World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Estonia&rsquo;s Juri Tamm, a double Olympic bronze medallist and former world record-holder in the hammer, died on Wednesday (22) at the age of 64.
Tamm was one of the world&rsquo;s best hammer throwers of the 1980s. Along with his two Olympic bronze medals, he also earned world silver in 1987, briefly held the world record in 1980, and racked up 118 throws beyond 80 metres, spread across 45 competitions in a 12-year span.
Born in Parnu in 1957, back when Estonia formed part of the Soviet Union, Tamm took up athletics in 1972 and soon naturally gravitated towards hammer throwing. Within a few years he had progressed to become one of the country&rsquo;s top U20 athletes in the discipline, and by the late 1970s he was already among the top 20 in the world.
Tamm&rsquo;s first big breakthrough came in 1980 at the National Spring Games in Leselidse, where he went up against the likes of Olympic champion Yuriy Sedykh, former world record-holder Boris Zaichuk and Sergey Litvinov.
Sedykh took an early lead with 78.30m, but Tamm bettered it later on in the first round with 78.82m. Sedykh then went out to 79.60m with his second throw, but Tamm once again responded with a superior 79.70m.
This continued into the third round with Sedykh throwing a world record of 80.38m. Not to be outdone, Tamm hit back with 80.46m, another world record distance. That remained the best mark of the day until round five when Sedykh threw 80.64m, a distance which eventually proved sufficient to win. The world record had been broken three times in one competition with Sedykh and Tamm producing two of the shortest-lived world records in athletics history.
Later that year, Tamm claimed Olympic bronze behind Soviet teammates Sedykh and Litvinov.
A few years later, Tamm earned his first major international title, winning gold at the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton.
Tamm produced his lifetime best of 84.40m in 1984 and would have been one of the medal favourites at the Los Angeles Olympics had it not been for the Soviet boycott.
The 1985 season was one of the best of Tamm&rsquo;s career. He won all but one of his competitions, threw beyond 80 metres in 12 of his 13 outings, posted a world-leading mark of 84.08m, and notched up victories at the World Cup in Canberra and the European Cup in Moscow.
Tamm earned world silver in 1987 and a second Olympic bronze in 1988. By the time of the 1992 Olympics, Tamm represented the restored independent Estonia. Aged 35 at the time, and having set a season&rsquo;s best of 81.86m earlier in the year, Tamm finished fifth with 77.52m.
He went on to compete at the 1994 European Championships, 1995 World Championships and 1996 Olympics, in what was his fourth Games.
Following his retirement in 1996, Tamm moved into politics. He was a Member of Parliament for the Social Democratic Party in Estonia between 1999 and 2010 and served as Vice President of the Estonian Olympic Committee between 2001 and 2008.
Sedykh, Tamm&rsquo;s long-time teammate and rival, died earlier this month.
World Athletics

Former world record-holder and Olympic bronze medallist Tamm dies

Big city marathon action returns later this week with the BMW Berlin Marathon marking the first of seven major races in 2021 with top-class international fields and mass starts.
Due to the pandemic, several races that are traditionally held earlier in the year were postponed to the last few months of 2021. It means that distance running fans will be treated to an intense and exciting 10-week period of the world&rsquo;s biggest road races.
The race in the German capital on 26 September will be followed by major marathons in London (3 October), Chicago (10 October), Boston (11 October), Amsterdam (17 October), New York (7 November) and Valencia (5 December).
Many of the world&rsquo;s leading road runners have already been confirmed in the various line-ups. Here&rsquo;s a closer look at the numbers surrounding each race.
&nbsp;
<h2>BMW Berlin Marathon &ndash; 26 September</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/fa3e4cce-ee74-436f-9586-0cb0685d72bb.jpg?cachebuster=ed1dc7ad-6e7c-43e7-97dd-a164860582e8" align="right" />Started: 1974
Course records: Women: 2:18:11 Glady's Cherono (KEN) 2018 Men: 2:01:39 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2018
World records: 11 2:34:48 Christa Vahlensieck (FRG) 1977 2:20:43 Tegla Loroupe (KEN) 1999 2:19:46 Naoko Takahashi (JPN) 2001 -- 2:06:05 Ronaldo da Costa (BRA) 1998 2:04:55 Paul Tergat (KEN) 2003 2:04:26 Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) 2007 2:03:59 Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) 2008 2:03:38 Patrick Makau (KEN) 2011 2:03:23 Wilson Kipsang (KEN) 2013 2:02:57 Dennis Kimetto (KEN) 2014 2:01:39 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2018
Expected 2021 participation: 25,000
Fact: Several noteworthy barriers have been broken in Berlin, including the first men&rsquo;s sub-2:05, 2:04, 2:03 and 2:02 runs, plus the first women&rsquo;s sub-2:20 marathon.
&nbsp;
<h2>Virgin Money London Marathon &ndash; 3 October</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/8caf93e4-a772-4631-bb42-e5d8f861667a.jpg?cachebuster=b7afc082-678c-46e1-8726-e7d205e61157" align="right" />Started: 1981
Course records: Women: 2:15:25 Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2003 Men: 2:02:37 Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2019
World records: 6 2:25:29 Grete Waitz (NOR) 1983 2:21:06 Ingrid Kristiansen (NOR) 1985 2:15:25 Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2003 2:17:42 Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2005 (women-only) 2:17:01 Mary Keitany (KEN) 2017 (women-only) -- 2:05:38 Khalid Khannouchi (USA) 2:05:38
Expected 2021 participation: 50,000 mass runners plus 50,000 virtual runners
Fact: From 1981 to 2019, 10 runners &ndash; also known at the &lsquo;ever presents&rsquo;, ranging in age from 60 to 85 &ndash; have competed in all editions of the London Marathon.
&nbsp;
<h2>Bank of America Chicago Marathon &ndash; 10 October</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/6a1251c9-ff75-4322-9fb3-5a0d4f7fac27.jpg?cachebuster=d6565e8f-e3aa-4060-86e9-760053ed4b7d" align="right" />Started: 1977
Course records: Women: 2:14:04 Brigid Kosegei (KEN) 2019 Men: 2:03:45 Dennis Kimetto (KEN) 2013
World records: 5 2:18:47 Catherine Ndereba (KEN) 2001 2:17:18 Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 2002 2:14:04 Brigid Kosgei (KEN) 2019 -- 2:08:05 Steve Jones (GBR) 1984 2:05:42 Khalid Khannouchi (MAR) 1999
Expected 2021 participation: 35,000
Fact: Although the Chicago Marathon in its current format started in 1977, marathons were held annually in Chicago as early as 1905. 15 runners started that race and just seven finished.
&nbsp;
<h2>BAA Boston Marathon &ndash; 11 October</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/763a8de9-160c-4610-b4e0-3e102ff21b9f.png?cachebuster=0d1ddf91-cb7b-4dd8-859b-26216b7d5f5d" align="right" />Started: 1897
Course records: Women: 2:19:59 Buzunesh Deba (ETH) 2014 Men: 2:03:02 Geoffrey Mutai (KEN) 2011
World records: 2 2:42:24 Liane Winter (FRG) 1975 2:22:43 Joan Benoit (USA) 1983 Note: marks set on Boston&rsquo;s current standard course are no longer eligible for record ratification as it&rsquo;s a point-to-point route with a net elevation loss of 146 metres.
Expected 2021 participation: 20,000 mass runners plus a virtual race
Fact: The Boston Marathon is the only world marathon major with a qualifying standard. Runners need an entry time of 3:30 (women) or 3:00 (men) to register. There are different standards for various masters age groups.
&nbsp;
<h2>TCS Amsterdam Marathon &ndash; 17 October</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/06c4cda5-d136-476b-984d-9d3886828a4c.jpeg?cachebuster=0550acc4-e2b0-4d4e-b0e1-c68af9759c47" align="right" />Started: 1975
Course records: Women: 2:19:26 Degitu Azimeraw (ETH) 2019 Men: 2:04:06 Lawrence Cherono (KEN) 2018
World records: 0
Expected 2021 participation: exact figure unknown, but will feature a mass start
Fact: Amsterdam is where Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie achieved his first marathon victory, clocking a national record of 2:06:20 in 2005.
&nbsp;
<h2>TCS New York Marathon &ndash; 7 November</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/f62fdd33-ddb0-4704-88e2-611a7065d97c.jpg?cachebuster=9bf72e41-c85b-44c3-bf00-0298ee9a29ce" align="right" />Started: 1970
Course records: Women: 2:22:31 Margaret Okayo (KEN) 2003 Men: 2:05:05 Geoffrey Mutai (KEN) 2011
World records: 4 2:55:22 Elisabeth Bonner (USA) 1971 2:32:29.8 Grete Waitz (NOR) 1978 2:27:32.6 Grete Waitz (NOR) 1979 2:25:41.3 Grete Waitz (NOR) 1980
Expected 2021 participation: 33,000
Fact: Grete Waitz won this race an incredible nine times, the highest number of victories in a single big city marathon by any athlete in history.
&nbsp;
<h2>Maraton Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP &ndash; 5 December</h2>
<img style="width: 400px; height: 400px; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/d40ff241-30fe-4922-90f2-ca582101510a.jpg?cachebuster=20964a85-95ca-4374-b7bd-c749da5e7c27" align="right" />Started: 1981
Course records: Women: 2:17:16 Peres Jepchirchir (KEN) 2020 Men: 2:03:00 Evans Chebet (KEN) 2020
World records: 0
Expected participation: 18,000
Fact: Last year&rsquo;s edition of the Valencia Marathon produced the deepest races in history for the classic distance, with 10 men finishing inside 2:06 and eight women finishing inside 2:21.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Big city marathon action returns later this week

