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.

The World Athletics year's best list

World Athletics published its list of the best athletes of the year, and I must say that I am somewhat perplexed.

But first, let me give the list. Here are the 10 best women (in alphabetical order):

Tigst Assefa
Chase Jackson
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden
Agnes Ngetich
Marileidy Paulino
María Pérez
Camryn Rogers
Masai Russell
Audrey Werro
Yan Ziyi

And the 10 best men:

Kenneth Bednarek
Kristjan Čeh
Andy Díaz Hernández
Alison dos Santos
Mondo Duplantis
Collen Kebinatshipi
Josh Kerr
Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage
Sabastian Sawe
Ja’Kobe Tharp

A. Ngetich was not among my choices, but I really hesitated before leaving Andy Díaz out of a list that was becoming really long. On the other hand my list contains athletes like F. Cherotich and G.Tamberi, to name but a few, who should have figured in the World Athletics list. I cannot understand how an athlete like Tamberi was left out. 

When I counted the specialties, I ended up with 4 track, 3 field and 3 out-of-stadium women. But for the men, there were 5 track, 4 field and just 1 out-of-stadium athlete. So it is impossible to designate the three best male athletes for the out-of-stadium specialty. Thus, I tried to parse the blurb accompanying the article.

It says:

A ... vote, which closes on Saturday 17 October at midnight CEST, will now determine their [i.e. the 10 athletes for each sex] final ranking, from first to 10th.

And further on:

The six finalists – three for the women’s World Athlete of the Year award and three for the men’s – will be announced on 10 and 11 November and be invited to Monaco for the World Athletics Awards on 29 November, when each winner will be announced live on stage.

So, the only possible explanation is that the specialty classification of the last two years will be abandoned and we are going back to the old format, where one “overall best” is selected. Unfortunately, not being privy to the confidence of Lord Sebastian, I can only establish my list based on last year’s criteria. And this encourages me further in the direction I was speculating about in my previous post: give a discipline-by-discipline report of the year and simply present the names of the three best female and male athletes.

PS. At the end of the WA article is a cryptic announcement: among the awards presented on stage, there will be, for the first time, the Moment of the Year award. I really wonder what that will be. But I guess we only have to wait until the end of November.

The year’s best athletes: my choice

Yes, it’s that time of year when, imitating World Athletics, I present the list of the athletes who (to my eyes, obviously) have distinguished themselves during the 2026 season. Is there any need to repeat that my list is totally subjective? Those who follow my blog know very well that, if I don’t like somebody, I will do my best to forget him or her when compiling my list and, if this turns out to be impossible, at least minimise his or her presence.

Marileidy Paulino is my choice for the year’s top female athlete. She was unbeaten in all the races she participated in this year (from 200 to 800 m), including the Ultimate Championship. Her top performance, 48.48 s in the 400 m, came early in the year and is half a second slower than her 47.98 s from last year’s World Championships, but this year she was unchallenged in her specialty distance and did not have to push herself as she did in 2025.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden dominated the short sprints, winning the Ultimate champion’s title. Her time over 200 m, 21.47 s, places her third on the all-time list, behind Flo-Jo and S. Jackson. (Speaking of sprint queens, I cannot fail to mention Amy Hunt and her superb four-gold gambit at this year’s Europeans).

Masai Russell broke the world record for the 100 m hurdles with 12.09 s and went on to win the Ultimate championship title. Her only defeat this year came over a non-specialty 200 m. She won all the hurdles races, and when one realises how difficult it is to be consistent over the hurdles, her 100% success rate acquires another dimension.

I would have placed Tigst Assefa on the podium alongside Russell had she succeeded in breaking the mixed-race women’s marathon world record as well, last month in Berlin. Unfortunately, she was unable to maintain her blistering pace over the last two kilometres and finished with 2:11:04, which is still the third-best time ever. In case you wonder, she holds the women-only record with 2:15:41, from the London Marathon.

A. Werro had an incredible summer season, dominating the 800 m despite the presence of K. Hodgkinson and F. Bol. Her time of 1:53.70 places her less than half a second from Kratochvilova’s 40-year-old record.

Faith Cherotich dominated the women’s 3000 m steeplechase this year and, to my eyes, she is the real heir to the great Beatrice Chepkoech, perhaps even more so than W. Yavi (of whom I am a great fan—but more on her later).

Ziyi Yan threw twice over 70 m in the javelin, something we had not seen since 2008, the golden year of Barbora Spotakova. She is now half a metre from the latter’s world record and, given that she is just 18 years old, I believe we are ready to witness a new record, perhaps as early as next year.

Women’s shot put is definitely making progress. Chase Jackson finished the year with 21.14 m (very close to the unofficial world record of V. Adams) and Jessica Schilder was not far behind with 21.09 m. S. Mitton and Y. Ogunleye also had performances over 20 m.

Winfred Yavi had a so-so season, but she ended it in the most spectacular way, winning the 10000 m, 3000 m steeplechase and 5000 m at the Asian Championships. I don’t think anybody else, man or woman, has ever done so at a continental championship.

Speaking of multiple victories brings us to Nadia Battocletti, who repeated her 2024 feat by winning both the 5000 m and 10000 m at this year’s European Championships.

The list of ten appears short when it comes to mentioning all the athletes who have distinguished themselves. C. Rogers was indisputably the top hammer thrower this year. With 81.13 m, she sits in second place on the all-time list, behind only the great Anita Wlodarczyk. Larissa Iapichino was probably the most consistent long jumper, winning European and Ultimate titles and breaking her mother’s Italian record. The triple jump saw three athletes excel: Thea Lafond signed the year’s best performance with 15.25 m, Davidsleydi Velazco improved her personal best by close to half a metre with 15.13 m, and Saly Sarr grabbed the Ultimate title and a new best of 15.08 m. Valarie Allman-Sion was less dominant in the discus this year but managed to throw over 73 m once again (in Ramona, where else?). And it has been quite some time since we have seen a female pole vaulter clear 5 m. Sandi Morris, once the Ultimate champion’s crown was secured at 4.90 m, took two tries at 4.95 m and then raised the bar to 5 m (her personal best from 2016). She did not succeed, but it was a great moment (and a moving comeback from an athlete who, had she been able to adapt her technique to her physical means, would have been number one in the discipline).

Alison Dos Santos is my choice for the year’s top male athlete. I remember how, in the 1980s, we were amazed by Edwin Moses being able to run the 400 m hurdles in 13 strides. Dos Santos is running in 12 strides up to the sixth hurdle, which means that he is equally at ease with both legs over the hurdles (something that Warholm has never managed, which makes for sometimes disastrous race endings when he switches from 13 to 15 strides). Dos Santos ran twice under 46 s this year, and I don’t think he has reached his maximum.

