had a very strong first day finishing with a total of 4707 points which is historically the third best performance, after those of O'Brien, 4743, and Eaton, 4728. Curiously, Neugebauer, who has a first-day personal best of 4685 points could do no better than 4455 at fourth place behind Skotheim and Owens-Delerme who had totaled 4543 and 4487 respectively. The things were going more or less along my predictions, and I was glad to notice that Owens-Delerme was back in shape, having shed this "heaviness" that I had noticed in some of his previous competitions appearances. 

Then the second day started and disaster struck. Skotheim had a bad race in the hurdles, an event where his personal best is an excellent 13.97 s. He hit the fifth hurdle, passed the sixth in total disequilibrium, stumbled and reaching the seventh he pushed it over with his hands. He completed the race in 15.77 s but was, as per the rules, disqualified. (I think that some day I will have to discuss the rule that forbids knocking down the hurdles but, for now, this has to wait). With Skotheim out, things started looking brighter for Owens-Delerme who had won the hurdles in 13.65 s. And the bad second day had just started for Garland. Discus is the best event for Neugebauer. Last year in the report on the Olympics I wrote that the discus was the event where Neugebauer lost the title. Well, this year that was where he won it. He threw a series of 54, 55 and 56 m, 8 metres ahead of Garland. 

And Owens-Delerme with 46 m showed that he had at last decided to work seriously on his discus throw. Pole vault did not change the order but Garland's 4.80 m allowed Neugebauer and Owens-Delerme who jumped 5.10 m, to close the gap to less than 100 points. Meanwhile Victor, who was sixth at that point, no-heighted at 4.50 m (well, he had only one unsuccessfull jump) and exited the decathlon. Kopecky also no-heighted at 4.70 m but he decided to pursue and, unlike Tilga, ran also the 1500 m (although not whole-heartedly). 

The javelin sealed the fate of Garland, when he threw 5 m behind his personal best while Neugebauer improved his by the same amount, with 59.78 and 64.34 m respectively. Owens-Delerme was practically at his personal best with 58.79 m and Kaul, once more, excelled with a 78.19 m throw. After the ninth event Neugebauer was already leading with 8072 points, with Garland second, 8057, Owens-Delerme third with 7958 and Kaul fourth with 7732 points. The last two being excellent 1500 m runners (excellent for decathletes, that is) one could expect some changes in the classification. The 1500 m was indeed a great race, run on a wet track. Garland was resigned to be demoted to bronze (Kaul was 300 points behind and not a real menace despite his 4:20) and jogged in 4:45. Owens-Delerme had a chance at winning the title. 

He ran the 1500 m like the good old days finishing in 4:17 but Neugebauer drew on his reserves and ran a huge personal best of 4:31, winning the title. In the end the order was Neugebauer 8804, Owens-Delerme 8784, Garland 8703, Kaul 8538. Twelve athletes scored over 8000 points, the ones below-par (not counting the ten who had dropped out or had fouled out in some event) were the area champions of South America and Asia, Ferreira and Fei. The former has a personal best of 8213 points and his presence in Tokyo was perfectly justified (and his 7927 point performance did not clash with the remaining ones). The one that stuck out like a sore thumb was that of the chinese decathlete's meager score of 7347 points. I find that the idea of qualifying the continental champion is a bad one. World Athletics should limit themselves to a wild card for the winner of the Continental Tour, who is, unavoidably a member of the elite.

While the men's decathlon was a gripping event, the women's heptathlon was somehow a let-down. We were expecting a duel between Thiam and Hall but it didn't materialise. (The regular readers of my blog know that I am an unconditional fan of Thiam and that I have a great esteem for Hall. Had the two been really in contention I would have trouble choosing my champion). Nafi Thiam coming from a difficult year with injuries and problems with the belgian federation was not the Thiam we have been admiring for years. And after participating in the first day of the heptathlon (half-heartedly?) she called it quits after the first event of the second day. Will she come back next year? Will she be back in great shape and as combative as ever? Those are questions to which nobody can answer at the time being. So let's go back to the World heptathlon and the new queen Anna Hall. 

