Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.
As he sat &ndash; socially distanced, naturally &ndash; outside the meeting hotel for the Brussels Wanda Diamond League meeting in September, he smiled ruefully as he reflected on just how valuable this quirk is to him.
Fingers crossed, and further Covid-19 complications permitting, Belgium&rsquo;s 31-year-old European marathon champion will have the opportunity to take part in his first race in almost a year when he participates at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.
&ldquo;Luckily I am always writing everything down so if something goes good I write it down, for you will never know if you forget, so I am glad I wrote everything down,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;So I have to read everything again because after 11 months it&rsquo;s started fading away! So I am happy I can find it&hellip;
&ldquo;These championships will be very important. I think it will be difficult for me to be in 100% optimal condition, because I need some other races to race a fast half marathon, so I need some 10km races to really hit the wall, and then I really can dig deep in a half marathon.
&ldquo;And so I miss those other competitions, I think physically, but also mentally because, in the beginning you say &lsquo;Oh, we will train base, because there are no competitions. A good base level is enough&rsquo;.
&ldquo;But if you have base level for four months, maybe you want to start to dig a little deeper, so I think the World Half Marathon Championships are perfect mid-goal for that.
&ldquo;It will be good mentally for me, too, because I think that when I race in Gdynia it will be 11 months without competition, so when I was thinking about racing I really got excited and I really had to think deep like, &lsquo;Oh, how did I do it again?&rsquo;&rdquo; 
<div id="5f68ccee999722175c364dad" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/273fb4bf-15f5-4023-a061-54494e6ac19e.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert</div>
&nbsp;
Naert, whose unexpected victory at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin was followed by a personal best of 2:07:39 at the following year&rsquo;s Rotterdam Marathon, admits that preparations for the championships, which were shifted from their original date of 29 March because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have been &ldquo;very difficult&rdquo;.
Originally, he explained, he had targeted the Valencia Half Marathon, set on a course conducive to fast times. But when that was cancelled he went back to the Belgian Athletics Federation &ndash; which helps fund his support team along with his kit sponsor, Asics &ndash; and asked them: &ldquo;Is it too late to run in Gdynia?&rdquo;
It wasn&rsquo;t. So Naert now has a focus, albeit one for which he has prepared in a way he would never have envisaged a year ago. Earlier in 2020, Naert had spoken of running 200 kilometres a week, but that target was soon modified.
&ldquo;Not in Covid-19 times,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I think I was actually doing 140, 150km a week, because I knew there weren&rsquo;t any competitions in the near future. If you are in April or May, I can&rsquo;t remember when the European Championships got cancelled, but if you know they will be cancelled for August, and you are three months away from that, you don&rsquo;t have to peak in that period.
&ldquo;So I decided with my coach, Raymond Van Paemel, that I would work on other points and take another shot next year for the Olympics. I didn&rsquo;t take a rest or anything, but I took it a little bit easier so that the body had more time to recover because since 2017 all the marathons and races I did were great, but my body was glad it had a few months to reload actually.
&ldquo;It wouldn&rsquo;t be ideal for 2020, but I think that 2020 is already lost for us on the road. So we gambled and we are aiming for a fantastic 2021.&rdquo; 
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/rry_TNgKngo" width="500" height="280" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 That, though, has taken a considerable amount of mental adjustment on his part.
&ldquo;I think the most difficult part in the beginning was, OK you had competitions that were cancelled and you say, &lsquo;OK, championships are still far away&rsquo;,&rdquo; he reflected. &ldquo;But then first was the Olympics that was postponed. So you say, &lsquo;OK, this is bad.&rsquo; Then you refocus, and for me that was the European Championships in Paris. Then they got cancelled.
&ldquo;Because it started to get mentally a little bit tougher to really restart and do all the things again, we decided to choose other objectives, goals, than competition. We decided to make physical goals, like: &lsquo;I want to get rid of this little pain&rsquo;, or &lsquo;this is my weak point in running.&rsquo;
&ldquo;So we really took goals that were my own, that can&rsquo;t get cancelled or postponed, and it worked quite well. I had some achilles tendon problems I first wanted to get rid of. That worked out.
&ldquo;We made a big progression and I feel now in a short period that my condition is really growing and now I can look forward to competing again.
&ldquo;Because it was not 100 per cent sure if the World Half Marathon Championships would go ahead, but I think there is a good chance now if they can organise a Tour de France for three weeks, I think a one-day race is possible as well, so that gives me some mental strength to work towards that goal.&rdquo; 
<div id="5f687ba8999722175c364da4" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/fd38b4d4-8c34-40e4-9287-a563984c070d.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Koen Naert on his way to winning the European marathon title in Berlin</div>
&nbsp;
Once the Belgian government brought in social restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Naert settled into a working routine at his home base. His wife, Elise, who works for the region of West Flanders, was able to work from home, and they were able to swap in around looking after their three-year-old son, Finn.
When Koen would do his main running session between nine and eleven in the morning, Elise would sit in. Then Daddy would take over, until his afternoon recovery session, which often involved no more than travelling to the garage, in which he has a treadmill and a static bike.
Then he would prepare the evening meal as Elise worked on later to make up for her earlier gaps.
&ldquo;We were pretty lucky in Belgium because we really didn&rsquo;t have to stay in the house 24/7 like in Spain or Italy,&rdquo; he reflected. &ldquo;I had the chance to go outside. I couldn&rsquo;t run with others, but I was already very glad I didn&rsquo;t have to stay inside.
&ldquo;We have a canal next to our house, and we also have a lot of forests near us. I couldn&rsquo;t take the car, because we weren&rsquo;t allowed to drive to other places. But from my house I had different routes I could run. I never had any motivational problem.&rdquo; 
<div id="5f687b5f999722175c364da3" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/0de192cc-adda-4751-90f2-f7419fae327b.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Koen Naert in action in the marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games</div>
&nbsp;
Assisting Koen in this respect has been his mental coach, Eva Maenhout. Referring to the coronavirus crisis, he recalled: &ldquo;In the beginning you feel strong and everything goes OK and it&rsquo;s not going to take that long. But if you look, it started in March. We are in September now and we are still dealing with the problem.
&ldquo;So I am really glad Eva joined me at this time. We have had a lot of good conversations because, like I said, it will be 11 months without racing and, sometimes you start doubting. Like &ndash; &lsquo;Can I still do it? It&rsquo;s been 11 months. I don&rsquo;t have the races before like I used to have. How will I react?&rsquo; She has always been there to support me.&rdquo;
Asked if he knew about any other runners he would be facing in Gdynia, he responded in the negative. When a colleague brightly informed him that Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda&rsquo;s newly installed world 5000m record-holder, had confirmed his participation, Naert&rsquo;s face became a picture of conflicting emotion.
&ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; he said with a pained grin. &ldquo;Ah! That will hurt!&rdquo;
Had another topic for conversation with Eva just suggested itself?
&ldquo;Actually yes,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Because I was really convinced that I could win medals at European level, and actually now I still doubt that fact at world-class level, to be honest about that, because I still have a lot of work to do.
&ldquo;And I really have to peak for my performance, and I know that. And that&rsquo;s why I sometimes can suck in other races. I know that! But I need those races to be at my top level when I really want to be.&rdquo;
The difficulties Naert has encountered during the ever-shifting coronavirus circumstances of the past year has been compounded by another profound dilemma. He is a professional athlete. He is also a trained nurse.
He took time out from his nursing career to prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympics &ndash; where he finished 22nd in the marathon &ndash; but the Brussels bombings of 11 March 2016 saw him answering an emergency call to help, calling on his experience at a burn care centre. 
<div id="5f687abd999722175c364da2" class="dropMedia">
<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/21453545-a77a-430d-b2f3-37a1a209f4f0.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert</div>
&nbsp;
&ldquo;I had never taken my work home &ndash; until then,&rdquo; <a href="https://spikes.worldathletics.org/post/koen-naert-heroes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he told Spikes earlier this year</a>.
&ldquo;After the attacks, my mind was all over the place, so I can empathise with what so many nurses are going through now.&rdquo;
While his name remains on a &lsquo;reserve list&rsquo;, however, his first instinct that he would have to be ready to help with the Covid-19 pandemic has been checked by other counsel.
&ldquo;When the Olympic Games got postponed, I got national television coming by and they didn&rsquo;t talk about it before and it was quite a deep conversation, and suddenly he was asking &lsquo;Will you go help them out in the hospitals?&rsquo;&rdquo; he recalled.
&ldquo;And my first reaction was, &lsquo;Yes of course. I am a nurse. I will, if we have situations like in Spain or Italy, where the country is really in panic, yes, I am a nurse here in my heart, not only on paper. So yes I will go out and help them&hellip;&rsquo;
&ldquo;But then the doctor from the Olympic Committee said &lsquo;Think twice before you go, because it&rsquo;s not just the flu.&rsquo; He was mentioning the SARS virus in Asia, 95% of the infections with SARS they had mutations in their lungs, and he said we don&rsquo;t know yet for Covid-19, but if you get contaminated and you have mutations in your lungs that can be the difference between being a good amateur runner and being an Olympian.
&ldquo;And I didn&rsquo;t forget that, and I started really thinking about the fact that I am a professional athlete, I have my responsibilities as an athlete, so I am not going to help that quick any more as I said in the beginning. And that&rsquo;s the hard part &ndash; because I had to choose between being the nurse that I have been for years, with all my heart, and being a professional athlete.
&ldquo;I was really, really doubting, and my coach said &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t do it, don&rsquo;t do it, because it can affect your career.&rsquo; That period was hard. I was glad Eva was there at that time&hellip;
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want my athletics career to get stopped or affected because I just wanted to go and help and at that moment it wasn&rsquo;t my job. I am paid to be a professional athlete so I have my responsibilities. And that hurts, if you see that they need help.&rdquo;
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.


Luckily, Koen Naert has the habit of writing things down.
As he sat – socially distanced, naturally – outside the meeting hotel for the Brussels Wanda Diamond League meeting in September, he smiled ruefully as he reflected on just how valuable this quirk is to him.
Fingers crossed, and further Covid-19 complications permitting, Belgium’s 31-year-old European marathon champion will have the opportunity to take part in his first race in almost a year when he participates at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.
“Luckily I am always writing everything down so if something goes good I write it down, for you will never know if you forget, so I am glad I wrote everything down,” he said. “So I have to read everything again because after 11 months it’s started fading away! So I am happy I can find it…
“These championships will be very important. I think it will be difficult for me to be in 100% optimal condition, because I need some other races to race a fast half marathon, so I need some 10km races to really hit the wall, and then I really can dig deep in a half marathon.
“And so I miss those other competitions, I think physically, but also mentally because, in the beginning you say ‘Oh, we will train base, because there are no competitions. A good base level is enough’.
“But if you have base level for four months, maybe you want to start to dig a little deeper, so I think the World Half Marathon Championships are perfect mid-goal for that.
“It will be good mentally for me, too, because I think that when I race in Gdynia it will be 11 months without competition, so when I was thinking about racing I really got excited and I really had to think deep like, ‘Oh, how did I do it again?’” 
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert
 
Naert, whose unexpected victory at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin was followed by a personal best of 2:07:39 at the following year’s Rotterdam Marathon, admits that preparations for the championships, which were shifted from their original date of 29 March because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, have been “very difficult”.
Originally, he explained, he had targeted the Valencia Half Marathon, set on a course conducive to fast times. But when that was cancelled he went back to the Belgian Athletics Federation – which helps fund his support team along with his kit sponsor, Asics – and asked them: “Is it too late to run in Gdynia?”
It wasn’t. So Naert now has a focus, albeit one for which he has prepared in a way he would never have envisaged a year ago. Earlier in 2020, Naert had spoken of running 200 kilometres a week, but that target was soon modified.
“Not in Covid-19 times,” he said. “I think I was actually doing 140, 150km a week, because I knew there weren’t any competitions in the near future. If you are in April or May, I can’t remember when the European Championships got cancelled, but if you know they will be cancelled for August, and you are three months away from that, you don’t have to peak in that period.
“So I decided with my coach, Raymond Van Paemel, that I would work on other points and take another shot next year for the Olympics. I didn’t take a rest or anything, but I took it a little bit easier so that the body had more time to recover because since 2017 all the marathons and races I did were great, but my body was glad it had a few months to reload actually.
“It wouldn’t be ideal for 2020, but I think that 2020 is already lost for us on the road. So we gambled and we are aiming for a fantastic 2021.”