Elite Platinum Label marathons in numbers

Kenyan running great Mary Keitany announced her retirement on Wednesday (22) after a stellar career which saw her win the London Marathon on three occasions and the New York Marathon four times, as well as triumph at the 2009 World Half Marathon Championships.
Keitany, 39, also still holds the marathon world record for a women-only race, having clocked a stunning 2:17:01 when winning the third of her London Marathon titles in 2017.
&ldquo;After my successful 2019, when I had some good results including second place in New York, I was hopeful that I could still be very competitive internationally for several more years, even though I am in my late 30s,&rdquo; said Keitany, who is third on the world all-time list for the marathon.
&ldquo;However, I&rsquo;m sad to say, a back injury that I suffered in late 2019 made a decision about my retirement for me. I couldn&rsquo;t get the treatment I wanted in Europe because of the pandemic-related travel restrictions last year and every time I thought I had got over the injury and started training hard, it became a problem again. So now is the time to say goodbye &ndash; if only as an elite runner &ndash; to the sport I love so much.&rdquo;
Keitany first came to global attention in 2007, after local success in Kenya the previous year, with a series of good performances in European half marathons which then earned her a place in the Kenyan team at that year&rsquo;s World Half Marathon Championships. A silver medal at the 2007 edition of that event, and team gold, was followed by more than a decade among the very best of the world&rsquo;s road runners, even with breaks in 2008 and 2013 to give birth to her children Jared and Samantha.
Keitany won the 2009 world half marathon title in Birmingham by more than a minute in 1:06:36, at the time the second-fastest mark ever on a record-legal course and an African record. She also led Kenya to the team gold medals.
After finishing third in New York on her marathon debut in 2010, her first major marathon win came in her next race over the classic distance when she triumphed at the 2011 London Marathon and further victories in the British capital came in 2012 and 2017.
She will also be remembered fondly for her three impressive consecutive wins at the New York Marathon between 2014 and 2016 before winning in the Big Apple again in 2018.
Other accolades include setting a world half marathon record of 1:05:50 at the 2011 RAK Half Marathon, fourth place in the London 2012 Olympic Games marathon, and she continues to hold the women-only 25km world best of 1:19:43, set during her triumphant 2017 London Marathon run. She set her half marathon PB of 1:04:55 in 2018, which at the time ranked her third on the world all-time list.
&ldquo;As for the future, I haven&rsquo;t fully decided on my plans but I&rsquo;m looking forward to spending more time with my family,&rdquo; said Keitany. &ldquo;My children are currently 13 and eight. In addition, I am involved with some local charitable enterprises.&rdquo;

Kenyan running great Mary Keitany has announced her retirement after a stellar career