Sebastian Sawe was the first man to run an official marathon under two hours, with 1:59:30, and Yomif Kejelcha was the most unlucky one in this race, finishing a mere 10 seconds behind. (Jacob Kiplimo also dipped under the previous world record, in 2:00:28). But Sawe was first, and so he is the one on the second step of my podium.

Mondo Duplantis is again on the podium, but as of this year he is not the unchallenged champion of the pole vault. Manolo Karalis is now regularly pushing Duplantis to his limits, and the duo is offering us competitions at breath-taking heights. Can you imagine jumping 6.20 m and finishing second, or having two athletes make an attempt at a would-be world record—something seen only once, I think, in the Vigneron–Bubka duel at the Rome Golden Gala in 1984, where Vigneron took Bubka’s 5.90 m record with 5.91 m and Bubka riposted with 5.94 m?

Gian-Marco Tamberi is, to my eyes, the best high jumper (although, to be honest, I would have said the same thing about Barshim). What he did at both the Europeans and the Ultimate Championship were not only great athletic accomplishments but also probably the most memorable moments of the year. As you can guess, I have a weakness for charismatic people, and Tamberi is definitely one.

Were we to look for a character totally different from Tamberi, Miltos Tentoglou is an excellent candidate. Reserved and serious, he approaches his discipline, which he has been dominating for years, in a particularly focused and calm way. His personality may come across as a bit dry, but there are few athletes as reliable as Miltos. I have always been impressed by his technical analyses, which lack any attempt at building a public image. And I am really glad that the black days of 2025 are now a thing of the past.

Busang Kebinatshipi dominated the 400 m but paid a relative price when he decided to change his usual race strategy, going all out in the first half of the race during the Ultimate Championship. As a result, he had to content himself with a time of 43.39 s, which is not even a world-leading one. Still, I believe that if anyone can go for the 43-second barrier, it’s Kebinatshipi.

Kenny Bednarek won both the short sprint races, taking the Ultimate champion’s title and beating world champions Tebogo and Seville in the process. Ja’Kobe Tharp ran six times under 13 s in the 110 m hurdles, with a new world record of 12.75 s early in the season. And he is just 21 years old.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen came back to competition after almost a year’s absence and stunned everybody by winning a European title over 5000 m. He went on to add the Ultimate champion title over the same distance. Does this mean that he is now eyeing the longer distances, moving up from the 1500 m? Josh Kerr, with 3:42.66, broke the mile record, which had stood for more than a quarter of a century (since El Guerrouj broke Morceli’s record with 3:43.13 in a fabulous race in which Ngeny was second with 3:43.40). Kristjan Ceh was undoubtedly the best discus thrower of the year, winning the European title and the Diamond League final (there was no discus in the Ultimate Championship programme this year). But what is more impressive is that he came within 10 cm of his Ramona-established personal best in Birmingham. (From what I remember, the Europeans in Birmingham were quite windy, but I doubt that the wind speed was anywhere near that of Ramona). Rumesh Pathirage is Sri Lankan, but he certainly partakes of the Indian passion for cricket that has recently given us a whole generation of javelin throwers. With 92.62 m, he is among the 10 best throwers of all time and, being just 23 years old, has a real margin for progression.

The list is already quite long, and there are names that have been left out. I wonder whether, in the future, it wouldn’t be better to give a discipline-by-discipline report of the year and simply present the names of the three best in the three specialties recently introduced by World Athletics: track, field and out of stadia. Speaking of which, here are my lists:

Track

Dos Santos, Kebinatshipi, Bednarek

Paulino, Jefferson-Wooden, Russell

(That was easy to guess, given what I wrote above).

Field

Duplantis, Tamberi, Tentoglou

Yan, (Rogers, Iapichino)

(For me, Yan is the best, and only reluctantly did I add the other two).

Out of stadia

Sawe, Kejelcha, Kiplimo

Assefa, Amebaw, Perez

(Amebaw distinguished herself both in and out of the stadium, and thus earned her place. As for Perez, as I have already said, she is the one race walker for whom I make an exception).

The Blog Is 13 Years Old

Last year, while commenting on the blog’s views, I wrote: “I cannot understand what is happening.” Before we go any further, take a look at the graphic below.

Last year, I also wrote: “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 there was any real correlation.” What are those famous spikes in 2017 and 2019? Here is a graphic from 2020.

Now go back to the first graphic. The 2017 spike is only a tiny bump, while the twin peaks from 2019 cut a sorry figure in the 2026 graphic. And the “huge” spike of 2025? Well, it is there, but there is nothing huge about it when compared with the views in 2026. June alone brought more than 200k views, and when you look at the cumulative figures, the one-million mark was reached sometime around that month.

But let’s get serious: are those real views? Even the most optimistic estimates would not put the blog’s readership at more than a few thousand views per month, and I am being generous. No. What is happening is that all those large language models are scraping the web, trying to ingest everything they can find, and my blog is part of their fodder. So, if one day somebody decides to write an article with the help of Grok or any other LLM, the half-assed artificial-intelligence app will be able to produce some insipid text parroting my idiosyncrasies, trying to imitate the style of Rethinking Athletics.

The article with the highest number of views was, you guessed it, “The Javelin Controversy”, followed by “Pole Vault: Before and After” and “Before the Olympic Medals: The Olive Wreath”. Sadly, the one article I consider my best, “Eleven Wretched Women, or How Fake News Almost Killed Women’s Athletics”, has not yet reached a thousand views.

In case you were wondering whether the blog will continue, rest assured: it will. I cannot guarantee the publication frequency, but I have managed to maintain a regular rhythm of at least one article per month, often more, over the years. I hope that, at least for the next year, I will be able to keep it up.

Olympism: a bee in de Coubertin's bonnet (part 5 of "the real story of the Olympics")

De Coubertin visited Wenlock in October 1890. At that time, he was deeply interested in physical education, believing that its inclusion in the curriculum of French schools would contribute to France’s “grandeur”, both political and military. He had already been to England in the 1880s, but this visit to Dr. Brookes came after he had founded, in 1888, the Comité pour la Propagation des Exercises Physiques (also known as the Comité Jules Simon). It was his shared (with Brookes) enthusiasm for general education, physical training, and sport that prompted the journey, and once there, de Coubertin discovered the Olympic movement.

