Report

The world reverberated with the news that Roger Bannister had become the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes on 6 May 1954. Twenty three days later, a landmark was achieved in the women’s mile when fellow Briton Diane Leather became the first to dip under five minutes – unheralded, and, at the time, without fanfare.

Stewart McSweyn capped a hugely successful 2019 with a win at the annual Zatopek 10,000m in Melbourne on Saturday night (14), completing a hat-trick of victories in the classic race.

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that New Zealand’s 1964 Olympic 800m and 1500m champion Peter Snell died on Thursday (12) at the age of 80.

Kenya’s Rebecca Chesir and Muluhabt Tsega of Ethiopia will be the main contenders for the women’s title at the Shenzhen Marathon, a World Athletics Gold Label road race, on Sunday (15).

The rise in popularity of road races in Africa mirrors the upsurge in mass participation races around the world.

Olympic 100m hurdles champion Brianna McNeal and world 800m silver medallist Amel Tuka are the first big names confirmed for the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, the newest addition to the World Athletics Indoor Tour, set to take place in Lievin on 19 February.

Fresh from winning 200m gold, 100m silver and 4x100m silver at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, British sprint star Dina Asher-Smith has been confirmed to compete at the Müller Anniversary Games at the London Stadium, part of the 2020 Diamond League, on 4-5 July.

Standing on the start line at the 2017 Drake Relays, it felt like any other race for Kirani James.

Several champions from 2017 added to their gold medal tally during the final two days of athletics at the Southeast Asian Games in Clark, the Philippines.

The top four finishers in the men’s pole vault at the recent World Championships will be in action at the PSD Bank Meeting on 4 February, the second German stop on the 2020 World Athletics Indoor Tour.

World long jump champion Malaika Mihambo will be one of the top names at the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on 31 January, but the German star won’t be contesting her specialist event at the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting.

At last week’s inaugural ‘Everything In Sport: Women Edition’ event in London, World Athletics’ Gender Leadership Taskforce Chair Stephanie Hightower outlined the measures taken by World Athletics to increase representation across all areas of the sport.