The Moment of the Year: the wait is over

We don’t have to wait until the end of November for the Moment of the Year. World Athletics spilled the beans by announcing the nominees for this new award. And I must say that I am impressed.

But let’s start at the beginning. What is the Moment of the Year? Quoting the presentation on the World Athletics site:

The Moment of the Year award has been introduced to celebrate the most memorable occasion of the season – one that may transcend a single performance and generate emotion and inspiration among fans and spectators around the world.

And they went on to present a long list (count them, there are no fewer than 18 entries there) of accomplishments that made a mark on the athletics season.

• Tigst Assefa’s women-only world marathon record of 2:15:41 in London
• Botswana’s men’s 4 × 400 m win on home soil at the World Athletics Relays
• Alison dos Santos’ world 400 m hurdles record of 45.80 in Zurich
• The pole vault duel between Mondo Duplantis (6.25 m) and Emmanouil Karalis (6.20 m) in Zurich
• Simon Ehammer’s world heptathlon record of 6670 for world indoor gold in Toruń
• Keely Hodgkinson’s world 800 m short track record of 1:54.87 in Liévin
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s return after injury to win the European 5000 title
• Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s Ultimate Championship sprint double
• Yomif Kejelcha’s world half marathon record of 56:51 in Buenos Aires
• Josh Kerr’s world mile record of 3:42.66 in London
• Agnes Ngetich’s women-only world record of 1:05:15 for world half marathon gold
• Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage’s last-round 91.09 m to win the Ultimate javelin title
• Masai Russell’s world 100 m hurdles record of 12.09 in Zurich
• Sabastian Sawe breaking two hours with a 1:59:30 world marathon record in London
• Gianmarco Tamberi’s world high jump lead of 2.37 m to win the Ultimate title
• Ja’Kobe Tharp’s world 110 m hurdles record of 12.75 in the NCAA semifinals
• Audrey Werro’s 1:53.70 800 m, the third-fastest time in history
• Yan Ziyi’s world U20 javelin record of 71.74 m, the second-farthest throw in history

When I saw the page on the World Athletics site, I thought immediately: “Did they include the Zurich pole vault event?”. It turned out that they did. Not Duplantis’ world record, but the competition where Duplantis was pushed to his limit in order to conserve his supremacy.

And there are many more entries that I liked a lot. They balanced Assefa and Ngetich in long-distance running, and they did the same for Sawe and Kejelcha. There are entries for Tamberi and Ingebrigtsen, who did not make the year’s best list. Kebinatshipi does not appear individually, but the team of Botswana is there. K. Hodgkinson does figure, thanks to her indoor performance, counterbalancing Werro’s dominance. And Yan is selected, quite deservedly, for women’s javelin, despite having lost the Ultimate title.

I tried to think about possible misses, and I could not find any. M. Paulino would have figured if she had improved her 2025 400 m time. C. Jackson beating the unofficial world record of 21.24 m in the shot put would have earned a place on the list. And if Tentoglou had made the 8.80 m jump we are expecting, he would have figured not only in the “Moments” but in the Year’s Best list. Let’s hope he does it next year. There is still time.