Brookes introduced him to the idea of an Olympic revival and told him about earlier efforts, his own Olympian festivals in Much Wenlock, as well as those held in Greece under Zappas’ patronage. By then, however, the Olympic movement in Greece was all but dead. The “Committee for the Olympics”, which administered Zappas’ legacy, was dominated by persons openly hostile to athletic competition. They had begun diverting the funds meant for the Games into industrial projects instead. As for Brookes’ festivals, they too were fading: the “amateur” victory of the elitist clubs had drained the movement’s vitality. Old and ailing, Brookes had already seen his appeal to Greece for an “International Olympic Movement” and an Olympian festival in Athens blocked by the anti-athletic clique. Yet, when de Coubertin arrived, he could not resist speaking of his cherished Olympic vision.

Back in Paris, de Coubertin behaved as though he had conceived a wholly new idea. During the annual meeting of the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques (USFSA) in November 1892, he proposed “the restoration of the Olympic Games”. He later claimed that his audience was baffled by the novelty of the suggestion, though in practice his speech received polite applause and little follow-up. Most sporting associations were absorbed in managing their everyday affairs. Yet de Coubertin persisted. The following year, he organized an International Athletic Congress to be held in Paris in June 1894.

By April, de Coubertin had barely advertised his congress, and almost no delegates had registered. David C. Young recounts what happened behind the scenes, altering the course of history: in early April, at the baron’s request, de Coubertin’s friend Charles Waldstein “laid the question before the Greek royal family”. Waldstein secured a long audience with Constantine, heir to the Greek throne. In mid-April, he wrote to de Coubertin that Prince Constantine would serve as an honorary member of the Paris Congress. This prompted de Coubertin to dispatch a flurry of invitations for the June event, alongside a request that delegates submit their views on amateurism and the Olympic revival in advance. When Brookes received his invitation, he replied by advocating Greece as the permanent Olympic site—though he allowed that rotations “in or near the Capitals of all nations might also suffice"—and contacted his old friend Charilaos Trikoupis, then prime minister of Greece.

It is striking that de Coubertin deemed it unwise to sideline Greece in his Olympic revival (his anti-hellenic feelings would surface later). And the efforts of his intermediaries, Waldstein and Brookes, bore fruit. Demetrios Vikelas, a Greek who had spent most of his adult life in England and France, had no prior involvement in athletics; but in early June 1894, while residing in Paris, he received a certificate naming him a member of the Panellinios Athletic Club. Soon after came a letter from a friend, urging him to represent the club at de Coubertin’s Congress (as Fokianos, in poor health and lacking foreign languages, could not attend). And at the Congress itself, “as if by previous agreement”, Vikelas was elected chairman of the sub-committee on the Olympic Games.

The common lore holds that Vikelas became the first president of the IOC when, all on his own (as he later claimed), he proposed on the Congress’s final day, June 23, that the Olympic Games begin in Athens, a motion approved by acclamation. In truth, the story unfolded quite differently. According to David C. Young, the Congress was a scripted drama, with delegates as unwitting actors. The minutes reveal that several days earlier, they had voted in favour of inaugural games in London, despite de Coubertin’s proposal for Athens. Curiously, Vikelas did not support the baron’s Athens motion on that first occasion. Later that day, de Coubertin sent a telegram to King George of Greece, who replied with thanks to the Congress and best wishes for the Olympic revival. The only logical explanation, for this exchange and Vikelas’s change of heart, is that de Coubertin and the Greek royal family had already agreed to hold the first modern Olympics in Athens before the Paris Congress convened.

All of a sudden, Vikelas shifted his stance. He attributed this to a discussion with an unnamed friend who “happened to pass through Paris on the evening of June 22”. Most probably, Vikelas—thrust onto the stage without a script—had been unaware of the prior arrangements until King George’s telegram arrived, clarifying his role. During the final plenary session on June 23, he delivered that stirring, patriotic plea on Greece’s behalf; the delegates voted unanimously for Athens, and the rest is history. Vikelas and de Coubertin now faced the task of organizing the Olympics—with less than two years to do so. But that is a story for the next post.

Thiam is back

The last heptathlon Nafi Thiam had completed was the one that earned her a third successive title at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Then came 2025, when Thiam was obviously not in top shape and dropped out after the fifth event in the Worlds. She did participate in the Ratingen Meerkampf meeting in June this year, but it was clear from the outset that she would not contest the full event, only selected disciplines. (If you consult the Ratingen results on the World Athletics website, you will see “NM” next to Thiam’s long jump, which might appear to indicate that she fouled in the event. However, when you track down the official results from Ratingen, Thiam is correctly listed as DNS – i.e. as not having started).

So everyone was looking forward to Thiam’s first heptathlon appearance in almost a year. (And I suspect the person most anxiously awaiting this moment was Thiam herself). And she did not disappoint. Her performances were reasonably good, although I find her jumps somewhat below par. Here are the details:

100 m hurdles: 13.73 s

High jump: 1.85 m

Shot put: 15.10 m

200 m: 24.92 s

Long jump: 6.05 m

Javelin throw: 51.51 m

800 m: 2:13.66

for a total of 6482 points – the sixth-best performance this year. It is clear that simply by improving her jumps she could add more than 200 points to her score, bringing it to around 6,700 points. Only three women have scored above 6700 points this year: A. Kälin with 6813 (though she was almost 200 points behind that mark at the Europeans, finishing fourth), K. O’Connor with 6751, and E. Oosterwegel with 6713. And let’s not forget S. Dokter, who scored 6664 points for bronze at the Europeans. So even with a potential 6700-point score, Thiam would still be rather vulnerable. And things may be worse if A. Hall, who took a year off to recover and build towards the 2027 Beijing World Championships and the 2028 Olympics, returns in strong form.

I guess Thiam’s plan is more or less the same, perhaps with a focus solely on the 2028 Olympics and one or two low-key competitions in 2027 instead of the World Championships. Will she be able to win a fourth gold in Los Angeles? I am afraid that is a very tall order. But even if she manages to win a medal of any colour, that would be something no woman has done before. (Another great female athlete, A. Włodarczyk, also has three golds like Thiam, but “only” two fourth places – in her first and, for now, last participation). Thiam is a great athlete  (the best in the post-doping-control era) so I will keep my fingers crossed and follow her activities closely over the next two years.

PS. In case you are interested in combined events (and I assume that if you are reading this post and you are not a robot scraping it, you should be interested), you should visit my friends F. and P. Gousset’s Décapassion page. They have excellent videos from the Talence Décastar. And while you are there, bookmark their page and visit it regularly. It is the best page on combined events – and one of the, alas very few, promoting the women’s decathlon.