In June I wrote an article after Hall's fantastic performance at the Götzis meeting, where she not only broke N. Debois' legendary 800 m heptathlon record but she also equalled C. Kluft's record of 7032 points. (I cannot resist the temptation to point out here that the record of Kluft and Hall is in fact the heptathlon world record. The records of J. Joyner-Kersee that culminated with the 7291 point performance were all obtained with the ancient javelin. However the women's javelin was first modified to one with a thicker rear part in 1991 and then, just as the one for men, with a 3 cm shift of the centre of mass towards the front from 1999. And while the javelin records obtained with implements with the ancient specifications were erased, World Athletics decided, for unfathomable reasons, to let JJK's records untouched. But for me the real world record stands at 7032 points). Going back to Hall, I must say that I was slightly disappointed by her performance in Tokyo. She was some 150 points behind her score in Götzis. But she was not the only one. The two other protagonists in Götzis, Dokter and Araujo, have also scored some 150 points fewer than in Götzis. T. Brooks did not compete in Götzis prefering the Décastar of Talence. And somehow she managed with 6581, to score 200  points more than in Talence (and even some 50 points more than in the US Trials). A great long jump performance of 6.79 m allowed her to share the bronze medal with K. Johnson-Thompson. 

The athlete who shined at Tokyo was K. O'Connor. I have seen her for the first time this winter when she finished second in the World Indoor pentathlon. She repeated this feat in the outdoor heptathlon in a competition where she improved her personal bests in five out of seven events. And I found out that she is an excellent javelin thrower, since with 53.09 m she managed to beat E. Oostewegel who is usually the winner of the heptathlon javelin. (By the way, Oosterwegel did not progress since her bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics and her ninth place in Tokyo is the worst among her four participations in a world championship). Back to O'Connor. Trying to learn more about her, I found out that she has been competing since she was 13 with a 2:18.05 performance over 800 m and 5.13 m in the long jump. She discovered the heptathlon in 2017 and passed 6000 points in 2019. But her 6714 total in Tokyo places her among the elite of combined events (around the 30th performer of all time). It goes without saying that I will keep an eye open for her.

From the 24 qualified for the Tokyo heptathlon only 19 finished the event (A. Kälin did not even start, having injured herself during the long jump qualifications). Among them only 15 scored over 6000 points. The disappointment was the way-below-par performance of A. Lazraq-Khlass, who was silver medalist in last year's Europeans with 6635 points and who scored just 5758 points in Tokyo. A series of injuries have greatly perturbed her preparation. Let us hope that she will be ready for next year's Europeans.

The SPE15 site

I have never linked to this site. The main reason for this is that it is in french and that would oblige the majority of my readers to proceed through some translation tool. Also it's a site dedicated to doping questions and I hesitate to spend too much time on this subject. 

Concerning doping, SPE15 does not hesitate to call things by their proper name. On the home page one can read that in the US, doping is lightly punished. This is something I agree 100% with. The USADA (the US anti-doping agency) and her boss, the (in)famous Travis Tygart, are very keen to accuse WADA for turning a blind eye and covering-up doping scandals, while cleaning US stars from doping suspicions. A case in point is my article "The Knighton affair", where I wrote about how world medallist E. Knighton avoided USADA sanctions after having tested positive to anabolics. However the Athletics Integrity Unit, disagreeing with the USADA ruling, brought the case to CAS and the verdict of the latter was a four-year suspension of the athlete, meaning that he will be missing the 2028 Olympics. The american reactions to the CAS ruling were what one would expect. 

And Travis Tygart seized the occasion to attack WADA and talk about China. (At least he did not accuse Russia this time).

Another SPE15 article points out that there are many doping cases detected by the Athletics Integrity Unit while the International Testing Agency that provides anti-doping controls to 60 International federations (among which one finds Aquatics, Cycling, Triathlon but also the Underwater Sports to which belongs Finswimming) does not give an impression of utmost efficiency. 

But I did not decide to write this article motivated by doping arguments. As you may recall I recently wrote an article on the Balkan Games where I talked about other international competitions that saw the light after WWII. But I was intrigued by the various meetings, which evolved later, becoming part of the Diamond League and the Continental Tour. And, for obvious reasons, I tried to find how the Paris meeting was born. That's how I ended up (re)visiting the SPE15 site and reading the story behind the genesis of the Paris meeting in their special "retro" page. The page is mainly franco-centric but one can find some very interesting articles, like the one on 96 olympic champion V. Niyongabo. If you speak french and you are mildly interested by the doping questions, SPE15 is a site you should visit. 

The real 4x100 m mixed relay is here (at long last)

In an article I published eight years ago I was writing

"Speaking of mixed relays it's the 4x100 m that I would like to see even more than the 4x400 m. The short relay depends crucially on delicately balancing the speeds of the two runners at the exchange of the baton. So, adding the extra difficulty of different top speeds for male and female runners would make this event even more challenging. I cross my fingers for such an event to become part of official competitions".