That, though, has taken a considerable amount of mental adjustment on his part.
“I think the most difficult part in the beginning was, OK you had competitions that were cancelled and you say, ‘OK, championships are still far away’,” he reflected. “But then first was the Olympics that was postponed. So you say, ‘OK, this is bad.’ Then you refocus, and for me that was the European Championships in Paris. Then they got cancelled.
“Because it started to get mentally a little bit tougher to really restart and do all the things again, we decided to choose other objectives, goals, than competition. We decided to make physical goals, like: ‘I want to get rid of this little pain’, or ‘this is my weak point in running.’
“So we really took goals that were my own, that can’t get cancelled or postponed, and it worked quite well. I had some achilles tendon problems I first wanted to get rid of. That worked out.
“We made a big progression and I feel now in a short period that my condition is really growing and now I can look forward to competing again.
“Because it was not 100 per cent sure if the World Half Marathon Championships would go ahead, but I think there is a good chance now if they can organise a Tour de France for three weeks, I think a one-day race is possible as well, so that gives me some mental strength to work towards that goal.” 
Koen Naert on his way to winning the European marathon title in Berlin
 
Once the Belgian government brought in social restrictions to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Naert settled into a working routine at his home base. His wife, Elise, who works for the region of West Flanders, was able to work from home, and they were able to swap in around looking after their three-year-old son, Finn.
When Koen would do his main running session between nine and eleven in the morning, Elise would sit in. Then Daddy would take over, until his afternoon recovery session, which often involved no more than travelling to the garage, in which he has a treadmill and a static bike.
Then he would prepare the evening meal as Elise worked on later to make up for her earlier gaps.
“We were pretty lucky in Belgium because we really didn’t have to stay in the house 24/7 like in Spain or Italy,” he reflected. “I had the chance to go outside. I couldn’t run with others, but I was already very glad I didn’t have to stay inside.
“We have a canal next to our house, and we also have a lot of forests near us. I couldn’t take the car, because we weren’t allowed to drive to other places. But from my house I had different routes I could run. I never had any motivational problem.” 
Koen Naert in action in the marathon at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games
 
Assisting Koen in this respect has been his mental coach, Eva Maenhout. Referring to the coronavirus crisis, he recalled: “In the beginning you feel strong and everything goes OK and it’s not going to take that long. But if you look, it started in March. We are in September now and we are still dealing with the problem.
“So I am really glad Eva joined me at this time. We have had a lot of good conversations because, like I said, it will be 11 months without racing and, sometimes you start doubting. Like – ‘Can I still do it? It’s been 11 months. I don’t have the races before like I used to have. How will I react?’ She has always been there to support me.”
Asked if he knew about any other runners he would be facing in Gdynia, he responded in the negative. When a colleague brightly informed him that Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda’s newly installed world 5000m record-holder, had confirmed his participation, Naert’s face became a picture of conflicting emotion.
“Oh!” he said with a pained grin. “Ah! That will hurt!”
Had another topic for conversation with Eva just suggested itself?
“Actually yes,” he said. “Because I was really convinced that I could win medals at European level, and actually now I still doubt that fact at world-class level, to be honest about that, because I still have a lot of work to do.
“And I really have to peak for my performance, and I know that. And that’s why I sometimes can suck in other races. I know that! But I need those races to be at my top level when I really want to be.”
The difficulties Naert has encountered during the ever-shifting coronavirus circumstances of the past year has been compounded by another profound dilemma. He is a professional athlete. He is also a trained nurse.
He took time out from his nursing career to prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympics – where he finished 22nd in the marathon – but the Brussels bombings of 11 March 2016 saw him answering an emergency call to help, calling on his experience at a burn care centre. 
Belgian distance runner Koen Naert
 
“I had never taken my work home – until then,” he told Spikes earlier this year.
“After the attacks, my mind was all over the place, so I can empathise with what so many nurses are going through now.”
While his name remains on a ‘reserve list’, however, his first instinct that he would have to be ready to help with the Covid-19 pandemic has been checked by other counsel.
“When the Olympic Games got postponed, I got national television coming by and they didn’t talk about it before and it was quite a deep conversation, and suddenly he was asking ‘Will you go help them out in the hospitals?’” he recalled.
“And my first reaction was, ‘Yes of course. I am a nurse. I will, if we have situations like in Spain or Italy, where the country is really in panic, yes, I am a nurse here in my heart, not only on paper. So yes I will go out and help them…’
“But then the doctor from the Olympic Committee said ‘Think twice before you go, because it’s not just the flu.’ He was mentioning the SARS virus in Asia, 95% of the infections with SARS they had mutations in their lungs, and he said we don’t know yet for Covid-19, but if you get contaminated and you have mutations in your lungs that can be the difference between being a good amateur runner and being an Olympian.
“And I didn’t forget that, and I started really thinking about the fact that I am a professional athlete, I have my responsibilities as an athlete, so I am not going to help that quick any more as I said in the beginning. And that’s the hard part – because I had to choose between being the nurse that I have been for years, with all my heart, and being a professional athlete.
“I was really, really doubting, and my coach said ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, because it can affect your career.’ That period was hard. I was glad Eva was there at that time…
“I don’t want my athletics career to get stopped or affected because I just wanted to go and help and at that moment it wasn’t my job. I am paid to be a professional athlete so I have my responsibilities. And that hurts, if you see that they need help.”
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

Koen Naert Belgium World Half Marathon Gdynia

Naert sets sights on Gdynia for return to competitive action

World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and world 3000m leader Jacob Kiplimo are among the athletes selected to represent Uganda at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.
Cheptegei, the world cross-country champion, broke the world 5000m record at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco last month with 12:35.36 and is targeting a tilt on the 10,000m mark on 7 October before heading to Poland.
Kiplimo, meanwhile, won the 5000m at the World Athletics Continental Tour meeting in Ostrava with a PB of 12:48.63 and then went on to triumph over 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome in a world-leading 7:26.64, breaking the Ugandan record and becoming the fastest teenager in history for the distance.
Given their exploits on the track in recent months, Cheptegei and Kiplimo will be among the medal favourites when they take to the startline in Gdynia &ndash; despite the fact that both men will be making their half marathon debut.
They are joined on the team by 2009 world U20 cross-country bronze medallist Moses Kibet, Stephen Kissa and Abel Chebet.
Juliet Chekwel, who holds the Ugandan records for 10,000m (31:37.99), half marathon (1:09:45) and the marathon (2:23:13), leads the women&rsquo;s team.
Doreen Chemutai, Doreen Chesang, Rachael Zena Chebet make up the rest of the Ugandan women&rsquo;s roster.
<h3>Ugandan team for Gdynia</h3>
Men: Abel Chebet, Joshua Cheptegei, Moses Kibet, Jacob Kiplimo, Stephen Kissa
Women: Juliet Chekwel, Doreen Chemutai, Doreen Chesang, Rachael Zena Chebet

World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and world 3000m leader Jacob Kiplimo are among the athletes selected to represent Uganda at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 17 October.

World Half Gdynia 2020 Ugandan team

Cheptegei and Kiplimo lead Ugandan team for World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020

Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.
Growing up on the south side of the city of St Petersburg, Florida, poverty and gang violence was common. His best friend ended up in jail and Bromell admits he still to this day carries the scars of PTSD from some of the things he has seen in his life.
He found salvation in athletics. As a first-year university student, he won the NCAA 100m title. At the age of 20 he snared a world 100m bronze medal in Beijing. The following year, he struck 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships.
But since picking up a heel injury in 2016, he has undergone two surgeries and a painstaking rehabilitation which virtually wiped out three full seasons out of his career.
Yet this year Bromell is back. Despite a Covid-19 disrupted period of preparation, the 25-year-old US sprinter blitzed to a 9.90 100m clocking in July &ndash; a performance which currently sits second on the world lists and his fastest time for four years.
Now coached by Rana Reider alongside training partners Omar McLeod, Nia Ali and Andre de Grasse, he is like a man re-born.
Citing his background as a key component of instilling within him the motivation and will to succeed, nobody should have any doubts as to the mental resilience of the 1.75m tall sprinter.
&ldquo;I grew up around a lot of gang violence and gang influence,&rdquo; explains Bromell. &ldquo;It was a humbling place, a hard place &ndash; where we come from we call it the trenches. But living in these places can make you a man and make you withstand any storm that comes your way.&rdquo;
It is fair to say Bromell has overcome his fair share of storms.
His mother worked 7pm-7am every day and directed him down the right path, &ldquo;making sure I wasn&rsquo;t in those bad situations,&rdquo; explains Bromell. He took up sprinting at the age of four and joined the Lightning Bolt Track Club, where, for the next 14 years, his track career was guided by the inspirational Garlynn Boyd. Bromell describes Boyd as his &ldquo;second mom&rdquo; and she instilled in him a desire to self-improve. 
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CEc2nwnAbti/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="12">
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Bromell&rsquo;s sporting journey, however, did not come without its challenges. As has been previously documented between his eighth and tenth grade, he broke his left knee doing a backflip, broke his right knee and forearm playing basketball, and fractured a hip during a race.
&ldquo;It (the injuries and my background) put me in a mind-set where I knew I had to work twice as hard to achieve what I have,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;None of the success you see has come without hard work. I&rsquo;ve had broken bones and health issues, I&rsquo;ve never had time to slack off.&rdquo;
And perhaps as a direct result of not being defeated by these set-backs, Bromell says he now fears no one on the track.
Working with Boyd, he shrugged off the injuries, and in his final year at high school he secured the national U20 100m title and earned 100m bronze at the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships in Colombia.
Yet after graduating from high school, he faced a crossroads in his life.&nbsp;
&ldquo;What took me out of my environment was my decision to go to Baylor (University in Texas),&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;That gave me a better life. I even asked coach (Mike) Ford to try to get me to the school because &lsquo;if I don&rsquo;t leave St Pete, I don&rsquo;t know how my life is going to end&rsquo;.&rdquo;
In the summer of 2013 he was recruited by Baylor, which quickly took his life on a positive trajectory. As a freshman he powered to a world U20 record of 9.97 on his way to the NCAA 100m title. In 2015 he shared world 100m bronze &ndash; coincidentally with his current training partner Andre de Grasse.
He turned pro, banked the 2016 world indoor 60m title and was preparing well for the Rio Olympics, only to pick up a heel injury the day before the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham in early June. Later diagnosed as a bone spur injury, he nonetheless battled on to the US Olympic Trials, where, despite a badly compromised build up, he equalled his PB to claim second in 9.84 and book his spot on the US team for Rio. 
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Trayvon Bromell at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015</div>
&nbsp;
Unfortunately, the injury meant he was unable to produce his best in Brazil. Showing huge mental resilience and fortitude, he scrapped his way to the final but wound up eighth in 10.06.
Ever upbeat, Bromell tried to suck the positives out of his maiden Olympic experience. &ldquo;Of course, it was not on the circumstances I would have wanted, but I can&rsquo;t be mad,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;The opportunity to race in an Olympic final is one many people would wish to have.&rdquo;
On his return home, he underwent surgery in Dallas to remove the bone spur. However, the doctor mistakenly advised Bromell to carry out no strengthening exercises on the heel. This was to prove costly.
The lack of rehab exercises caused a build-up of scar tissue, so Bromell had to undergo a second surgery to fix the problem. In between he had made it to the start line for the 100m heats of the 2017 US Championships but in his only appearance of the year he finished fifth in 10.22.
In 2018 he focused on strengthening his foot and achilles. Endless calf raises were part of the daily training diet while running sometimes up to 1000m in distance &ldquo;whatever the coach asked of me&rdquo; on the track, grass field on underwater treadmill were carried out.
It was, at times, a gruelling road back to full fitness
&ldquo;The hardest part was not being able to do what I love,&rdquo; explains Bromell. &ldquo;Track is such a big part of me and my life. What kept me going were the people around me, my faith and mentality. They had to remind me where I&rsquo;d come from. Only the strong survive, and I had to find that fight again. I had to find that fire.&rdquo; 
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US sprinter Trayvon Bromell in action over 60m</div>
&nbsp;
Twenty-four months on from his last competitive appearance, he returned to competition June 2019, finishing eighth in 10.57 in Kingston, Jamaica. In his next race in Montverde, Florida, he shaved 0.03 from that time but tweaked an adductor.
He knew change was necessary and the following month left his long-term coach, Mike Ford, in Texas to join Reider&rsquo;s world-class training group in Florida.
Trayvon fully acknowledges the huge role Ford played in his career development; he simply required a different set of resources.
&ldquo;I needed to be in a different environment and to try something new,&rdquo; explains Bromell of the switch. &ldquo;Rana has strong credentials, the drive and a fierce work ethic.&rdquo;
Bromell describes training under Reider as &lsquo;a grind&rsquo; and completely different to previous training regimes. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not for the weak,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You have to be ready to hurt.&rdquo;
He doesn&rsquo;t go into specifics, but insists he is not being deliberately evasive. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not lying to you, sometimes the workouts are so hard it is hard to remember them!&rdquo;
The training may be tough but the bond forged with his fellow athletes in the Tumbleweed Track Club is strong. He values the whole-hearted support of the likes of De Grasse, Ali, McLeod and others.
&ldquo;I say this with the utmost respect and love, that besides God, I would not be back running if it wasn&rsquo;t for this group of great individuals,&rdquo; he adds.
&ldquo;In the training sessions, I hear the guys shout out &lsquo;you can do it&rsquo; and &lsquo;you can make this comeback&rsquo;. We really push each other. If coronavirus had not have happened, the world would have seen some amazing performances from the Tumbleweed Track Club. The numbers were we putting up in practice were crazy.&rdquo;
Unfortunately, Covid-19 did then hit and Bromell was forced to improvise. Without a track or weight-room facility to access, training with resistance bands and carrying out body circuits at home became the norm. Grass fields were found for training in which Reider was forced to yell his instructions from afar to ensure adequate physical distancing. 
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US sprinter Trayvon Bromell</div>
&nbsp;
In July, just a week and a half before his outdoor seasonal debut, he learned of the tragic death of his first coach and &lsquo;second mom&rsquo;, Boyd. She was aged just 54 but has struggled with diabetes &ndash; both of her legs were amputated &ndash; and she had contracted coronavirus.
&ldquo;It was hard,&rdquo; explains Bromell. &ldquo;She was like family and always there for me, it was like having another parent. She pushed me and gave me that inner drive. She coached every child as if they were her own. To see someone die who had nurtured so many kids was hard.&rdquo;
Inspired by Boyd, he ran 10.04 &ndash; his quickest 100m time for four years &ndash; in Montverde. Three weeks later he scorched to a 9.90 clocking &ndash; the joint-fourth fastest 100m time of his career &ndash; to defeat world 200m champion Noah Lyles in Clermont. Two more sub-10-second times &ndash; a 9.99 and a windy 9.87 &ndash; followed in August in Montverde before Bromell decided to shut down his brief but confidence-boosting 2020 campaign.
&ldquo;For this season, I did what we wanted to which was to come and run fast,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;When I ran 10.04 for my first outing, it was a big shock. Then to come out and run 9.90 against Noah showed great fitness under difficult circumstances (training in a global pandemic).&rdquo;
Bromell is currently taking a period of rest before returning to training in October when he&rsquo;ll turn his attention to preparing for the rescheduled Olympic Games. Given his past injury situation, Bromell admits the switching of the Tokyo Games could be beneficial for him.
Yet beyond medals and PBs, the Floridian, who went back to college to complete a masters&rsquo; degree in business, has some more general goals to achieve in the future.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to say I&rsquo;m going to run nine-point-something, I just want to keep inspiring people,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;If I do that, it will be more than I&rsquo;ve ever dreamed of.&rdquo;
Steve Landells for World Athletics

Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.


Life has never come easily to Trayvon Bromell.
Growing up on the south side of the city of St Petersburg, Florida, poverty and gang violence was common. His best friend ended up in jail and Bromell admits he still to this day carries the scars of PTSD from some of the things he has seen in his life.
He found salvation in athletics. As a first-year university student, he won the NCAA 100m title. At the age of 20 he snared a world 100m bronze medal in Beijing. The following year, he struck 60m gold at the World Indoor Championships.
But since picking up a heel injury in 2016, he has undergone two surgeries and a painstaking rehabilitation which virtually wiped out three full seasons out of his career.
Yet this year Bromell is back. Despite a Covid-19 disrupted period of preparation, the 25-year-old US sprinter blitzed to a 9.90 100m clocking in July – a performance which currently sits second on the world lists and his fastest time for four years.
Now coached by Rana Reider alongside training partners Omar McLeod, Nia Ali and Andre de Grasse, he is like a man re-born.
Citing his background as a key component of instilling within him the motivation and will to succeed, nobody should have any doubts as to the mental resilience of the 1.75m tall sprinter.
“I grew up around a lot of gang violence and gang influence,” explains Bromell. “It was a humbling place, a hard place – where we come from we call it the trenches. But living in these places can make you a man and make you withstand any storm that comes your way.”
It is fair to say Bromell has overcome his fair share of storms.
His mother worked 7pm-7am every day and directed him down the right path, “making sure I wasn’t in those bad situations,” explains Bromell. He took up sprinting at the age of four and joined the Lightning Bolt Track Club, where, for the next 14 years, his track career was guided by the inspirational Garlynn Boyd. Bromell describes Boyd as his “second mom” and she instilled in him a desire to self-improve.     View this post on Instagram           
A post shared by Trayvon Bromell (@iamtrayvonbromell) on Aug 28, 2020 at 4:07pm PDT

Bromell’s sporting journey, however, did not come without its challenges. As has been previously documented between his eighth and tenth grade, he broke his left knee doing a backflip, broke his right knee and forearm playing basketball, and fractured a hip during a race.
“It (the injuries and my background) put me in a mind-set where I knew I had to work twice as hard to achieve what I have,” he explains. “None of the success you see has come without hard work. I’ve had broken bones and health issues, I’ve never had time to slack off.”
And perhaps as a direct result of not being defeated by these set-backs, Bromell says he now fears no one on the track.
Working with Boyd, he shrugged off the injuries, and in his final year at high school he secured the national U20 100m title and earned 100m bronze at the 2013 Pan American Junior Championships in Colombia.
Yet after graduating from high school, he faced a crossroads in his life. 
“What took me out of my environment was my decision to go to Baylor (University in Texas),” he explains. “That gave me a better life. I even asked coach (Mike) Ford to try to get me to the school because ‘if I don’t leave St Pete, I don’t know how my life is going to end’.”
In the summer of 2013 he was recruited by Baylor, which quickly took his life on a positive trajectory. As a freshman he powered to a world U20 record of 9.97 on his way to the NCAA 100m title. In 2015 he shared world 100m bronze – coincidentally with his current training partner Andre de Grasse.
He turned pro, banked the 2016 world indoor 60m title and was preparing well for the Rio Olympics, only to pick up a heel injury the day before the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham in early June. Later diagnosed as a bone spur injury, he nonetheless battled on to the US Olympic Trials, where, despite a badly compromised build up, he equalled his PB to claim second in 9.84 and book his spot on the US team for Rio. 
Trayvon Bromell at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015
 
Unfortunately, the injury meant he was unable to produce his best in Brazil. Showing huge mental resilience and fortitude, he scrapped his way to the final but wound up eighth in 10.06.
Ever upbeat, Bromell tried to suck the positives out of his maiden Olympic experience. “Of course, it was not on the circumstances I would have wanted, but I can’t be mad,” he explains. “The opportunity to race in an Olympic final is one many people would wish to have.”
On his return home, he underwent surgery in Dallas to remove the bone spur. However, the doctor mistakenly advised Bromell to carry out no strengthening exercises on the heel. This was to prove costly.
The lack of rehab exercises caused a build-up of scar tissue, so Bromell had to undergo a second surgery to fix the problem. In between he had made it to the start line for the 100m heats of the 2017 US Championships but in his only appearance of the year he finished fifth in 10.22.
In 2018 he focused on strengthening his foot and achilles. Endless calf raises were part of the daily training diet while running sometimes up to 1000m in distance “whatever the coach asked of me” on the track, grass field on underwater treadmill were carried out.
It was, at times, a gruelling road back to full fitness
“The hardest part was not being able to do what I love,” explains Bromell. “Track is such a big part of me and my life. What kept me going were the people around me, my faith and mentality. They had to remind me where I’d come from. Only the strong survive, and I had to find that fight again. I had to find that fire.” 
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell in action over 60m
 
Twenty-four months on from his last competitive appearance, he returned to competition June 2019, finishing eighth in 10.57 in Kingston, Jamaica. In his next race in Montverde, Florida, he shaved 0.03 from that time but tweaked an adductor.
He knew change was necessary and the following month left his long-term coach, Mike Ford, in Texas to join Reider’s world-class training group in Florida.
Trayvon fully acknowledges the huge role Ford played in his career development; he simply required a different set of resources.
“I needed to be in a different environment and to try something new,” explains Bromell of the switch. “Rana has strong credentials, the drive and a fierce work ethic.”
Bromell describes training under Reider as ‘a grind’ and completely different to previous training regimes. “It’s not for the weak,” he says. “You have to be ready to hurt.”
He doesn’t go into specifics, but insists he is not being deliberately evasive. “I’m not lying to you, sometimes the workouts are so hard it is hard to remember them!”
The training may be tough but the bond forged with his fellow athletes in the Tumbleweed Track Club is strong. He values the whole-hearted support of the likes of De Grasse, Ali, McLeod and others.
“I say this with the utmost respect and love, that besides God, I would not be back running if it wasn’t for this group of great individuals,” he adds.
“In the training sessions, I hear the guys shout out ‘you can do it’ and ‘you can make this comeback’. We really push each other. If coronavirus had not have happened, the world would have seen some amazing performances from the Tumbleweed Track Club. The numbers were we putting up in practice were crazy.”
Unfortunately, Covid-19 did then hit and Bromell was forced to improvise. Without a track or weight-room facility to access, training with resistance bands and carrying out body circuits at home became the norm. Grass fields were found for training in which Reider was forced to yell his instructions from afar to ensure adequate physical distancing. 
US sprinter Trayvon Bromell
 