PS2. And a detailed article on the Décastar is now published on the Décapassion blog. Reading the article it's a little bit as if you were present at the competition (Frédéric Gousset was indeed there). Don't waste any time. Go and read it. 

The Ultimate Championship: a success

In several posts I voiced my reservations about the Ultimate Championship. As it turned out, those reservations were not justified. The championship was a real success. That said, several of my criticisms still stand. I still do not understand what dictated the choice of events. Why eliminate the men’s triple jump? Would it really have been so taxing for the programme to include the shot put?

But let us start at the beginning. The Ultimate Championship was advertised as an event that would bring the best athletes into the limelight. And to a certain extent, that is exactly what happened. The red carpet and the media day allowed fans to see their champions in a different light. Just look at the eminently photogenic E. Karalis posing in a burgundy (the trending colour of the year) coat. (Of course we also had to endure the ever present N. Lyles who, thanks to Lord Sebastian, monopolises the images even when he is not competing). Hoever, since there was no formal presentation of the participants, several of them remained simply invisible. As for the non-competing athletes, it is clear that the late date of the championship meant that the lists on the “road to Budapest” page kept changing due to injuries accumulated over the long season. But I understand that the logic of the “ultimate” makes it imperative that the event be held at the end of the season.

From a technical point of view I have several remarks. First, I do not see the logic of the relays. Since the competition is open to the best athletes, regardless of nationality (6 Ethiopian women in the 5000 m), why include events involving national teams? Although I love mixed relays, I would have preferred an Ultimate Championship without them. The four attempts in the horizontal jumps and the throws did not turn out to be the game-stopper I feared, but they still represent a major change of habits. I saw this with Tentoglou, who took his first three jumps with a huge margin just to play it safe. And when conditions are unhelpful, as with the slippery throwing circle in the hammer throw, the consequences can be disastrous. E. Hummel fell in his second attempt but, in his case, without consequences, whereas for Katzberg, who had produced a first 80+ throw just outside the authorised sector, his loss of equilibrium in the second attempt meant elimination. Staging both the semi-finals and the final of the 200 m on the same day (less than two hours apart) showed that this is not detrimental to performance. This could encourage adaptations to the programme of future championships. We did not have the chance to see a tie-break in the vertical jumps. To tell the truth, I strongly oppose the obsession with a single winner (which leads to the aberrant millisecond chase in sprint events). But to finish on a positive note, I must say that the three wild cards awarded were an undisputed success. All three, Tamberi, Ingebrigtsen and Kerr, went on to win their event. Much as I like to criticise Sir Sebastian, I must admit that in this case he nailed it.

M. Jefferson‑Wooden was the queen of the sprints. She beat J. Alfred and S. Richardson in the 100 m, 10.62 to 10.74 and 10.76. (P. Van der Vaeken was the first European in the event, beating A. Hunt). Jefferson went on to win the 200 m ahead of G. Thomas, 21.47 (third all‑time performance) to 21.77. S. Miller‑Uibo, coming back to high‑level competition after a series of injuries, was disqualified for a lane violation in the semis. (You have to look very carefully to see it). 

K. Bednarek imitated Jefferson, winning both the 100 m, beating O. Seville 9.85 to 9.90, and the 200 m, beating L. Tebogo with 19.52 (seventh all‑time performance) to 19.76. M. Paulino won the women’s 400 m easily in 49.07 ahead of H. Jaeger in 49.28 (both would run in the 48s one week later). The race saw the elimination in the semis of N. Bukowiecka and L. Manuel, while S. Eid Nasser, who qualified for the final, finished last. B. Kebinatsipi was manifestly unhappy with his time in the 400 m final, despite a national record of 43.39. R. Benjamin won his first “silver” (though there were no medals at this championship, only a trophy for the winner) before presenting himself an hour and a half later for the hurdles semis.

In the women’s 800 m, it was as if K. Hodgkinson was resigned to not fight A. Werro but to guarantee second place (which she did). Werro, Hodgkinson and Bol finished in that order in 1:55.88, 1:56.26 and 1:56.74 respectively. The men’s race was much more interesting. Entering the final stretch, M. Arop was leading and it was clear that E. Wanyonyi was running out of steam. But the final word belonged to D. Sedjati, who with a devastating sprint passed everybody, winning in 1:41.91. K. Kazimierska is having her best season. After a silver at the Europeans and winning the Diamond League final, she became the absolute champion of the 1500 m with 3:57.55 (and backed it up with a victory in the mile one week later). J. Kerr was invited on a wild card (after having set a world record in the mile with 3:42.66 in July). He put that to good use, winning the men’s 1500 m in 3:29.35 ahead of 20‑year‑old C. Myers in 3:29.68. (You can be sure that I will keep an eye on Myers in the years to come). J. Ingebrigtsen was another who profited from a wild card. When he unleashed his sprint at the end of the men’s 5000 m, nobody could catch him: he won in 12:59.24. The situation was totally different in the women’s race. L. Amebaw (an athlete I have been following for some time) took control at mid‑race and built an advantage of more than 50 m. It turned out to be impossible to reel her in, and she went on to win in 14:13.20, with J. Hull second in 14:18.42.

The hurdles did not reserve any surprises for us. Well, almost. In the final of the men’s high hurdles, C. Tinch looked the winner, but he crossed the line upright and J. Tharp, dipping strongly, stole the victory, 12.94 to 12.95. 

Third finisher B. Franklin was another under‑13 hurdler, with 12.99 in the semis. M. Russell was never challenged in the women’s 100 m hurdles, winning in 12.22 ahead of T. Amusan in 12.34 and N. Visser in 12.39. In the women’s 400 m semis, it became clear that the athlete to beat was neither E. Zapletalová nor A. Cockrell but J. Jones. And, in fact, the latter went on to win the final in 52.45, with Zapletalová second in 52.68 and Cockrell third in 53.09. The great S. Muhammad was again among the best, finishing fourth in 53.11. Two weeks after his world record, A. Dos Santos ran once more under 46 seconds in the 400 m hurdles. He won in 45.98, with R. Benjamin second in 46.40 and K. Warholm in 46.78. E. Agyekum, whom I had noticed at the Europeans, was fourth in 47.10. Barring injuries, I expect him to be the next sub‑47 hurdler (he is already 10th on the all‑time list).

