Running News Daily

Gabby Thomas wins Olympics 200m gold after dominant victory over Julien Alfred

American Gabby Thomas was too good for everyone as she eased to 200m Olympics gold medal as Julien Alfred settled for silver.

American Gabby Thomas claimed Olympics gold in the women’s 200m after destroying the field in Paris on Tuesday.

With newly-crowed Olympics 100m champion Julien Alfred and Briton Dina-Asher Smith in the race, there was formidable competition for Thomas but she made it all look too easy when the gun went off.

Thomas took off well and never looked back, commanding the race as she beat her rivals by a massive gap to claim her first Olympics gold medal.

The 27-year-old had won bronze at the 2020 Olympics before finishing second at the 2023 World Championships but with defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and world champion Shericka Jackson missing, she took full advantage.

Thomas clocked 21.83 seconds for victory with Alfred winning silver in 22.08 as American Brittany Brown completed the podium with a bronze medal in 22.20.

It completed a great year for the American who can now look forward to team glory in the 4x100m relay with Team USA.

Paris 2024 Olympics: 5 races most likely to yield gold for Team USA

Team USA are big favorites to top the Olympics medal standings in track and field yet again and here are five races where the Americans will likely grab gold in Paris.

US Track and Field finally unveiled its team to the Paris Olympics where they hope to finish top of the medal standings yet again.

Team USA scooped seven gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, taking their total medal tally from track and field to 26.

Heading into Paris 2024, there is optimism that they will increase their tally following the emergence of new runners, added to the star quality in the team.

The US team is comprised of world champions Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Grant Holloway among others while there are some like Kenny Bednarek who look in good form heading to Paris.

Pulse Sports looks at where Team USA is likely to win gold medals from on the track at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Men’s 100m

The USA men’s team has world champion Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek and former world champion Fred Kerley.

Of the three, Lyles is hot favorite for gold in Paris and laid down the marker with his dominant performance at the Olympics trials.

He will likely face stiff competition from Jamaicans Kishane Thomas and Oblique Seville as well as Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, Bednarek and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. However, his experience and form suggest he will bag gold.

Women’s 100m

Another American tipped to win gold is world 100m champion Sha’carri Richardson.

Richardson’s bid for a double failed at the trials when she did not make the 200m team and will have all her focus on the 100m race.

That is not good news for her rivals, who include Jamaicans Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

She is joined by Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry on the US team but with defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah not in Paris, few of the other rivals pose real danger, making Richardson a shoo-in for gold.

Men’s 200m

Winning gold in the men’s 200m will be tough for the Americans but they have two good runners capable of achieving it.

Noah Lyles, who has won three world titles over the distance, appears favorite but Kenny Bednarek could just spoil his party which would still be a good thing for Team USA.

The two are joined by Erriyon Knighton but face a threat from Canadian Andre De Grasse, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and Briton Zharnel Hughes.

However, it is America’s race to lose and it will depend on how Lyles and Bednarek execute their strategy.

Men's 110m hurdles

Triple world champion Grant Holloway is joined on the US team by Freddie Crittenden and Daniel Roberts but he is the man likely to win gold at the Olympics.

Holloway does not dominate outdoors as he does indoors but he is in great form as he heads to Paris having won all his races this year, including last week’s Monaco Diamond League.

Jamaican Hansle Parchment will want to defend his title while home favorite Sasha Zhoya will also pose a threat but Holloway is backed to improve on his silver medal of 2020 this time.

Women’s 400m hurdles

World record holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will start as favorite despite world champion Femke Bol’s good form that saw her break the European record on Sunday.

She made her intensions clear at the Olympics trials when she broke her own world record again, clocking 50.65. Anna Cockrell and Jasmine Jones finished second and third to join her.

McLaughlin-Levrone is not only in good form but also in great shape to defend her crown and few will get close to her in the present condition.

Mile clash the big attraction in Eugene

Going strictly by time, the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday (25) is one of the fastest races in the meeting’s 49-year history.

Add in the storylines, and it’s one of the most anticipated, too.

Featuring seven men with lifetime bests faster than 3:50, Olympic and world championship gold medallists, world record-holders and rivals whose banter has preceded the matchup for months, the mile caps a Wanda Diamond League meeting at Hayward Field whose potential for world-leading marks extends far beyond its final event.

Consider, for one, the women’s 800m, and the early window it will open into this summer’s Olympics. The field includes six of the eight competitors from last year’s World Championships final in Budapest, including gold medallist Mary Moraa and silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson. Notably absent will be bronze medallist Athing Mu, the Olympic champion, who was initially scheduled to race but has been withdrawn out of precaution because of a sore hamstring.

Raevyn Rogers, the 2019 world silver medallist whose image adorns a tower standing high above Hayward Field, also is entered, along with Jemma Reekie, Nia Akins and Halimah Nakaayi, who is coming off a victory at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix.

World champion Sha’Carri Richardson and Elaine Thompson-Herah headline the women’s 100m, along with world indoor 60m champion Julien Alfred and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith, while world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman and Ackeem Blake are among the fastest entered in the men's 100m.

Perhaps the most dominant athlete entering the meeting is Grant Holloway, the world 110m hurdles champion who has won all 10 races he has contested this year, including the indoor season and heats. That also includes running a world-leading 13.07 into a headwind to win in Atlanta last weekend.

The three-time world champion's last loss came on the very same Hayward Field track, at last September’s Prefontaine Classic. The only remaining gap on Holloway’s resume is an Olympic gold medal, and Saturday’s race could be an early preview of Paris, as the field includes five who raced in last summer’s World Championships final in Budapest, including silver medallist Hansle Parchment and Daniel Roberts, who earned bronze.

Shot put world record-holder and multiple world and Olympic champion Ryan Crouser will open his outdoor season in his home state and at the stadium where he owns the facility record, while trying to best Leonardo Fabbri’s world-leading mark of 22.95m.

Since 2023, Crouser has lost in just one final – and it was at September’s Prefontaine Classic to Joe Kovacs, who won in Los Angeles last weekend with 22.93m, and is entered again. Payton Otterdahl, who owns the world No.3 mark this year, also is in the field.

Those events offer no shortage of global medallists. Few, however, carry the prospect for as much drama as the mile.

Over the past year, Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, who outkicked Ingebrigtsen for last year’s world title in Budapest, have carried on a battle of words through the press about who could prevail in Paris.

Commonwealth champion Olli Hoare, who is part of the field following his 1500m win in Los Angeles last week, said the sport was better for the attention drawn by the back-and-forth between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr – but added that other racers wanted to strike the appropriate level of respect for their competitors, such as Yared Nuguse, whose PB of 3:43.97 was set battling Ingebrigtsen (4:43.73) down to the line at September’s Pre Classic.

“This is a big one. This is going to be a big one for a lot of egos,” Hoare said in Los Angeles. “But I think it’s going to be a big one for me because it’ll be the first race where I’ll have an inkling of where I am with the world’s best. There’s a bit of tossing and turning with the banter but you can’t disrespect that field. If you do, you’ll get eaten alive.”

That list of seven men under 3:50, which includes Hoare, notably doesn’t include Jake Wightman, who will be racing Ingebrigtsen for the first time since their duel at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, when Wightman won gold; Abel Kipsang, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics; Geordie Beamish, less than three months after he stormed to the world indoor title; or Lamecha Girma, the steeplechase world record-holder who is making his mile debut.

“Jake Wightman’s back, he’s a world champion,” Hoare said. “Yared Nuguse, 3:43 mile – these guys are keeping quiet and they’re going to wait for their opportunity to strike. And when they do strike, I guarantee they will make a comment.”

They are not the only accomplished names entered in the distances.

Athletics Kenya will determine its men's and women's Olympic 10,000m qualifiers at Hayward Field, with Kenya's two-time world cross-country champion Beatrice Chebet, the world leader at 5000m this season, part of a women's race that will include world champion Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, eight months after Tsegay set the world 5000m record on the same track.

World record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech will attempt to retain her controlling hold over the steeplechase when she races top challenger Faith Cherotich. The Kenyan duo produced the two fastest times in the world this year at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, which Chepkoech won in 8:55.40 to Cherotich’s 9:05.91. Olympic silver medallist Courtney Frerichs will no longer run after injuring the ACL and meniscus in her right knee.

One week after winning in Los Angeles, Diribe Welteji leads the 1500m field that includes 13 women who have run under four minutes. World indoor 3000m champion Elle St Pierre, who won the 5000m in Los Angeles, is running her first 1500m of the season, with Laura Muir, Nikki Hiltz, Jessica Hull, Hirut Meshesha and Cory McGee also entered.

Multiple world and Olympic gold medallist Sifan Hassan, as well as world No.2 Ejgayehu Taye, will feature in the 5000m.

In the field, world and Olympic pole vault champion Katie Moon opens her outdoor season against Sandi Morris, and in the triple jump four of the top five women this season are entered, led by Thea LaFond, whose 15.01m jump to win the world indoor title in Glasgow still stands as the mark to beat.

Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman has not lost in Eugene in two years, a run that includes claiming September’s Diamond League final. That could change on Saturday because of the presence of world leader Yaime Perez, who finished second to Allman in Xiamen last month.

In the men’s 200m, top US sprinters who will duel at the Olympic trials only weeks later will face off. Kenny Bednarek, fresh off a world-leading 19.67 in Doha, is scheduled to race against world No.2 Courtney Lindsey (19.71), with world silver medallist Erriyon Knighton making his season debut. Joe Fahnbulleh and Kyree King, winner of the Los Angeles Grand Prix 100m, are also entered.

Another winner in Los Angeles, Rai Benjamin, headlines the men’s 400m hurdles, and he enters with considerable confidence after running 46.64, the ninth-fastest performance of all time.

“I think I’m the fastest guy in the field, honestly,” Benjamin said of potential Olympic chances.

The women’s 100m hurdles and women’s hammer will not count towards Diamond League points totals, but will be more potential previews for global championships.

Women who account for five of the year’s six fastest times, all of whom are separated by fractions of a second, will face off in the hurdles. Tonea Marshall, fresh off her victory in Los Angeles in 12.42, leads 2019 world champion Nia Ali, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, two-time world champion Danielle Williams and world indoor champion Devynne Charlton.

Brooke Andersen’s 79.92m throw from earlier this month remains the world-leading hammer mark this season but she will be challenged by world champion Camryn Rogers, 2019 world champion DeAnna Price and world silver medallist Janee’ Kassanavoid, who own the next three farthest throws this season.

Dafne Schippers: Two-time world champion retires aged 31

Two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers has retired at the age of 31.

The Dutchwoman won gold at the 2015 World Championship in Beijing and in London two years later.

Competing in the same era as sprint greats Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah, Schippers also claimed 100m silver at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

"The race stops here," Schippers posted on Instagram.

"As an athlete, you always know this day will come, that at one point, your career will be a moment in time - a collection of memories and hopefully medals."

Schippers won heptathlon bronze at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow before focusing on sprinting.

She is the sixth fastest woman of all time in the 200m, setting a European record of 21.63 seconds when she beat Jamaica's Thompson and Veronica Campbell Brown to world gold in 2015.

"Today, I have decided to take my life off track to pursue and embrace whatever comes next, but not without saying a massive thank you for all the endless support. It has been a journey without regret," Schippers said.

"My family, my team, my fans, and my sponsors, you made it all worthwhile."

Schippers has been hampered by injuries in recent years and has not raced since May 2022.

Defending champions Fraser-Pryce and Jackson lead Jamaican team for WCH Budapest 23

Sprinters Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, the defending champions at 100m and 200m respectively, feature on Jamaica’s team for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 on August 19-27.

The duo filled the top two places in the 100m and 200m in Oregon last year, with Jackson taking silver in the 100m and Fraser-Pryce finishing runner-up in the 200m. Fraser-Pryce, who has competed sparingly this season due to a slight injury earlier in the year, will be vying for a historic sixth world 100m title.

World leader Rasheed Broadbell and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment have both been named in the men’s 110m hurdles, while world leader and world U20 record-holder Jaydon Hibbert will contest the triple jump.

Jamaican team for Budapest

WOMEN

100m: Shashalee Forbes, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson

200m: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, Natalliah Whyte

400m: Candice McLeod, Nickisha Pryce, Charokee Young

800m: Natoya Goule-Toppin, Adelle Tracey1500m: Adelle Tracey

100m hurdles: Ackera Nugent, Megan Tapper, Danielle Williams

400m hurdles: Rushell Clayton, Andrenette Knight, Janieve Russell

High jump: Lamara Distin, Kimberly Williamson

Long jump: Tissana Hickling, Ackelia Smith

Triple jump: Shanieka Ricketts, Ackelia Smith, Kimberly Williams

Shot put: Danniel Thomas-Dodd

Discus: Samantha Hall

Hammer: Nyoka Clunis

4x100m: Shashalee Forbes, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson, Natasha Morrison, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Natalliah Whyte, Briana Williams

4x400m: Candice McLeod, Nickisha Pryce, Janieve Russell, Ronda Whyte, Shiann Salmon, Charokee Young

MEN

100m: Ryiem Ford, Oblique Seville, Rohan Watson

200m: Rasheed Dwyer, Andrew Hudson

400m: Sean Bailey, Zandrion Barnes, Antonio Watson

800m: Navasky Anderson

110m hurdles: Orlando Bennett, Rasheed Broadbell, Hansle Parchment

400m hurdles: Roshawn Clarke, Jaheel Hyde, Assinie Wilson

High jump: Romaine Beckford

Long jump: Tajay Gayle, Carey McLeod, Wayne PinnockTriple jump: Jaydon Hibbert

Shot put: Rajindra Campbell

Discus: Fedrick Dacres, Traves Smikle, Roje Stona

4x100m: Ackeem Blake, Michael Campbell, Ryiem Ford, Oblique Seville, Tyquendo Tracey

4x400m: Sean Bailey, Zandrion Barnes, Demish Gaye, Malik James-King, Jevaughn Powell, Antonio Watson

Mixed 4x400m: D’Andre Anderson, Rusheen McDonald, Joanne Reid, Stacy-Ann Williams.

Alfred, Wilson and Lyles secure double success in Florida

Julien Alfred, Britton Wilson and Noah Lyles each started their seasons with winning doubles at the Tom Jones Memorial in Gainesville, Florida.

Commonwealth 100m silver medallist Alfred improved to a 21.91 (1.8m/s) Saint Lucian 200m record, while two-time world 200m champion Lyles ran 20.16 (-1.2m/s) on Friday (14). They also won their 100m races the following day, Alfred clocking a wind-assisted 10.72 (2.4m/s) and Lyles running 9.95 (1.6m/s) ahead of Joseph Fahnbulleh (9.98).