World record-holder and seven-time World Marathon Majors winner Keitany retires

&ldquo;I thought I would go on to break it again,&rdquo; Jonathan Edwards says of his 18.29m world record leap from the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. &ldquo;And no, I didn&rsquo;t think it would last this long.&rdquo;
More than 26 years since the Briton bounded out to two world records in the Swedish city, Edwards looked back on his performance and says that it still blows his mind that he accomplished what he did.
From the moment he opened his 1995 season with a 17.58m PB, Edwards knew he was in the form of his life. &ldquo;The big thing about that season is that my technique was outstanding and the balance I had throughout the phases &ndash; which was brought about through me changing my technique and using a double arm action &ndash; gave me a much better position, particularly in the last phase.&rdquo; 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hWIAdOmqJ9E" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 Early in the season, he sailed out to a wind-assisted 18.43m (2.4m/s) to win at the European Cup. He followed it with another wind-assisted leap beyond 18 metres (18.03m) in Gateshead and then set a world record of 17.98m in Salamanca.
Between then and the World Championships, he also landed a wind-assisted 18.08m in Sheffield &ndash; all of which only added to the pressure and expectation as he headed to Gothenburg.
&ldquo;Although I'd broken the world record that year already, in my mind had I not won the World Championships, my season would have been regarded as a failure,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So I felt a huge amount of pressure because I'd never gone into a major championships expected to win. And not just expected to win but to break a world record as well, so I was petrified.
&ldquo;I remember the wind was helpful and I knew the conditions were good. But I was as scared as you like, I thought I was going to mess it up, there was no guarantee I was going to win this thing.
&ldquo;But alongside that feeling of being petrified, there was also a sense that I could jump a massive distance here,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;I'd already jumped that 18.43m wind assisted, and I'd jumped a world record of 17.98m in Salamanca a few weeks beforehand, which was much less than I knew I was capable of. So there was also a real sense of excitement.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614b266eb774e13f3f72f685.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 He safely advanced to the final after jumping 17.46m in the qualifying round. USA&rsquo;s Mike Conley, who had won the Olympic title three years prior with a jump of 18.17m that was just marginally over the allowable wind speed (2.1m/s), was also in the final, as were Dominica&rsquo;s Jerome Romain, Bermuda&rsquo;s Brian Wellman and Cuban duo Yoel Garcia and Yoelbi Quesada.
&ldquo;With a technical event like the triple jump, when you've got three phases and the take-off, there are lots of things that could go wrong &ndash; no matter how good a form you're in,&rdquo; says Edwards. &ldquo;But in this final, there was no holding back, no 'let's get a safe one in'. It was just run and jump and hope it's good.&rdquo;
His first leap was more than just &lsquo;good&rsquo;. Edwards flew down the runway, took off and then landed beyond the 18-metre mark. It took a few moments before his distance was confirmed at 18.16m, a world record and the first wind-legal jump beyond 18 metres.
&ldquo;It was a celebration but also a huge amount of relief,&rdquo; Edwards remembers of his reaction to that jump. &ldquo;What strikes me now is how fast and flat I was. I had so much speed on the run-up, it took me much more in a horizontal than vertical direction when I took off. People have likened it to skimming stones, and these jumps on that day were very much like that. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614b2313a350721e50f456fc.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;All I can remember is the feeling of 'I'm not done yet in this competition'. Normally once I'd jump a big distance like that, I'd finish. But I still felt like there was more to do.&rdquo;
About 20 minutes later, Edwards was on the runway again for the second round.
&ldquo;I had a smile on my face and I pointed my finger,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I just wanted to enjoy the jump because I knew I probably wouldn't have another one like it. I actually get quite emotional watching it.&rdquo;
He once again nailed a great jump, this time improving on his opening effort. No sooner had he touched down in the sand than he was out of the pit once more, arms aloft and celebrating, knowing that he had gone farther than before.
There was another wait for the distance, though this time a less anxious one as the pressure was off and Edwards knew he had broken the record. He simply wanted the confirmation. And then it flashed up on the scoreboard: 18.29m.
&ldquo;The moment I knew it was better was during the step because I just had to wait and then put my foot on the ground,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;There's just a brief moment when my front foot feathers a bit because the transfer from the hop to the step was better and I just had to stabilise a bit. As soon as I landed, I knew it was a world record, I knew it was further. That's why I stood up and shrugged my shoulders as if to say 'that's another record'. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614b22f34801977695649814.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;I still had another 11 centimetres to spare on the board,&rdquo; he adds with a smile. &ldquo;So if someone does ever break my world record, I'll say actually I was 18.40m from take-off to landing.&rdquo;
&ldquo;What I also knew in that instant &ndash; because I'd looked at this beforehand &ndash; is that 18.29m was just over 60 feet. So I'd broken the metric barrier of 18 metres and the imperial barrier of 60 feet. That was the front page of Track &amp; Field News - '60 Feet Goes'.&rdquo;
Satisfied with his opening two efforts, Edwards passed the third and fourth rounds. He took his fifth-round jump, landing at 17.49m, but then passed his final attempt, his victory by this point assured.
&ldquo;There's always been a sense of 'I can't quite believe this has happened to me',&rdquo; says Edwards, who went on to win Olympic gold in 2000 before winning his second world title in 2001. &ldquo;You grow up following your heroes on TV, and if you're lucky enough you may see them in the stadium, and you feel very ordinary yourself. When you're actually doing something that's extraordinary, it's hard to equate the two. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614b22d61015d2d4f7470c3b.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;I almost appreciate it more now than I did at the time. I was in peak form and took it all in my stride. I enjoyed it all and it was fantastic, but I just don't think I appreciated just how amazing it was.
&ldquo;To do something in life and be categorically the best at it, it's mind-blowing to be honest,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;I can't quite believe it happened to me.&rdquo;
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

Twenty-six years after his record-breaking leap, Jonathan Edwards reflects on his 18.29m

Edwards recalls world record-breaking triple jump

A feast of top-class road racing will be on offer with the return of the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label marathon series this weekend.
The series will include seven big international races over the next three months, six of those in a thrilling six-week period from Sunday (26).
This exciting back-to-back top-tier race programme will see many of the world&rsquo;s best athletes &ndash; together with significant mass fields &ndash; run in Berlin, London, Chicago, Boston, Amsterdam and New York, before the final Elite Platinum Label race of the year is held in Valencia in December.
The Elite Platinum Label races form the top level of a three-tier road race programme introduced by World Athletics for 2021, prompted by the many calendar changes brought on by the pandemic in 2020. As well as Elite Platinum Label, the programme includes World Athletics Elite Label and World Athletics Label races held across each of the sport's six areas.
In 2021, the Elite Platinum Label was available to races that had been granted Platinum status in 2020, irrespective of whether the race took place or not. This top-tier classification reflects, among other things, the quality of the elite fields and commitment to the sport, including supporting a strong anti-doping programme. 
<h2>Six marathons in six weeks</h2>
The famous marathon distance is 26.2 miles, or 42.195 kilometres, and the number 42 is a key one for Elite Platinum Label action over the coming weeks as it&rsquo;s the exact number of days between the next six races.
First up is the BMW Berlin Marathon on 26 September, which is set to be the world's largest marathon since the pandemic began. Ethiopia&rsquo;s Kenenisa Bekele and Hiwot Gebrekidan headline the elite fields, with multiple world and Olympic champion Bekele returning with his sights on a third victory on the roads of Germany&rsquo;s capital city. A total of 11 world records have been broken on the Berlin Marathon course, which this weekend will welcome around 25,000 runners as they take part in the mass race.
The programme then moves on to the Virgin Money London Marathon, traditionally held in the Northern Hemisphere spring but taking place in autumn &ndash; on 3 October &ndash; for the second consecutive year. The title of biggest post-pandemic race looks set to be handed from Berlin to London as the UK event aims to become the largest marathon ever staged anywhere in the world. Up to 50,000 participants will run the traditional course from Greenwich to The Mall, while another 50,000 will take part in the virtual event. The elite stars among them will be defending champions Brigid Kosgei, Kenya&rsquo;s world record-holder and Olympic silver medallist, and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Shura Kitata.
One week later, on 10 October, all eyes will be on the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, where Kenya&rsquo;s 2019 world marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich and Ethiopia&rsquo;s 2019 Dubai Marathon champion Getaneh Molla will be among those racing for top places. Following the cancellation of the 2020 event, next month&rsquo;s marathon hopes to welcome 35,000 participants to run in the US city. &ldquo;While we expect to see fast times up front, we are focusing on celebrating every athlete in this year&rsquo;s field and the personal stories, challenges, and triumphs that they bring with them,&rdquo; Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski said.
Elite Platinum Label action will resume the very next day as 11 October marks the return of the BAA Boston Marathon. The 125th running of the event will feature Ethiopia&rsquo;s two-time winner and reigning world marathon champion Lelisa Desisa and Kenya&rsquo;s Edna Kiplagat, who won the 2017 edition of the race and claimed her two world titles in 2011 and 2013. Alongside the in-person mass race of 20,000 participants, there will also be a virtual race held from 8-10 October.
Next up is the TCS Amsterdam Marathon on 17 October. Three of the best Dutch men&rsquo;s marathon runners &ndash; Michel Butter, Bj&ouml;rn Koreman and Frank Futselaar &ndash; have so far been announced, with further elite entry announcements coming soon. The 2019 edition featured 45,000 participants from 140 countries and after the 2020 event was cancelled the Dutch capital is looking forward to welcoming runners back for its range of events, which include a half marathon and an 8km race.
The six-week marathon thriller culminates with the TCS New York Marathon on 7 November. The star-studded line-up includes Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir and Ethiopian great Bekele, who is set to return to 26.2-mile action just 42 days after he competes in Berlin. Up to 33,000 runners will have the opportunity to take part in the 50th running of the race, on a course that passes through the five boroughs of NYC, while a virtual event will also take place. 
<h2>Spectacular finale in Valencia</h2>
The World Athletics Elite Platinum Label programme will head to the Maraton Valencia Trinidad Alfonso EDP on 5 December for its final race in 2021. A deep elite field featuring more than 120 men with PBs under 2:20 and 130 sub-2:50 women are set to race, supported by several groups of pacers, including those targeting the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 qualifying standards. Organisers say the course will be faster, with fewer turns.
After the elite-only edition of 2020, the mass race returns to Valencia, the &lsquo;city of running&rsquo;, with 18,000 participants ready to run in the Spanish city where four world records &ndash; the women&rsquo;s 5000m (Letesenbet Gidey) and the men&rsquo;s 10,000m (Joshua Cheptegei), 10km (Rhonex Kipruto) and half marathon (Kibiwott Kandie) &ndash; have all been set over the past couple of years.
Also forming part of this year&rsquo;s Elite Platinum Label programme of events were the Nagoya Women's Marathon in March and C&amp;D Xiamen Marathon in April, while the Shanghai International Marathon is scheduled for 28 November with a domestic-only field.
World Athletics