Those words turned out to be prophetic. A few years later World Athletics introduced this event and it was first held during the 2025 World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou. 

And it was, for me, an utter disappointment. By that time WA had fixed the order of the 4x400 m mixed relay to man-woman-man-woman. But going to the World Relays they decided that the order for the 4x100 m would be woman-woman-man-man. 

I really hated this risk-avoiding configuration and I discussed the point with my Décapassion friends, Frédéric and Pierre Gousset. (On a totally different point, I am astonished that they did not write an article on the women's decathlon championship that was held in August. Unfortunately it's a bit too late by now). 

The Gousset argued that a man-woman-man-woman would be technically very difficult, but I was not convinced. The initial WA proposal had a single moderately-delicate exchange, woman to man, at the end of the opposite straight, really the most comfortable position for an exchange. What I would like to see was a technically challenging relay with man to woman exchanges. And World Athletics, for once, set aside their timorousness and decided to adopt the man-woman-man-woman order. During the World Athletics Council, held in Tokyo, just before the World Championships, it was decided, among others, that the new order will be applied in the World Athletics Series events as well as the World Athletics Relays that will be held next year in Gaborone, Botswana. Moreover the events will be part of the program of 2028, Los Angeles, Olympics. 

Now I am afraid that I will have to wait till May 2026, and the World Relays in Botswana for this event, disputed at high level. I just hope that in the months leading to Gaborone, there will be several national formations participating in the World Athletics Series, running the mixed 4x100 m, aiming at polishing their technique. I will definitely monitor the deployment of this event and report if necessary.

And, remember: "You have read it here first". 

The Tokyo World Championships: who's in and who's out

Having written an article after the US Trials commenting on the athletes that would not make the team, I felt compelled, once the final composition of the US team for Tokyo was announced, to compare my comments with the final formation. I will definitely not present an exhaustive list of all champions that will miss this year's World Championships. (Had that been the case I should have started with France's only Paris Olympics athletics medallist, Samba-Mayela, who will miss Tokyo due to injuries). I will concentrate on the US athletes, with just one exception (but more on this later).

To my eyes there is one "huge" absence from this year's World's: Joe Kovacs. He finished 4th at the US Trials in a competition where he was leading from the first to the third throw, was  second up to the fifth throw only to be passed in the last throw by two competitors, relegating him to the fourth position. (It is funny that 5 among the 8 finalists had their best throw in their last attempt. Not so Kovacs, who could not reply to the throws of Awotunde and Otterdahl). And, at the end of August, Kovacs went on to win the Diamond League final, beating Otterdahl and Piperi who had denied him the national selection. Now, normally, the winner of the Diamond League gets a wild card for the championship. But, unfortunately for Kovacs, a country can only have up to 4 representatives, including wild cards. And in the case of men's shot put, the US have already one wild card for the defending world champion, Ryan Crouser. So, Kovacs is definitely out. (Those who follow my blog certainly know that I am a big fan of Crouser. But Crouser, plagued by elbow problems, has not thrown even once in 2025. I just hope that the wild card, that would have allowed Kovacs to go for a third world title, would not be wasted). 

People were giving a non-negligible chance to J. Nuguse for a wild card qualification for Tokyo, after a victory in Zürich. However having seen the finish of Laros in the 1500 m in Brussels I was convinced that Nuguse did not stand a chance. This is exactly what happened. And with the condition of Ingebrigtsen being a mystery, I think that Laros has a serious chance for the world title. While Nuguse did not get a wild card there was another american athlete who profited from one. Before Zürich I remember reading in some article that V. Norwood stood a chance to make the US team if he won the Diamond League final. Well, they had missed the most probable way for Norwood to qualify. It was J. Patterson, who had won the US Trials (and is the second performer of the year over 400 m) who did win the Diamond, obtained a wild card, and opened the way for Norwood to join the US team. 

In my comments I had missed two important points. I made a whole fuss concerning the tactics of the Moll sisters in pole vault, forgetting one important thing: at 4.73 m, with just four athletes left, all of them had secured a spot in the team. K. Moon had a wild card, being the reigning champion (well, co-champion, to be precise). So, both Amanda and Hana Moll were in, and they could take any risk they wished with the remaining heights. The other wild card I had missed was that of B. Andersen in women's hammer throw. She had obtained it by being the best performer in the Continental Tour (the women's hammer not being part of the Diamond League circuit). Thus both Kassanavoid and Richeson made the team (which is somehow fair since, in the Trials, they were separated by just 2 cm). 