Alfred picked up from where she left off following an indoor season that included PBs of 6.94 for the 60m and 22.01 in the 200m set at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the best ever one-day indoor sprints double. That 6.94 places her joint second on the world indoor 60m all-time list.

After some relay performances to open her outdoor campaign, the 21-year-old improved her previous 200m PB of 22.46 set last May, taking it to 21.91 in her first individual race of the season.

Finishing second in that collegiate race was McKenzie Long in a PB of 22.31, while Alfred’s Texas teammate Rhasidat Adeleke improved her Irish record to 22.34 in third.

In another race, world finalist Melissa Jefferson ran 23.02 (1.8m/s) to win ahead of five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah (23.23). Kiara Grant won the pro 100m race, clocking 10.99 (1.6m/s).

Also getting his outdoor season under way, Lyles ran 20.16 into a headwind (-1.2m/s) to dominate his 200m race. In one of the collegiate races, Alabama’s Tarsis Orogot ran a wind-assisted 19.60 (2.9m/s), while Terrence Jones went quickest in the collegiate 100m races, clocking 9.91 (1.0m/s) to match the Bahamian record.

Like Alfred, Wilson also threatened a world record at the NCAA Indoor Championships when she ran 49.48 to win the 400m. She achieved another fast time on Saturday (15), running a collegiate record of 49.51 to win her 400m race, the day after she claimed a 400m hurdles win in 53.23 when making her individual season debut. Anna Hall finished second in that hurdles race in 54.48 and Masai Russell was third in 55.39. Adeleke ran another Irish record to finish second behind Wilson in the 400m, clocking 49.90.

In the sprint hurdles, two-time world champion Grant Holloway won his 110m hurdles heat in 13.03 (1.1m/s) ahead of Rasheed Broadbell (13.12). Holloway then won the final in 13.05 (0.5m/s). After a wind-assisted 100m hurdles heat win of 12.55 (2.8m/s), 2019 world champion Nia Ali won the pro final in 12.53 (1.4m/s) ahead of world champion and world record-holder Tobi Amusan (12.59), who won her heat in 12.74 (1.1m/s). World indoor 60m hurdles silver medallist Devynne Charlton was third in the final in 12.64.

World indoor champion Jereem Richards got things off to a fast start as he won his first 400m race of the season in a PB of 44.68. Alonzo Russell also ran a PB of 44.73 for the runner-up spot.

Will Claye and Christian Taylor were separated by a single centimetre in the men's triple jump, respectively leaping 16.90m and 16.89m. Thea LaFond recorded 14.13m to win the women's contest.

At the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California, on Saturday (15), Olympic and world silver medallist Rai Benjamin made his 400m hurdles season debut and clocked 47.74 for a dominant victory. 

Cravont Charleston won the elite men’s 100m race in a wind-assisted 9.87 (3.0m/s) ahead of Kyree King (9.98) and world 400m champion Michael Norman (10.02).

Juliette Whittaker topped the 1500m in 4:12.49 on Friday and the following day won the 800m in 2:01.79 ahead of her Stanford teammate Roisin Willis in 2:01.97.

Talie Bonds improved her PB to 12.65 (1.2m/s) to win the 100m hurdles.

At the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California, Nikki Hiltz pipped Michaela Rose in a close 800m race, 1:59.03 to 1:59.08, as both athletes dipped under two minutes for the first time on Friday (14). Claire Seymour (2:00.04), Elise Cranny (2:00.25) and Valery Tobias (2:00.31) also went sub-2:01.

On Saturday (15), Cooper Teare opened his season with a near 1500m PB of 3:34.96 ahead of Fouad Messaoudi (3:35.16).

Australian 15-year-old Gout Gout made a statement on the third day of the Australian Junior Athletics Championships in Brisbane on Saturday (15), clocking 20.87 (-0.1m/s) to win the 200m by almost half a second.

“It means a lot because I’ve been training so much for this. I was really nervous. The gun went, and I was good and I just kept pushing," he told Athletics Australia.

Sha’Carri Richardson runs fastest 100m time of the year in Florida

The American track and field star returns to the track with impressive performance.

Over the weekend, prolific U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson opened her 2023 season in sensational fashion at the Miramar Invitational in Miramar, Fla. Richardson ran to the fastest women’s 100m time in the world this year, clocking a wind-aided mark of 10.57 seconds (+4.1 m/s).

Her time, without factoring in the wind component, marked the third-fastest 100m ever, behind two-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah’s 10.54 and world-record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49.

Richardson’s time was aided by twice the legal limit of +2.0 m/s, which is equivalent to around 7.2 kilometres per hour, or a light breeze. A wind gauge, or anemometer, is used to measure the wind speed during the race, and if the wind is higher than +2.0, the result becomes ineligible for records or seeding times.

The last two years have been rocky for the 23-year-old sprinter, who was booted off an American Airlines flight in January. Last summer, she bowed out of the women’s 100m and 200m at the USATF Track and Field Championships in the prelims, missing out on a Team USA spot for the 2022 World Athletics Championships.

In 2021, Richardson made headlines for winning the women’s 100m at the U.S Olympic Trials with a time of 10.86, but was later suspended for one month by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for marijuana. The suspension ruled her out of competing at the Tokyo Olympics.

With Richardson running fast this early in the season, it will be interesting to see her race the Jamaican trio of Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson when the 2023 Diamond League season starts in May.

Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs signs with Puma

On Feb. 2, German sports brand Puma announced they have signed the reigning Olympic 100m champion, Italy’s Marcell Lamont Jacobs, to a long-term contract.

In 2021, Jacobs sprinted onto the scene by winning a series of big races, including Olympic gold in the 100m and the 4x100m relay. He is also the reigning European 100m champion and the world and European 60m indoor champion, two titles he won in 2022. His personal best over the 100m is 9.80 seconds.

“We are thrilled to welcome Jacobs, as Usain Bolt’s successor, to the PUMA Family,” said Pascal Rolling, head of sports marketing at Puma. “With Jacobs, Andre de Grasse, Shericka Jackson, Elaine Thompson-Herah and many others, PUMA has an incredible lineup of sprint athletes ahead of some very important track and field events this year and next.”

Last summer, Jacobs pulled out of the World Championship semi-final in Eugene due to an injury he suffered to his biceps femoris (part of the hamstring). His injury also resulted in him withdrawing from three Diamond League meets earlier in the season.

Jacobs has over one million followers on Instagram, where he is known as “crazylongjumper”, a reference to the event he first competed in as a pro—the long jump. Jacobs was previously with Nike during all four of his major championship wins.

“The combination of his athletic success and his great personal style makes him an ideal ambassador for Puma,” said Rolling in a press release.

Jacobs will make his season debut this Saturday in Poland, wearing Puma’s new exclusive evoSPEED Tokyo Nitro spikes, which offer the ultimate combination of power and propulsion for maximum speed.

Ten reasons to be excited for the 2023 Athletics season

There are many things to look forward to in the sport of athletics in the upcoming year.

There’ll be three global championships in 2023, with ever-expanding one-day meeting circuits spread throughout the year. Rivalries will be renewed, and record-breakers will continue to push boundaries in their respective disciplines.

Here are just ten of the many reasons to be excited by what’s to come over the next 12 months.

1. World Athletics Championships Budapest 23

More than 2000 athletes from about 200 countries will head to the Hungarian capital to compete in the world’s biggest track and field event of 2023. Taking place just 13 months after the last edition, it will be the shortest ever gap between two World Championships, so fans won’t have long to wait before seeing the best athletes on the planet re-engage in battle for global honours.

2. Pushing boundaries

World Athletes of the Year Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone have elevated their respective events to new heights in recent years.

Both aged just 23, their progression and record-breaking exploits will most likely continue in 2023. The same applies to other dominant forces within the sport, such as world and Olympic triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas and marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge.

3. New eras

The sport, as with everything in life, continues to evolve. Kenya, for example, dominated the steeplechase for years, but now the leading forces in that discipline are from Morocco, Ethiopia and Kazakhstan.

The women’s throws, meanwhile, are now the domain of North America. And Japan is a leading force in men’s race walking.

New faces and countries will likely emerge in 2023, changing the landscape of the sport.

4. Sprint showdowns

Gone are the days where the world’s leading sprinters avoid each other on the circuit. Multiple world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, for example, will often line up against fellow Jamaican stars Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson. And 200m specialists Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton have clashed frequently in recent years. No doubt there will be many more high-octane sprint duels in store in 2023.

5. World Athletics Road Running Championships Riga 23

The newest global event within the sport, the World Athletics Road Running Championships Riga 23 will unite elite and recreational runners in the Latvian capital on September 30 and October 1. The range of distances — mile, 5km and half marathon — means there’s something for all of the world’s best endurance athletes to sink their teeth into. The same applies to the thousands of runners who’ll take to the streets of Riga for the mass races as they race in the footsteps of legends.

6. Crouser vs Kovacs

They provided one of the greatest duels the sport has ever witnessed at the 2019 World Championships, and there’s no sign of the rivalry ending between Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs. The shot put giants have won numerous global titles between them. Crouser has been a dominant force in recent years, but Kovacs also hit an all-time career peak in 2022 with a lifetime best of 23.23m, taking him to No.2 on the world all-time list behind Crouser. No one would be surprised if either man broke the world record in 2023.

7. At the double

When the timetable for the 2023 World Championships was release a few months ago, it became clear that many popular doubles — such as the 100m and 200m, 800m and 1500m, 1500m and 5000m, 5000m and 10,000m, 20km and 35km race walk, women’s long jump & triple jump, and women’s 200m and 400m – would be doable in Budapest. The likes of Yulimar Rojas, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Fred Kerley and Sydney McLaughlin have all hinted at attempting major championship doubles in recent years, so it will be fascinating to see who enters more than one discipline in the Hungarian capital.

8. Continental Tour Gold expands

The global one-day meeting circuit will have 14 Gold level meetings in 2023, taking in new stops in Botswana, Grenada and Melbourne.

It means there are now Gold meetings in five different continental areas. The wider series has also expanded with 165 Continental Tour meetings currently on the calendar for 2023, 13 more than in 2022.

9. Distance duels

Endurance athletes are extra fortunate in 2023 because they will be able to compete at all three global championships, covering a range of surfaces. Letesenbet Gidey and Hellen Obiri provided one of the most thrilling clashes at the World Championships in Oregon, and there’s a good chance they’ll race one another again, either in Bathurst, Budapest or Riga.

World 5000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, meanwhile, could potentially line up against two-time world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei in Budapest — or even on the circuit throughout the season.

There are four women active in the marathon — Brigid Kosgei, Ruth Chepngetich, Amane Beriso and Tigist Assefa — with sub-2:16 PBs, all of whom could push one another to a world record. And in the race walks, the likes of Toshikazu Yamanishi and Massimo Stano could clash at either 20km or 35km — or both.

10. World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23

One of the first big highlights of the year will take place Down Under when Bathurst hosts the World Cross Country Championships.

Recent editions have been highly competitive and engaging, and that will no doubt be the case once more as hundreds of the world’s best distance athletes take to Mount Panorama. And, as is the case with Riga and Budapest, there are opportunities for recreational runners to be a part of the event too.

Faith Chepng'etich nominated for World Athlete of the Year Award

Olympic and World 1,500m champion Kenya’s Faith Chepng'etich has once again been nominated for the 2022 Women’s World Athlete of the Year Award.

The 28-year-old Faith Chepng’étich will battle nine other top athletes for the coveted award whose winner will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.

The announcement on Wednesday marked the opening of the voting process for the 2022 World Athletes of the Year ahead of the World Athletics Awards.

Chepngétich is up against world champions Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan (100m hurdles), American Chase Ealey (shot put), 2013 Women’s World Athlete of the Year, Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100m) and Shericka Jackson (200m) and American Sydney McLaughlin (World 400m hurdles and 4x400m).

Other world champions in the race are the 2020 Women’s World Athlete of the Year, Yulimar Rojas (Triple jump) from Venezuela, Shaunae Miller-Uibo (400m) from Bahamas and Peru’s Kimberly Garcia (20km race walk).

Also in contention is the World Indoor and World High Jump silver medalist  Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine.  

These athletes were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

“It has been another memorable year for the sport and the nominations reflect some of the standout performances achieved at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon,  World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world,” noted a statement from World Athletics.

Chepngétich recaptured the world 1,500m tile clocking three minutes and 52.96 seconds on July 18, before going on to win the Monaco leg of the Diamond League in a national record time of 3:50.37, missing the world record by just three tenths of a second.

It was the second fastest time in history of the women’s 1,500m race where Ethiopian Genzebe Dibaba holds the world record of 3:50.07 set in Monaco in 2015.

Chepngétich would retain her Diamonds League Trophy, winning in Zurich in 4:00.44 on September 8.  

Double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah beat Chepngétich and Tokyo Olympics 10,000m/ 5,000m champion Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands to win last year’s award.

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms.

Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube this week; a 'like' on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50 percent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.

Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on October 31. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

World lead for Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Lausanne

Olympic 1500m champion enjoys emphatic win at Diamond League on Friday as Noah Lyles, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Joe Kovacs also take victories in the Swiss city.

There were plenty of surprises at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne on Friday (Aug 26) with world champions Ryan Crouser, Grant Holloway, Tobi Amusan and Mutaz Essa Barshim among those suffering end-of-season defeats. But there was no doubt about the winner in the men’s 1500m as Jakob Ingebrigtsen stormed to victory in a world-leading mark of 3:29.05.

Using his predictable yet effective tactics of taking the lead shortly after the pacemaker went through 800m in 1:51, the Norwegian built a small lead at the bell and held his advantage over the final lap as Abel Kipsang of Kenya battled his way into second in 3:29.93 and Stewart McSweyn of Australia showed a welcome return to form with 3:30.18 in third.

Josh Kerr bounced back from his dismal Commonwealth Games experience by finishing fourth in 3:32.28 with fellow Brits Jake Heyward (3:34.99) and Matt Stonier (3:35.57) ninth and tenth. Commonwealth champion Olli Hoare, meanwhile, faded badly on the last lap to finish 12th.

“It was a good race,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I would have liked to have gone a little faster but considering I’ve had a lot of races, it was good. I’m now looking forward to the races at the end of the season and running even faster next year.

“All in all it’s been a good season but I’m ready to put in a lot of work this winter to win more races next summer. I don’t think we’re going to get any record times in Zurich (Diamond League final next month) but I think we will have a good competition there.”