A feast of top-class road racing will be on offer with the return of the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label marathon series this weekend.

Road race season hots up as focus shifts to Elite Platinum Label marathons

The American humourist and novelist, Mark Twain, once observed: &ldquo;Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.&rdquo;
Like many famous quotations, its attribution is sometimes contested. We can be sure, however, that in the mid-1980s, successive and debilitating boycotts of the Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games had everybody talking about the potential demise of the Olympic Games.
Ted Turner did something about it. He created the Goodwill Games.
Turner, the billionaire media proprietor, philanthropist and founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), proclaimed the lofty goal of easing the tensions between the capitalist West (read the USA) and communist East (Russia and its post-war Eastern Bloc) nations which had culminated in tit-for-tat boycotts of the two Olympics.
Lamenting the breakdown in relations between the two superpowers, Turner brokered business and sporting deals with the then Soviet Union. In 1985, he reached agreement between his company, Turner Broadcasting Systems (TBS), and Soviet broadcasting and sporting organisations to stage a multi-sport event in 1986.
&ldquo;This agreement calls for the two systems to act in the spirit of friendship and goodwill to further international television cooperation,&rdquo; Turner said. &ldquo;It is our hope that through programme exchange, we can further peace, understanding and friendship between our nations.&rdquo;
Moscow hosted the first Games, with athletics competition at Luzhniki Stadium, the 1980 Olympic venue.
Overall, the Games were contested by 3000 athletes from 79 countries. Not until Rome 1960 had more nations participated in an Olympic Games and not until the post-World War II era did athlete numbers reach, and remain above, 3000.
The Goodwill numbers dropped off as the Olympic movement regained strength. Seattle in 1990 had 2300 competitors from 54 nations; St Petersburg 1994 (2000/59) and New York 1998 (1300/60) continued the downward trend. Brisbane, the fifth and final edition, had 1300 competitors from 58 nations.
In 1996, TBS had merged with Time Warner, which henceforth controlled the Games. After Brisbane, Time Warner announced that falling television ratings meant the Games would no longer be held.
Turner blamed Time Warner for the demise of the Games. In a 2009 interview he said: &ldquo;If I&rsquo;d stayed there the Goodwill Games would not have been cancelled.&rdquo; He also reiterated his belief in the power of international sporting competitions to prevent war, saying that &ldquo;as long as the Olympics are taking place and not being boycotted, it&rsquo;s virtually impossible to have a world war.&rdquo;
Some edition-by-edition highlights: 
<h2>Moscow 1986</h2>
Two athletics superstars, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sergey Bubka, provided the brightest highlights. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614996e6ae4d6aa8db0d19dc.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Sergey Bubka (&copy; Allsport / Getty Images)
 Joyner-Kersee took the first of her four Goodwill heptathlon gold medals with a world record 7148 points. The first woman to score over 7000, Joyner-Kersee didn&rsquo;t so much break the world record as put it out of sight, adding a massive 203 points to the previous mark while relegating the previous holder, Sabine Paetz, to a distant fourth.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re trying to make it so Jackie only has to walk the 800 to get the record,&rdquo; coach Bobby Kersee said pre-competition. Instead,&nbsp;Joyner-Kersee&nbsp;produced a near-personal best 2:10.02 to close out in style.
Bubka belied a previous dislike for the Luzhniki.
&ldquo;I used to think I was a little bit cursed here," he said. &ldquo;The wind swirls around ... and can be very distracting. But if I can jump 6.01m here, I know I can do even better elsewhere.&rdquo;
The horizontal jumps were high-class. Robert Emmiyan leapt 8.61m to beat Larry Myricks&rsquo;s 8.41m in the men's long jump, while Mike Conley won the men's triple jump with 17.69m and Galina Chistyakova went 7.27m to win the women&rsquo;s long jump. In the women&rsquo;s 100m, Evelyn Ashford edged Heike Drechsler, both being given 10.91.
US magazine Track &amp; Field News reported: &ldquo;Judging by the financial bath which Ted Turner is rumoured to be facing, the first Goodwill Games could be the last.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
<h2>Seattle 1990</h2>
In the University of Washington stadium, Joyner-Kersee again won the heptathlon while Cuba&rsquo;s redoubtable Ana Fidelia Quirot completed a 400m/800m double.
In his first Goodwill appearance, Carl Lewis lost the men's 100m to his Santa Monica Track Club teammate Leroy Burrell, who ran 10.05 to Lewis&rsquo;s 10.08. In the long jump, Lewis&rsquo;s 8.38m edged Mike Powell by four centimetres. Both these results would be overturned at the following year&rsquo;s Tokyo World Championships when Lewis would beat Burrell in a world record 9.86 and Powell stun Lewis with a world record 8.95m. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614997268f350a1e3bc26b1e.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Leroy Burrell and&nbsp;Carl Lewis&nbsp;(&copy; Getty Images)
 The rivals-but-friends relationship between Lewis and Burrell fascinated the Games&rsquo; media. Burrell took exception when a journalist asked why there wasn&rsquo;t more &ldquo;hate&rdquo; involved.
&ldquo;Why does it have to be an adversarial thing,&rdquo; Burrell demanded. &ldquo;These are Games about good will. Why must there always be hate involved in a competition.&rdquo;
Fans voted with their feet. The 100m final drew 28,555 spectators, the largest attendance of the 115,000 over five days.
Amid the turmoil of the former Soviet Union and its Eastern Bloc breaking up, European participation in the Seattle Goodwill Games was markedly reduced. 
<h2>St Petersburg 1994</h2>
To Russia and St Petersburg for the third edition, Kirov Stadium the venue.
The world record-breakers from the first Games experienced contrasting outcomes. Joyner-Kersee made it three straight in the heptathlon, defeating strong opponents in Russia&rsquo;s Larisa Turchinskaya and Syria&rsquo;s Ghada Shouaa.
Bubka, however, was no better than third as Igor Trandenkov won the pole vault. Six days later, Bubka bounced back with the 35th world record of his career, 6.14m in Sestriere. It was a performance which netted him a red Ferrari.
With performance bonuses on offer, a minor controversy erupted when pacemakers helped Noureddine Morceli to a 3:48.67 in the mile.
Morceli brushed it off as all part of modern athletics. &ldquo;If you run 1:56 (for 880m), I think it&rsquo;s impossible to break 3:50,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m very satisfied with 3:48.&rdquo;
Gwen Torrence won a women&rsquo;s sprint double, despite claiming the starter had let the field go before she was ready in in both races. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61499557ae4d6aa8db0d19d0.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Gwen Torrence&nbsp;(&copy; Allsport / Getty Images)
 Torrence, who also claimed 4x100m gold, said she wasn&rsquo;t even on her marks in the 200m. &ldquo;I couldn&rsquo;t believe it. I thought about giving up, but I thought about all the people who came to see me race ... (and) I made up my kind to run like hell.&rdquo;
Other stand-out winners were Javier Sotomayor with a 2.40m high jump, Dan O&rsquo;Brien with 8715 points in the decathlon and Drechsler with 7.12m in the long jump. 
<h2>New York 1998</h2>
Jim Dunaway reported for Track &amp; Field News magazine that the 1998 Games assembled the best non-Olympic entry list ever in a US meeting.
Michael Johnson ran 43.76 in the men's 400m and there were winning times of 9.96 in the men's 100m from Maurice Greene, 20.15 from Ato Boldon in the men's 200m, 10.90 and 21.80 from Marion Jones in winning the women&rsquo;s sprints and 13.06 from Mark Crear in the 110m hurdles.
A lowlight was the ruptured achilles tendon sustained by Moses Kiptanui in the steeplechase, as another Kenyan, Bernard Barmasai, won.
Joyner-Kersee, just weeks away from retirement, won a fourth heptathlon title. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614995beae4d6aa8db0d19d3.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Jackie Joyner-Kersee&nbsp;(&copy; Allsport / Getty Images)
 Leading by 46 points coming into the 800m &ndash; an event Joyner-Kersee disliked intensely &ndash; she had to work hard to hold off fellow US athletes DeDee Nathan and Kelly Blair-LaBounty. Joyner-Kersee retired as the one-and-only Goodwill Games heptathlon champion.
O&rsquo;Brien won the men&rsquo;s decathlon with 8755 points while Jeff Hartwig joined pole vault&rsquo;s six-metre club, equalling Bubka&rsquo;s Goodwill record of 6.01m.
The Games&rsquo; future was again under discussion.&nbsp;Track &amp; Field News&rsquo;s Dunaway mused their continuation was &ldquo;not so much a question of competition as of whether Turner Sports can turn a profit on this made-for-TV event, or is willing to continue it at a loss for the &lsquo;prestige&rsquo; and worldwide TV programming pluses it generates.&rdquo;&nbsp; 
<h2>Brisbane 2001</h2>
Johnson ended his career in the Brisbane Goodwill Games 4x400m, anchoring the US to first across the line in 3:00.52 on the final night of competition.
Good crowds attended the Games and around 30,000 cheered Johnson to the echo. Sadly, the result was subsequently annulled when one of the other team members admitted to doping, victory going to Poland.
That didn&rsquo;t spoil the feeling in the moment.
Noah Ngeny, who famously upset Hicham El Guerrouj in the Sydney Olympic 1500m, won the mile in Brisbane. Jonathan Edwards defeated career-long rival Christian Olsson in the triple jump and Jan Zelezny dominated the javelin. Allen Johnson narrowly defeated Anier Garcia in the 110m hurdles.
Maria Mutola won a high-class 800m from Kelly Holmes and Stephanie Graf. Stacy Dragila triumphed in the pole vault and Kamila Skolimowska, still U20-eligible, won the hammer throw. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61499612ae4d6aa8db0d19d6.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Maria Mutola&nbsp;(&copy; Allsport / Getty Images)
 For the hosts, teenager Melissa Rollison won the 3000m steeplechase in a world U20 record 9:30.70 and Nathan Deakes beat Sydney 2000 road race walks dual gold medallist Robert Korzeniowski to win the 20,000m track race walk. Bronwyn Thompson took a silver medal in the long jump, and bronze medals went to Matt Shirvington in the 100m, the men&rsquo;s 4x100m team, vaulters Dmitri Markov and Tatiana Grigorieva and Susie Power in the 10,000m.
Power was undaunted by the presence of reigning world and Olympic champion Derartu Tulu and Ayelech Worku, the world championships 5000m bronze medallist in 1999 and 2001. Power made a long run for home before finishing third in 31:50.36 behind Tulu's 31:48.19 and Worku's 31:48.57.
In a bizarre men&rsquo;s 5000m, the field dawdled to the bell in 14:36 before a sub-50-second final lap took Kenya&rsquo;s Paul Bitok to victory. His 15:26.10 would have placed him sixth in the women&rsquo;s 5000m. Even more bizarre, the crowd loved it.
Shortly after the Games closed, Time Warner announced Brisbane would be the last edition. They had delivered on Turner&rsquo;s stated aim of easing the superpower tensions of the 1980s. And, while there remains room for improvement in international relations today, the probability is that the rebuilding of the Olympic Games after the boycott era rendered the raison d&rsquo;&ecirc;tre of the Goodwill Games largely redundant.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