If you peruse the list of the medalists of the US Trials you'll find that there are athletes absent from the team. Most of them, like J. Lawson in the long jump or D. Simon in the javelin throw, could not qualify because they had not realised the minimum entry standard and were too far in the world rankings. You can verify this through the Road to Tokyo page in the World Athletics website, but bear in mind that it was not updated so as to include the Diamond League wild cards. 

Britanny Brown did obtain a wild card for the 200 m by winning in Zürich's final. But since Gabby Thomas had announced her non-participation due to injury, Brown's wild card offered to McKenzie Long a spot in the team. So, the two sprinters that were denied a selection for 1 and 2 milliseconds respectively, ended up making the team. Thomas has been in the limelight recently having declared that the coaches involved in doping offences should be banned for life. As expected, Thomas' inflammatory words sparked a huge controversy on the media. The one remark that I did not expect was that of multiple doping offender J. Gatlin. But in this case I must admit that Gatlin had a point. For him there were not the comments but their timing that was badly chosen. Had Thomas made those comments after winning gold in the 2024 Olympics, things would have been different. But after a season where she was regularly beaten by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, Thomas' remarks look as they were addressed at Jefferson-Wooden and her coach (Dennis Mitchell, who was also the coach of Gatlin and was involved in doping controversies). 

The other absence from Tokyo, among the athletes who had already qualified, is that of Aleia Hobbs in the 100 m, opening the road for Twanisha Terry. Finally, reading in detail all the entries for the US team, I found out that I had made another pessimistic prediction: Britton Wilson is, after all, member of the team for the 4x400 m women's relay. She may even run in the heats, so, if the US win a medal, she will have a share in it. 

And now it's time for the exception I alluded to at the beginning of this post. I had a look at the composition of the Jamaican team and I was astonished when I did not see the name of R. Stona, who had won the men discus event at last year's Olympics. On the other hand I remembered well having seen him participate in international competitions and have thrown over 70 m. I decided to dig further and I discovered that Stona, together with olympic medallists Rajindra Campbell and Wayne Pinnock, as well as triple jump talent Jaydon Hibbert, who at 19 years of age finished 4th last year in Paris, had switched alliance form Jamaica to Turkey. (There was a signing bonus of reportedly half a million dollars, and the agreement included a monthly stipend and huge bonuses for medals won at major championships). Stona pointed out that his financial struggles had led him to first consider abandoning athletics for american football and, in the end, opting for the transfer of alliance. It goes without saying that, according to the rules, the four ex-jamaican athletes, will not be allowed to participate in major championships for three years (but can represent Türkiye at 2028 Olympics).

PS The entry list for the Tokyo World Championships are out and I would like to remark that Kovacs, figures prominently in the list. This is due to the fact that a country can enter one more athlete as "reserve". This means that if Crouser is not able to compete, Kovacs will be allowed to participate as the fourth US athlete, thanks to his wild card. 

The Balkan Games (aka Balkan Athletics Championships)

This a subject of pure nostalgia. 

Just picture a (very) young Athletics fan back in the 50s. No internet, no TV (in Greece), athletics being barely mentioned in the radio and the single source of information being the unique sports-centric greek newspaper "Athlitiki Icho". (The "Equipe" was available in Greece at that time, with a one-day delay, but regularly purchasing it was beyond my pocket money possibilities). So the best way to keep contact with Athletics was not to miss any local meeting organised in Athens' region. But these involved only the greek champions. So, whenever an international meeting was held in Athens that was something to celebrate. In this sense the year 1957 was special because we were treated to a double feature. Within a single week at the beginning of October we had first the Balkan Games and five days later the first and only historical meeting Balkans-Scandinavia. Having read about the feats of the Scandinavian athletes in the Melbourne Olympics the previous year, I was really thrilled about the opportunity to see them compete "live" in the Panathenaic Stadium. (And they did not disappoint me. I keep an indelible memory of that event).  