M. Tentoglou won his first Ultimate Champion title in the long jump. It crowned an exceptional season that dispelled any doubt that could have arisen after the injury‑ridden 2025. It was not an easy victory. Over‑cautious, he jumped with 20+ cm of margin, and when on his last attempt he let himself go free, he fouled an 8.50–8.55 m jump. And a moment of pure suspense ensued as B. Saraboyukov responded to Tentoglou’s 8.35 m best with a jump that turned out to be 8.34 m. L. Iapichino and J. Sawyers repeated their European one‑two in the women’s long jump. This time they were separated by more than 10 cm, since they finished with 6.90 and 6.78 m. S. Sarr won her first major title in the women’s triple jump with 15.06 m, in a scenario akin to that of the men’s long jump, since D. Velazco was second just 2 cm from the winner.

I have already written that, to my eyes, G. Tamberi is the best high jumper ever. And he gave another proof of it in Budapest. With J. Harrison, they were the only two to have cleared 2.30 m, with Tamberi leading on count‑back. And then Harrison decided to play a losing game. After one miss, he went successively from 2.33 to 2.37 and 2.39 m (something presumptuous and borderline irrational, but something that pushed Tamberi towards higher heights). So Tamberi cleared 2.33 and 2.35 on his first attempt, indicating by gesture and words that “è basso”. Then he succeeded at 2.37 on his second and asked for a bar at 2.41 m. It has been almost 10 years since anybody has jumped over 2.40 (M. Barshim in 2018, and I refuse to count doping offender D. Lysenko). It was perhaps the best moment of the Ultimate Championship. Y. Mahuchikh won an uninteresting women’s event with 1.99 m, and I must say clearly that I was disappointed by all the participants in the women’s high jump. S. Morris has never won anything outdoors in the pole vault (she has two world indoor titles) despite being the physically stronger female pole vaulter (albeit with a so‑so technique). But at 34 years of age she managed to win her first major title, clearing 4.90 on her second attempt, while H. Moll (13 years her junior) needed three tries. While I admire the female pole vault champions, I feel that the discipline has slowed down and there is no sign of recovery in the near future. And the situation is the perfect opposite in the men’s discipline. What makes it even more interesting is that the absolute supremacy of M. Duplantis is now challenged by the emergence of M. Karalis. Just look at the results: Duplantis 6.20 m, Karalis 6.15 m and Guttormsen 5.95 m. (And, of course, Karalis, when he fouled at 6.20 m, decided to go higher at 6.25 m, forcing Duplantis to gamble on Karalis not succeeding. Men’s pole vault, which became interesting when Duplantis came of age, is now becoming breath‑taking).

The only thing I will say about the three throwing events included in the programme is that I considered the inclusion of the women’s javelin downright stupid. Well, it turned out not to be stupid at all. Z. Yan took control of the event with 68.05 m on her first attempt, but she injured herself and could not continue. And then H. Kitaguchi threw a humongous 68.92 m, clinching victory. (In case you were wondering, I am not changing my opinion on Kitaguchi: for me, she is not a great champion but is simply profiting from the ambient mediocrity of the event). M. Hummel, coached by K. Klaas, won the men’s hammer with 81.46 m (despite his spectacular fall in his second attempt). E. Katzberg, who was the number‑one favourite, finished the competition with two fouls – proof, if we ever needed one, that the current system for throws is a highly risky one. R. Pathirage took control of the men’s javelin with his third throw, and he could have won with that. But something was missing, and at his fourth attempt he unleashed an over‑90‑m throw, confirming his supremacy.

As I said at the beginning of the article the championship was a success. But why on Earth did they have to paint the field black? 

Field events at the Birmingham Europeans

M. Tentoglou is once more the king of the long jump. After a 2025 season plagued by injuries, he is back in great shape and proved this in Birmingham, winning his fourth continental title. The wind was a major perturbation for the jumpers, and I remember Tentoglou commenting that in his first jump, with a head wind, he was having trouble reaching the board. He qualified in third position, in an event that saw the exit of M. Furlani, who has not recovered from his injury, retiring after just one jump at 7.73 m. The final was a totally different affair (but not as far as the wind was concerned). Tentoglou opened with 8.27 m, but S. Ehammer riposted with 8.29 m (both jumps against a strong head wind). Then Tentoglou jumped 8.44 m on his fourth attempt, and that was that (he passed the remaining two, deeming that the opposite wind would preclude a good performance). The bronze medal went to B. Saraboyukov with 8.26 m on his last attempt.

The women’s event, both qualification and final, took place under a strong tail wind. M. Mihambo had the longest jump in the qualifiers with 7.10 m (+3.3 m/s wind), and A. de Sousa jumped 7.00 m under regular conditions. However, in the final, they both finished just outside the medals. L. Iapichino won with a single jump at 7.00 m, just 1 cm ahead of J. Sawyers, 2 cm ahead of H. Kpatcha, 4 cm ahead of de Sousa and 6 cm ahead of Mihambo. It was an incredibly interesting event, where the spectacle was won by Sawyers (a jumper I have been following over the years) and her blanket. Given the consistency of Sawyers (6.95, 6.96, 6.99, 6.92 and two marginal fouls over 7 m), she would have merited the gold medal. The women’s long jump was one more example of finalist replacement. A. Halberg Hossain was injured during the qualifiers and was replaced in the final by F. Fotopoulou, who profited to grab 8th place.

A. Díaz Hernández and P. Pichardo were the only ones over 17 m in the men’s triple jump qualifiers. In the final, the latter opened with 17.76 m, but Díaz riposted with 18.15 m, which places him fourth on the all-time best list, and backed this with a 17.78 m on his third attempt. And I must point out the 8th place of D. Tsiamis, who, at 44 years of age, reached a European final, in a discipline where he won bronze eight years ago.

The women’s triple jump saw two Italians dominate the qualifiers: E. Saraceni with 14.50 m and D. Derkach with 14.42 m. They were going to meet different lots in the final. Saraceni finished 12th with 13.48 m, while Derkach won with 14.60 m. But the real surprise came from a hitherto unknown athlete, S. Guisse. With 14.07 m, she jumped over 14 m for the first time in the qualifiers. And in the final (where all eight finishers jumped over 14 m, with the great I. Španović in 8th place), she showed her intentions with a 14.37 m on the third jump, that did not suffice for a medal, but a 14.46 m (+2.4 m/s wind) did suffice for silver. I will keep an eye open for her next year (despite her below-par performance in the Diamond League of Silesia). And I must say that I was impressed by the concentration of D. Derkach when she had already won the event and had one last jump. She was focused as if all depended on it, and only when it was over (she fouled it) did she allow herself to explode in joy.