In July, just a week and a half before his outdoor seasonal debut, he learned of the tragic death of his first coach and ‘second mom’, Boyd. She was aged just 54 but has struggled with diabetes – both of her legs were amputated – and she had contracted coronavirus.
“It was hard,” explains Bromell. “She was like family and always there for me, it was like having another parent. She pushed me and gave me that inner drive. She coached every child as if they were her own. To see someone die who had nurtured so many kids was hard.”
Inspired by Boyd, he ran 10.04 – his quickest 100m time for four years – in Montverde. Three weeks later he scorched to a 9.90 clocking – the joint-fourth fastest 100m time of his career – to defeat world 200m champion Noah Lyles in Clermont. Two more sub-10-second times – a 9.99 and a windy 9.87 – followed in August in Montverde before Bromell decided to shut down his brief but confidence-boosting 2020 campaign.
“For this season, I did what we wanted to which was to come and run fast,” he explains. “When I ran 10.04 for my first outing, it was a big shock. Then to come out and run 9.90 against Noah showed great fitness under difficult circumstances (training in a global pandemic).”
Bromell is currently taking a period of rest before returning to training in October when he’ll turn his attention to preparing for the rescheduled Olympic Games. Given his past injury situation, Bromell admits the switching of the Tokyo Games could be beneficial for him.
Yet beyond medals and PBs, the Floridian, who went back to college to complete a masters’ degree in business, has some more general goals to achieve in the future.
“I don’t want to say I’m going to run nine-point-something, I just want to keep inspiring people,” he says. “If I do that, it will be more than I’ve ever dreamed of.”
Steve Landells for World Athletics

Trayvon Bromell USA sprints comeback

Back to full health, Bromell's biggest goal is to continue to inspire

The <a href="https://doha.diamondleague.com/programme-results-doha/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provisional entry lists</a> are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.
Mondo Duplantis, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Timothy Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri are among the star-studded cast of world and Olympic medallists that will grace the track at Doha's Qatar Sports Club in the final Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.
&ldquo;In spite of incredibly challenging circumstances, I&rsquo;m proud of the fantastic fields we&rsquo;ve put together for this event,&rdquo; says Khalid Al Marri, Wanda Doha Diamond League meeting director.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a tough summer for everyone, yet we&rsquo;ve witnessed some exceptional track and field performances. I&rsquo;m confident that in Doha, the fourth and final competitive meeting of this shortened 2020 Wanda Diamond League series, we&rsquo;ll provide a fitting finale.&rdquo;
Doha&rsquo;s Qatar Sports Club will host the revised 12-event programme for the Wanda Doha Diamond League 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.
&nbsp;
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The provisional entry lists are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.


The provisional entry lists are now available for the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha on 25 September.
Mondo Duplantis, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Timothy Cheruiyot and Hellen Obiri are among the star-studded cast of world and Olympic medallists that will grace the track at Doha's Qatar Sports Club in the final Wanda Diamond League meeting of the season.
“In spite of incredibly challenging circumstances, I’m proud of the fantastic fields we’ve put together for this event,” says Khalid Al Marri, Wanda Doha Diamond League meeting director.
“It’s been a tough summer for everyone, yet we’ve witnessed some exceptional track and field performances. I’m confident that in Doha, the fourth and final competitive meeting of this shortened 2020 Wanda Diamond League series, we’ll provide a fitting finale.”
Doha’s Qatar Sports Club will host the revised 12-event programme for the Wanda Doha Diamond League 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.
  

Diamond League entry lists

Doha provisional entry lists, as at 21 September

In a javelin competition where the top three athletes exceeded a championship record that had stood for 32 years, Moldova&rsquo;s Andrian Mardare emerged victorious with 83.60m, producing one of the main highlights of the Balkan Championships in Cluj-Napoca.
More than 250 athletes from 11 countries descended on the Romanian city for two days of action, which concluded on Sunday (20).
Mardare, bronze medallist at the 2016 Balkan Championships, headed to Romania off the back of some strong performances on the Continental Tour circuit. After opening with a foul, he took command of the competition with his second-round effort of 82.78m.
Bulgaria&rsquo;s Mark Slavov, who took silver at last year&rsquo;s Balkan Championships and bronze in 2018, threw a PB of 78.28m in the second round but then unleashed an almighty 83.40m to break the Bulgarian record, adding almost nine metres to his pre-competition best.
Mardare kept his composure and responded with 81.01m to close out that round, but then improved to 83.60m in round four to take a narrow lead. Salvov didn&rsquo;t improve on his record throw, while Mardare rounded out his consistent series with efforts of 83.03m and 80.68m.
Bosnia and Herzegovina&rsquo;s Dejan Mileusnic, the 2016 Balkan champion, finished third with 79.57m, which was better than the previous championship best.
Alin Alexandru Firfirica won his fourth Balkan title in the men&rsquo;s discus. The Romanian, who finished fourth at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, threw 64.72m to win by more than six metres.
Compatriot Bianca Ghelber also landed her fourth senior Balkan title. The two-time world U20 champion, now aged 30, produced her best series of the year to win the women&rsquo;s hammer with 72.18m, regaining the title she last won in 2014.
For the second year in a row, the men&rsquo;s hammer title was won by an U20 athlete. 2019 winner Christos Frantzeskakis was unable to defend his title as Greece opted not to send a team, leaving Mykhaylo Kokhan a relatively clear path to victory.
The 19-year-old Ukrainian, who finished fifth at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, took the lead in round three with 75.01m and followed it with three further throws beyond 75 metres, his best &ndash; 75.43m &ndash; coming in the penultimate round.
<h3>Tkachuk takes 400m hurdles title, Bobocea completes middle-distance double</h3>
Ukrainian athletes scooped several medals on the track and they landed a 1-2 finish in both of the women&rsquo;s one-lap events.
Viktoriia Tkachuk won the 400m hurdles in 55.58, finishing comfortably ahead of teammate Mariaa Mykolenko. Anna Ryzhykova, better known as a hurdler, focused on the 400m flat in Cluj-Napoca &nbsp;and won handily in 51.74, just 0.04 shy of the PB she set last month. Compatriot Alina Logvynenko was second in 52.89.
All four women teamed up in the 4x400m on Sunday and won gold by almost four seconds in 3:34.21.
Claudia Bobocea won both of the host nation&rsquo;s individual track titles. She took the 800m title on Saturday in 2:03.32 and then returned to the track 24 hours later to win the 1500m in 4:12.95.
Turkey&rsquo;s Jak Ali Harvey was the most successful athlete of the championships. He won the men&rsquo;s sprint double in 10.30 and 20.77 and added another gold medal in the 4x100m (39.63). Turkey added another relay gold in the final race of the championships, the men&rsquo;s 4x400m (3:06.35).
<h3>Petrova lands double jumps gold</h3>
Bulgaria&rsquo;s Gabriela Petrova also had a busy weekend. The 2015 European indoor silver medallist comfortably won her specialist event, the triple jump, on Saturday with 14.19m (0.8m/s). She was back on the runway on Sunday in the long jump and once again emerged victorious, taking the lead in round three with 6.34m and then improving to 6.41m in the fourth round.
She becomes the first athlete since Marian Oprea in 2014 to complete the horizontal jumps double at the Balkan Championships.
Other jumps highlights came from Armenia&rsquo;s Levon Aghasyan, who won the men&rsquo;s triple jump with his opening effort of 16.53m, and Ukraine&rsquo;s Andriy Protsenko, who claimed the men&rsquo;s high jump title with 2.25m.
Elsewhere, Alina Shukh won the heptathlon title with a massive 1000-point margin, scoring 5940, helped by a 51.90m effort in the javelin.
Ukraine topped the medals table with 12 gold and 32 medals in total, followed by Turkey (10 gold) and Romania (8).
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

In a javelin competition where the top three athletes exceeded a championship record that had stood for 32 years, Moldova’s Andrian Mardare emerged victorious with 83.60m, producing one of the main highlights of the Balkan Championships in Cluj-Napoca.

Balkan Championships 2020 Mardare

Mardare highlights Balkan Championships with record-breaking throw 

Kenya&rsquo;s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men&rsquo;s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.
The 21-year-old, contesting his first 10,000m race in three years, ran alongside compatriot Solomon Kiplimo Boit during the early stages, passing through 3000m just inside 8:12. Kimeli broke away from Boit just a couple of laps later and set off in pursuit of a sub-27-minute time.
Kimeli&rsquo;s lead grew with each lap, while Boit continued running in no-man&rsquo;s land. Further behind, Dutch runner Mike Foppen, making his debut over 10,000m, gradually detached himself from the main chase pack.
Kimeli forged on and started to sprint on the final lap when he realised a sub-27-minute performance was a possibility. He crossed the line in 26:58.97 to smash the meeting record by almost half a minute.
Boit finished second in 27:41.10, while Foppen placed third in 27:59.10. It was Foppen&rsquo;s eighth PB of the year, having set two at 1500m, one at 2000m, two at 3000m, plus national records for 5000m and 5km.
In fourth, Swedish teenager Emil Millan de la Oliva clocked a national U20 record of 28:23.21, just one second shy of the European U20 record of 28:22.48 set by Italy's Christian Leuprecht back in 1990.
As is tradition at this meeting, a golden spike trophy is presented to the top performer of the night. Unsurprisingly, Kimeli scooped that accolade.
Elsewhere in Leiden, Menno Vloon won the pole vault with 5.76m, the second-best clearance of his career after his 5.85m national record in 2017.
<h3>Warholm and Ingebrigtsen dominant at Norwegian Championships</h3>
Some of the country&rsquo;s biggest stars turned out in Bergen for the Norwegian Championships, which concluded on Sunday (20).
Just three days after winning in Rome with a meeting record of 47.07, two-time world champion Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 48.23, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen completed a middle-distance double, taking the 1500m title in 3:33.93 on Saturday &ndash; winning by 13 seconds &ndash; and then winning the 800m in 1:48.72 on Sunday.
A week after setting a world U18 heptathlon best of 6301, 17-year-old Henriette J&aelig;ger won the 400m in 52.90 and the 200m in 23.60 (-2.0m/s). She was also third in the long jump (6.04m).
Elsewhere, Amalie Iuel won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in 55.63 and Zerei Kbrom Mezngi took the men&rsquo;s 10,000m title in 28:04.29.
<h3>Yamanishi impresses in Kumagaya</h3>
World champion Toshikazu Yamanishi stepped down in distance at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships in Kumagaya and won the 5000m race walk in 18:34.88, the fastest ever clocking by an Asian race walker.
Yamanishi had Eiki Takahashi, Tomohiro Noda and Satoshi Maruo for company in the early stages, but he gradually dropped them one by one before going on to win by almost 17 seconds. Takahashi finished second in 18:51.25.
Yamanishi&rsquo;s winning time is four seconds faster than the Asian record set by Yusuke Suzuki back in 2015, just three months after he set a world record over 20km. 
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Toshikazu Yamanishi on his way to winning the 5000m race walk at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships</div>
&nbsp;
In a high-quality men&rsquo;s 10,000m race, 2015 world U18 champion Richard Kimunyan emerged the winner in 27:01.42, finishing just one second ahead of Benard Koech (27:02.39) with Bedan Karoki a close third (27:02.80). Kimunyan&rsquo;s time was a world lead but lasted just eight hours at the top of the world list before it was bettered in Leiden.
The women's 5000m was similarly speedy, won by Kenya's Rebecca Mwangi in 14:55.32. National half marathon record-holder Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, while Ririka Hironaka placed third in 14:59.37. Niiya and Hironaka moved to second and third respectively on the Japanese all-time list.
On the infield, Tomohiro Shinno produced a lifetime best of 2.31m to win the men's high jump title, moving to fourth on the Japanese all-time list in the process. National record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season&rsquo;s best of 63.45m to win the women&rsquo;s javelin.