Chilly conditions in Lausanne were not conducive to fast sprint times but Noah Lyles ran a quick 19.56 (1.3) despite a poor start. Mike Norman, who had led into the home straight, was runner-up in 19.76 as Britain’s Charlie Dobson, on his Diamond League debut, ran 20.34 in eighth from the inside lane.

The much-anticipated women’s 100m showdown turned into an anticlimax when firstly world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce withdrew with a minor injury and then Elaine Thompson-Herah, the Olympic champion, false started. In their absence Aleia Hobbs won in 10.87 (0.0) from Shericka Jackson’s 10.88 and Marie-Josee Ta Lou’s 10.89.

Amusan and Richards join list of double champions at Commonwealth Games

World champion Tobi Amusan and world indoor champion Jereem Richards had a successful Sunday (7) on the final day of athletics action at the Commonwealth Games, as they joined Elaine Thompson-Herah and Jacob Kiplimo as double gold medalists in Birmingham.

The Nigerian sprint hurdler started the day by winning her specialist discipline, the 100m hurdles, in a Games record of 12.30 (-0.2m/s) – the second-fastest wind-legal clocking of her career behind the world record of 12.12 she clocked at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

She won by a clear margin from Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas (12.58) and England’s Cindy Sember (12.59), all of whom finished inside the previous Games record.

“I think my first five hurdles were rusty but then I got it together,” said Amusan. “I’m just thankful for the win.”

Later in the morning session, Amusan ran the lead-off leg for Nigeria in the 4x100m. She gave her team a strong start and handed over to 200m silver medalist Favour Ofili, who kept Nigeria level with England’s Imani Lansiquot. Rosemary Chukwuma than ran a storming third leg to give Nigeria a clear lead, then Grace Nwokocha anchored them to victory in 42.10, taking 0.12 off the African record they had set when finishing fourth at the recent World Championships.

England finished second in 42.41 and Jamaica, anchored by double sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, took bronze in 43.08.

Much to the delight of the home crowd, England took victory in the men’s 4x100m just moments before the women’s race. They won in 38.35 from Trinidad & Tobago (38.70) and Nigeria (38.81).

Later in the day, Commonwealth 200m champion Jereem Richards added another gold medal to his collection, anchoring Trinidad & Tobago to victory in the men’s 4x400m. The world indoor 400m champion teamed up with Dwight St Hillaire, Asa Guevara and Machel Cedenio to win in 3:01.29 with Botswana finishing second in 3:01.85. Kenya placed third in 3:02.41.

The women’s race was much closer with hosts England crossing the line in first place 0.01 ahead of Canada. But England was later disqualified for a lane infringement, giving Canada gold in 3:25.84 ahead of Jamaica (3:26.93). Scotland took the bronze medal.

Thompson-Herah and Omanyala take 100 meter golds

Elaine Thompson-Herah, the only one of Jamaica's "Big Three" women to show up at the Commonwealth Games, was rewarded with the 100 meters gold medal on Wednesday, while Kenya's Ferdinand Omanyala powered to the men's title.

Thompson-Herah, twice the 100/200m sprint champion at the Olympics, finished third in last month's World Championship 100 final behind Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. She was originally only a reserve for the Commonwealths but when Fraser-Pryce opted out, she stepped in.

With Dina-Asher Smith, fourth in Eugene, also absent through injury, Thompson-Herah was the clear favorite for her first individual Commonwealth title.

She had looked a little tired in her semi-final but grabbed the early lead in the final and ran her usual smooth race to finish a comfortable winner in 10.95 seconds.

"Feeling good, I didn't have the best execution but nevertheless I had to dig for that one but I am still grateful to win my first Commonwealth Games," she said.

"I started in 2014 in the 4x100m. Then in 2018 in the 200m I came fourth and now I upgraded to a gold."

Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred was on her shoulder throughout for silver in 11.01 while England’s Daryll Neita recovered well from a terrible start to grab bronze in 11.07.

Omanyala, who set an African record of 9.77 seconds last year, served a 14 month doping ban four years ago. He failed to make the final at last month's World Championships after arriving in the United States hours before the heats due to visa problems.

Impressive in the semi-final he looked the favourite on Wednesday and duly controlled the final from gun to tape, flying out of the blocks and surging clear and looking more like a barrelling rugby prop than a sprinter to win in 10.02 seconds.

He is the second Kenyan to take the title after Seraphino Antao in 1962, when the event was still run over 100 yards.

South Africa's defending champion Akani Simbine took silver in 10.13 with Yupun Abeykoon from Sri Lanka getting the bronze in 10.14.

Jamaica's Shericka Jackson edges Fraser-Pryce to win world 200m gold

Jamaica's Shericka Jackson outgunned compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the back straight to win 200m gold at the World Athletics Championships on Thursday.

Jackson set a championship record of 21.45 seconds, the second fastest time ever run over the distance, for a first individual world title at Hayward Field, Eugene.

Newly-crowned 100m gold medalist Fraser-Pryce took silver in 21.81sec, with defending champion Dina Asher-Smith of Britain claiming bronze (22.02).

All eyes had been on Fraser-Pryce, sporting a long mane of dyed purple hair, in her bid for a second sprint double after having achieved the feat at the 2013 Moscow worlds.

Fast out of the blocks in lane six, Fraser-Pryce rocketed past Niger's Aminatou Seyni in no time, running a great bend to hit the back stretch neck-and-neck with Jackson, in four.

As the two Jamaicans went head-to-head, Jackson put on the afterburners and pulled away in impressive style, not giving up until she thundered through the line.

Fraser-Pryce swept through on her coattails, with Asher-Smith holding off Seyni for bronze.

Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, the third part of Jamaica's cleansweep of the 100m along with Fraser-Pryce and Jackson, eventually came in seventh in 22.39sec.

Record-breaker Fraser-Pryce wins her fifth world 100m title in Oregon

It might be a familiar sight – witnessing Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce flowing towards the finish line on her way to yet another global gold – but the awe it inspires doesn’t diminish.

In front of a packed passionate Hayward Field crowd on day three of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the Jamaican sprint star secured a record-extending fifth world 100m title, leading a Jamaican sweep of the medals in a championship record of 10.67 (0.8m/s).

It's almost 14 years since her first global title – 100m gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics – but Fraser-Pryce continues to make history. With her run in Oregon on Sunday (17), the 35-year-old becomes the first athlete to win five world titles in a single individual running event, leading the first ever sweep of the medals in this discipline at the World Championships.

Behind her, Shericka Jackson continued to demonstrate her impressive versatility, running a PB of 10.73 to add world 100m silver to the two 400m bronze medals she won in 2015 and 2019, while five-time Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah claimed her first world 100m medal with a 10.81 run.

In the deepest ever women’s World Championships 100m final, seven of the eight finalists dipped under 11 seconds, with best ever marks for fourth, sixth and seventh. In fourth was Britain’s reigning world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who equalled her British record of 10.83. Switzerland’s world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji finished fifth in 10.91, while USA’s Aleia Hobbs was sixth in 10.92, Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou seventh in 10.93 and USA’s Melissa Jefferson eighth in 11.03.

Fraser-Pryce sits third on the world 100m all-time list with the 10.60 she ran in Lausanne last August, putting her behind only USA’s Florence Griffith-Joyner with her 10.49 world record from 1988 and Thompson-Herah with her 10.54 at Hayward Field almost a year ago. On Sunday evening it was all about the win, though the fierce competition meant it took a championship record to achieve it.

Showing superb consistency, it is Fraser-Pryce’s third 10.67 of the season, each mark having been achieved in a different continent.

She is now a 20-time global medallist – with 13 of those being gold – and she has the chance to add even more to that tally in Oregon as she is also entered for the 200m and 4x100m.

The first of Fraser-Pryce’s world 100m title wins came in Berlin in 2009, when she ran 10.73 as the Olympic champion to lead a Jamaican top two ahead of Kerron Stewart. She then claimed a sprint double in Moscow in 2013, regaining her 100m title and winning her first global 200m gold. She retained her world 100m title in Beijing two years later and returned to World Championships action in Doha in 2019 as a mother – her son Zyon arrived in 2017, with Fraser-Pryce having gone into labour while watching the world 100m final that year. In Doha she won 100m gold for the fourth time and again formed part of the victorious Jamaican 4x100m team to claim her fourth world relay win.

Added to this, Fraser-Pryce secured world 4x100m silver medals in 2007 and 2011 and then of course there are her three Olympic titles, four Olympic silver medals and one Olympic bronze.

The first to achieve five world titles in a single individual running event, only three other athletes in World Championships history – Sergey Bubka (pole vault), Pawel Fajdek (hammer) and Lars Riedel (discus) – have also won the same single disciple five or more times.

"I feel blessed to have this talent and to continue to do it at 35, (after) having a baby, still going, and hopefully inspiring women that they can make their own journey," added Fraser-Pryce.

Now she will prepare for the 200m, for which the heats take place on Monday. Jackson, Thompson-Herah, Asher-Smith, Kambundji and Ta Lou will be among those joining her.

“I'm just grateful. Last year when I switched to the 100m I was scared, but I took my time and here I am today," said Jackson, who improved her 200m PB to 21.55 – the third-fastest ever time behind Griffith-Joyner’s 21.34 world record and Thompson-Herah’s 21.53 from Tokyo last year – when winning the Jamaican title. "Feeling good to be part of history and coming for more."

After her four individual Olympic gold medal wins, Thompson-Herah remains on the hunt for her first individual world title.

"I'm happy to get my first 100m medal and be on the podium for the first time," she said. "I've been working really hard, even though I had some struggles during the season."

The Jamaican trio had led the way in the semifinals, Thompson-Herah winning her race in 10.82 and Jackson taking hers in 10.84, while Fraser-Pryce eased to a 10.93 win in the third semifinal.

Asher-Smith went quickest in the heats the day before, running 10.84 for the second-fastest 100m heat time in World Championships history, just 0.01 off her own British record achieved when claiming silver in Doha. Fraser-Pryce won her heat in 10.87. The Oceania record also fell, New Zealand’s Zoe Hobbs advancing to the semifinals with 11.08.

"I can't even imagine the amount of times I've had setbacks and I've bounced back and I'm here again," said Fraser-Pryce. "I continue to remind myself that sometimes it's not because you don't have the ability, but it's the right time. Today was the right time."

The second fastest woman in history Elaine Thompson-Herah has signed with Puma, and now wants the world record

Five-time Olympic champion and the second fastest woman of all time has signed a sponsorship deal with Puma Running. Elaine Thompson-Herah, the back-to-back Olympic 100m and 200m champion, will boost the company’s impressive roster of track and field athletes ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore.

“Puma just felt like the right fit,” says Thompson-Herah. “The company has been working with the world’s fastest athletes for decades and I can’t wait to be part of such an elite group.”

In 2021, Thompson-Herah became the second fastest woman in history when she clocked 10.54 seconds at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic. The 30-year-old Jamaican 100m and 200m record holder spent several years with Nike, and now has her sights set on breaking Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m world record of 10.49 seconds from 1988.

“Now is the time to break it,” says the double Olympic champion. “I think there’s still a lot I can unleash.”

Puma has a long history in the sport of track and field, and has sponsored the Jamaican Athletics Team since 2002. Thompson-Herah now joins her Jamaican compatriot, 100m and 200m world record holder and eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt.

Thompson-Herah kicks off her 2022 World Championship campaign on Saturday evening in the women’s 100m heats.

Next up is the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday June 18

At 35, Jamaica’s two-time Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has done it all. But she still hasn’t finished, and her appearance at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris on Saturday (18) will represent another significant step in her campaign to defend her world 100m title in Oregon next month.

Fraser-Pryce established her name early on this season’s world list when she ran in the rarified air of Nairobi and won in 10.67 - only seven-hundredths off the personal best she ran last year to put herself third on the all-time list.

Her Jamaican compatriot and twice successor as Olympic 100m champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, has since made a good start to her pursuit of a first individual world title with a best of 10.79 on the Eugene track that will stage the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.

But now Fraser-Pryce is back to make another impression in top-level competition at the Meeting de Paris on the ultra-fast blue track at Stade Charlety, which was renovated in 2019.

She will be taking on some talented sprinters including Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, the surprise – and surprised – winner of the world indoor 60m title in Belgrade earlier this year in a personal best of 6.96. Kambundji, who turns 30 on the day before the race, will be targeting her personal best of 10.94. 

Also in the mix will be Michelle-Lee Ahye of Trinidad and Tobago, who has run 10.94 this season and has a personal best of 10.82, and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, who missed a 100m medal by one place in Tokyo as she ran 10.91.

Two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who has raced well but not exceptionally at 200m this season, will get down to serious business at her specialist event.

The 28-year-old Bahamian, who lowered her own continental record to 48.36 in Tokyo last summer, is third in this year’s top list with her time of 49.91, but that was set in April and the Olympic champion will want to check in on her current form having run over 200m recently.

She faces a strong Polish trio of Natalia Kaczmarek, who ran a huge personal best of 50.16 in Ostrava and stands sixth in this year’s world list, European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Anna Kielbasinska.

The Bahamas will be providing both Olympic 400m champions in Paris, with Steven Gardiner hoping to further fine-tune his world title defence in Oregon with a rare Diamond League appearance.

The leggy 26-year-old, who is 1.93m tall and has run 43.48, making him the sixth best performer of all time, did not compete in any Diamond League race last year and only raced once in Europe, at Szekesfehervar in Hungary.

His last appearance on the sport’s top circuit was at Monaco in 2019, when he won. Gardiner is already in good shape, having run 44.22 at Baton Rouge in Louisiana on 23 April - the fastest time recorded so far this year.

Meanwhile, European champion Matthew Hudson-Smith, who recently took one hundredth of a second off the British record of 43.36, set by Iwan Thomas in 1997, could be in position to better a record of even longer standing, this time the European one of 44.33 set by East Germany’s Thomas Schoenlebe in 1987. 

Devon Allen of the United States, whose 12.84 clocking in last Saturday’s New York Grand Prix – the third-fastest ever run – earned him a handsome victory ahead of world champion and compatriot Grant Holloway, maintained winning momentum over 110m hurdles in Oslo, although this victory was earned in 13.22 into a headwind of -1.2 m/s.

Allen, who will take up a professional American football career at the end of this season as a wide receiver with National Football League side Philadelphia Eagles, is due to run in Paris against a field that includes home hurdler Wilhem Belocian.

Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse has been running 100m recently to sharpen up, but after clocking 10.24 at the Birmingham Diamond League on 21 May he dropped out of the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games on 5 June. On Thursday in Oslo, however, he returned to form in the 100m – in which he won Rio 2016 bronze – as he earned victory in 10.05 from Britain’s Reece Prescod, who clocked 10.06.

On Saturday, like Miller-Uibo, he will get down to business in his main event against a field that includes Prescod, who produced a big personal best over 100m of 9.93 in blustery conditions at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on 31 May. Meanwhile, Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic will be seeking to build on what has been a good start to the season, in which he has run 20.07.

Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega, who won the Ethiopian World Championships trials race in Hengelo and then finished fourth in the 5000m in Rome, is expected to race over the shorter distance in Paris.

Kenyan Faith Kipyegon sets record in Eugene Diamond League

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Faith Kipyegon of Kenya ran a world-lead time as she won the 1500m race in Saturday's Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon in USA.

Kipyegon timed 3:52.59 on a night where Trayvon Bromell and Elaine Thompson-Herah grabbed 100m victories as eight world-leading performances highlighted the action at Hayward Field.

Kipyegon’s time was the ninth fastest in the 1500m history. She beat Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay who finished second in 3mins and 54.29secs.

Kipyegon, who trains in Kaptagat, Elgeyo Marakwet County, finished second in the 3000m in the season-opening Doha leg behind Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba.

America's Bromell, the fastest man in the world last year, bounced back from a false start disqualification in Birmingham last weekend to win a star-studded men's 100m in 9.93sec.

Jamaica's Thompson-Herah, who won back-to-back Olympic 100m-200m doubles in 2016 and last year, captured the women's 100m in 10.79.

Neither was a world best for 2022, but Thompson-Herah said she was just pleased to hit the line first and healthy on a rainy day in Eugene at the same venue that will host the World Championships on July 15-24.

"I'm excited I crossed the line healthy," Thompson-Herah said. "I don't care about the time. The rain was falling. It was a little cold.

"It shows I'm on a great path," added the Jamaican star, who pulled out of the Birmingham Diamond League meeting with a shoulder injury, testing herself in a lower-level meeting in Kingston last Saturday instead.

Norman reigns in fierce 400m clash with record run in Eugene

USA’s Michael Norman produced the standout performance at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene on Saturday (28), the 24-year-old setting a Diamond League 400m record of 43.60 to beat Grenada's Kirani James (44.02) and Matthew Hudson-Smith, who broke the British record with 44.35. 

On a cool, blustery afternoon at Hayward Field, with many outbreaks of heavy rain, Norman was one of many athletes who defied the conditions to make it another memorable edition of the Prefontaine Classic.

“I had zero expectation of what I could run today,” said Norman, who revealed he and coach Quincy Watts had gone “back to the basics” during their winter training. “Hard work and consistency with diet and training,” he said. “My motto this year has been that if it’s comfortable, it’s too easy – on the weight room or the track. Based on how I felt, there are a few areas I can improve on.”

Looking to next month’s US Championships and the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on the same track in July, Norman said: “I’m going to train like I want to do something special, and when the time comes, the time comes.”

Kenya's Faith Kipyegon was equally peerless when taking the women’s 1500m in commanding fashion, the Olympic champion tracking chief rival Gudaf Tsegay until the final turn, at which point she blew by and came home a clear winner in a world lead and meeting record of 3:52.59. Tsegay got second in 3:54.21 with Canada’s Gabriela Debues-Stafford third in 3:58.62. “The race today gave me great morale that everything I’m doing is correct towards the World Championships – that’s my biggest fish and I hope for the best, for the gold medal,” said Kipyegon, who is “going to think about” a world record attempt at 1500m later in the summer. “I was not expecting (to run 3:52) when I saw the rain this morning, but I felt comfortable. It was good.”

USA's Ryan Crouser produced by far the standout performance in the field events, the Olympic shot put champion looking utterly peerless when launching a world-leading 23.02m effort in the second round. That left him well clear of long-time rivals Joe Kovacs (22.49m) and Tom Walsh (21.96m).

What made it more impressive is that Crouser did not use his full technique, but threw off a “static” starting position, which prior to today had never produced a 23-metre effort. Crouser said he usually throws 40-60cm farther when utilising his full technique. 

“I thought 23 was possible but I thought I’d have to get into my full (technique) to do it,” said Crouser. “My best static ever was in the 22.90s. To throw a static PR, under a heavy load, without a taper, is a really good indicator of where I can be seven or eight weeks from now.” Berihu Aregawi turned in a superb solo performance to take the men’s 5000m in a meeting record and world lead of 12:50.05, coming home well clear of fellow Ethiopians Samuel Tefera (13:06.86) and Selemon Barega (13:07.30). Aregawi swept to the front in the third kilometre after the pacers stepped aside and the Ethiopian broke clear of the field, powering through to the final laps to a rapturous reception from the crowd, which historically loves displays of fearless distance running. 

In the men’s 400m hurdles, Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos achieved another dominant performance, clocking a world-leading 47.23 to come home a distant winner ahead of USA’s Khalifah Rosser and Quincy Hall, who both clocked personal bests of 48.10. 

“I’m happy with this, but I want more, I want to go faster,” said Dos Santos. “Me and (Rai) Benjamin never win against (Karsten) Warholm, and nobody wants to lose, but it’ll be hard for us to come up against him at the World Championships and win. He is the boss, the guy to beat, and for winning the final you need to run 45 (seconds) – everyone is so strong.”

Sprint queen Elaine Thompson-Herah once again asserted her supremacy with a comfortable win in the 100m, clocking 10.79 (0.7m/s) to beat Sha’Carri Richardson, who bounced back to form with a 10.92 clocking to edge Shericka Jackson, who was third in 10.92. Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith was fourth with 10.98. 

“I’m happy to cross the line healthy and with the win,” said Thompson-Herah, who explained prior to the event that she’d been managing a niggle in training. “It got me ready for my championship in Jamaica next month.”USA’s Trayvon Bromell laid down a big marker ahead of next month’s US Championships by defeating his chief rivals in the 100m, pulling clear to take a comfortable win in 9.93 (-0.2m/s). Fred Kerley was next best with 9.98, while Christian Coleman faded from first at halfway to third at the finish, clocking 10.04 just ahead of Noah Lyles (10.05). 

"I really just wanted to come out with the win as I knew the wind was iffy today," said Bromell. "There were some technical things I wanted to do better with but I just have to go back to the drawing board and try to fix it."

Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn came from behind to score an impressive win in the 100m hurdles, a non-Diamond League event, the Puerto Rican clocking 12.45 into a slight headwind (-0.7m/s) with Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan second in 12.58 and USA’s Tonea Marshall third in 12.66. 

“It was a little sloppy,” said Camacho-Quinn. “I hit my trail leg a couple of times and that slowed me up, but I’ll take it. I went 12.4 in these conditions.”

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was a clear winner of the women’s 200m in 22.41 (0.8m/s), with USA’s Brittany Brown second in 22.74 and Anthonique Strachan of Bahamas third in 22.76. 

Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen re-asserted his supremacy in the Bowerman Mile, the Olympic champion breaking clear with a lap to run and coming home a comfortable winner in a world lead of 3:49.76, with Australia’s Ollie Hoare second in a PB of 3:50.65 and world champion Timothy Cheruiyot third in 3:50.77. 

“It was a great race – I’m where I’m supposed to be,” said Ingebrigtsen, who will “for sure” double over 1500m and 5000m at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. Looking towards the European Championships in Munich, he said he’d “love to do 800m, 1500m, steeplechase, 5km, 10km and marathon, but I don’t think that’s possible with the schedule.”

He will next race over 800m before competing at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo on 16 June.  Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson utilised her typical sit-and-kick tactics to great effect to take the women’s 800m, the Olympic silver medallist powering clear of race leader Natoya Goule entering the home straight and holding off the late surge of world indoor champion Ajee Wilson to win in a world lead of 1:57.72, with Wilson second in 1:58.06 and Raevyn Rogers third in 1:58.44. 

Olympic champion Athing Mu was a late withdrawal after contracting Covid-19, but Hodgkinson is looking forward to renewing their rivalry in July. 

“It would have been good if she was here, but she’s going to be there at the World Champs and I’m sure we’ll have a good duel then –  I look forward to racing her,” said Hodgkinson. “I felt really good, it was a bit windy out there but there was good competition, it was a good run. I can’t complain.”

Sweden’s Khaddi Sagnia unleashed a PB of 6.95m (1.0m/s) to take victory in the women’s long jump, with Nigeria’s Ese Brume second with 6.82m and USA’s Tara Davis third with 6.73m. 

Norah Jeruto, the Kenyan-born athlete who now represents Kazakhstan, produced an impressive display to win the women’s 3000m steeplechase in 8:57.97, a world lead. Bahrain’s Winfred Mutile Yavi was close behind in second, clocking a PB of 8:58.71, while Ethiopia’s Mekides Abebe was third in 9:03.26. In the men’s 1500m, a non-Diamond League event, New Zealand’s Samuel Tanner took victory in a PB of 3:34.37 in front of Britain’s Neil Gourley, who clocked a PB of 3:34.85.

Italy’s Martina Caironi set a world record of 14.02 in the T63 women’s 100m, while in the men’s T62 400m, Germany’s Johannes Floors took the win in 48.13.  

Prefontaine Classic promises world record attempts and rich competition despite late losses

It is a measure of Eugene’s Prefontaine Classic meeting - which tomorrow forms the third stop on the Wanda Diamond League tour - that it can lose four Olympic gold medalists at late notice and still remain packed with compelling competition and world record attempts.

The arrangement of all that athletics action was altered today following forecasts of rain and high winds - likely to be blowing into the faces of the sprinters - on Saturday.

Accordingly the men's pole vault, featuring Olympic gold and silver medalists Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Chris Nilsen of the United States, the women's discus, featuring the US Olympic champion Valarie Allman, and the women's high jump, involving Ukraine's world indoor champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh, have been moved to Friday night's programme, where world record attempts are being made over two miles and 5,000 meters.

The news that the United States' Olympic women’s 800 meters champion Athing Mu will not now race against Britain’s Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson, and that Italy’s men’s 100m champion Marcell Jacobs will not be in a field including the man he beat to gold in Japan, home sprinter Fred Kerley, was disappointing.

Also missing from the planned line-up at the new-look Hayward Field, which will stage this year’s World Athletics Championships, are home talents Matthew Centrowitz, the Rio 2016 1500m gold medalist, Tokyo 2020 and world 400m hurdles silver medalist Rai Benjamin and double world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks.

And South Africa’s double Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya, who had planned a first top-level race since 2019, has also withdrawn.

All this means the limelight will shine all the more intensely on stellar performers such as Jamaica’s double Olympic women’s 100 and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who runs over the shorter sprint against a field including the American who missed last year’s Olympics because of a three-month suspension after testing positive for cannabis, Sha’Carri Richardson.

Britain’s world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who last Saturday won the Birmingham Diamond League 100m from which Thompson-Herah had made a late withdrawal, is also in the mix, as is Switzerland’s world indoor 60m champion Mujinga Kambundji and Jamaica’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Shericka Jackson.

Thompson-Herah chose to make a low-key start to her outdoor season, choosing to compete in Kingston, where she clocked 10.94sec despite a strong headwind of -1.8 meters per second.

It was on this track last year that she ran 10.54, putting her second on the all-time list.

The men’s 100m is also loaded given the presence of Kerley and his fellow Americans Trayvon Bromell, who will be keen to restore normal working after his early exit in Birmingham because of a false start, world champion Christian Coleman, world 200m champion Noah Lyles and Canada’s Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse.

And 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton, who last year became the youngest male athlete to represent the United States since middle distance runner Jim Ryun in 1964 and missed a 200m medal by one place, will seek to break 10sec for the first time.

Knighton already tops this year’s 200m world list with his startling 19.49sec in Baton Rouge last month, which put him fourth on the all-time list.

The women’s 200m will see double Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo taking on Jamaica’s 35-year-old Beijing 2008 and London 2012 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won world gold at this distance in 2013 and took silver at the London 2012 Olympics.

The men’s 400m will see Kirani James of Grenada, the London 2012 champion and Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist, take on home athletes including Michael Cherry, Michael Norman – a major talent currently seeking a performance to do himself justice - Vernon Norwood and Kahmari Montgomery.

The absence of Benjamin from the 400m hurdles will offer Brazil’s Tokyo 2020 bronze medalist Alison Dos Santos - who beat Benjamin in the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha – a perfect chance to shine,

In the women’s 100m hurdles, Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion takes on the American who took silver behind her in Tokyo, world record holder Kendra Harrison.

The traditional Friday evening distance racing in Eugene will include a women’s two miles and a women’s and men’s 5000m race.

At the latter, which will be followed by an official Diamond League 5,000m on Saturday, Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei is billed to make an attempt at breaking his own world record of 12min 35.36sec, which he ran in Monaco in August 2020.

On Saturday afternoon the majority of the rivals Cheptegei beat to win Olympic 5,000m gold in Tokyo last year will line up for the Diamond League 5.000m, where Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega of Ethiopia, Olympic 10,000m bronze medalist Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, Olympic 5,000m silver Mohammed Ahmed of Canada and two-time Olympic 5,000m medalist Paul Chelimo of the United States are the main contenders.

Friday night will also see Ethiopia’s 24-year-old Letesenbet Gidey aiming to lower the women’s 5000m world record of 14:06.62 that she set in Valencia in October 2020.

Gidey has since lowered the women’s 10,000m world record to 29min 01.03sec and the world half marathon record to 1hr 2min 52sec.

Elsewhere on Friday, the women’s two miles will see Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, the Olympic 5,000 and 10,000m champion, facing Diamond League 5,000m champion Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi.

The latter, who was disqualified at the Tokyo 2020 Games, beat Kenya’s double Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon over 3,000m in Doha earlier this month.

The world best of 8:58.58, set by Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar in 2007, is sure to be under threat.

Saturday’s middle-distance action will be highlighted by the clash of Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who renew their rivalry in the Bowerman Mile. 

Ingebrigtsen beat Cheruiyot for the first time in the Olympic final in Tokyo last year but the Kenyan beat his Norwegian rival a few weeks later to win over 1500m at the Diamond League final in Zurich.

Both men will need to be primed, however, to beat Kenya’s Abel Kipsang, who out-kicked Cheruiyot to win in Doha recently and who backed it up with 1500m victory in Birmingham last Sunday.