But throughout the decades of the 50s and 60s the most important yearly appointment were the Balkan Games. Now, let's be fair. European championships were first organised in the 30s and in the 50s they were held regularly every four years, with women events being included in the same organisation as that of men's already from 1946. The Mediterranean Games were first held in 1951 and by 1955 they were going strong. The famous annual duel USA-USSR was inaugurated in 1958 and would be held non-stop for over two decades. So, there were several important athletics events attracting the attention of the athletics fans, but, somehow, they all felt "far from home". The Balkan games though, were "our" Games. For greek champions the title of winner of Balkan games was probably the apex of their career. But let's start at the beginning.

The idea of an Athletics competition bringing together the countries of the Balkan peninsula germinated in the 20s (those of the 20th century, obviously). The main proponent was Demetrius Dallas, who came to Greece as a refugee from Smyrna in 1922. He was a lover of athletics and, while still in Smyrna, he was the organiser of the Panionian Games. During the 1924, Paris, Olympics he initiated discussions with the representatives of the other Balkan countries. The rationale was that, given the not-so-high level of the athletes of the Balkan countries, the participation in the Olympics could be a frustrating experience, while a competition among athletes of comparable levels could be much more rewarding. During the athletic congress in Amsterdam, on the occasion of the 1928 Olympics, it was agreed to organise yearly a Balkan Athletics Championship. And, as general rehearsal, the greek athletic federation organised in 1929, in Athens, the games that went down to history as pre-balkanic games, with the participation of Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Romania. Turkey would join the "official" Balkan Games in 1931 (although the turk premier I. Inonu was present at the opening ceremony of the 1930 Games). Albania joined the Games later (some sources give 1933 as the date for the first albanian participation but the date of 1946 is also encountered. Probably the latter corresponds to the date when Albania officially ratified the protocol of the Balkan Games). 

Women joined the Balkan Athletics Championships in 1957 with the great Iolanda Balas winning the high jump 9 consecutive times from 1957 to 1965. (Given that in 1966 the high jump was won with 1.69 m and Balas had jumped 1.76 m in spring, she could have won a tenth title were it not for her torn tendon that forced her to withdraw from the 1966 Europeans and put an end to her career).

There was a hiatus due to the war with no Balkan Games organised during the period 1941-1952. Greece, Turkey and Yugoslavia participated in the first post-war championship in 1953 with Romania and Bulgaria joining the first three in 1956. Albania joined in 1963 but had just five participations up to 1986 (but is regularly participating since). The break-up of Yugoslavia in the 90s was a great perturbation and could have led to the demise of the Balkan Games, all the more so, since the interest in this competition was waning (by that time there was a slew of international competitions and the World Championships had seen the light in 1983). Croatia and Slovenia were reticent at the beginning but in the end they joined the circuit (in 2013 and 2014). Serbia together with Montenegro continued as Yugoslavia up to 2004 where they separated. North Macedonia joined from 1996, as well as Moldova, issued from the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while Bosnia appeared in 1998.

But this perturbation was most probably at the origin of a more relaxed approach towards the Balkan Games. First, it was realised that the strict borders of the Balkan peninsula were too confining a definition as to which country could participate (after all, Slovenia and Moldova are most probably, geographically speaking, non-Balkan countries). Then the obvious ties of Cypriots and Armenians with the Balkan peninsula and the emergence of Kosovo as an independent entity made the abolishment of the geographic criteria inevitable. Thus the Association of Balkan Athletic Federations (ABAF) opened its doors successively to Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Kosovo, San Marino, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Austria and Malta. (I am convinced that the influence of D. Karamarinov who has been president of the ABAF from 2010 to 2021, before becoming president of European Athletics, was instrumental in this opening).

For the participating countries, the Balkan Games is a test-ground for the young and upcoming athletes as well as for the established champions who are seeking a less stressful competition in order to fine-tune their preparation. Thus the competition that was flagging in the 80s is now in full swing with Senior, Junior, U20 (both outdoor and indoor), U18 championships as well as Cross Country, Race Walking, Marathon (and half-Marathon) and even Mountain Running championships.

If you are interested in the history of the Balkan Games there is an excellent article on the site Athletics Podium but even better is the Statsbook they had prepared on the occasion of the 2024 Games. I wrote a laudatory article on this great turkish site two years ago. So, if you are an athletics fan (if not, what are you doing here?) bookmark immediately the Athletics Podium site.