Kenya’s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men’s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.


Kenya’s world 5000m finalist Nicolas Kimeli won the men’s 10,000m at the Gouden Spike meeting in Leiden, clocking a world-leading PB of 26:58.97.
The 21-year-old, contesting his first 10,000m race in three years, ran alongside compatriot Solomon Kiplimo Boit during the early stages, passing through 3000m just inside 8:12. Kimeli broke away from Boit just a couple of laps later and set off in pursuit of a sub-27-minute time.
Kimeli’s lead grew with each lap, while Boit continued running in no-man’s land. Further behind, Dutch runner Mike Foppen, making his debut over 10,000m, gradually detached himself from the main chase pack.
Kimeli forged on and started to sprint on the final lap when he realised a sub-27-minute performance was a possibility. He crossed the line in 26:58.97 to smash the meeting record by almost half a minute.
Boit finished second in 27:41.10, while Foppen placed third in 27:59.10. It was Foppen’s eighth PB of the year, having set two at 1500m, one at 2000m, two at 3000m, plus national records for 5000m and 5km.
In fourth, Swedish teenager Emil Millan de la Oliva clocked a national U20 record of 28:23.21, just one second shy of the European U20 record of 28:22.48 set by Italy's Christian Leuprecht back in 1990.
As is tradition at this meeting, a golden spike trophy is presented to the top performer of the night. Unsurprisingly, Kimeli scooped that accolade.
Elsewhere in Leiden, Menno Vloon won the pole vault with 5.76m, the second-best clearance of his career after his 5.85m national record in 2017.Warholm and Ingebrigtsen dominant at Norwegian Championships
Some of the country’s biggest stars turned out in Bergen for the Norwegian Championships, which concluded on Sunday (20).
Just three days after winning in Rome with a meeting record of 47.07, two-time world champion Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 48.23, finishing more than five seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen completed a middle-distance double, taking the 1500m title in 3:33.93 on Saturday – winning by 13 seconds – and then winning the 800m in 1:48.72 on Sunday.
A week after setting a world U18 heptathlon best of 6301, 17-year-old Henriette Jæger won the 400m in 52.90 and the 200m in 23.60 (-2.0m/s). She was also third in the long jump (6.04m).
Elsewhere, Amalie Iuel won the women’s 400m hurdles in 55.63 and Zerei Kbrom Mezngi took the men’s 10,000m title in 28:04.29.Yamanishi impresses in Kumagaya
World champion Toshikazu Yamanishi stepped down in distance at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships in Kumagaya and won the 5000m race walk in 18:34.88, the fastest ever clocking by an Asian race walker.
Yamanishi had Eiki Takahashi, Tomohiro Noda and Satoshi Maruo for company in the early stages, but he gradually dropped them one by one before going on to win by almost 17 seconds. Takahashi finished second in 18:51.25.
Yamanishi’s winning time is four seconds faster than the Asian record set by Yusuke Suzuki back in 2015, just three months after he set a world record over 20km. 
Toshikazu Yamanishi on his way to winning the 5000m race walk at the Japanese Inter-Corporate Championships
 
In a high-quality men’s 10,000m race, 2015 world U18 champion Richard Kimunyan emerged the winner in 27:01.42, finishing just one second ahead of Benard Koech (27:02.39) with Bedan Karoki a close third (27:02.80). Kimunyan’s time was a world lead but lasted just eight hours at the top of the world list before it was bettered in Leiden.
The women's 5000m was similarly speedy, won by Kenya's Rebecca Mwangi in 14:55.32. National half marathon record-holder Hitomi Niiya was a close second in 14:55.83, while Ririka Hironaka placed third in 14:59.37. Niiya and Hironaka moved to second and third respectively on the Japanese all-time list.
On the infield, Tomohiro Shinno produced a lifetime best of 2.31m to win the men's high jump title, moving to fourth on the Japanese all-time list in the process. National record-holder Haruka Kitaguchi threw a season’s best of 63.45m to win the women’s javelin.

Yamanishi Asian record Kumagaya Kimeli Leiden

Kimeli clocks 10,000m world lead in Leiden, Warholm and Ingebrigtsen victorious in Bergen

World and Olympic champion Liu Hong, competing for the first time in 11 months, won the women's 20km race walk at China&rsquo;s Autumn Race Walking Championships in Taian on Sunday (20).
A six-woman pack formed before long, comprising Liu, 2017 world champion Yang Jiayu, world silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie, world bronze medallist Yang Luijing, 2014 world U20 bronze medallist Ni Yuanyuan and Olympic bronze medallist Lu Xiuzhi. Yang Jiayu was the first to make a move and broke away from the others after about four kilometres, creating a 15-second lead.
Yang Jiayu continued to lead into the second half, while the chase pack started to splinter. At the 10km mark, Yang Jiayu still had a 12-second lead over Liu while Yang Liujing and Qieyang trailed further behind.
Liu started to close on the long-time leader after 13km, eventually catching her at about 15km. Yang Jiayu's pace didn't fade, but she couldn't quite match Liu's relentless tempo on the final lap as the world record-holder covered the last two kilometres in 8:34.
Liu crossed the line in 1:27:48 with Yang Jiayu taking second in 1:28:06 and Qieyang third in 1:28:27. Ni (1:30:56) and Yang Liujing (1:31:00) also achieved Olympic qualifying times in fourth and fifth.
Asian Games champion Wang Kaihua won a competitive men&rsquo;s 20km event.
Joined by Zhang Jun, Wang led from the outset and passed through 5km in 20:01 and 10km in 40:03. Olympic silver medallist Cai Zelin and Cui Lihong were more than a minute adrift, reaching half way in 41:04, closely followed by 2012 Olympic champion Chen Ding and Li Xiaobin.
Wang cranked up the pace at 13km and opened up a gap on Zhang, who initially tried to go with him but then started to suffer. Working together, Cai and Chen managed to make up a bit of ground in the final stages, but Wang was already assured of the victory and crossed the line in 1:20:49, 11 seconds inside the Olympic qualifying mark.
Cai finished second in 1:22:03, nine seconds ahead of Chen. Li was fourth (1:22:56) and Zhang fifth (1:23:12).
Zhaxi Yangben won the men's 50km in 3:52:19, finishing comfortably ahead of 2017 National Games champion Wang Rui (3:55:48).
<h3>Karlstrom a class apart in Alytus</h3>
World bronze medallist Perseus Karlstrom returned to the roads for the first time in seven months at the International Race Walking Festival in Alytus on Friday (18), winning the men&rsquo;s 20km event in 1:20:58.
And, with the Olympic qualifying window now open for road performances, the Swede&rsquo;s winning mark counts as a qualifying performance for the Tokyo Olympics next year. Lithuania&rsquo;s Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene, winner of the women&rsquo;s race in 1:30:54, also finished just inside the Olympic qualifying standard.
Karlstrom set off at a steady pace with Britain&rsquo;s 2016 world U20 champion Callum Wilkinson close behind, passing through five kilometres in 20:38 a couple of seconds ahead of Ukrainian duo Nazar Kovalenko and Ivan Losev.
After reaching half way in 40:32, the leading duo began to increase the pace and they passed through 12 kilometres in 48:31. Unable to maintain that pace, Wilkinson drifted back slightly while Karlstrom powered on ahead. By the time he reached 17 kilometres (1:08:40), he had a 20-second lead over Wilkinson.
Karlstrom slowed slightly in the final kilometre, but he crossed the line in 1:20:58 to finish two seconds inside the Olympic qualifying standard. With a strong final circuit, Losev and Kovalenko came through to take second (1:21:10) and third (1:21:12) respectively, while Wilkinson was fourth in a PB of 1:21:21.
"My goal was to have a good race and go for the victory," said Karlstrom. "I didn&rsquo;t have a specific time in mind. It&rsquo;s been a really strange year and it&rsquo;s good to have at least one race before winter training."
In the women&rsquo;s race, Virbalyte-Dimsiene had Hungary&rsquo;s Viktoria Madarasz for company during the early stages, passing through eight kilometres together in 36:08. But the Lithuanian, cheered on by the home supporters, gradually began to pull away and by 14 kilometres her lead over Madarasz was almost one minute.
Virbalyte-Dimsiene, the fourth-place finisher at the 2018 European Championships, maintained her pace to the end and finished in a season&rsquo;s best of 1:30:54. Madarasz was second in 1:33:41, comfortably ahead of Spain&rsquo;s Ainhoa Pinedo (1:37:50).
<h3>Hendel victorious in Usti nad Labem</h3>
Croatia&rsquo;s Kristina Hendel comfortably won the Usti nad Labem Half Marathon on Saturday (19) in a PB of 1:13:27, while Bogdan-Ivan Horovydsky of Ukraine took the men&rsquo;s title in 1:03:53, taking seven seconds off the PB he set just six days ago.
The event had been scaled down so that it could comply with the regulations currently in place in the Czech Republic, and the elite races comprised all-European fields.
Hendel led from the early stages, passing through five kilometres in 17:05 and 10 kilometres in 34:27. At the half-way mark, her lead had grown to almost 30 seconds over the chasing trio: Marcela Joglova of the Czech Republic, Nuria Lugueros Diaz of Spain and Fatna Maraoui of Italy. 
<img src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/LargeL/19297e78-9738-45e1-b2b3-6b0a8168e3a1.jpg?cachebuster=c1a11ef1-3d12-44fc-a3df-1df1025b4038" alt="Kristina Hendel" width="600" height="400" />
 By 15km, reached in 52:04, Hendel was away and clear while Diaz and Maraoui had managed to drop Joglova. Hendel reached the finish line in 1:13:27 with Diaz coming through to take second place in 1:14:15. Maraoui was third in 1:14:33.
The men&rsquo;s race was slightly more competitive. Horovydsky bided his time as part of a seven-man lead pack during the first half, passing 5km in 15:07 and 10km in 30:22. The pack started to break up in the second half and by 15km it had become a two-man race between Horovydsky and Italy&rsquo;s Said El Otmani.
The duo pushed one another right through to the end before Horovydsky eventually pulled clear, winning in 1:03:53. El Otmani followed him across the line five seconds later, while Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse was third in 1:04:34.
<h3>Turkish double for Atac and Demir at Istanbul Half</h3>
Turkey&rsquo;s Sezgin Atac ran away from Spain&rsquo;s Adel Mechaal in the closing stages of the Istanbul Half Marathon, winning the World Athletics Gold Label road race in a PB of 1:03:16.
Mechaal, the 2017 European indoor 3000m champion who was making his half marathon debut, finished second in 1:03:25. Kenya&rsquo;s Bernard Cheruiyot Sang and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Getaye Fisseha Gelaw, who were up with the leaders until the final few kilometres, finished third and fourth respectively in 1:03:51 and 1:03:58.
In the women&rsquo;s race, Kenya&rsquo;s Daisy Jeptoo Kimeli led for the first half, but Turkey&rsquo;s Fatma Demir came through in the latter stages and went on to win in 1:13:17. Kimeli held on for second place in 1:13:29, while Esma Aydemir was further back in third in 1:15:40.