Kipyegon meanwhile will take on Britain’s Tokyo 2020 silver medalist Laura Muir and Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in the women’s 1500m.

Hodgkinson faces an 800m field that includes home runner Ajee Wilson, who took the world indoor title earlier this year.

The men’s shot put will involve the respective Tokyo 2020 gold, silver and bronze medalists Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs of the United States and New Zealand’s Tom Walsh.

Elaine Thompson-Herah and Sha'Carri Richardson will headline 100 meters in Prefontaine Classic

Jamaica's Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and American prodigy Sha'Carri Richardson will headline the 100 meters at Saturday's Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, organizers for the Diamond League event said on Monday.

Thompson-Herah returns to the venue where she nearly broke American Florence Griffith-Joyner's 100m record last year, weeks after leading a Jamaican podium sweep at the Tokyo Games.

She dropped out of the Birmingham Diamond League meet over the weekend citing discomfort in training. Thompson-Herah's management agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Richardson's memories of Hayward Field are more complicated.

She was the United States' brightest hope for a gold medal in Tokyo after winning the U.S. Olympic Trials in June but lost her spot at the Games after testing positive for cannabis.

Richardson, 22, returned to Eugene in August after serving a 30-day suspension, where she finished last in the 100m.

Rounding out the field on Saturday are Britain's 200 meters world champion Dina Asher-Smith and Shericka Jackson, who won gold in the 4x100m relay alongside Thompson-Herah in Tokyo.

World champion Noah Lyles targets fast finish to season in Birmingham

Double world champion Noah Lyles headlines the men’s 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on February 19.

The 24-year-old, who was the fastest man in the world over 200m in 2021 (19.52), is ranked fourth on the global all-time list (19.50). He ran a 60m personal best of 6.56 for victory in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on 6 February and will line up in Birmingham alongside his fellow US sprinter Ronnie Baker, the bronze medalist in the 60m at the 2018 World Indoor Championships. Baker, who has a PB of 6.40 from 2018, opened his season with third place at the Millrose Games on January 29.

"I’ve run on the US indoor circuit this year, and this meet will be the final one for me," said Olympic 200m bronze medalist Lyles, who will compete at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix for the first time. "I have seen a lot of fast times come from the Birmingham track, and I’m looking forward to running there. 

"My main focus this year is on defending my titles at the World Athletics Championships this summer and continuing to get better. Every training session and every race is working towards achieving that goal, and this race fits right into that." 

The British contingent in Birmingham will be led by reigning national indoor champion Andy Robertson.

The Müller Indoor Grand Prix is the fifth meeting of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series, which started with Karlsruhe on 28 January and concludes in Madrid on March 2. 

Other athletes set to compete in Birmingham include five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah, Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis, world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder Grant Holloway, Olympic 1500m silver medalist Laura Muir and Olympic 800m silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson.

Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, excited as she prepares to race over 60m in Birmingham

Multiple Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah will race over 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Saturday, February 19.

Thompson-Herah, gold medalist in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the Tokyo Olympics, is the Jamaican national record-holder and second-fastest woman of all time over 100m (10.54) and 200m (21.53). Her incredible CV includes five Olympic titles and one silver across two Games, in addition to a World Championships relay title and 200m silver in 2015. A World Indoor Championships bronze medalist over 60m, she has a personal best of 6.98.

“I’m so excited to race in Birmingham to start my 2022 campaign,” the 29-year-old told the British Athletics website. “I have enjoyed competing in the UK over the years and there is always a special atmosphere at this venue.

“I ran my PB at this arena in 2017 (6.98), so competing here means a lot to me. This year is a huge one. I have big goals for the World Athletics Championships later this summer, but first I’d like to give fans something to cheer about in Birmingham.”

The Müller Indoor Grand Prix is the fifth meeting of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour (Gold). There are seven ‘Gold’ level meetings across the series, which started with Karlsruhe on January 28 and culminating in Madrid on March 2.

Throughout the series, each athlete’s best three results will count towards their overall point score. The athlete with the most points in each scoring discipline at the end of the tour will be declared the winner and will be awarded a USD$10,000 bonus along with a wild card entry for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade (March 2022).

Sha'Carri Richardson documentary airs at Sundance Film Festival

One of the most polarizing figures in track and field throughout the past two years, Sha’Carri Richardson, has been featured in a documentary about her journey. The 24-minute film, entitled Sub Eleven Seconds, follows Richardson in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. Olympic trials.

The documentary is produced by the late American fashion “OFF-WHITE” icon Virgil Abloh, who died in late 2021 from cancer. The film premiered online at Sundance 2022, which ran from Jan. 20-30.

Richardson made headlines last summer after qualifying for the Olympic Games at U.S. trials, but was later disqualified when it was discovered she had used marijuana; the athlete said it wasn’t a regular habit, but that she had used it to cope with the recent passing of her mother. Her disqualification sparked plenty of debate and outrage among media outlets, athletes and celebrities.

The sprinter returned to Eugene to compete at the Diamond League after missing the Olympics due to her one-month ban. In a race that brought the second-fastest women’s 100m time ever by Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, Richardson finished last.

Heading into a year with two major U.S. international competitions (the World Indoor Championships in March and the world championships in Eugene in July), Richardson has not announced when she will return in 2022.

Jamaica´s olympic champion Thompson-Herah headlines Birmingham 60m

Jamaica's five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah is to star in the 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on Saturday February 19.

Champion in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m in Tokyo, Thompson-Herah is the Jamaican record-holder and second-fastest woman of all time over 100m (10.54) and 200m (21.53). Her incredible CV also includes an Olympic silver, in addition to a World Championships relay title and 200m silver in 2015. A World Indoor Championships bronze medalist over 60m, she has a personal best of 6.98. 

“I’m so excited to race in Birmingham to start my 2022 campaign,” said the 29-year-old. “I have enjoyed competing in the UK over the years and there is always a special atmosphere at this venue. I ran my PB at this arena in 2017, so competing here means a lot to me.

“This year is a huge one. I have big goals for the World Athletics Championships later this summer, but first I’d like to give fans something to cheer about in Birmingham.”

There she will be joined by Britain's two-time Olympic bronze medalist DaryllNeita, who also had a strong year in 2021. Last year she recorded lifetime best performances over 100m (10.93) and 200m (22.81) and finished eighth in the Olympic 100m final in Tokyo. Her 60m best is 7.21 from February 2021. 

“I’ve matured a lot as an athlete over the last couple of years and my mindset has really developed,” she said. “In training I would imagine having the top girls in the world next to me and now I’m racing against them, so I know I belong here.

“The last time I raced Elaine indoors was in Birmingham in 2017 when she won, and I was fifth. Although she remains faster than me, I have to believe that the gap has closed since then and that with the backing of our brilliant British supporters, I can be more competitive this time around.”

The Müller Indoor Grand Prix is the fifth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2022. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series, starting with Karlsruhe on January 28 and culminating in Madrid on March 2.

Other athletes set to compete in Birmingham include Olympic pole vault champion MondoDuplantis, world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder Grant Holloway, Olympic 1500m silver medalist Laura Muir and Olympic 800m silver medalist KeelyHodgkinson.

Olympic champs Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica and Karsten Warholm of Norway have been named the World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021

Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica and Karsten Warholm of Norway have been named the World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021, a ceremony held virtually on Wednesday (1).

Thompson-Herah produced one of the finest sprint seasons in history this year, retaining her Olympic 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo and adding a third gold medal in the 4x100m relay. On top of her Olympic triple, she also clocked world-leading times of 10.54 and 21.53 over 100m and 200m respectively, moving to second on the world all-time lists and coming within touching distance of the long-standing world records.

“I just take it year by year,” said Thompson-Herah. “I went very close to the world record so you know, anything is possible. No spikes hanging up any time soon!

“The World Championships in Oregon is most definitely my next big target,” she added. “It is close to home, I hope friends and family can come out and watch. I hope I get some crowd as well. That couldn’t happen in Tokyo but hopefully in Eugene I can get my friends and family to come and cheer me on.”

Warholm uncorked one of the most remarkable performances in athletics history when he stormed to gold in the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics. Having already broken the world record with 46.70 in Oslo in the lead-up to the Games, Warholm exceeded all expectations in the Japanese capital to claim gold in a stunning world record of 45.94. In a race of incredible depth, the top three athletes finished inside the pre-2021 world record.

“I’m so happy for this,” said Warholm. “First when I saw the time (in Tokyo), I was like, ‘This must be a mistake!’ Because I didn’t see that one coming. And I didn’t see the victory coming before crossing the finish line.

“It was a very intense race, I knew the American and the Brazilian and all the other guys were really chasing me. I always go out hard and I never know what is going on behind me. I was just fighting all the way to the finish line. When I realised 45.94 was the reality, I was thinking: ‘This is not too bad. I’ll take it!’"

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe congratulated all of tonight’s winners and finalists on their extraordinary achievements this year.

"We have this year celebrated some jaw-dropping performances in Tokyo, at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi and through our one-day meeting circuits – the Wanda Diamond League and the Continental Tour. So we’re delighted to recognise some of our stars at tonight’s awards.

"As a sport, we are in an incredibly strong position. 2021 has been an excellent year. We cemented our position as the number 1 Olympic sport coming out of Tokyo, we have the most God given talented athletes on the planet and our sport is the most accessible of all sports. Thank you to all our athletes around the world. I am looking forward to watching what you can all do in 2022."

The other award winners were:

Female Rising Star

Athing Mu

The US teenager was undefeated at 800m all year, winning Olympic gold at the distance following a long but successful collegiate season. She broke the senior US 800m record with her triumph in Tokyo and then improved it to 1:55.04 just a few weeks later. She also excelled at 400m, clocking a North American U20 record of 49.57 for the distance.

“It means the world to know that my support goes beyond friends and families and extends worldwide,” said Mu. “This award shows all young girls that your dreams can, indeed, come true."

Male Rising Star

Erriyon Knighton

Throughout 2021 the 17-year-old took down several marks that had belonged to sprint legend Usain Bolt. Knighton first set world U18 bests of 20.11 and 20.04 over 200m, but his rapid rise continued and he broke Bolt’s world U20 record for the distance with 19.88 and 19.84. He went on to finish fourth in the Olympic final with 19.93.

“I’m really thankful for this award,” said Knighton. “One of my most memorable moments of this year was making it to the Olympic final in Tokyo and finishing fourth at the age of 17.”

Member Federations Award

Federacion Costarricense de Atletismo (Costa Rica)

In recognition for their outstanding training, competition and development programme roll-out over the past 12 months, for their consultative work on the World Athletics Kids’ Athletics programme, and for successfully staging a host of international events over the past year.

Inspiration Award

Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi

The shared high jump victory between Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi became one of the biggest talking points of the Olympic Games – not only for everything it represented in their own individual careers, having both battled serious injuries since the last Games, but mainly for the act of respect and sportsmanship between two friends.

“It is just crazy if I think about this story,” said Tamberi. “Thank you very much for this trophy.

“I now call Mutaz like five times a week because I need to speak with him. I feel that now we are not just friends, we are really like blood brothers.”

Barshim added: “I hope to inspire more people to love our sport and maybe share a gold one day!”

President’s Award

Peter Diamond, Executive Vice President of NBC Olympic programming

“Athletics owes Peter a massive debt of gratitude,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. “Peter has worked alongside us for effectively 40 years and has been a constant source of great advice and wise counsel, and occasional humour that has softened the edges of any particular situation. And he has made athletics a lot better.”

Coaching Achievement Award

Bobby Kersee

The US coach has guided the careers of many legendary athletes over the years, but this year two of his charges made history. Allyson Felix became the most decorated female track and field Olympian in history after winning her 10th and 11th Olympic gold medals in Tokyo, while training partner Sydney McLaughlin broke two world records in the 400m hurdles and claimed Olympic gold in the discipline.

Woman of the Year Award

Anju Bobby George

The former international long jump star from India is still actively involved in the sport. In 2016 she opened a training academy for young girls, which has already helped to produce a world U20 medallist. A constant voice for gender equality in her role as Senior Vice President of the Indian Athletics Federation, Bobby George also mentors schoolgirls for future leadership positions within the sport.

Jean-Pierre Durand World Athletics Photograph of the Year

Ryan Pierse’s photograph of the women’s high jump qualifying at the Tokyo Olympic Games

This year’s award is dedicated to the memory of Jean-Pierre Durand, one of the sport’s most prolific photographers and photo chief for a number of World Athletics Series events, who died in October.

“This winning image was taken on one of the morning sessions in Tokyo and it was a hot one,” said Pierse, who is from Australia. “I wanted to illustrate the heat and how it was affecting the athletes. It is a picture that I worked on for a while, and it all came together. I am really happy with it.

“I think it’s incredibly fitting that this award is named in memory of Jean-Pierre Durand,” added Pierse. “I had the pleasure of working alongside him, most recently at the Tokyo Olympics.”

Jamaican athletics superstar Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce has revealed she is eyeing Paris 2024

Jamaican athletics superstar Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce has revealed that she is not done yet.

A string of sprinting successes in 2021 including a silver in the women’s 100m and a gold in the 4x100m at Tokyo 2020 have shown the 34-year-old that when it comes to competing, she’s still got more to give.

After following up her stint in Japan with a new personal best time of 10.60 posted at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne Fraser-Pryce says she is not ruling out a run at Paris 2024:

"Before I counted it (Paris 2024) out, but then after the season and just the progress, you kind of know there's more," she told Sky Sports. “I’m looking forward to defending my (world) title at 2022 in Oregon."

"After that season, you look again and you’re still feeling good then why not give it a shot? Paris 2024, I could definitely see it as a thing."

“I definitely think 10.50 is possible,” the eight-time Olympic medallist added. “I’m at the peak of my career.”

Though Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m world record of 10.49 seconds from 1988 still stands, there is a growing sense that it might soon be broken.

Reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, like Fraser-Pryce, came close to the time at the Eugene Diamond League in late August. The double-double winning Jamaican clocked 10.54.

Fraser-Pryce wins women's 100m at Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in meeting record 10.81 with De Grasse cruising home in the men's 200m

Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Andre De Grasse scored comfortable wins at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial meet in Chorzow, Poland on Sunday (September 5).

Fraser-Pryce, who missed the last Diamond League women's 100m in Paris at the end of August after withdrawing with fatigue, looked back on form at the World Continental Gold event as she set a meeting record of 10.81 to take the 100m, breaking 11 seconds for the 12th time this season.

Swiss sprinter Mujinga Kambundji was second in 11.08 ahead of Britain's Daryll Neita who ran 11.15.