I cannot close this article without a remark on what is missing from the program of specific Balkan Championships: combined events. In fact, when the Balkan games were planned the greek organisers did not wish to include hammer throw (under the pressure of the other countries it became part of the program from 1930). Instead they pushed for the greek-style discus throw, only to see a Bulgarian win five times in a row. (Anyhow, the event was discontinued in 1939). There was also a discussion about a medley relay and in 1929 the program included a 1500-800-400-200 m one, only to be replaced from the next year by a 800-400-200-100 m (balkan?) relay (that was discontinued in 1939). But the astonishing point is that the greek representatives vetoed the inclusion of the decathlon in the Balkan Games. It was only in 1939 that the first decathlon was held in the balkan games, and with the interruption due to the war it had to wait till 1957 before appearing again. At that time the women's pentathlon entered the program as well and was replaced by a heptathlon in 1981. (World record holder of 80 m hurdles, Draga Stamejcic, won the pentathlon seven times between 1957 and 1964). Alas, in 1999 the most unfortunate decision to discontinue the combined events was taken. They disappeared from the program and were not replaced (as in the case of the Marathon) by a specific championship that would gather the best balkan combined-event specialists in the same venue. Fortunately, the ABAF saw the light and reintroduced the combined events in the program of the Balkan Championships from 2014. Hallelujah.

Decathlon2000 goes free

There is something with myself and Decathlon2000. First, the site is perhaps the best english-speaking decathlon site out there. (Just in case you do not get the "english-speaking" addition, I can make clear that the very best decathlon site is the one of my friends' Frédéric and Pierre Gousset, but, alas, in french: Décapassion). Second I am a huge decathlon fan. So, why do I have this reserved attitude when it comes to Decathlon2000? I have been writing my blog for over 10 years before referring for the first time to Decathlon 2000.

I tried to analyse my attitude and I concluded that my relative reticence was due to the fact that Decathlon2000 was for the major part behind a paywall. And I hate paywalls. I can understand it when newspapers do this. After all, they must make a living in the digital era and there is no other way to do this. But when somebody who is writing a blog out of passion tries to monetise it I start bristling. You can call me old-school, but I maintain that passion and money do not go together.

So, again, when I read in Décapassion around the beginning of July that Decathlon2000 was tearing down the paywalls I somehow suppressed the info and did not report right away. Today I am remedying this. Because, let's be fair, Decathlon2000 is the bible of combined events. If you look for statistical data that's the place you should visit. Ditto for historical articles. So from here onwards my attitude towards Decathlon2000 will definitely change. 

I forgot, there is one more thing (the expression is a tribute to the great Steve Jobs). Decathlon2000 is free but accepts donations. And this is something I totally condone. There is nothing more natural when you appreciate something than to make a small gift. So, if you become a regular visitor to J. Salmitsu's site, think about a donation. 

PS. Those who follow my blog have certainly remarked that I am a stickler for details. So I visited the decathlon point and I saw this

Now, why on earth, is there a different format for jumps and for throws? Both are measuring distances. I was thinking about replacing the USATF calculator I have been using for years by that of Decathlon2000 but I am sure that latter will grate on my nerves whenever I will open the window. So I am going to stick with the USATF one for the time being.

US Track & Field Trials 2025: who's in and who's out

The US Athletics Trials were held from July 31st to August 3rd. For American athletes they are of capital importance since they determine who will be selected for the national team that will represent the US in the Tokyo World Championships. All the more so, since only seven athletes have obtained a wild card, having won the world title during the 2023 Championships: N. Lyles (who won both 100 and 200 m), G. Holloway (110 m hurdles), R. Crouser (shot put), S. Richardson (100 m), K. Moon (pole vault), C. Ealey-Jackson (shot put) and L. Tausaga-Collins (discus throw). I'm not going to give a full analysis of the Trials but just point out what I found more interesting. 

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden winning the 100 m

K. Bednarek dominated the 100 m and went on to finish second in the 200 m yielding the first place to Lyles over the last metres, feeling the tiredness of five demanding races (but this did not prevent Lyles to behave as a jerk after the race). T. Bromell finished 4th in the men's 100 m and so will make the team only for the relay. I just hope they will not take the 5th finisher (C. Coleman) to Tokyo. And E. Knighton, finishing 5th in the 200 m, will not make the team this time.  Does this have something to do with last year's doping problem?  M. Jefferson-Wooden was really impressive, wining both 100 and 200 m. Her 10.65 s over the former distance is the 5th best time ever. I was somewhat disappointed by the 4th place of T. Terry but, at least, she got to run in the relay. S. Richardson ran only in the heats. And then she managed to get arrested at the airport on a domestic violence offence, with her boyfriend C. Coleman. (I liked her better when she preferred girls). G. Thomas managed to scrape into the team by just a millisecond. In fact Thomas, Brown and Long were given the same time, 22.20 s, and were separated for 3rd, 4th and 5th place by milliseconds: 22.197, 22.198 and 22.199. Unfortunately, I could not find the photo-finish of the race. 