World and Olympic champion Liu Hong, competing for the first time in 11 months, won the women's 20km race walk at China’s Autumn Race Walking Championships in Taian on Sunday (20).


World and Olympic champion Liu Hong, competing for the first time in 11 months, won the women's 20km race walk at China’s Autumn Race Walking Championships in Taian on Sunday (20).
A six-woman pack formed before long, comprising Liu, 2017 world champion Yang Jiayu, world silver medallist Qieyang Shenjie, world bronze medallist Yang Luijing, 2014 world U20 bronze medallist Ni Yuanyuan and Olympic bronze medallist Lu Xiuzhi. Yang Jiayu was the first to make a move and broke away from the others after about four kilometres, creating a 15-second lead.
Yang Jiayu continued to lead into the second half, while the chase pack started to splinter. At the 10km mark, Yang Jiayu still had a 12-second lead over Liu while Yang Liujing and Qieyang trailed further behind.
Liu started to close on the long-time leader after 13km, eventually catching her at about 15km. Yang Jiayu's pace didn't fade, but she couldn't quite match Liu's relentless tempo on the final lap as the world record-holder covered the last two kilometres in 8:34.
Liu crossed the line in 1:27:48 with Yang Jiayu taking second in 1:28:06 and Qieyang third in 1:28:27. Ni (1:30:56) and Yang Liujing (1:31:00) also achieved Olympic qualifying times in fourth and fifth.
Asian Games champion Wang Kaihua won a competitive men’s 20km event.
Joined by Zhang Jun, Wang led from the outset and passed through 5km in 20:01 and 10km in 40:03. Olympic silver medallist Cai Zelin and Cui Lihong were more than a minute adrift, reaching half way in 41:04, closely followed by 2012 Olympic champion Chen Ding and Li Xiaobin.
Wang cranked up the pace at 13km and opened up a gap on Zhang, who initially tried to go with him but then started to suffer. Working together, Cai and Chen managed to make up a bit of ground in the final stages, but Wang was already assured of the victory and crossed the line in 1:20:49, 11 seconds inside the Olympic qualifying mark.
Cai finished second in 1:22:03, nine seconds ahead of Chen. Li was fourth (1:22:56) and Zhang fifth (1:23:12).
Zhaxi Yangben won the men's 50km in 3:52:19, finishing comfortably ahead of 2017 National Games champion Wang Rui (3:55:48).Karlstrom a class apart in Alytus
World bronze medallist Perseus Karlstrom returned to the roads for the first time in seven months at the International Race Walking Festival in Alytus on Friday (18), winning the men’s 20km event in 1:20:58.
And, with the Olympic qualifying window now open for road performances, the Swede’s winning mark counts as a qualifying performance for the Tokyo Olympics next year. Lithuania’s Brigita Virbalyte-Dimsiene, winner of the women’s race in 1:30:54, also finished just inside the Olympic qualifying standard.
Karlstrom set off at a steady pace with Britain’s 2016 world U20 champion Callum Wilkinson close behind, passing through five kilometres in 20:38 a couple of seconds ahead of Ukrainian duo Nazar Kovalenko and Ivan Losev.
After reaching half way in 40:32, the leading duo began to increase the pace and they passed through 12 kilometres in 48:31. Unable to maintain that pace, Wilkinson drifted back slightly while Karlstrom powered on ahead. By the time he reached 17 kilometres (1:08:40), he had a 20-second lead over Wilkinson.
Karlstrom slowed slightly in the final kilometre, but he crossed the line in 1:20:58 to finish two seconds inside the Olympic qualifying standard. With a strong final circuit, Losev and Kovalenko came through to take second (1:21:10) and third (1:21:12) respectively, while Wilkinson was fourth in a PB of 1:21:21.
"My goal was to have a good race and go for the victory," said Karlstrom. "I didn’t have a specific time in mind. It’s been a really strange year and it’s good to have at least one race before winter training."
In the women’s race, Virbalyte-Dimsiene had Hungary’s Viktoria Madarasz for company during the early stages, passing through eight kilometres together in 36:08. But the Lithuanian, cheered on by the home supporters, gradually began to pull away and by 14 kilometres her lead over Madarasz was almost one minute.
Virbalyte-Dimsiene, the fourth-place finisher at the 2018 European Championships, maintained her pace to the end and finished in a season’s best of 1:30:54. Madarasz was second in 1:33:41, comfortably ahead of Spain’s Ainhoa Pinedo (1:37:50).Hendel victorious in Usti nad Labem
Croatia’s Kristina Hendel comfortably won the Usti nad Labem Half Marathon on Saturday (19) in a PB of 1:13:27, while Bogdan-Ivan Horovydsky of Ukraine took the men’s title in 1:03:53, taking seven seconds off the PB he set just six days ago.
The event had been scaled down so that it could comply with the regulations currently in place in the Czech Republic, and the elite races comprised all-European fields.
Hendel led from the early stages, passing through five kilometres in 17:05 and 10 kilometres in 34:27. At the half-way mark, her lead had grown to almost 30 seconds over the chasing trio: Marcela Joglova of the Czech Republic, Nuria Lugueros Diaz of Spain and Fatna Maraoui of Italy.

By 15km, reached in 52:04, Hendel was away and clear while Diaz and Maraoui had managed to drop Joglova. Hendel reached the finish line in 1:13:27 with Diaz coming through to take second place in 1:14:15. Maraoui was third in 1:14:33.
The men’s race was slightly more competitive. Horovydsky bided his time as part of a seven-man lead pack during the first half, passing 5km in 15:07 and 10km in 30:22. The pack started to break up in the second half and by 15km it had become a two-man race between Horovydsky and Italy’s Said El Otmani.
The duo pushed one another right through to the end before Horovydsky eventually pulled clear, winning in 1:03:53. El Otmani followed him across the line five seconds later, while Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse was third in 1:04:34.Turkish double for Atac and Demir at Istanbul Half
Turkey’s Sezgin Atac ran away from Spain’s Adel Mechaal in the closing stages of the Istanbul Half Marathon, winning the World Athletics Gold Label road race in a PB of 1:03:16.
Mechaal, the 2017 European indoor 3000m champion who was making his half marathon debut, finished second in 1:03:25. Kenya’s Bernard Cheruiyot Sang and Ethiopia’s Getaye Fisseha Gelaw, who were up with the leaders until the final few kilometres, finished third and fourth respectively in 1:03:51 and 1:03:58.
In the women’s race, Kenya’s Daisy Jeptoo Kimeli led for the first half, but Turkey’s Fatma Demir came through in the latter stages and went on to win in 1:13:17. Kimeli held on for second place in 1:13:29, while Esma Aydemir was further back in third in 1:15:40.

Alytus race walk Istanbul Usti nad Labem Half

Olympic race walking qualifiers achieved by Liu in Taian and Karlstrom in Alytus

World silver medallist Liu Shiying and 2015 world bronze medallist Wang Jianan produced the highlights of the Chinese Championships, which drew to a close on Friday (18) after four days of action in Shaoxing.
Wang emerged victorious in a competitive long jump contest, pushed all the way by 2016 world indoor bronze medallist Huang Changzhou. Huang kicked off the opening round with a world-leading PB of 8.33m (0.5m/s) while Wang opened with 8.21m. Huang backed up his leading mark in the second round with an 8.29m effort, but Wang improved to 8.36m (0.3m/s) to take the lead.
Huang tried to respond and followed up with consistent leaps of 8.24m, 8.23m, 8.23m and 8.12m, but Wang held on to pole position. After fouls in rounds three and four, and a pass in round five, Wang ended his series with an 8.29m leap.
His winning mark is the best by a Chinese athlete since Wang equalled the national record of 8.47m in 2018.
The women&rsquo;s javelin was similarly competitive. Liu Shiying opened proceedings with a 65.08m effort while Lu Huihui, the Asian record-holder and three-time world medallist, needed a few throws to find her rhythm. After opening with 61.06m and improving to 62.71m in round two, Lu closed in on Liu&rsquo;s lead with a third-round effort of 64.98m.
Lu improved again in the penultimate round, taking the lead with 65.70m. But Liu saved her best for last, unleashing a lifetime best of 67.29m with the final throw of the competition to regain the lead and take the title.
Asian champion Xie Wenjun was a class apart in the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles. The World Championships fifth-place finisher clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 13.24 to win by 0.30.
In the women&rsquo;s shot put, Gao Yang came through in the final two rounds to take the title from Jiang Yue. Jiang set a PB of 17.63m with her opening throw, which stood as the leading mark for the first four rounds. Gao bettered it by one centimetre with her fifth throw and then improved to 17.98m in the last round to take the title.
Elsewhere in the field events, world finalist Wu Ruiting took the men&rsquo;s triple jump title with a season&rsquo;s best of 16.90m, while World University Games silver medallist Ma Qun won the men&rsquo;s javelin with 81.13m, also a season&rsquo;s best.
World University Games bronze medallist Li Ying added 20 centimetres to her PB to win the triple jump with 14.02 (1.3m/s). Asian Games bronze medallist Xu Xiaoling was just one centimetre shy of her outdoor PB in the long jump, winning the title with 6.63m (-0.7m/s).
Xie Zhenye, the Asian record-holder for 200m, won the men&rsquo;s sprint double. He took the 100m title in 10.31 (-0.2m/s) and two days later added the 200m crown to his collection, stopping the clock at 20.72 (-0.4m/s). 17-year-old Yan Haibin was second in a PB of 20.86, moving him to eighth on the Asian U18 all-time list.
Ge Manqi, the national indoor record-holder over 60m, won the women&rsquo;s 100m in 11.35 (-0.2m/s).
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

World silver medallist Liu Shiying and 2015 world bronze medallist Wang Jianan produced the highlights of the Chinese Championships, which drew to a close on Friday (18) after four days of action in Shaoxing.