The multi-sport event was held between 1986 and 2001.

Remembering the Goodwill Games, 20 years on

<a href="#FR">Fran&ccedil;ais / French</a>
World Athletics has today published its Annual Report for 2020. 
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=85303dd4-9567-46da-8969-44c07394e43b.pdf&amp;urlslug=2020%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics 2020 Annual Report</a>
 The 2020 consolidated financial accounts should have marked the beginning of a new four-year funding cycle tied, in the main, to the revenues received from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This was not the case given the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 and three of our four World Athletics Series events during 2020. &nbsp;
In what was an extraordinarily difficult year for everyone we made a decision early in the year to concentrate on protecting the revenue we had and, more importantly, focus on reducing our expenditure. This was a good strategy which saw our cash reserves increase by 17% to US$40m. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6148c0e4c902c7c57c0b4c3d.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 In anticipation of a fractured year of events, significant effort went into the careful management of expenditure with strong results. Expenditure for the period of 31 December 2020 decreased by 38% to US$41.7m from US$67.8m in 2019. Several mitigations contributed to this decrease.
&bull; Competition related expenses dropped by almost half (49% to US$15m) as three of our four World Athletics Series events were postponed.
&bull;&nbsp;Competition, event and development related Area and Member Federation grants also decreased significantly (48% to US$8m) as staggered and extended lockdowns across the world took hold.&nbsp;
&bull; Furlough led to a reduction in staff costs of 7% (US$750k) in 2020 with up to 60% of head office staff fully or partially furloughed during 2020.&nbsp;
&bull; Non-event related travel spend (including accommodation costs) dropped 85% from US$3.6m in 2019 to just US$550k in 2020.
Revenue for the year ending 31 December 2020 declined by 13% to US$44.2m from US$51.1m in 2019, primarily due to the reduced number of events, particularly Label Road Race events. However, maintaining revenue from broadcast and commercial rights by postponing rather than cancelling events helped to deliver US$34.9m revenue in a difficult year. The revenue also benefitted from the Russian Athletics Federation reimbursement of US$6.8m.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The year 2020 seems a lifetime ago,&rdquo; World Athletics President Sebastian Coe says in his opening message in the report. &ldquo;But I know that times are still difficult for many of our athletes as the Covid-19 global pandemic continues to restrict our movements and add layers of complexity to our lives.
&ldquo;Looking back on 2020, I am proud and grateful for the way we came together as a sport. Three words define 2020 for me: resilience, bravery and flexibility.
&ldquo;Resilience in the way we managed to adapt to the circumstances of the year. It was really hard work, but we were told regularly that we were braver and delivered better than many other international sports federations.
&ldquo;Bravery in the way we didn&rsquo;t sit by and let the pandemic wash over us. We took action and made decisions to help our athletes navigate the year.
&ldquo;Flexibility&nbsp;in the way we adapted our ways of working, from our global decision-making forums going virtual to the staging of regular online Member Federation Information Sessions joined by over 85% of our Member Federations.
&ldquo;I was also delighted to welcome three new partners &ndash; Pinsent Masons, parkrun and Nielsen &ndash; in 2020. And I was incredibly proud that we managed to stage our World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, as well as over 600 individual events around the world in 2020 including eight Diamond League and 28 Continental Tour meetings which gave 4000 athletes from 94 countries an opportunity to participate in high level competition through these two meetings series.
&ldquo;We have been prudent about how we have managed our resources, both financial and human, and throughout the disruption we had the discipline to focus on business-as-usual projects and programmes. This has been a huge effort by everyone in our sport. But we made significant progress across so much of our sport. We didn&rsquo;t just survive, we thrived.
&ldquo;The priority for all of us right now is to continue to work hard for our sport in a pandemic environment that will be with us longer than we had envisioned,&rdquo; Coe adds.
&ldquo;We have extraordinary breadth and depth of talented elite athletes in all Areas as we have seen in 2021 where 43 different teams won medals and 82 teams reached a final at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with 151 national records set in 65 countries. At the World Athletics U20 Championships 35 countries won medals with 63 countries finishing in a top eight position.&nbsp;
"Together we came through 2020 stronger, more resilient, more innovative and creative, more connected, and more confident about our sport and its future. And, dare I say it, a little braver.&rdquo;
World Athletics 
&nbsp;
<hr />
<a name="FR"></a>&nbsp;
<h1>World Athletics publie son rapport annuel 2020</h1>
&nbsp;
World Athletics a publi&eacute; aujourd&rsquo;hui son rapport annuel pour 2020. 
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=8e7e47f0-f080-4ed0-bb58-d780d16d7220.pdf&amp;urlslug=2020%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rapport annuel de World Athletics</a>
 Les comptes financiers consolid&eacute;s de 2020 auraient d&ucirc; marquer le d&eacute;but d&rsquo;un nouveau cycle de financement de quatre ans li&eacute;, pour l&rsquo;essentiel, &agrave; la dotation du Comit&eacute; international olympique (CIO). Cela n&rsquo;a pas &eacute;t&eacute; le cas, &eacute;tant donn&eacute; le report des Jeux olympiques de Tokyo 2020 &agrave; 2021 et de trois de nos quatre comp&eacute;titions de la S&eacute;rie mondiale initialement pr&eacute;vues en 2020.
Au cours d&rsquo;une ann&eacute;e extr&ecirc;mement difficile pour tout le monde, nous avons pris la d&eacute;cision au d&eacute;but de l&rsquo;ann&eacute;e de nous concentrer sur la protection de nos revenus et, plus important encore, sur la r&eacute;duction de nos d&eacute;penses. Il s&rsquo;est agi d&rsquo;une bonne strat&eacute;gie qui a vu nos r&eacute;serves de tr&eacute;sorerie augmenter de 17 % pour atteindre 40 millions de dollars am&eacute;ricains (USD). 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61498b9d8d1006dc1ba69b68.png" alt="" width="100%" />