This is the best I could do for the 200 m final

S. McLaughlin won easily the 400 m in 48.90 s. Now, why on earth, did she opt for the 400 flat dropping the hurdles? Both Nasser and Paulino, with 48.67 and 48.81 s, have better times this year. Of course all three can run under 48 seconds, but the risk of McLaughlin being beaten by either or both is quite appreciable. When I saw the entries of the 400 m I was rejoicing at the return of B. Wilson whom I had noticed in 2022 when she ran a most promising 53.08 in the 400 m hurdles. Unfortunately she finished 6th in the final and will not go to Tokyo. I don't know what is happening with A. Mu(-Nikolayev). Not only is she not qualified, she did not even make the final. If you don't count the performances of the doping-uncontrolled years and you throw away Semenya's as well, Mu is the third performer of all time after Jelimo and Hodgkinson. (I just hope that the hamstring injury of the latter will not totally spoil her season). In my report on the 2022 World's I was writing that I was "wondering whether D. Brazier, heralded as the new talent of 800 m, was just a shooting star, bright once and then gone. Well, it turns out that I was wrong. Brazier did a spectacular comeback winning the 800 m in 1:42.16. The men's 800 m in Tokyo will be the race to follow. All the more so, since C. Lutkenhaus made the team with a world U18 record in 1:42.27. You should watch the race in YouTube, it's amazing. (The other young prodigy, Q. Wilson, who had recently ran a 44.10 s U18 world record did not manage to make the final in the 400 m). 

D. Muhammad winning the 400 m hurdles

Masai Russell was impressive in the 100 m hurdles. I don't see who will stop her from adding a world gold to her olympic one. K. Harrison is once more just below par when it counts, finishing at 4th place due to a sluggish start. D. Muhammad is having an excellent year (which is supposedly the last of her long career). She won the 400 m hurdles in 52.65 s and, together with her teammate A. Cockrell, they will try to snatch gold from F. Bol. (I wished to see the video of the final but the as...le who had uploaded it did not give access outside the US. Fortunately I have an excellent VPN). G. Holloway decided to use his champion's bye for the 110 m hurdles but, be that as it may, I don't think he is in the same good shape as the previous years. But perhaps I am wrong. 

The last day of the US championships coincided with the ones in Greece. And guess what, the guy who won high jump in Greece did that with 2.21 m, just missing 2.25 m, while J. Harrison and S. McEwen, world and olympic vice champions respectively, ended their contest at 2.22 m. Sad! Equally sad was seeing KC Lightfoot (he had the 4th best all-time performance before Karalis' great 6.08 m jump the same week-end) unable to go beyond 5.62 m in the pole vault and S. Kendricks making the team with just 5.72 m. The women's pole vault, won by S. Morris, was a bizarre event. 

At 4.73 m Morris and Moon were tying at first place while the two Moll twins occupied the 3rd and 4th place. And they both passed 4.78 m! I cannot grasp the logic of this. Since Morris and Moon passed, the Moll sisters should on the contrary have tried that height. If they managed to pass they would have pushed Moon (in view of fact that she did not go beyond 4.73 m) out of the selection. At least Hana Moll should have gambled (all the more so, since her personal best is 4.81 m). But both decided to skip 4.78 m and, as a result, only one of the sisters, Amanda, will jump in Tokyo. I am a fan of T. Davis-Woodhall and once more she showed her great talent, but the one I was following was J. Moore. Would she manage two selections once more? Well, not this time, as she could do no better than 5th in the long jump. But she totally dominated the triple jump where all her jumps were better than the jumps of all the remaining athletes.

The same is true for V. Allman in the discus throw where with 71.45 m she threw almost 7 metres more than the second (2023, lucky, champion L. Tausaga-Collins). The women's hammer throw saw the return of two world champions, D. Price and B. Andersen, who won in 2019 and 2022 respectively. But the great surprise was the men's shot put. I was following the results live but it was getting late and I decided to call it a day after the third round where J. Kovacs was leading with 22.07 m followed by T. Piperi and P. Otterdahl. I went to bed and I saw the final result the next morning. And I found that Kovacs would miss a World Championships selection for the first time since 2015. (He was world champion in 2015 and again in 2019 in that unforgettable contest where he won with 22.91 m ahead of Crouser and Walsh, both having thrown 22.90 m). Awotunde won with a last attempt throw of 22.47 m, Otterdahl obtained his selection with 22.35 m while Piperi had surpassed Kovacs at his 4th throw with 22.29 m. R. Crouser, being the reigning world champion, used his bye but we are hearing that he has some elbow problems, so the competition in Tokyo will be wide open. 