The 34-year-old looks set for an exciting rematch with Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah in the Zurich Diamond League Final on Thursday.

Tokyo 2020 200m gold medalist De Grasse was an easy winner of the half-lap event, coming off the bend strongly to cross the line in front in 20.21.

Fellow Canadian Jerome Blake was second in 20.32 with Italy's sprint relay hero Filippo Tortu third in 20.40.

As befits the competition held in memory of the Sydney 2000 hammer gold medallist, field events played a big part in the Continental Tour Gold meeting.

The top three in the men's hammer in Tokyo filled the top three places in Chorzow but in different places.

Reigning four-time hammer world champion Pawel Fajdek won home bragging rights with a fine final throw to beat Wojciech Nowicki.

The Olympic gold medallist led with 77.45m, but Fajdek went out to 79.60m to take victory after his bronze in Japan.

Norway's Eivind Henriksen (77.38m) was third after his Tokyo silver.

Double Olympic champion Ryan Crouser took his unbeaten run to 25 contests with victory in the shot put.

The American was not at his brilliant best but 22.39m in round two was enough to take victory with compatriot Joe Kovacs (22.00m) and New Zealand's Tom Walsh (21.68m) second and third just as they were in Tokyo.

World record holder Crouser suffered his last defeat at the 2019 Doha World Championships.

Olympic silver medallist Chris Nilsen kept up his strong recent form with 5.86m to take victory in the men's pole vault.

Fellow American KC Lightfoot took second on countback ahead of EJ Obiena of the Philippines with both men clearing 5.80m.

Reigning world champion Sam Kendricks was only sixth with a best clearance of 5.70m.

Gianmarco Tamberi won the high jump with a third-time success at 2.30m.

The Italian then failed with two attempts at 2.36m which would have broken the meet record held by joint-Olympic gold medallist Mutaz Essa Barshim.

Jacob Ingebrigtsen and Karsten Warholm will attack European records in Lausanne

The Athletissima meeting in Lausanne on Thursday (Aug 26) is part of the Diamond League series. Perhaps the most intriguing event of the night, though, is an event that is not part of the Diamond League programme – the men’s 400m.

Karsten Warholm will enjoy a rare race on the flat with no barriers in his way. His target? Thomas Schönlebe’s long-standing European record of 44.33 which was set when the East German won the 1987 world title in Rome ahead of Innocent Egbunike of Nigeria and Butch Reynolds of the United States.

The mark has stood for 34 years. Warholm’s best time is 44.87 which dates back to 2017. However the 25-year-old Norwegian took down Kevin Young’s long-standing world 400m hurdles record earlier in Oslo this summer and then annihilated his own mark with a further improvement to 45.94 in the Olympic final in Tokyo this month.

What’s more, Warholm equalled Schönlebe’s European indoor 400m record of 45.05 in Glasgow in 2019. The omens are good and in Lausanne he faces a field that is led by Isaac Makwala – a 43.72 man who was seventh in the Olympic final.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen also has a European record in his sights – Mohammed Mourhit’s 3000m mark of 7:26.62 which was set 21 years ago in Monaco and one-year before he was suspended for using EPO. Ingebrigtsen ran 7:27.05 in Rome last year when he finished close behind Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo.

Kiplimo is again in the field on Thursday along with Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega of Ethiopia, Canadian Mohammed Ahmed, American Paul Chelimo, Australian Stewart McSweyn and Ethiopia’s Olympic steeplechase silver Lamecha Girma.

Andy Butchart, meanwhile, will be having a crack at Mo Farah’s UK record of 7:32.62 in what promises to be a fast race.

Fresh from her stunning 10.54 100m run in the Diamond League in Eugene on Saturday, Elaine Thompson-Herah travels back to Europe to race over the distance again. Her rivals include fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, in-form Swiss sprinters Ajla Del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji, Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast and Britain’s Daryll Neita.

The meeting actually kicks off with a city center high jump contest between Olympic medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim, Gianmarco Tamberi and Maksim Nedasekau on Wednesday (Aug 25) in Lausanne. It acts as a prelude to the main event on Thursday and will see a rematch of the men who famously shared gold in Tokyo.

Back in the stadium on Thursday, the field events see triple jump world record-holder Yulimar Rojas in action, as well as German javelin star Johannes Vetter and shot put giants Ryan Crouser, Joe Kovacs, Tom Walsh and Darlan Romani.

Sha'Carri Richardson to make track return at Prefontaine Classic

Sha'Carri Richardson will make her return to competitive athletics action on Saturday (August 21) at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meeting in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

The American is back after serving a one-month suspension handed to her when she tested positive for a cannabinoid at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, where she had originally won the women's 100m race.

Her return will pit the world's third-fastest woman this year against the three Olympic medalists from Tokyo – Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Shericka Jackson, all from Jamaica.

On July 1, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that Richardson had accepted being suspended for "for an anti-doping rule violation for testing positive for a substance of abuse", having previously received a provisional ban on 28 June.

While competing at the Trials, Richardson provided a sample on 19 June that returned a positive test for a chemical found in marijuana, THC.

THC is a banned substance in-competition, although it is not prohibited out of competition, under World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) rules which classify it as a substance of abuse.

Although Richardson consumed the drug out of competition, she returned an in-competition positive and was therefore sanctioned under USADA's own regulations, which state: "If an athlete tests positive for a substance of abuse during an in-competition test, but the athlete can establish that they used the substance out-of-competition and that their use of the substance was unrelated to sport performance, then the athlete’s period of ineligibility will be reduced to three months with no need to further analyse the degree of fault."

USADA added in handing out a one-month suspension: "Richardson’s period of ineligibility was reduced to one month because her use of cannabis occurred out of competition and was unrelated to sport performance, and because she successfully completed a counselling program regarding her use of cannabis."

The sanction meant her qualifying results at the trials were expunged.

Her suspension ended before the start of the athletics program at Tokyo 2020, but as USA Track & Field (USATF) selects its Olympic team based solely on results at Trials, Richardson was not considered for selection in either the 100m or 4x100m relay.

In Eugene, which was also the site of the U.S. Trials where Richardson had run 10.86 in the final, she and the three Tokyo 2020 medallists headline a world-class field in the women's 100m.

That start-list includes Tokyo relay silver medallists Teahna Daniels and Javianne Oliver of the USA and two other 100m finalists Switzerland's Mujinga Kambundji (6th) and Marie-Josée Ta Lou (4th) of Côte d'Ivoire. Briana Williams, the fourth member of the Jamaican 4x100m gold-winning relay team, completes the lineup.

Richardson ran a 10.72 at the Miramar Invitational in Florida in April, a time that made the 21-year-old the sixth-fastest woman ever over 100m and, at the time the world leader in 2021.

Since then this year, only two other women have gone faster – Richardson is surpassed by Fraser-Pryce (10.63 in June) and Thompson-Herah's Olympic record 10.61.

The clash between the young American talent and the Olympic medallists is tantalising after they were unable to race each other in Tokyo.

Indeed, the five fastest women this year will all be competing in the race – Jackson and Ta Lou are fourth and fifth respectively.

Richardson's last international 100m race was at a rainy Gateshead Diamond League in England in May, when she finished second in 11.44 seconds into a very strong headwind (-3.1 m/s). Earlier that month, the Texan sprinter also overcame a headwind to clock a rapid 10.77 (-1.2 m/s) at the USATF Golden Games.

The American is also down to race the women's 200m against the likes of Kambundji, Ta Lou, Olympic bronze medallist Gabrielle Thomas, relay silver medallist Jenna Prandini, world champion Dina Asher-Smith, and American track legend Allyson Felix.

Jamaican Olympic superstar Elaine Thompson-Herah confirmed for Lausanne and Paris

Fresh from her triple Olympic triumph in Tokyo, Jamaican superstar Elaine Thompson-Herah will take on Olympic silver medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on  August 26.

In a mouth-watering clash of the titans, the top six finishers from the Olympic 100m final will be in action at Lausanne’s Athletissima meeting as Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce line up against fellow Jamaican Shericka Jackson, the bronze medalist in Tokyo, as well as Ivorian star Marie-Josée Ta Lou and Swiss duo Ajla Del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji.

Thompson-Herah and Jackson will also clash over 100m at the Meeting de Paris on August 28 when they’ll also take on world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith.

They are three of several Olympic medalists who’ll be in action at the Charlety Stadium later this month.

All three podium finishers in the women’s high jump will reunite in the French capital as Maria Lasitskene takes on Australia’s Nicola McDermott and Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh.

Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis takes on USA’s Chris Nilsen, the silver medalist in Tokyo, as well as two-time world champion Sam Kendricks – who was unable to compete in Tokyo – and former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie.

Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali and world champion Conseslus Kipruto – another duo that was unable to clash in Tokyo – will be in action in Paris, as will Olympic bronze medalist Benjamin Kigen.

Puerto Rican sprint hurdler Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, Indian javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, Jamaican sprint hurdler Hansle Parchment and US discus thrower Valerie Allman are four more Olympic champions who’ll be heading to the French capital later this month. Allman will face two-time Olympic champion Sandra Perkovic and French veteran Melina Robert-Michon, while Parchment will be up against Olympic finalists Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Aurel Manga.

Laura Muir and Kalkidan Gezahegne, who earned Olympic silver over 1500m and 10,000m respectively, will meet in the middle over 3000m in Paris. Meanwhile, Olympic 100m bronze medalist Fred Kerley and Olympic 200m bronze medalist Kenny Bednarek will square off over the half-lap distance.

NIKE TOP BRAND MEDAL TABLE, BUT PUMA ON THE RISE

The swoosh has been everywhere on the track and in the field in Tokyo. Nike was the spike of choice for 11 out of the 12 middle distance medallists, on the chest of the top-three in the men’s 200m final, while also sponsoring the stand-out sprint star in Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, who took down Flo-Jo’s 100m Olympic record with their latest shoe technology.

It will come as no surprise that Nike was again the most dominant brand in Olympic athletics. The global sports giant was on the vest of 53 medallists and was on the feet of 73—and remains in the top spot that it had in Rio in our brands medal table.

Nike’s totals, however, have declined. Its shoe share is down 16 medals (89 to 73)—while Puma has made a surge (4 to 16, or a 300% increase). Nike it seems decided not to extend or renew contracts for the delayed Olympics with Puma sweeping up some of that talent. Puma’s longer-term deals also came to fruition, most notably with Canada’s Andre De Grasse, who inked a multiyear deal back in 2015 reportedly worth as much as $30 million.

This may be a shift in strategy from Nike that has had an impact beyond track and field, a sport in which it has deep roots. In football, stars like Sergio Ramos and Thiago Alcantara took to blacking out their boots earlier this year. The suggestion then was that Nike was focusing on a smaller number of elite athletes that could be at the core of their campaigns.

Just because an athlete is wearing a brand in track and field doesn’t mean that they are actually sponsored at all, or in any meaningful way. Some could be “kit drops”, others might have bought a product themselves. New Zealand’s Tom Walsh wore blacked out Nikes for his shot put final, but has had “SPACE FOR RENT” emblazoned on his vest in the Diamond League this season. Others may be ensuring that they don’t miss out on carbon-plated “super spikes”. Britain’s Josh Kerr—Brooks sponsored—wore “whited-out” Nikes for his bronze-medal-winning performance.

There was also room for two new brands; Allyson Felix’s Saysh and fellow American Joe Kovacs wore Velaasa, a shoe brand founded by Lynden Reder that ran a successful Kickstarter campaign back in 2018. New Balance stepped up a notch with their sponsorship of Sydney McLaughlin, Gabby Thomas and Femke Bol.

Nike topped the vests chart through its sponsorship deals with federations, but this was down (71 to 53) and again Puma had the most dramatic boost (15 to 22). This included a shoe and vest double with Norwegian Karsten Warholm’s 400m hurdles world record. Asics, a Japanese company and an official Olympic gold partner, also saw a boost (8 to 13).

Puma may have had one more medal, but decided to cancel its $2.7m sponsorship of the Nigerian team. (Apparently, this delighted Nigerian officials). For its only medal in the women’s long jump, Ese Brume wore the lesser-known sporting brand AFA on her chest. Of these smaller brands, AF’s position is entirely down to Poland’s performance, while Belgian sponsor Vermarc can once more thank Nafissatou Thiam for making the medal table.

Charts show individual track and field events, no relays or road races. One athlete wore different brands across the heptathlon, so her final shoe brand in the 800m was counted here. For the vest count, it is the competing vest and not the podium tracksuit where the brands may differ. Javelin Olympic champion, India’s Neeraj Chopra had no discernible logo on his vest. It is categorised here as “other”.

Eugene will play host rematches betwen olympic medalists at the Prefontaine Classic

Dozens of medal winners from the recent Tokyo Olympic Games will be back in action at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene when Hayward Field hosts the Prefontaine Classic on August 21.

Based on the announcements made so far by the meeting organizers, five events will feature a full set of Olympic medalists from Tokyo.

Double Olympic champion Sifan Hassan headlines the women’s 5000m field and she’ll take on two-time world champion Hellen Obiri and world indoor 1500m record-holder Gudaf Tsegay, the silver and bronze medalists in Tokyo over 5000m.

All three medalists from the men’s 5000m will also be in action as Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, Canada’s Moh Ahmed and USA’s Paul Chelimo clash over two miles.

Teenage stars Athing Mu and Keely Hodgkinson, the top two finishers in the 800m in Tokyo, will be back in action over two laps, along with world and Olympic bronze medallist Raevyn Rogers, world champion Halimah Nakaayi, Britain’s Jemma Reekie, Jamaica’s Natoya Goule and USA’s Ajee Wilson and Kate Grace.

World record-holder and two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser will look to maintain his winning streak in the shot put when he takes on world champion Joe Kovacs and 2017 world champion Tom Walsh. Brazil’s Darlan Romani and US duo Darrell Hill and Payton Otterdahl are also in the line-up.

Jamaican sprint stars Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson – who filled the 100m podium in Tokyo – will face USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson and Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast.

The men’s 100m, meanwhile, features Olympic silver and bronze medalists Andre De Grasse and Fred kerley, along with world indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker, 400m specialist Michael Norman and African record-holder Akani Simbine.

Two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will once again line up against Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir and Canadian record-holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, while world champion Timothy Cheruiyot will clash with Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s Bowerman mile.

In the women’s steeplechase, world champion Beatrice Chepkoech takes on world leader Norah Jeruto Tanui, Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs and 2017 world champion Emma Coburn.