 En pr&eacute;vision d&rsquo;une ann&eacute;e mouvement&eacute;e, des efforts consid&eacute;rables ont &eacute;t&eacute; d&eacute;ploy&eacute;s pour g&eacute;rer soigneusement les d&eacute;penses, avec de bons r&eacute;sultats. Les d&eacute;penses pour la p&eacute;riode du 31&nbsp;d&eacute;cembre&nbsp;2020 ont diminu&eacute; de 38&nbsp;% passant de 67,8&nbsp;millions&nbsp;USD en 2019 &agrave; 41,7&nbsp;millions&nbsp;USD en 2020. Un certain nombre de mesures d&rsquo;all&egrave;gement ont contribu&eacute; &agrave; cette diminution.
&bull; Les d&eacute;penses li&eacute;es aux comp&eacute;titions ont chut&eacute; de pr&egrave;s de la moiti&eacute; (soit 49 % pour atteindre 15 millions USD) dans un contexte o&ugrave; trois de nos quatre comp&eacute;titions de la S&eacute;rie mondiale ont &eacute;t&eacute; report&eacute;es.&nbsp;
&bull; Quant aux subventions destin&eacute;es aux Associations continentales et aux F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres li&eacute;es aux comp&eacute;titions, aux &eacute;v&eacute;nements et au d&eacute;veloppement, elles ont &eacute;galement diminu&eacute; de mani&egrave;re significative (de 48 % pour atteindre 8 millions USD) &agrave; cause des confinements &eacute;chelonn&eacute;s et prolong&eacute;s &agrave; travers le monde.&nbsp;
&bull; Le plan de ch&ocirc;mage temporaire a entra&icirc;n&eacute; une r&eacute;duction des frais li&eacute;s au personnel de 7 % (750&thinsp;000 USD) en 2020, 60 % du personnel du si&egrave;ge ayant &eacute;t&eacute; mis au ch&ocirc;mage temporaire partiel ou total au cours de 2020.
&bull; Les d&eacute;penses de voyage non li&eacute;es &agrave; un &eacute;v&eacute;nement (y compris les frais d&rsquo;h&eacute;bergement) ont chut&eacute; de 85 %, passant de 3,6 millions USD en 2019 &agrave; seulement 550&thinsp;000 USD en 2020.&nbsp;
Le chiffre d&rsquo;affaires pour l&rsquo;ann&eacute;e se terminant le 31 d&eacute;cembre 2020 a diminu&eacute; de 13 %, passant de 51,1 millions USD en 2019 &agrave; 44,2 millions USD, principalement en raison de la r&eacute;duction du nombre d&rsquo;&eacute;v&eacute;nements, en particulier les courses sur route &agrave; label. Cependant, le maintien des revenus des droits de diffusion et des droits commerciaux gr&acirc;ce au report plut&ocirc;t qu&rsquo;&agrave; l&rsquo;annulation des &eacute;v&eacute;nements a permis de d&eacute;gager un produit de 34,9 millions USD au cours d&rsquo;une ann&eacute;e difficile. Les recettes ont &eacute;galement &eacute;t&eacute; aliment&eacute;es par 6,8 millions USD provenant de la F&eacute;d&eacute;ration russe d&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme.
&laquo;&thinsp;Devant ces souvenirs r&eacute;cents, l&rsquo;ann&eacute;e 2020 semble &ecirc;tre d&eacute;j&agrave; bien loin,&thinsp;&raquo; a d&eacute;clar&eacute; le pr&eacute;sident de World Athletics Sebastian Coe dans son mot d&rsquo;introduction du rapport. &laquo;&thinsp;Pourtant, je sais que les temps sont encore difficiles pour beaucoup de nos athl&egrave;tes, alors que la pand&eacute;mie mondiale de COVID-19 continue de restreindre nos d&eacute;placements et d&rsquo;ajouter &agrave; la complexit&eacute; de nos quotidiens.
En repensant &agrave; 2020, je suis fier et reconnaissant de la fa&ccedil;on dont nous avons fait union en tant que sport. Selon moi, trois mots d&eacute;finissent 2020 : R&eacute;silience, Courage et Souplesse.
La r&eacute;silience se refl&egrave;te dans la fa&ccedil;on dont nous avons r&eacute;ussi &agrave; nous adapter &agrave; la conjoncture. La t&acirc;che s&rsquo;est r&eacute;v&eacute;l&eacute;e difficile, mais nombreux sont ceux qui nous ont salu&eacute;s pour notre courage et qui ont consid&eacute;r&eacute; que nous avions mieux r&eacute;ussi que bien d&rsquo;autres F&eacute;d&eacute;rations sportives internationales.&nbsp;
Le courage s&rsquo;est manifest&eacute; dans la fa&ccedil;on dont nous avons lutt&eacute; pour emp&ecirc;cher la pand&eacute;mie de nous submerger. Nous avons agi et pris des d&eacute;cisions pour aider nos athl&egrave;tes &agrave; traverser cette ann&eacute;e difficile.&nbsp;
Nous avons fait preuve de souplesse dans l&rsquo;adaptation de nos m&eacute;thodes de travail, qu&rsquo;il s&rsquo;agisse de la virtualisation de nos processus de prise de d&eacute;cision ou de l&rsquo;organisation r&eacute;guli&egrave;re de sessions d&rsquo;information en ligne, auxquelles ont particip&eacute; plus de 85 % de nos F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres.&nbsp;
En 2020, j&rsquo;ai &eacute;galement &eacute;t&eacute; ravi d&rsquo;accueillir trois nouveaux partenaires : Pinsent Masons, parkrun et Nielsen. Je suis tr&egrave;s fier que nous ayons r&eacute;ussi &agrave; organiser nos Championnats du monde de semi-marathon &agrave; Gdynia, en Pologne, ainsi que plus de 600 &eacute;preuves individuelles dans le monde, dont 8 meetings de la Ligue de diamant et 28 meetings du Circuit continental, ces deux s&eacute;ries de meetings ayant permis &agrave; 4&thinsp;000 athl&egrave;tes de 94 pays de participer &agrave; des comp&eacute;titions de haut niveau.
Nous avons &eacute;t&eacute; prudents dans la gestion de nos ressources, tant financi&egrave;res qu&rsquo;humaines, et pendant cette p&eacute;riode mouvement&eacute;e, nous nous sommes efforc&eacute;s de rester concentr&eacute;s sur les projets et programmes habituels. Le travail &agrave; accomplir &eacute;tait titanesque, mais nous avons fait des progr&egrave;s significatifs dans de nombreux secteurs de l&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme. Nous n&rsquo;avons pas seulement surv&eacute;cu, nous avons prosp&eacute;r&eacute;.&nbsp;
&Agrave; l&rsquo;heure actuelle, la priorit&eacute; pour nous toutes et tous est de continuer &agrave; travailler dur pour notre sport dans un contexte de pand&eacute;mie qui durera plus longtemps que nous l&rsquo;avions envisag&eacute;&thinsp;&raquo;, a ajout&eacute; Coe.
&laquo;&thinsp;Nous avons un panel extraordinaire d&rsquo;athl&egrave;tes d&rsquo;&eacute;lite talentueux dans toutes les r&eacute;gions continentales, comme l&rsquo;a montr&eacute; 2021, ann&eacute;e au cours de laquelle 43 &eacute;quipes diff&eacute;rentes ont remport&eacute; des m&eacute;dailles et 82 &eacute;quipes ont atteint une finale aux Jeux olympiques de Tokyo 2020, avec 151 records nationaux &eacute;tablis dans 65 pays. Lors des Championnats du monde U20, 35 pays ont remport&eacute; des m&eacute;dailles et 63 pays ont termin&eacute; dans les 8 premiers.
Ensemble, nous sommes sortis plus forts de cette ann&eacute;e, plus r&eacute;sistants, plus innovants et cr&eacute;atifs, plus connect&eacute;s, plus confiants dans notre sport et son avenir et, j&rsquo;ose le dire, un peu plus courageux.&thinsp;&raquo;
World Athletics