G. Tamberi sits in 17th position on the all-time high jumpers’ list. But, for me, he is number one. He would have gone much higher than his 2.39 m personal best had he not had the injury he sustained in 2016. But he fought back and returned to win Olympic and World titles. He did not arrive in Birmingham as the favourite for the event. In fact, his 2.23 m at the qualifiers was his best season performance. But when it came to the final, he showed his unique class. He jumped successively 2.18, 2.23, 2.27 and 2.30 m, trailing Doroshchuk on count-back, but when the bar was raised to 2.32 m, he was the only one to go over, winning his fourth European title. The women’s high jump was a low-key event. A. Topić had some back problems and bowed out at 1.87 m. I. Gerashchenko could not go higher than 1.92 m, and the medals went to jumpers who could master 1.95 m or higher. M. Vuković won her first major medal, a bronze, losing silver on count-back to M. Zodzik. Y. Mahuchikh, clearly not in top shape, still managed to win, clearing 1.97 m.

A height of 5.60 m was enough to gain access to the men’s pole vault final, but was too high for T. Collet, E. Sasma and M. Vloon, who were expected to play some role there. The Collet family was not totally frustrated, since the younger brother, Mathieu, did manage to qualify and went on to finish 4th, just behind another frenchman, the talented B. Thierry, who obtained bronze with 5.85 m. S. Guttormsen had a below-par competition, failed twice at 5.85 m, gambled unsuccessfully with his last jump at 5.95 m and had to content himself with 6th place. As for the first two, well, by now the scenario is familiar. Both Karalis and Duplantis jumped 6 m. And when Duplantis jumped 6.10 m and 6.15 m, Karalis tried to go higher, but 6.20 m turned out to be too high for him. (Not for long. In the Zürich Diamond League, Duplantis, Karalis and Guttormsen staged the highest pole vault competition ever, with 6.25, 6.20 and 6.00 m respectively, the first two making three attempts at a would-be world record 6.32 m). The women’s pole vault was not of the same calibre as the men’s. (In fact, this is a remark that applies to this event at a global, world, level). A. Moser won with 4.80 m, ahead of W. Heltelä (Murto) with 4.75 m. M. J. Bonin had a so-so competition but managed to pass over 4.70 m on her second attempt, snatching bronze from her team-mate M. Chevrier, who could not go higher than 4.60 m. And I must, once more, share my admiration for K. Stefanidi, who came with a season best of 4.40 m and improved it twice, finishing sixth with 4.60 m. One could imagine that, having won everything, she would retire, devoting herself to her newborn son. But it is clear that she loves jumping, and so she is back, giving us another proof of her immense talent.

L. Fabbri won the men’s shot put easily with 22.31 m. In fact, all his valid throws would have sufficed for victory, Z. Weir, who placed second, having thrown just 21.12 m. The women’s event was dominated by J. Schilder, who had four valid throws over 20 m, culminating at 20.73 m. J. van Klinken obtained silver with a 19.64 m personal best, while Y. Mabry (Ogunleye) had to content herself with bronze at 19.50 m. And I must salute the arrival in the big girls’ league of N. Ndubuisi, who was 8th with 18.21 m. Germany had three finalists among the first eight (but only one medal). 

The men’s discus throw was, for M. Alekna, a bis repetita (non) placent of the Olympics. He started by throwing a championships record 69.89 m, only to see K. Čeh surpass him first with 70.83 m and then 72.51 m (at just 10 cm from his personal best in Ramona, from April this year, one can only wonder what he can do if he returns to Throw Town in his present top shape). Van Klinken added discus gold to her shot silver with a first-attempt throw of 67.67 m. Only S. Craft could react to this, throwing 65.72 m for silver, with V. Kamga having to settle for bronze with 64.61 m. M. Robert-Michon was, at 47 years of age, making her eighth appearance at a European Championship. This time she finished 9th with a more than honourable 60.58 m. (Let’s point out that S. Elkasević (Perković), “listening to her body”, is taking a year off).

The men’s javelin throw (where T. Röhler was eliminated in the qualifiers) was a curious affair. J. Weber took command of the event with a throw of 83.71 m, and then his compatriot N. Thumm edged him by just 5 cm at the fifth attempt. One throw remained, and J. Weber (who has already performed a last-throw feat) unleashed a humongous 90.40 m, winning the competition with a championships record. And what was Thumm’s puerile riposte? He threw the javelin 5–6 metres and collapsed on the runway. I don’t understand: hasn’t anybody explained to him that an event is not over until everybody has thrown? Did he see himself already crowned European champion with a (let’s be fair, more than mediocre) 83 m performance? I have real trouble understanding such spoiled-brat behaviour. 

The women’s javelin was, alas, as expected, a mediocre affair. E. Tzengko and A. Villagos managed to qualify, something that was denied to M. Andrejczyk, who could not do better than 55 m. The final was settled at the first throw, with S. Kolak winning with 62.43 m. Villagos could grab bronze with a 60.93 m throw, just behind J. Ulbricht (61.53 m). And please don’t ask me about Tzengko. I have a real difficulty understanding what is happening with Tzengko, who is undeniably talented but has not managed a single 60+ m throw in a year where she does not have a serious injury (she has reported a minor shoulder discomfort in May, but not something incapacitating). The first surprise in the men’s hammer throw was the elimination in the qualifiers of W. Nowicki. The second, perhaps bigger, was the 9th place of Y. Chaussinand, who had thrown a European-leading 82.44 m in June. B. Halász totally dominated the event, taking the lead from the first throw and culminating in a world-leading performance of 84.25 m at his fifth attempt. M. Hummel did not offer much in the form of resistance, but secured second place with his fifth throw at 81.30 m. It is interesting to remark that all eight finalists fouled their last, sixth, throw. S. Kosonen won her first title in the grown-ups category with a 76.28 m throw in the women’s hammer. A. Włodarczyk, the indisputably greatest hammer thrower ever, was present in Birmingham at 41 years of age, making the final, where she finished fourth, missing the medal by just half a metre.

Usually I devote a special article to the combined events. But this year I was somewhat disappointed by the decathlon, and so I decided to lump the combined together with the field events. The decathlon was won by L. Neugebauer. But for me that was a minor deception. All along the event he gave an impression of heaviness that was not present in previous years. And then came the scandal of the pole vault. When the bar was raised to 4.80 m, both Neugebauer and M. Gletty missed three times. Then they started pestering the judges, pretexting that the umbrellas next to the runway, agitated under the strong wind (true), had hindered their efforts (I am skeptical about this). In the end, the judges caved and allowed them a fourth try. Gletty missed, but Neugebauer passed and went on to jump 4.90 m (for an extra 61 points). 