Other global stars confirmed so far include world 400m hurdles champion Dalilah Muhammad, Olympic triple jump champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo and world indoor triple jump record-holder Hugues Fabrice Zango.

The Four Races That Still Need to Happen in 2021

The Tokyo Olympics may be over, but the track & field season most definitely is not. We’ve still got five Diamond Leagues to go, including the final in Zurich on September 8-9. And while Tokyo produced a number of amazing races, there were a few that we didn’t get to see. Here are the four races that still need to happen in 2021. Diamond League meet directors, pay attention (and have your checkbook handy…these races won’t be cheap to organize).

Women’s 100 meters: Elaine Thompson-Herah vs. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce vs. Sha’Carri Richardson

Of the six fastest women in history, three of them have run their personal bests this year: Thompson-Herah (10.61 in Tokyo), Fraser-Pryce (10.63 in Kingston), and Richardson (10.72 in Miramar). But we didn’t get to see the three of them in the same race at the Olympics because of Richardson’s positive test for marijuana at the US Olympic Trials.

There may be a bit of a rivalry brewing as well. Remember, after Fraser-Pryce ran 10.63 back in June, Richardson essentially took credit for pushing Fraser-Pryce to a pb (even though Richardson was not even in the race).

And when the Jamaicans were asked about Richardson following the Olympic final, they did not want to talk about her (though to be fair…they had just won Olympic gold and silver). But any mention of even the word marijuana quickly resulted in realizing they didn’t want to talk about Sha’Carri at all.

Chances that it happens: It’s already happening! The Pre Classic has announced its women’s 100m field and all three are entered.

Men’s 400: Karsten Warholm vs. Rai Benjamin vs. Steven Gardiner

Karsten Warholm’s mesmerizing 45.94 world record in the 400 hurdles generated a number of questions. One of the natural ones: how fast could he run without the hurdles? Warholm’s personal best in the flat 400 is 44.87, but that dates back to 2017, when his hurdles pb was 48.22. He’s over two seconds faster now in the hurdles, so it’s not unreasonable to think he’s in 43-second shape right now. Benjamin’s pb is 44.31 from 2019.

So let’s throw Warholm and Benjamin in against the Bahamas’ Steven Gardiner, who just ran 43.85 to win the flat 400 in Tokyo, and see how they really stack up.

Chances that it happens: 25%. Warholm has already committed to run the flat 400 in Lausanne on August 26. That’s a great start, but getting Benjamin and Gardiner as well could prove tricky.

Women’s 400: The “Dream Team” vs. Shaunae Miller-Uibo

It was a running joke for most of the 2021 season: America’s best 400-meter runners don’t even run the 400. I mean, just look at the “Dream Team” the US trotted out for its dominant victory in the 4×400 relay: Sydney McLaughlin, Allyson Felix, Dalilah Muhammad, Athing Mu. Only one of those women ran the open 400 in Tokyo.

As incredible as Felix was at the Olympics, taking bronze in the 400 in 49.46, she only had the third-fastest split on that relay (49.38), with Muhammad going 48.94 and Mu a ridiculous 48.32. What could be better than seeing all four Dream Teamers race each other head to head?

Well, how about throwing the two-time Olympic 400 champ into the mix in Shaunae Miller-Uibo? Assuming that field doesn’t collapse from the weight of its collective gold medals (all five of the women have won individual Olympic gold; their combined total is 15 career Olympic golds including relays), the race would be more stacked than the Olympic final we just witnessed.

Chances that it happens: 10%. This one seems like a pipe dream. With the Americans as the major draw, the Pre Classic would be the natural venue for this, but there are two problems. First, there is no women’s 400 at Pre this year (though it’s not too late to add one!). And second, the five athletes above are represented by four different shoe brands. It’s not as if Nike could just magically compel them all to run Pre.

Men’s 5,000: Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs. Joshua Cheptegei vs. Selemon Barega

We already saw Ingebrigtsen vs. Cheptegei in Florence in June, and it was no contest, with Ingebrigtsen pulling away to a world-leading 12:48 as Cheptegei faded late. But Cheptegei revealed in Tokyo that he has been battling a heel injury this year, and while he’s not completely over it, it’s definitely more manageable now (as evidenced by his gold and silver in Tokyo) than it was two months ago in Florence.

Then there’s Barega, who used a sick close (2:24 last 1k, 53 last lap) to win 10k gold but did not run the 5k in Tokyo. Let’s settle the title of best distance runner in the world and pit the Olympic 1500, 5k, and 10k champs together in a 5k on the circuit.

Chances that it happens: 30%. I could see Cheptegei and Barega racing each other in a 5,000 at the Diamond League final (or even the 2-mile at Pre). Getting Ingebrigtsen to join them could be more difficult, however. He’s running the Bowerman Mile at Pre and may opt for the 1500 at the DL final.

Jamaican women win gold in womens 4x100m final

The Jamaican women brought out the big guns for the final of the 4x100m relay, and it paid off. Briana Williams ran the lead leg, handing off to Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, then Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shericka Jackson (who also ran in the heats) for the win in a national record of 41.02. They edged out the USA, who took silver in a season’s best 41.45, anchored by Gabby Thomas (with a lot of ground being made up in the third leg by Jenna Prandini).

Great Britain came through for bronze in 41.88. It was the third time in four Olympics that these three nations have stood on the podium in this event, in various configurations of gold, silver and bronze.

There were a few moments of doubt over whether the Jamaicans might have been out of position in the first hand-off, but ultimately the result stood, and the team started celebrating. Switzerland ran well, with 100m finalists Ajla del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji racing hard to put their team on the podium, but ultimately it wasn’t enough. Team Netherlands fumbled the handoff from lead Nadine Visser to Dafne Schippers, and their race was done.

Miller-Uibo gets gold in 400m final

The women’s 400m final netted another gold for defending gold medallist Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who also won five years ago in Rio, in a personal best and area record of 48.36, after some doubt about whether the schedule would allow her to double. (Miller-Uibo also ran the 200m, but didn’t make the final.) Marileidy Paulino took silver in a national-record-setting performance for the Dominican Republic of 49.20. Allyson Felix, who won silver in this event in Rio, earned the bronze in 49.46, her fastest time yet this year and an unbelievable 10th Olympic medal for the American.

Team USA redeems itself in the men’s 4x400m relay heats

The first heat of the men’s 4x400m was fast and furious, with Team USA running well after its disastrous 4x100m performance. Anchor Michael Norman crossed the line first, in 2:57.77, followed by Botswana (who ran their fastest man, Isaac Makwala, as their lead leg, a strategy that paid off for them) and Trinidad and Tobago as the last auto-qualifier from this heat. Italy and the Netherlands, in fourth and fifth, had to wait and see if they would advance, but both qualified through to the final in the end. All five saw times under three minutes, and this heat produced three national or area records – for Botswana, the Netherlands and Italy.

The second heat was almost as fast, producing two national records (but in the fourth and fifth finishers, India and Japan, who did not advance). Poland and Belgium dominated, with the Poles crossing the line first in 2:58.55. Jamaica finished third, all of them running under three minutes. Going through to Friday evening’s final are USA, Botswana, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Belgium and Jamaica.

Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah takes stunning Olympic gold in women’s 100m

Elaine Thompson-Herah produced a stunning sprinting performance to take gold in the women’s 100m at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Jamaican, who won the blue riband event at Rio in 2016, held off her compatriots Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who took silver, and Shericka Jackson, who won bronze, to take victory in 10.61sec, breaking Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic record.

Fraser-Pryce was quickest out of the blocks but could not hold off her compatriot in the second half of the race, with Thompson-Herah powering through and creating enough of a gap to her rivals that she was able to celebrate before crossing the line.

“I’ve been injured so much. I’m grateful I could get back on the track, and get back out on the track this year to retain the title,” said Thompson-Herah. “I knew I had it in me but obviously I’ve had my ups and downs with injuries. I’ve been keeping faith all this time. It is amazing.”

In all, six women ran under 11 seconds, making the race one of the fastest in history. Marie-Josée Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast was fourth behind the three Jamaican sprinters, with the Swiss duo of Ajla Del Ponte and Mujinga Kambundji fifth and sixth.

“I had a stumble and I never recovered from it,” Fraser-Pryce, the champion in 2008 and 2012, told the BBC. “As a mother, in my fourth Olympic Games, to be able to stand again on the podium is a tremendous honor.”

With the Tokyo Olympics less than two weeks away Bromell, Thompson-Herah and Vetter headline last Diamond League

With the Tokyo Olympics less than two weeks away, many of the world’s top athletes will get a last chance to test their competitive form when they line up in the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead, England, on Tuesday (13).

US sprinter Trayvon Bromell, German javelin thrower Johannes Vetter, Jamaican sprint star Elaine Thompson-Herah and British heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson are among the top names entered in the Muller Grand Prix.

Despite the late withdrawals of British world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and Dutch middle-distance star Sifan Hassan, the meet features an array of world and Olympic champions and will serve as a crucial tune-up ahead of Tokyo.

The seventh Diamond League meeting of the season – and second in Gateshead – comes just 10 days before the 23 July opening of the Tokyo Games and 17 days before the start of the Olympic athletics competition on 30 July.

Many athletes are returning to the venue in northeast England for the second time this season. Gateshead hosted the Diamond League opener in May after the meeting was moved from Rabat, Morocco. Tuesday’s meeting was originally scheduled to take place at the Olympic Stadium in London but was switched to Gateshead due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

World 100m leader Bromell will be looking to bounce back after a disappointing performance in last Friday’s Herculis EBS Diamond League meeting in Monaco, where he clocked 10.01 and finished fifth in a race won by American teammate Ronnie Baker in 9.91. It was Bromell’s first 100m defeat since 2019, having won four races in 2020 and 10 this year.

Bromell, who ran 9.77 in June for the fastest time in the world this year and won the 100m in 9.80 at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene last month, will be determined to regain the form that made him the favourite for gold in Tokyo.

Bromell will go up against Fred Kerley, who qualified for Tokyo by finishing third in 9.86 at the US trials, and Canada’s Andre De Grasse, the Olympic and world 100m bronze medallist. Isiah Young, who has clocked 9.89 this season, is also in the 100m line-up, along with British sprinters Adam Gemili and Chijindu Ujah.

About 40 members of Team GB’s athletics team for Tokyo – more than half the entire squad – will be in action in Gateshead. Missing, however, will be Asher-Smith, who pulled out citing a tight hamstring. She opted not to take any risks ahead of the Olympics.

“As you all know, I love running in front of a home crowd but I have to make smart decisions for myself and my body ahead of Tokyo,’’ Asher-Smith said in a statement on Twitter. “I’m sorry to those who were hoping to see me run this week but I’m looking forward to making you all proud in a few weeks’ time.”

Asher-Smith had been scheduled to run the 200m in a marquee matchup against Thompson-Herah, the reigning Olympic 100m and 200m champion. The Jamaican will now be the favourite in a field that also includes American Tamara Clark, who finished fourth in the US Olympic Trials in a personal best of 21.98.

Hassan, the women’s world champion at 1500m and 10,000m, also withdrew due to a tight hamstring and preferring not to take any chances before Tokyo, where she looks set to contest the 5000m-10,000m double. Hasan had been scheduled to run the mile, in which she holds the world record of 4:12.33. Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda, who has a season’s best of 4:00.84 in the 1500m, and American Kate Grace, who clocked 1:57.36 for the 800m in Stockholm, now start as favourites.

The men’s mile has past winner Jake Wightman of Britain in the field along with European indoor 800m record-breaker Elliot Giles, who will be running the 800m in Tokyo.

If conditions are good, Vetter could challenge Jan Zelezny’s 25-year-old javelin world record of 98.48m. The German came close last year with a throw of 97.76m and threw 96.29m to win his event at the European Team Championships in May. Vetter has been successful competing in Britain, winning the world title in London in 2017.

Javelin records have been set in the UK before, with Zelezny throwing 95.66m in Sheffield in 1993 and Britain’s Steve Backley setting a mark of 90.98m at London’s Crystal Palace in 1990. Also in the javelin field in Gateshead are world champion Anderson Peters of Grenada and 2012 Olympic gold medallist Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad & Tobago.

Still making her way back to full fitness after an Achilles injury, Johnson-Thompson is entered in the women’s long jump, where she will take on world champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany. In Stockholm, Mihambo produced the best jump of 7.02m in the third round but settled for second place in the new final-three format when her final effort of 6.77m was bettered by the 6.88m of Ivana Spanovic of Serbia.

In the women’s 400m hurdles, 21-year-old Dutch star Femke Bol will resume her rivalry with US athlete Shamier Little for the third time this season.

Fraser-Pryce rockets to Jamaican 100m title, books ticket to Tokyo

 Two-time Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the fastest woman alive, sped to a 10.71 second (wind +1.0 m/s) win in the women's 100m on Friday, the second day of Jamaica's national athletics championships.

With her trademark rocket start, Fraser-Pryce separated from the field at 50 metres and closed out the win to book her ticket to a fourth consecutive Olympic Games in Tokyo next month.

Rio Olympic 400m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson produced a late burst to take second in 10.82secs, ahead of reigning Olympic Champion Elaine Thompson-Herah with 10.84.

Fraser-Pryce, a four-time world 100m champion, told Reuters she was excited to beat a tough field in a quick time just a few weeks after setting a Jamaican national record with a blistering 10.63secs.

"It's amazing and I think all credit goes to my coach (Reynaldo Walcott). You know he's such a firm believer in what I can do and what I'm capable of," she said.

"After the 10.63 (June 5) it was rough! My hamstrings were just giving problems after that run, but I said champions show up no matter what, you always show up and you just have to make sure that when you get to the line you deliver," Fraser-Pryce added.

"The aim is definitely to stand on top of the podium in Tokyo," said Fraser-Pryce who battled through a toe injury to take bronze at the Rio Games five years ago.

"I mean, 2016 was bittersweet and it happened and I think I want to see what I'm able to do healthy and fit and ready to go, so I'm looking forward to that opportunity."

Shericka Jackson, who had set a lifetime best 10.77secs in the semi-finals, was elated to take second in 10.82secs and also punch a ticket to Tokyo. She moved up to joint 13th on the all time list.

Fraser-Pryce blazes 10.63 100m to go No.2 all-time in Kingston

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has become the second-fastest female 100m sprinter in history with a sensational 10.63 (1.3m/s) run in Kingston, Jamaica, on Saturday (5).