World Athletics has today published its Annual Report for 2020.

World Athletics publishes 2020 Annual Report

Ask Kamar Etiang his goals for the future and the Kenyan 18-year-old isn&rsquo;t shy about making a bold prediction.
&ldquo;The next few years, I can run the (1500m) world record of (Hicham) El Guerrouj,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I can make it. Even 3000m is possible to me.&rdquo;
The two marks he speaks of &ndash; 3:26.00 and 7:20.67 &ndash; have stood unchallenged for 23 years and 25 years respectively, but Etiang looks at them &ndash; out there as they are &ndash; and thinks, &lsquo;why not&rsquo;?
Such confidence is rare, but it&rsquo;s based on what he&rsquo;s experienced during this, his breakthrough year. Virtually unknown at the start of the season, Etiang shook up many established seniors at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in June, finishing second to Charles Simotwo in a huge personal best of 3:33.02. Behind him that day were Timothy Cheruiyot and Abel Kipsang, who would go on to finish second and fourth in the Olympic final.
They both clocked 3:29 in that race, a time Etiang believes is well within his compass. In the years ahead, he intends to prove it.
The first time his coach, Peter Bii, came across him, Etiang was racing the U20 8000m race at the Discovery Cross Country in Eldoret.
&ldquo;The first two laps he was in the first group, the third and fourth he was dropping (his rivals),&rdquo; says Bii. &ldquo;I knew if we do something extra (in training), he would be good.&rdquo;
Their first conversation, however, was not so much about what the work Etiang was doing. Bii tried to gauge how committed the youngster was to the sport.
&ldquo;It was about discipline, (finding) someone who listens, someone who can be moulded to be something,&rdquo; says Bii. &ldquo;Sometimes you get a good athlete but you cannot guide them. I saw in him the discipline, the morale to make it. If you have that, the rest can be done &ndash; the training is easy.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6148831d3d2606d0d78aca4f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Kamar Etiang and his coach Peter Bii (&copy;&nbsp;Erick Baraza)
 Etiang grew up in Turkana County in the northwest of Kenya and at the age of six he moved to Trans-Nzoia County. &ldquo;Others are reared by their mother, but mostly my grandmother took me when I was young,&rdquo; he says.
He played volleyball at school, which was also where he first picked up running, though Etiang never took it seriously until the last few years. Shortly after that Discovery Cross Country he moved to Iten and joined the Asics Chojo Camp, a group of 32 athletes who train under the guidance of Bii and who are represented by the Mezzo Management Group. Etiang has been based there for almost two years now, with running his sole obsession.
&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t put two things in once,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You focus first to achieve that one.&rdquo;
During his base training, he&rsquo;ll typically run 130-150km per week, but as the intensity rises coming into the track season that drops substantially to around 80-100km each week.
&ldquo;I benefit a lot,&rdquo; he says of the Asics Chojo Camp. &ldquo;If we go to the field we assist each other to grow, to finish workouts. We motivate each other.&rdquo;
It is Etiang&rsquo;s own ascent that has been the group&rsquo;s most striking breakthrough. In early 2020, he was targeting both the Olympics and the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, but when both of those were pushed back a year he faced the same struggles as so many others, trying his best to maintain the usual routine.
&ldquo;It was a big challenge, but coach told me: &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t give up, we can achieve more,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We started again building up.&rdquo;
In 2021 he announced his world-class talent with that second place at the Olympic Trials but was omitted from the Kenyan team for the Tokyo Games. The disappointment stung for a while, but Etiang has learned to let it go.
&ldquo;Coach told me: &lsquo;Leave the things in the past and focus on this and this &ndash; we can achieve more,&rsquo;&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The Olympics is not the end of life; there are many races we can run to prove our talent.&rdquo;
One of those was the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21, where Etiang was the favourite for the men&rsquo;s 1500m. But things didn&rsquo;t go to plan, a hamstring injury he picked up on the build-up coming back to haunt him in the final.
&ldquo;In the second lap I felt the leg pulling, when I went to up the pace the leg wouldn&rsquo;t respond,&rdquo; says Etiang, who crossed the line third but lost the bronze medal after being disqualified for a lane infringement. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6148837e3d2606d0d78aca52.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Kamar Etiang in training (&copy; Kimesh Pictures)
 Etiang has a strong relationship with Bii, and believes he is the man to guide him to become the fastest of all time.
&ldquo;Everything he told me to do, I do,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s like my father. Everything is possible when I listen to the coach and focus.&rdquo;
Bii knows that world U20 final was an anomaly &ndash; a small bump on the road on their path towards the top.
&ldquo;One race does not define an athlete,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;In two, three years, he&rsquo;ll be big. Most people have not seen what Kamar can do. The workouts he&rsquo;s done, you can really appreciate the talent. If you can get it right in one race, like the Olympic trials, you see what he has to offer. For now it&rsquo;s the season for Jakob (Ingebrigtsen) but in two or three years, his time will come.&rdquo;
Etiang is very much a student of the sport, and has countless videos of top-level 1500m races saved on his phone. &ldquo;I have downloaded all of them and before I go to sleep I watch one or two clips,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s motivating me.&rdquo;
When he looks to the future, he thinks of not just becoming the fastest athlete of his generation, but the fastest of any generation.
&ldquo;My biggest dream is to set this world record at 1500m and 3000m,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I want to assure you, in two or three years, I&rsquo;ll be the one.&rdquo;
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