Anna Hall dominated the heptathlon with 6899 points registering personal bests in high jump and the throws. I think that her long jump is slightly below par and it is clear that she did not push herself to the limit in the track events. I believe she is ready for a 7000+ performance in Tokyo. In the wake of Hall, T. Brooks obtained her qualification for the World's with a 6526 points personal best. M. Atherley, having a bye thanks to her victory in the 2024 Combined Events Tour, participated in just 4 events where she showed that she is in great shape. 

In the men's decathlon I was waiting impatiently the come-back of G. Scantling after the three years' suspension for a doping "whereabouts" violation. And it was a deception. After two so-so events, trailing at 10th position, he dropped out. K. Garland confirmed his great shape winning with 8869 points. H. Baldwin and H. Williams were second and third but their score was below the qualification minimum of 8550 points set by WA. (They are both qualified for Tokyo though: Baldwin on last year's performance and Williams on ranking). 

On the Grand Sham Track

No, I haven't misspelled Slam. I'm just giving my opinion on what I think the whole thing was from the outset.

OK, let's go back to when the GST was announced. In my first article I did make it clear that one of the reasons I did not like the new form of competition was because I have never liked Michael Johnson. In a second article I produced a more serious, technical, argument. And, in a spell of honesty, I wrote that not everything was bad about GST. After all, it's thanks to the special format of this competition that we got to watch Sydney McLaughlin run the 100 m flat. (Please forgive me if I don't add systematically her married surname, Levrone. It is getting too long and I'm lazy. Why didn't she change her name to her husband's name as many female champions have done? Ivanna Spanovic did it for just one season, just to spite future uninformed Athletics statisticians, before divorcing).

So, what happened with Grand Slam Track? I was following the US Trials (an article on them is under preparation) and I was intrigued by the fact that McLaughlin did not participate in her specialty 400 m hurdles. She is in great shape, as attested by her 48.90 s in the 400 m flat, and has a 52.07 s season's best on the hurdles from the beginning of May (which is second only to Bol's 51.95 s). So I decided to have a look at the results of the last round of GST, planned for the end of June in Los Angeles. And I found out that the competition was listed as "upcoming" in the GST page. I started sniffing around and, there it was: the Web was boiling over with news about the GST defaulting on the payment of bonuses.

M. Johnson's startup had promised athletes that it would pay a first instalment of prize money by the end of July. And they missed the deadline. And we are talking about just the 3 million dollars from the Kingston competition, held in April (for which the athletes got just the appearance fees). In total GST owes the athletes 13 million dollars for the three events already held. (And of course, for Philadelphia and Miami, not even the appearance fees were paid).

Enter Michael Johnson. He tried to justify the situation in an interview with Justin Gatlin(!). (If you read this blog, you know what I think about the latter. All in all, I find that he is a fitting company for M. Johnson). Johnson blamed the downturn of the global economy in April that led one of his investors to back out. He stated that they are working with the remaining investors but he admitted that the process is pretty complex. 

It's a sad situation for the athletes; champions like Gabby Thomas literally begging for their due. Grant Fischer declared that "if the money doesn’t come through, then no athlete is ever going to want to take a chance on a new idea". And, of course, if they do not pay their debts there is no chance whatsoever for the competition to return next year (despite Johnson's reassurances). The new deadline is now September's end. But one has every right to be skeptic. 

And how about World Athletics? After all, Lord Sebastian had welcomed the competition, when it was announced with the words: “I welcome innovation, I welcome external resources”. Now WA has warned GST of a potential punishment. Let's get serious! What can WA do? Grand Slam Track is dead in the water. And, most probably M. Johnson has learned his lesson. The athletes will or won't get their money after years of fighting GST in court. And there is nothing Sir Sebastian can do about this. If he wishes to do something for Athletics, he should recognise the women's decathlon championships to be held in a few days and introduce an official WA championship from next year. (I hope that I am not surprising you with this ending of an article on GST. I wanted to end on something positive and there is nothing better for me than women's decathlon).