World silver medallist Liu Shiying and 2015 world bronze medallist Wang Jianan produced the highlights of the Chinese Championships, which drew to a close on Friday (18) after four days of action in Shaoxing.
Wang emerged victorious in a competitive long jump contest, pushed all the way by 2016 world indoor bronze medallist Huang Changzhou. Huang kicked off the opening round with a world-leading PB of 8.33m (0.5m/s) while Wang opened with 8.21m. Huang backed up his leading mark in the second round with an 8.29m effort, but Wang improved to 8.36m (0.3m/s) to take the lead.
Huang tried to respond and followed up with consistent leaps of 8.24m, 8.23m, 8.23m and 8.12m, but Wang held on to pole position. After fouls in rounds three and four, and a pass in round five, Wang ended his series with an 8.29m leap.
His winning mark is the best by a Chinese athlete since Wang equalled the national record of 8.47m in 2018.
The women’s javelin was similarly competitive. Liu Shiying opened proceedings with a 65.08m effort while Lu Huihui, the Asian record-holder and three-time world medallist, needed a few throws to find her rhythm. After opening with 61.06m and improving to 62.71m in round two, Lu closed in on Liu’s lead with a third-round effort of 64.98m.
Lu improved again in the penultimate round, taking the lead with 65.70m. But Liu saved her best for last, unleashing a lifetime best of 67.29m with the final throw of the competition to regain the lead and take the title.
Asian champion Xie Wenjun was a class apart in the men’s 110m hurdles. The World Championships fifth-place finisher clocked a season’s best of 13.24 to win by 0.30.
In the women’s shot put, Gao Yang came through in the final two rounds to take the title from Jiang Yue. Jiang set a PB of 17.63m with her opening throw, which stood as the leading mark for the first four rounds. Gao bettered it by one centimetre with her fifth throw and then improved to 17.98m in the last round to take the title.
Elsewhere in the field events, world finalist Wu Ruiting took the men’s triple jump title with a season’s best of 16.90m, while World University Games silver medallist Ma Qun won the men’s javelin with 81.13m, also a season’s best.
World University Games bronze medallist Li Ying added 20 centimetres to her PB to win the triple jump with 14.02 (1.3m/s). Asian Games bronze medallist Xu Xiaoling was just one centimetre shy of her outdoor PB in the long jump, winning the title with 6.63m (-0.7m/s).
Xie Zhenye, the Asian record-holder for 200m, won the men’s sprint double. He took the 100m title in 10.31 (-0.2m/s) and two days later added the 200m crown to his collection, stopping the clock at 20.72 (-0.4m/s). 17-year-old Yan Haibin was second in a PB of 20.86, moving him to eighth on the Asian U18 all-time list.
Ge Manqi, the national indoor record-holder over 60m, won the women’s 100m in 11.35 (-0.2m/s).
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Chinese Championships 2020 Wang Liu

Wang and Liu impress at Chinese Championships

The world records are not enough for Mondo Duplantis.
Fresh from recording the highest outdoor pole vault clearance in history at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome last night, the 20-year-old mapped out his plan for total world domination over the coming years.
&ldquo;There are a lot of medals yet for me to win and there are a lot of things for me to do in the championship meets,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;If you want to be remembered as the best ever, you have to get it right when the moment is right and when you really need to. I like to think of myself as a big-time performer and I can get it done when it counts but you have to go out there and prove that.
&ldquo;So when it comes time for the Olympics, World Championships, even the next European Championships, I will go there and get it done and try to be on top of the podium, because you can jump as high as you want but if you can&rsquo;t do it when it counts&hellip;&rsquo;&rsquo; 
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Mondo Duplantis, winner of the pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
None of that plan will come as a surprise to his closest rival, two-time world champion Sam Kendricks, who did not compete in Rome but noted recently: &ldquo;We saw him coming&rdquo;.
At every age since his father began teaching him when he was still a toddler, Duplantis has been a pole vaulting phenomenon, in the vein of golfing great Tiger Woods.
He is not only undefeated since taking the silver medal behind Kendricks at the World Championships in Doha last October, he has barely been challenged. But he said this week that he never took winning for granted.
That it was always his first priority when he entered the arena.
He has one more competition to come this year &ndash; the final Diamond League meeting in Doha on September 25 &ndash; but he has already blazed across the athletics firmament this year.
In February, he set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m on the World Athletics Indoor Tour, the highest anyone had ever jumped in any venue, indoors or outdoors.
But he was not content with that because he still didn&rsquo;t have the highest outdoor jump. That remained the domain of Sergey Bubka, whose 6.14m monument from 1994 had stood unattainable for 26 years. 
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Mondo Duplantis celebrates his 6.15m vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
But Duplantis has made his intentions for that clear from the opening Diamond League meeting in Monaco little more than a month ago in this shortened outdoor season. He has attacked the benchmark relentlessly over the last month, taking 13 attempts at 6.15m across five different competitions before he arrived in Rome this week.
None of those were closer than his first attempt at the Stadio Olimpico last night, when he was over the bar but dislodged it with his chest as he began his descent.
However that gave him confidence that this would be his night.
In the absence of his parents Greg and Helena, who have coached him since he was a small child, he turned to his big brother on the circuit, former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie as his &lsquo;replacement coach&rsquo;.
Duplantis asked if he should move his run-up in slightly to get more penetration on his vault, but Lavillenie, a supreme technician, advised that he just needed to put a little more force into the pole at the moment he planted it.
On his 15th attempt at the historic height, he got everything right and soared over the bar before celebrating in the freefall back to the earth. 
<iframe src="//www.youtube.com/embed/NGFlqGK26oM" width="500" height="280" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 &ldquo;I hit the mat but I haven&rsquo;t really fallen back to earth,&rdquo; a delighted Duplantis said afterwards.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m still up in the clouds right now. It&rsquo;s just one of those feelings where you are kind of dreaming a little bit&hellip; It&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s a super-crazy feeling when everything lines up like that and you do a really good performance.&rdquo;
His only regret was that neither of his parents were there to see it live.
&ldquo;Usually one of them is with me (so) I am a bit disappointed about that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My dad has never been with me when I jumped a world record.&rdquo;
Given his son&rsquo;s youth and extraordinary ability, Greg Duplantis is likely to have plenty more opportunities.
It&rsquo;s a shame that so few people witnessed this performance live, after the local authorities ruled that the meeting organisers could not admit spectators to the cavernous Stadio Olimpico. But that is the new normal in this pandemic year and it didn&rsquo;t impede Duplantis at all.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

The world records are not enough for Mondo Duplantis.


The world records are not enough for Mondo Duplantis.
Fresh from recording the highest outdoor pole vault clearance in history at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome last night, the 20-year-old mapped out his plan for total world domination over the coming years.
“There are a lot of medals yet for me to win and there are a lot of things for me to do in the championship meets,” he said.
“If you want to be remembered as the best ever, you have to get it right when the moment is right and when you really need to. I like to think of myself as a big-time performer and I can get it done when it counts but you have to go out there and prove that.
“So when it comes time for the Olympics, World Championships, even the next European Championships, I will go there and get it done and try to be on top of the podium, because you can jump as high as you want but if you can’t do it when it counts…’’ 
Mondo Duplantis, winner of the pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome
 
None of that plan will come as a surprise to his closest rival, two-time world champion Sam Kendricks, who did not compete in Rome but noted recently: “We saw him coming”.
At every age since his father began teaching him when he was still a toddler, Duplantis has been a pole vaulting phenomenon, in the vein of golfing great Tiger Woods.
He is not only undefeated since taking the silver medal behind Kendricks at the World Championships in Doha last October, he has barely been challenged. But he said this week that he never took winning for granted.
That it was always his first priority when he entered the arena.
He has one more competition to come this year – the final Diamond League meeting in Doha on September 25 – but he has already blazed across the athletics firmament this year.
In February, he set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m on the World Athletics Indoor Tour, the highest anyone had ever jumped in any venue, indoors or outdoors.
But he was not content with that because he still didn’t have the highest outdoor jump. That remained the domain of Sergey Bubka, whose 6.14m monument from 1994 had stood unattainable for 26 years. 
Mondo Duplantis celebrates his 6.15m vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome
 
But Duplantis has made his intentions for that clear from the opening Diamond League meeting in Monaco little more than a month ago in this shortened outdoor season. He has attacked the benchmark relentlessly over the last month, taking 13 attempts at 6.15m across five different competitions before he arrived in Rome this week.
None of those were closer than his first attempt at the Stadio Olimpico last night, when he was over the bar but dislodged it with his chest as he began his descent.
However that gave him confidence that this would be his night.
In the absence of his parents Greg and Helena, who have coached him since he was a small child, he turned to his big brother on the circuit, former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie as his ‘replacement coach’.
Duplantis asked if he should move his run-up in slightly to get more penetration on his vault, but Lavillenie, a supreme technician, advised that he just needed to put a little more force into the pole at the moment he planted it.
On his 15th attempt at the historic height, he got everything right and soared over the bar before celebrating in the freefall back to the earth.

“I hit the mat but I haven’t really fallen back to earth,” a delighted Duplantis said afterwards.
“I think I’m still up in the clouds right now. It’s just one of those feelings where you are kind of dreaming a little bit… It’s surreal, it’s surreal, it’s a super-crazy feeling when everything lines up like that and you do a really good performance.”
His only regret was that neither of his parents were there to see it live.
“Usually one of them is with me (so) I am a bit disappointed about that,” he said. “My dad has never been with me when I jumped a world record.”
Given his son’s youth and extraordinary ability, Greg Duplantis is likely to have plenty more opportunities.
It’s a shame that so few people witnessed this performance live, after the local authorities ruled that the meeting organisers could not admit spectators to the cavernous Stadio Olimpico. But that is the new normal in this pandemic year and it didn’t impede Duplantis at all.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis Rome 6.15 outdoor vault

Still ‘up in the clouds’, Duplantis turns his attention to next major targets

Ryan Crouser celebrated his first ever visit to Serbia by unleashing another tremendous series of throws to comprehensively dominate the Belgrade city centre shot put competition, with his first round 22.59m being his best effort but having all five of his valid throws in excess of 22.32m on Thursday (17).
The Olympic champion was in the Serbian capital, along with his US compatriot and world champion Joe Kovacs, to promote the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 in the wake of the recent launch of the official logo for the competition.
Crouser looked relaxed from the outset in ideal conditions for good distances with the temperatures still in the low 20s even with sun having gone down over Belgrade&rsquo;s iconic Republic Square.
Despite spectators being restricted to about 400 people due to Covid-19 restrictions, he was greeted enthusiastically every time he entered the circle.
His first effort went out to what was to be his winning distance of 22.59m to ensure his seventh straight win well beyond 22 metres. In fact, since setting a world-leading mark and personal best of 22.91m in July to start his streak of 22-metre competitions, his shortest winning distance has been 22.43m.
Crouser&rsquo;s full series was 22.59m, 22.32m, foul, 22.57m, 22.55m, 22.37m to bring the curtain down on his summer season. Before today, no athlete had ever thrown beyond 22 metres on Serbian soil.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy overall with my throws, especially the three throws over 22.50m,&rdquo; said Crouser. &ldquo;It shows consistency and good distances, and when I get consistent it usually signals I&rsquo;m ready for another leap forward.&rdquo;
It was clear that Crouser was indirectly indicating that the long-standing world record of 23.12m, which has stood to USA&rsquo;s Randy Barnes for more than 30 years since 20 May 1990, could well be under threat in 2021, as if people were not already of that likelihood already.
&ldquo;And I was hoping to get 23 metres tonight but this competition still really excited me with the music and crowds. Most of the time I&rsquo;ve been competing in front of 50 people, so it was great to get a big crowd. I love events like this where we can move it out of the stadium and into the city centre and the streets.
&ldquo;This year has been really difficult for everyone, but it&rsquo;s also ignited my passion for the sport,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;Just finding ways of training, I&rsquo;ve been on sidewalks and in parks. Of course, it hasn&rsquo;t been optimal training and I&rsquo;m not as strong as previous years because I&rsquo;ve been doing a lot of my training in a garage. What makes me pleased is that I set a goal of competing this summer (despite all the problems) and committed to it 100 per cent.&rdquo;
Kovacs, who battled with technical issues throughout the competition, finished almost two metres in arrears of Crouser in second place with a relatively modest 20.61m.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m definitely not happy as I was expecting to get around 21.30m or closer to the 22-metre line but, hey, two weeks ago I didn&rsquo;t know whether I would have any competitions this summer,&rdquo; said Kovacs, sporting a heavy strapping on the wrist of his right throwing arm.
It would certainly be unwise to write off Kovacs as an Olympic medal contender on the evidence of one poor performance on Thursday.
At the pre-event press conference, he admitted that since the Olympic Games were postponed, he has used this season to regenerate his body and heal some minor injuries, and hopes to have an extensive indoor season from the start of next year.
Phil Minshull (Belgrade 22 organisers) for World Athletics

Ryan Crouser celebrated his first ever visit to Serbia by unleashing another tremendous series of throws to comprehensively dominate the Belgrade city centre shot put competition, with his first round 22.59m being his best effort but having all five of his valid throws in excess of 22.32m on Thursday (17).