That, and his 54.31 m discus throw, secured his victory over N. Kaul. The latter showed from the outset that he was in good shape, threw 48.88 m in the discus and jumped 4.90 m in the pole vault. However, his only throw in the javelin was “just” 73.54 m, and that was not enough to close the gap with Neugebauer. In the end, despite a 4:20.70 by Kaul in the 1500 m, Neugebauer carried the event 8611 to 8573 (the “extra” 60 points did make the difference). S. Skotheim was third with 8433. I was expecting him to play a major role in the event but that was not to be. The surprise came from J. Tesselaar, who, in the absence of S. Roosen (injured just before the championship), represented the Netherlands in the best way, finishing fourth with a personal best of 8378. If he manages to improve the technical events, he will be among the decathlon stars in the years to come.

The women’s heptathlon was much more interesting than the decathlon. K. O’Connor, on an ever-ascending trajectory, was the favourite and did not disappoint. On the contrary, she managed to excel in all events, winning with 6751 points. (And in a windy competition, she was lucky with a 1.3 m/s tail wind in the hurdles and exactly 2 m/s in the long jump, meaning that her record can be homologated). E. Oosterwegel returned to the places of honour, finishing second with 6713 points, just ahead of S. Dokter, 6664 points. A major disappointment was the 7th place of Adrianna Sulek-Schubert, who was among those vying for a medal and then foundered with a 36 m javelin throw. N. Vidts was also not up to her usual level, finishing in 11th place. And if one reads the classification carefully, one finds in last position K. Johnson-Thompson with 5790 points. At 33 years of age, she is definitely past her prime, but I would have understood her participation if she had given the impression of enjoying it. Unfortunately, her demeanour throughout the event suggested quite the opposite.

All in all it was a nice championship. I just hope that the famous "Ultimate Championship", the last invention of Sir Sebastian, will be at least of equal quality.

Brookes and the Revival of the Olympics (part 4 of "the real story of the Olympics")

When de Coubertin, in 1890, went to Much Wenlock to visit William Brookes, he did not know anything about the ancient Olympic Games. His interest lay in general education, physical education, and sport, an interest shared by Brookes. But once in Much Wenlock, the Baron unexpectedly encountered an Olympic revival movement. Returning to France, he wrote an enthusiastic article titled “Les Jeux Olympiques à Much Wenlock”. Referring to Brookes, he wrote: “si les jeux olympiques que la Grèce moderne n’a pas su ressusciter y revivent aujourd’hui, ce n’est pas à un Hellène qu’on en est redevable, mais bien au Dr W. P. Brookes” (“if the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survive there today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr. W. P. Brookes”). At this point, one can appreciate that de Coubertin showed complete disregard for the efforts of Soutsos and Zappas in reviving the Olympic ideal (although the latter are alluded to, indirectly, in his article). Yet de Coubertin, being the perfidious character we know, soon began to selectively forget Brookes’s contribution, later claiming that he had founded the Olympic movement singlehandedly. But this is not an article on de Coubertin. So let us return to Brookes.

William Penny Brookes was a physician born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, in 1809. In 1840 he founded the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society, with a special interest in the working class, collecting books for workers, farmers, and laborers to read. In 1850 he created the “Olympian Class”, a sub-section of the Reading Society, to organize annual athletic games with cash prizes for the victors. He called the sub-section “Olympian” out of admiration for the ancient Greek Games, though his own featured modern and even medieval sports alongside athletics. The games were not called “Olympic” until the end of the decade, when Brookes became aware of Zappas’s efforts. Learning about the Zappas Olympiad, he wrote to the organizers and offered a £10 prize from the “Olympian Class of the Much Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society of England”. Ironically, the prize was for “Tilting at the Ring”, a medieval event absent from the Greek Olympiads. The prize ultimately went to the winner of the 1859 distance race, Petros Velissariou, whom Brookes made an honorary member of the newly renamed “Wenlock Olympian Society.” Influenced by the Athens program, he introduced the javelin throw to the Wenlock Games.

Tilting at the Ring

In 1860, only months after the first Zappas Olympiad, it was announced that five towns in Shropshire had agreed to hold annual regional games, the “Shropshire Olympics”. Four of these Games actually took place, and they were serious athletic meetings, featuring mostly track-and-field events. In 1865 Brookes and John Hulley (who had launched the Liverpool Olympics in 1862) formed the National Olympian Association. They proposed to hold annual national Olympic Games, “in rotation in the principal cities and towns of England”, and six were held between 1866 and 1883—the first in London. However, resistance to Brookes’s movement soon built up: the “upper-class” gentleman athletes refused to compete against plebeians. They therefore formed the Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) and organized the first “amateur” championships. Still, Brookes’s Olympian Games in London were a resounding success. The AAC boycotted the Games, and did the same the following year in Birmingham. From that point, alas, things began to deteriorate. The 1868 Games had to move from Manchester to Wellington (a small town in Shropshire), and no further Games were held until 1874, when the fourth edition took place in Much Wenlock. The British National Olympic movement was practically dead.

A much older Brookes during the  Wenlock Games (third from the right)

Brookes maintained contact with Greece. On the occasion of the fifth British National Olympic Games in 1877, he requested, through the Greek ambassador in London, that King George of Greece donate a cup to the winner of the pentathlon. The King agreed, and a silver cup “from the King of the Hellenes” was awarded to the victor (a local student, since the AAC again boycotted the Games). These contacts probably inspired Brookes, in 1880, to propose an International Olympian Festival in Athens. But the Greek Olympic Committee, dominated by the anti-athletic faction, refused to organize national Olympic Games—let alone international ones. Brookes therefore continued with his Wenlock Olympian Games, now only a shadow of their former glory. The best athletes no longer competed there, as the AAC (by then renamed the Amateur Athletic Association) organized meetings across England. In 1890, the Wenlock Games took place in May, and in October Brookes received the visit of de Coubertin. To impress the Baron, he staged a special autumn “Olympian” meeting, and succeeded so well that de Coubertin decided to appropriate his idea. But that is a story for the next post in this series.

High and low hurdles: a record explosion

It happens from time to time: performances stagnate and, all of a sudden, everything changes, with records falling one after another. This is the year of the hurdles, with three world records already, and the season is still under way, with two major competitions to come.