Racing at the aptly-named JOA/JAAA Olympic Destiny Series meeting, Jamaica's two-time Olympic and nine-time world gold medallist further proved her intention to add another title to that tally in Tokyo later this year. Powering out of the blocks, the 34-year-old made it look easy as she hit top speed and surged away from her rivals to run hard through the line before clapping and raising her arms in celebration.

The fastest time in almost 33 years, only Florence Griffith Joyner has ever gone quicker with her world record of 10.49 and runs of 10.61 and 10.62, also achieved in 1988.

"When the hard work finally pays off!" Fraser-Pryce wrote on social media after the race. "So much accomplished, yet so much more to go."

Behind Fraser-Pryce was Natasha Morrison who finished second in 10.95.

The competition was Fraser-Pryce’s third this season and it followed the 10.84 she ran to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha as she works towards Tokyo, where she will aim for a third Olympic gold after her 100m wins in 2008 and 2012. Her incredible CV also includes four 100m titles as part of her world championships haul, with her most recent claimed in Doha in 2019 following the birth of her son Zyon in 2017, with Fraser-Pryce having gone into labour while watching the world 100m final that year.

The day before the race in Kingston, she had posted an update on social media which read: "'Mommy' is the best title I could have ever earned."

Fraser-Pryce’s previous best had been 10.70 from 2012, a Jamaican record time which Elaine Thompson-Herah equalled in 2016.

Her performance at the Olympic Destiny Series meeting launches her to the top of the world rankings ahead of the USA's Sha'Carri Richardson, who ran 10.72 in April, and Thompson-Herah, who clocked 10.78 at the start of May.

Also in Kingston, world champion Tajay Gayle jumped a wind-assisted 8.56m (2.5m/s) to win the long jump, while O'Dayne Richards won the shot put with a 19.49m throw.

Others to triumph included Janieve Russell in the 400m hurdles (54.88) and Stephenie Ann McPherson in the 400m (51.06).

British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith lays down Tokyo marker with 200m win

Seb Coe, who knows a thing or two about winning Olympic titles, is convinced that Dina Asher-Smith will be Team GB’s poster girl in Tokyo. Her rivals in the 100m and 200m will have something to say about that, but there were encouraging signs as Asher-Smith blitzed her way to victory in her first outdoor race of the season in Savona.

Asher-Smith has not competed in the 200m since winning world championship gold in Doha in October 2019. But in a low-key meeting in Italy all her familiar traits – including a lightning start and a bend so exquisite that the Italian commentator shouted “mamma mia!” as she powered round it – were evident as she came home in 22.56sec.

The 25-year-old would have perhaps wanted to go a touch faster, given the Olympics are scheduled to start in 10 weeks. But her dominance was clear with her closest challenger, Britain’s Beth Dobbin, more than half a second back at 23.06sec.

“It’s good to be back on track and it’s good to be back doing the 200m,” Asher-Smith said. “It has been a year-and-a-half since the world championships in Qatar and since I was doing my last 200m, so it’s nice to be back over that distance again.”

However she knows bigger tests await, starting in 10 days when she races in Gateshead against the reigning 200m Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, the double Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and the new American sensation Sha’Carri Richardson. “My next race is the Diamond League in Gateshead,” said Asher-Smith. “I am really excited to be running at home. It will be nice.”

Another Briton, Andrew Pozzi, opened his summer with victory in the 110m hurdles with 13.42sec. But the performance of the night came from the Italian Marcell Jacobs, who set the national record in the 100m with a storming 9.95sec run.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen will be among the athletes looking to test their form when he races over 1500m at the Muller Grand Prix in Gateshead, UK, on Sunday May 23

The first Wanda Diamond League meeting of 2021 – in Gateshead,  International Stadium will be able to welcome up to 2000 spectators for the meeting.

Norwegian 20-year-old Ingebrigtsen won European indoor 1500m and 3000m titles in Torun in March, emulating the success he achieved in Glasgow two years earlier when he claimed 3000m gold and 1500m silver. He returned to the UK in the July to finish second in the London Diamond League 5000m, breaking the Norwegian record with 13:02.03.

The European 1500m record-holder with 3:28.68 set in Monaco last year, Ingebrigtsen is also the reigning European outdoor champion at 1500m and 5000m.

“I had a great time racing in Glasgow at the European Indoor Championships a couple of years ago and I’ve also run a few times at the Olympic Stadium in London. So I’m hoping for another good experience in Britain at the Diamond League in Gateshead next week,” he said.

“I’ve been training hard lately but I enjoy testing myself in competition and this meeting will be a good race to see where I am in the run-up to the Olympics.”

Joining him in Gateshead will be Britain’s Elliot Giles, who ran 1:43.63 in February to move to second on the world indoor 800m all-time list, plus Australian 1500m record-holder Stewart McSweyn and his compatriots Ollie Hoare, Matthew Ramsden and Ryan Gregson.

Other British athletes on the entry list include national 1500m champion George Mills, Piers Copeland and Archie Davis.

As previously announced, the women’s 100m in Gateshead will feature a world-class line-up including Dina Asher-Smith, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Sha’Carri Richardson, while the men’s pole vault sees a clash between Mondo Duplantis, Sam Kendricks and Piotr Lisek.

The women’s 1500m will see European champion Laura Muir in action and she will be joined by fellow British athletes Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Eilish McColgan, Adelle Tracey and Holly Archer.

Finalists for Female Athlete of the Year 2020

With just 11 days to go until the World Athletics Awards 2020, the names of the five finalists for the Female World Athlete of the Year 2020 have been confirmed.

In spite of the many challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic this year, the five athletes, who represent five countries and four area associations, have excelled, producing brilliant performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2020.

The finalists are (in alphabetical order):

Letesenbet Gidey, Ethiopia- set a world record of 14:06.62 over 5000m- was second in the 5000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco

Sifan Hassan, Netherlands- set a world record of 18,930m in the one hour run- set a European record of 29:36.67 over 10,000m, the fourth fastest performance in history

Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya- won the world half marathon title- twice broke the world half marathon record for a women-only race (1:05:34 and 1:05:16)

Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela- undefeated in four triple jump competitions indoors and outdoors- broke the world indoor triple jump record with 15.43m

Elaine Thompson-Herah, Jamaica- undefeated in seven 100m races- ran world-leading 10.85 over 100m

The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2020 to be staged as a virtual event on Saturday 5 December and streamed live on the World Athletics YouTube channel, its Facebook page and via Twitter.

The Kenyan trio of Hellen Obiri, Faith Kipyegon and Peres Jepchirchir are among 10 nominees for the 2020 World Athletes of the Year- Female Award

The winner will be declared during the 2020 World Athletics Awards to be held virtually on December 5.

Obiri, the World 5,000m champion, remained undefeated in three races over 3000m and 5000m during this season's Diamond League and ran a world-leading of 8:22.54 over 3000m at Doha on September 25.

Kipyegon also had a great year undefeated in five races over all distances and also ran world-leading performances over 800m (1:57.68) and 1000m (2:29.15) in Doha.

Peres Jepchirchir twice broke the world half marathon record for a women-only race (1:05:34 and 1:05:16) at the Prague Half Marathon and at the World Half Marathon Championship. No Kenyan woman has ever emerged the World Athlete of the Year winner despite their dominance in long distance races.

On Monday, Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot was shortlisted for the men's award.

World Athletics disclosed on Tuesday that the list of 10 nominees for the Female World Athlete of the Year were selected by an international panel of athletics experts comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.

“The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, despite the challenges that the global Covid-19 pandemic presented,” said a statement on World Athletics website.

The trio of Kenyans will definitely face stiff competition from Muir, Gidey, Ababel Yeshaneh and Ethiopian-born Dutch European 10,000m record holder, Sifan Hassan. Also to watch out is Jamaican sprinting queen Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Britain’s Laura Muir and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei among World Athletics awards nominees

Britain’s Laura Muir is among the nominees for the female world athlete of the year honor, while Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei is on a shortlist for the male prize at the World Athletics Awards.

This year the global governing body’s awards event will be held virtually on Saturday December 5.

Muir clocked 1500m times of 3:57.40, 3:57.86 and 3:58.24 to lead the world rankings and set a British 1000m record of 2:30.82 in 2020, while Cheptegei broke three world records throughout the year – running 12:51 for a road 5km, 12:35.36 for 5000m on the track and 26:11.00 for 10,000m on the track.

Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, who set a world record of 14:06.62 over 5000m, and Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, who recorded a world record distance of 18,930m in the one-hour run and broke the European 10,000m record with 29:36.67, are also among the female nominees.

The men’s shortlist also features Sweden’s world pole vault record-breaker Mondo Duplantis and Norway’s Karsten Warholm, who ran a world-leading 46.87 in the 400m hurdles and was unbeaten in that event.

Female world athlete of the year nominees: Femke Bol, Netherlands; Letesenbet Gidey, Ethiopia; Sifan Hassan, Netherlands; Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya; Faith Kipyegon, Kenya; Laura Muir, Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Hellen Obiri, Kenya; Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela; Elaine Thompson-Herah, Jamaica; Ababel Yeshaneh, Ethiopia

Male world athlete of the year nominees: Donavan Brazier, USA; Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda; Timothy Cheruiyot, Kenya; Ryan Crouser, USA; Mondo Duplantis, Sweden; Jacob Kiplimo, Uganda; Noah Lyles, USA; Daniel Stahl, Sweden; Johannes Vetter, Germany; Karsten Warholm, Norway

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics’ social media platforms.

As well as male and female athlete of the year honors, the World Athletics Awards will include the president’s award, coaching achievement award and athletics photograph of the year, as well as a Covid inspiration award, athletes community award and member federations award.

Last year Eliud Kipchoge and Dalilah Muhammad were named world athletes of the year, while the 2018 winners were Kipchoge and Caterine Ibarguen.

Elaine Thompson-Herah, two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers and multiple world medalist Marie-Josée Ta Lou, will go head to head over 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha

Double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, two-time world 200m champion Dafne Schippers and multiple world medalist Marie-Josée Ta Lou, will go head to head over 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on Friday September 25 2020.

The three women have met at this meeting on two previous occasions. Thompson-Herah triumphed over 200m in 2017, clocking 22.19 into a -2.3m/s headwind with Schippers finishing second and Ta Lou placing third.

They clashed again one year later, this time over 100m, and Ta Lou came out on top, running 10.85. Thompson-Herah was third on that occasion and Schippers was sixth.

But the last time they were in the Khalifa Stadium was for last year’s World Championships, where Ta Lou took 100m bronze, just 0.03 ahead of Thompson-Herah. Schippers, meanwhile, was forced to withdraw from the final through injury.

Thompson-Herah’s season’s best of 10.88 set in Kingston on 8 August is the second fastest of the year to date.

“I’ve been fortunate to be able to race at home over the summer, but nothing beats the thrill of lining up in an overseas, international meet,” said the Jamaican. “I can’t wait to get back on the circuit, especially as part of a quality field in Doha where I’ve really enjoyed competing in the past.”

Ta Lou will be looking to build on her Wanda Diamond League performances in Monaco and Stockholm where she finished fourth (11.39) and third (11.32) respectively, while Schippers will make her season’s debut over 100m in Doha.

Doha’s Qatar Sports Club will host the revised 12-event programme – the final competitive meeting of the truncated 2020 Wanda Diamond League season – which includes sprint hurdles and 800m for both men and women; 100m, 3000m and long jump for women; and 200m, 400m, 1500m and pole vault for men.

Organizers of the Herculis meeting have confirmed the participation of four more global champions, Brazier, Chepkoech, Holloway and Thompson-Herah

Organizers of the Herculis meeting have confirmed the participation of four more global champions for the Wanda Diamond League fixture in Monaco on August 14.

World 800m champion and 2019 Diamond League winner Donavan Brazier will make his Herculis debut. The 23-year-old US middle-distance runner set a North American record of 1:42.34 to win the world title in Doha last year. His form this year is promising too, having clocked a North American indoor 800m record of 1:44.22 back in February and a 1500m PB of 3:35.85 in Portland earlier this month.

World steeplechase champion Beatrice Chepkoech will return to the scene of her world record clocking of 8:44.32 from two years ago. The Kenyan’s last race was a victory at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Dusseldorf in February, where she clocked a Kenyan indoor 1500m record of 4:02.09.

Like Brazier, world 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway will be competing in Monaco for the first time. Following a string of record-breaking feats on the US collegiate scene, the 22-year-old turned professional last year and went on to win the world title in Doha.

Double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has also been confirmed for Monaco. Having finished third over 100m in 2018 and second in the 200m last year, the Jamaican sprinter will move back down to the shorter distance and she’ll be keen to achieve her first victory at the Stade Louis II.

European 400m champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic of Poland is another addition to the Herculis line-up. Along with her four continental titles, the 27-year-old owns four global medals in the 4x400m.

After a four-month break due to the Covid -19, the country’s senior athletes got their chances to be back on track at the Ashenheim Stadium at Jamaica College on Saturday

Despite windy conditions which affected the track events all afternoon, the athletes showed little rust in putting on creditable performances, with World champions Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Tajay Gayle leading the way.

Competing in a negative wind of 2.2 metres per second in Section Two of the women’s 100m, Fraser-Pryce, now representing Nike, outclassed her opponents to stop the clock at a world-leading 11.00 seconds to win the event. Sprintec Track Club’s Shashalee Forbes (11.49s), and MVP Track Club’s Anthonique Strachan (11.84s), of the Bahamas, were some way behind for second and third, respectively.

Gayle, the surprise gold medallist in the men’s long jump at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, last year, used his first attempt of 8.52m, competing in a positive wind of 4.5 metres per second, to win the event. Teammate Ramone Bailey (7.54m), and The University of the West Indies’ Damon Williams (7.46m) took second and third, respectively.

One of the most competitive events on the day came in the women’s 200m, which included Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and World Championships 400m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson, who are teammates at MVP. Thompson-Herah used her scorching speed to take early control of the race, coming off the curve in front, but Jackson caught her late to win the event in 22.89s as Thompson-Herah was second in 22.98s. Forbes had another top-three finish after coming third in 23.45s. Here, the athletes competed in a negative wind of 2.2 metres per second.

Meet organiser Bruce James said that everything went well on the day.

“It was a good day for the athletes and the officials, as we did our best to ensure that all (health) protocols were intact,” he said. “The Ministry of Health and the police were on hand to ensure that all procedures were followed.

“We had several new innovations in place, including the athletes not competing in numbers as it was all digital, and we did not use a call-room system. The athletes had to report straight to the start of their event at the time stated.”

James is hoping to put on another meet this Saturday but he will be waiting for approval again from the Ministry of Health and Wellness.