Belgrade shot put Crouser 22

Crouser dominant again with 22.59m in Belgrade

In the country where &lsquo;Mondo&rsquo; means &lsquo;world&rsquo;, Swedish wunderkind Armand &lsquo;Mondo&rsquo; Duplantis confirmed his status as the world&rsquo;s greatest pole vaulter, jumping higher than anyone ever has in an outdoor stadium, 6.15m, at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday (17).
In February this year, Duplantis set world records of 6.17m and 6.18m on the World Indoor Tour. The latter remains the official world record* across both indoor and outdoor venues.
But no one had ever jumped higher than 6.14m in an outdoor stadium. Sergey Bubka&rsquo;s 6.14m monument from 1994 had stood inviolate for 26 years, but it has been under siege from Duplantis this season.
Such has been his form this year that he has made vaulting over six metres look like rolling out of bed. And he&rsquo;s only 20.
Before last night, he had taken 13 attempts at 6.15m after cutting a swathe through the world&rsquo;s best pole vaulters in this short, sharp competition season.
As has become his habit, he despatched the competition early, confirming victory with a second-attempt clearance of 5.85m.
He glided over 6.00m, then raised the bar to the ultimate target of 6.15m.
He appeared to have mastered the historic height at the first try, but just grazed the bar with his chest on the way down.
However, he adjusted his technique fractionally on his next attempt and the 15th was the charm. He sailed over the bar, celebrating already as he fell back to earth. It was enough to make you believe that a man can fly. 
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 &ldquo;I hit the mat but I haven&rsquo;t really fallen back to earth,&rdquo; a delighted Duplantis said later.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m still up in the clouds right now. It&rsquo;s just one of those feelings where you are kind of dreaming a little bit&hellip; It&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s surreal, it&rsquo;s a super-crazy feeling when everything lines up like that and you do a really good performance.&rdquo;
Duplantis said he wanted to prove that he was the best vaulter in history both indoors and out.
&ldquo;I just wanted to be on top of the leaderboard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The 6.15m was really important to me, so I&rsquo;m happy to get over that.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There was kind of this confusion between the indoor and outdoor record &ndash; it&rsquo;s kind of merged. I already had the world record but I wanted to clear everything up and be the best outdoor.&rdquo;
He revealed that he took advice from former world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie on the history-making jump.
&ldquo;I asked Renaud if I should move in a little bit because I hit it on the way down (on the first attempt) so the typical thing to do would be to move in a little bit, but he thought I just didn&rsquo;t take off as well as I could so he said just to hit it with a little more force at the start of the jump.
&ldquo;Renaud was kind of the replacement coach today and it worked out. After that first attempt I knew what I had to do to do it, I just had to go out there and get it done.&rdquo;
Lavillenie was eliminated earlier after failing at 5.80m, leaving three men to fight out the podium places. Belgium&rsquo;s Ben Broeders posted a national record of 5.80m to take second on a countback from Ernest Obiena of the Philippines.
<h3>Kiplimo wins 3000m thriller</h3>
In the teen showdown of the night, Jacob (Kiplimo) triumphed from Jakob (Ingebrigtsen) in the 3000m as the first three men set national records, carving chunks off their personal best times over what is a less frequently contested distance these days.
A confident Ingebrigtsen took the lead just before the bell from Stewart McSweyn but fellow 19-year-old Kiplimo waited until the finishing straight to make his move. As it was over 5000m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava last week, Kiplimo&rsquo;s final kick proved irresistible over the final 50m. 
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<div style="background-image: url('https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Small/69c4014d-8c03-4677-b2a4-891a9c9eb3f9.jpg');">&nbsp;</div>
Jacob Kiplimo on his way to winning the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
He crossed the finish line in 7:26.64, the fastest time in the world since 2007, and a Diamond League record. Ingebrigtsen set a Norwegian record of 7:27.05 in second and McSweyn held on gamely for an Australian and Oceania record of 7:28.02.
Kiplimo is now the fastest teenager in history at this distance. Both he and Ingebrigtsen bettered marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge's benchmark of 7:27.72.
It was another youngster who triumphed in the women&rsquo;s 800m as Scotswoman Jemma Reekie kept her perfect record for the season in 1:59.77.
Norwegian world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm extended his spectacular season with another commanding victory in the third fastest time of his career, 47.08.
That is his fourth entry into the all-time top 13 times in a month, and he now holds six of those times, but for now the 28-year-old world record of 46.78 remains elusive.
His consolation is that it was the fastest time ever on Italian soil, and he also now holds the Golden Gala&rsquo;s meet record (previously Abderrahman Samba&rsquo;s 47.48) and the Stadio Olimpico record (formerly Edwin Moses&rsquo; 47.37).
He said he was very satisfied with his accomplishments this year.
&ldquo;I ran really low 47s on a regular basis this year &ndash; I am very happy,&rdquo; Warholm said.
&ldquo;This season has been a good experience for me. It is good fun for me coming here to Rome with the warm weather and no winds &ndash; unlike back home in Norway where it is cold now and rainy. The world record? I am quite used to talking about it and I love it because it shows that I am in the right pace, that I am close.&rdquo;
Rising star Femke Bol of the Netherlands also extended her undefeated season over the 400m hurdles in 53.90, just a touch outside her world lead of 53.79, while her training partner Lieke Klaver became just the third woman to dip under 51 seconds for 400m this year, winning in a personal best of 50.98.
Adding to the Dutch delight, this season&rsquo;s pacesetter Nadine Visser claimed the 100m hurdles in 12.72. Italy-based Briton Andrew Pozzi took the men&rsquo;s 110m event in 13.15.
<h3>Thompson-Herah speeds to world lead</h3>
Jamaica&rsquo;s Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah returned to international competition in sizzling form, setting the fastest time of the year in the short sprint, with 10.85. That took her just above her compatriot, rival and fellow Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who has a best of 10.86 this year
Thompson-Herah is delighted to have found her best form again after three years dogged by injury. She finished almost three metres clear of runner-up Aleia Hobbs (11.12) and Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.14). 
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Elaine Thompson wins the 100m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome</div>
&nbsp;
South Africa&rsquo;s Akani Simbine was similarly dominant in the men&rsquo;s 100m in 9.96.
In the field, 2017 world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko took the Ukrainian bragging rights from her teenaged compatriot Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the high jump, courtesy of a clean sheet to 1.98m, but could go no higher.
Mahuchikh, who shares this year&rsquo;s world leading mark of 2.00m with Levchenko, struggled to find her rhythm and was eliminated after clearing 1.95m on her first attempt. She took second place from Australia&rsquo;s Nicola McDermott (1.95m) on a countback.
The Ukrainian dominance continued in the men&rsquo;s event as Andriy Protsenko triumphed with a best leap of 2.30m, denying hometown favourite Gianmarco Tamberi (2.24m).
In the only throwing event on the programme, USA&rsquo;s Nick Ponzio took the win in the shot put with a best of 21.09m.
Nicole Jeffery for World Athletics
*Note: In 1998, the IAAF decided to accept indoor world records as the official world records if they were better than the best outdoor mark.

In the country where ‘Mondo’ means ‘world’, Swedish wunderkind Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis confirmed his status as the world’s greatest pole vaulter, jumping higher than anyone ever has in an outdoor stadium, 6.15m, at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday (17).

Duplantis Kiplimo Warholm Rome 2020

Duplantis scales 6.15m in Rome, world's highest ever outdoor vault

Alexandra Tavernier broke the French record in the hammer to highlight the Kladno Throws and Kladno Memorials, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Kladno, Czech Republic, on Wednesday (16).
Dominating the competition, the 26-year-old 2015 world bronze medallist reached 75.24m in the fourth round to take down the national record of 74.94m she set in July. Tavernier followed up with 75.12m and 74.71m efforts in rounds five and six to piece together the finest series of her career.&nbsp;
Action in the throws figured prominently in the late afternoon action.
Two-time Olympic javelin champion Barbora Spotakova threw a meeting record of 64.34m in the first round to claim her fourth victory in five competitions this season. Her compatriot Nikola Ogrodnikova was second with 62.22m, to edge Elina Tzengo of Greece by a lone centimetre.
Christos Frantzeskakis of Greece won the men's hammer with 75.92m ahead of Hungary's 2012 Olympic champion Krisztian Pars who reached 73.28m. Tavernier's younger brother Hugo was third with a 72.28m personal best.
Gatis Cakss of Latvia won the men's javelin with 82.19m, Colombia's Mauricio Ortega the discus with 63.61m and Czech Tomas Stanek the shot put with 20.19m.
On the track, Egyptian 100m and 200m record-holder Bassant Hemida took the sprint double, winning the 100m in 11.23 and 200m in 22.91, the performance in the shorter dash clipping 0.08 from the 100m national standard she set in Rabat last year. Both were also meeting records.&nbsp;
Isabelle Boffey of Great Britain won the 800m in 2:01.88, a personal best, with Finland's Sara Kuivisto second in 2:02.28.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

Alexandra Tavernier broke the French record in the hammer to highlight the Kladno Throws and Kladno Memorials, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Kladno, Czech Republic, on Wednesday (16).


Alexandra Tavernier broke the French record in the hammer to highlight the Kladno Throws and Kladno Memorials, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting in Kladno, Czech Republic, on Wednesday (16).
Dominating the competition, the 26-year-old 2015 world bronze medallist reached 75.24m in the fourth round to take down the national record of 74.94m she set in July. Tavernier followed up with 75.12m and 74.71m efforts in rounds five and six to piece together the finest series of her career. 
Action in the throws figured prominently in the late afternoon action.
Two-time Olympic javelin champion Barbora Spotakova threw a meeting record of 64.34m in the first round to claim her fourth victory in five competitions this season. Her compatriot Nikola Ogrodnikova was second with 62.22m, to edge Elina Tzengo of Greece by a lone centimetre.
Christos Frantzeskakis of Greece won the men's hammer with 75.92m ahead of Hungary's 2012 Olympic champion Krisztian Pars who reached 73.28m. Tavernier's younger brother Hugo was third with a 72.28m personal best.
Gatis Cakss of Latvia won the men's javelin with 82.19m, Colombia's Mauricio Ortega the discus with 63.61m and Czech Tomas Stanek the shot put with 20.19m.
On the track, Egyptian 100m and 200m record-holder Bassant Hemida took the sprint double, winning the 100m in 11.23 and 200m in 22.91, the performance in the shorter dash clipping 0.08 from the 100m national standard she set in Rabat last year. Both were also meeting records. 
Isabelle Boffey of Great Britain won the 800m in 2:01.88, a personal best, with Finland's Sara Kuivisto second in 2:02.28.
Bob Ramsak for World Athletics

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