But let us start at the beginning, with the one record that was not set this year: the women's 400 m hurdles record. The current world record, held by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, stands at 50.37 s, set at the Paris 2024 Olympics. To illustrate the point about stagnation, let us go back to the pre-Muhammad and McLaughlin era. The previous world record belonged to Yuliya Pechonkina, who ran 52.34 s at the 2003 Russian Championships. (Pechonkina won the 2005 World Championships in a time under 53 seconds, but had finished eighth at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where her semi-final time would have guaranteed her the silver medal). And then, for 16 years, nothing happened. At the 2019 US trials, Dalilah Muhammad broke the record with 52.20 s and improved it further at the World Championships, with 52.16 s. On both occasions, Sydney McLaughlin was not far behind. The positions were going to change when competitions resumed after the pandemic. McLaughlin first shocked the world with 51.90 s at the US trials, then improved the record again in the Tokyo Olympic final, running 51.41 s, with Muhammad just behind in 51.58 s. It was the best 400 m hurdles race I have ever watched. Three more world records followed, culminating in the current 50.37 s mark. (McLaughlin-Levrone took a year off from the hurdles and went on to challenge Marita Koch's 400 m flat record with 47.78 s. She then took another year away from competition to give birth to her daughter). Just to put things in perspective, Y. Lituyev broke Hardin's men's world record with 50.4 s in 1953. Muhammad continues to compete and remains among the best in the world, in a discipline temporarily deprived of McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol (Bol has moved towards the 800 m, a distance in which Muhammad ran 2:03.71 this year).

The men's 400 m hurdles also experienced a period of stagnation. Edwin Moses reigned practically unchallenged for more than ten years, taking the world record from John Akii-Bua's 47.82 s to 47.02 s in 1983. Then came Kevin Young's stunning 46.78 s at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, followed by almost 30 years of silence. The first hurdler to go under 47 seconds again was Abderrahman Samba, who ran 46.98 s at the Meeting de Paris in 2018. Plagued by injuries, Samba never managed to threaten Young's record (although he was a world bronze medallist in 2019 and again in 2025). That honour was reserved for an ex-decathlete who had converted to the low hurdles, Karsten Warholm. He had run under 47 seconds in both 2019 and 2020, but reached the summit in 2021, first running 46.70 s at the Bislett Games and then producing the astonishing 45.94 s at the Tokyo Olympics. (After all, the first official sub-46 performance in the flat 400 m came only in 1955; the best times of the 1950s were still above 46 seconds). Over the last years I have been following Alison dos Santos, who, like all athletes, had his ups and downs because of injuries, but had established himself among the leading figures in the event. Following his victory at the 2022 World Championships, I wrote:

"Dos Santos has progressed to a level at which I will not be astonished if, barring injury, he goes for Warholm's record. What he is technically doing, passing the first three hurdles in 12 strides, has never been attempted before, with most hurdlers struggling with the 13-stride rhythm".

Dos Santos can sustain the 12-stride rhythm because he is at ease with both legs over the hurdles, something Warholm has never mastered. And he can finish the race in 13 strides, while almost everybody else has to switch to 15. So the fact that he ran a 45.80 s world record in Zürich is not such a big surprise.

The other world record set in Zürich was in the women's 100 m hurdles. Going back in history, we find that Yordanka Donkova's 12.21 s record stood for almost 30 years, until Kendra Harrison ran 12.20 s in 2016. (It is remarkable to see a world-record holder achieve so little success when it comes to honours at major competitions. Harrison has just one world title, in the 60 m hurdles at the 2018 World Indoor Championships, one Olympic silver medal, from 2021, and one world silver medal, from 2019). Tobi Amusan broke Harrison's record with 12.12 s in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Championships, followed by a wind-assisted 12.06 s in the final. But this year belonged to Masai Russell. She had announced her intentions last year, when she ran 12.17 s during the Grand Slam Track competitions. (That may have been too early in the season, which could explain why she was not in top shape at the World Championships). In Zürich she ran a flawless 100 m hurdles in 12.09 s, beating Amusan, who could manage only 12.23 s.

The men's high-hurdles record was also improved in 2026. Renaldo 'Skeets' Nehemiah was the first man under 13 seconds, with 12.93 s. Unfortunately, he turned to professional football (the American version) and when he returned to athletics it was too late. Pat Connolly, who coached him, believed that if he had concentrated on athletics he could have broken the 400 m hurdles record as well. In any case, the world record progressed thanks to several great champions, like Roger Kingdom, Colin Jackson, Xiang Liu and Dayron Robles, and had been in the possession of Aries Merritt since 2012, with 12.80 s. People expected Grant Holloway to break it, but he was sidelined by injuries, and the record survived for a few more seasons. The spotlight then moved to C. Tinch, the 2025 world champion, but that was not to be. Finally, it was the 2024 world under-20 champion, Ja'Kobe Tharp, who erased the long-standing record, running 12.75 s in the semi-finals of the NCAA Championships in June. Given that Tharp is only 21, one can hope that this will not be the last record set by this talented athlete. (To achieve that, he will need to become more consistent and avoid blunders such as the one at the Lausanne meeting.)

The two world records were the icing on the cake of the superb Zürich Diamond League. (I enjoyed the meeting in the company of my friend P. Motis at his 'Cacti House' estate on the island of Kythira, where I was spending a week enjoying his hospitality).

The meeting was truly exceptional. Imagine two pole vaulters, Duplantis and Karalis, still competing at a world-record height and finally settling for the highest one-two finish in history: 6.25 m and 6.20 m. There was a women's 800 m in which A. Werro dispelled any doubts I may have had after the Europeans by winning in 1:53.70, the third-best performance of all time, followed by F. Bol in 1:54.71, which places her ninth on the all-time list.

And what about the men's long jump, in which just 2 cm separated two world champions, M. Tentoglou and T. Gayle, with 8.45 m and 8.43 m? It was a contest that barely missed my quality criterion, 'eight jumpers over 8 m', since only seven athletes cleared eight metres. J. Alfred edged M. Jefferson-Wooden in the 100 m, but only just: 10.693 to 10.698.

A. Cockrell ran a world-leading 52.13 s in the 400 m hurdles, just ahead of D. Muhammad, while F. Diallo once again broke the Portuguese record, following her bronze medal at the Europeans, with 53.30 s. N. Olyslagers cleared 2.02 m, I. Gerashchenko 2.00 m and M. Vuković 1.98 m, relegating Mahuchikh to fourth place in the women's high jump. H. Moll cleared a personal best of 4.90 m in the pole vault. R. Pathirage won the javelin with a throw of more than 92 m. E. Wanyonyi ran a world-leading 1:41.76 in the 800 m, while K. Bednarek did the same in the 200 m, with 19.62 s. F. Cherotich won the women's 3000 m steeple with 8:55.82 just ahead of D. Lemngole 8:55.94 and P. Chemutai 8:58.28.

It was a great competition, and I am telling myself that I should not set my expectations too high for the Brussels DL final. As for the famous Ultimate Championship, the one with the curtailed, arbitrarily fixed programme, my expectations are definitely lower. (I would, however, be glad to be proved wrong).