Ask Kamar Etiang his goals for the future and the Kenyan 18-year-old isn’t shy about making a bold prediction.

Etiang aims high after breakthrough year

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll come back stronger.&rdquo; That was the promise Nigerian hurdler Tobi Amusan made to herself and her fans after placing fourth in the 100m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics. Narrowly losing the bronze medal to Jamaica&rsquo;s Megan Tapper, Amusan faced the familiar disappointment of finishing off the podium at a global competition, having also placed fourth at the World Championships in Doha in 2019.
At the time she made that promise, not even Amusan envisaged that she would break the African record five weeks and the same number of competitions later as she approached the end of the 2021 season. But that was exactly what happened when she stormed into the history books of her country and continent in the final Wanda Diamond League event of the year, the Weltklasse Zurich, winning the 100m hurdles in an African record of 12.42 to eclipse Glory Alozie&rsquo;s record set in Monaco in 1998 by two hundredths of a second.
Drawn in lane 3 and flanked by Gabriele Cunningham on her left and Nadine Visser on her right, with Tapper not too far off in lane 5, Amusan got off to a flying start and after the fourth hurdle she overtook both Cunningham and Tapper who had gone out hard at the start of the race.
The two-time African Games gold medallist took the lead by the fifth hurdle with the pair of Visser and Tapper hot on her heels, but she held them off to secure the first Diamond Trophy of her career, making her the first ever African hurdler to do so, as well as the first Nigerian athlete to accomplish such a feat since the World Athletics one-day series was renamed the Diamond League in 2010. Visser was second in a Dutch record of 12.51, with Tapper settling for third in 12.55.
Amusan also follows in the footsteps of her compatriots Innocent Egbunike, who clocked a then African record of 44.17 in the men&rsquo;s 400m in 1987 (which still stands as the Nigerian record), and Seun Ogunkoya, who won the men&rsquo;s 100m in 1998, as the third Nigerian to win an event at the Lezigrund Stadion.
Amusan reveals that she did not expect to run the African record in her penultimate race of the season. &ldquo;All I was focused on was crossing the line first," she says. "I was not planning to run fast but just wanted to complete my quota of competitions for the year as per contract requirements and to gain points and improve my world ranking, so I wasn&rsquo;t expecting anything special.
&ldquo;I knew it was a competitive field and it&rsquo;s all about getting out of the blocks because I know that is my weakest part of the race, so my plan was to get out and go. Once I get out, I trust my top end speed and God to carry me through, so my emphasis was just on getting to the line first, no emphasis on breaking records.
&ldquo;But on getting across the line, and then after my little celebration, I heard the commentator saying: &lsquo;That&rsquo;s a new area record.&rsquo; And I thought: &lsquo;Oh, is that me?&rsquo; Then I looked up and I was like &lsquo;okay&rsquo;. It wasn&rsquo;t that I was overly excited about the record; I was more excited that I won the final, but I&rsquo;m happy to have also ticked the record off my bucket list." 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61476ce18548318ee9077ca9.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Winning the Diamond League final with the African record as a bonus is the perfect climax for Amusan after a long and arduous season which started in January and was laced with some major disappointments in the build up to the Tokyo Olympics.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great, it is a great feeling," the 2017 NCAA champion adds. "Looking back, I did not win a medal at the Olympics. It was a very challenging time for me afterwards, but I never gave up, and I came out here and I was like, if I did not get a medal in Tokyo, the least I can do is to get a Diamond League Trophy &ndash; I did just that."
Amusan&rsquo;s first attempt on the African record was back in June during the Olympic trials held at the Yaba College of Technology Sports Complex in Lagos. It was clear to all and sundry at the time that she had that one mission to accomplish, especially as she had set a personal best of 12.48 the month before and clocked wind-aided times of 12.43 and 12.44 respectively in her final races before the trials.
&ldquo;I wanted to break the African record back at home in Nigeria on home soil. I knew what I had done a week before I came for the trials. The week before, I remember running a 12.3 and 12.44 so it was like: &lsquo;You&rsquo;re ready'," she says.
At the national championships, Amusan executed a clean race in the semifinals, easily dominating with a time of 12.54. The stage was set for the final later in the day and no one within the sports arena was in doubt as to the significance of the race. Furthermore, Alozie was also at the arena to witness the historic moment everyone anticipated.
When the time came, Amusan sped out of the blocks and executed with perfection, but as she crossed the line, there was no time displayed on the timer, much to everyone&rsquo;s dismay, especially Amusan&rsquo;s. She made her way back to the timer and officials, anxiously pacing for a few minutes until it was disclosed that the race had not been timed due to a malfunction and she was subsequently awarded 12.30 (hand-timed).
It was such a rollercoaster of emotions for the UTEP alumnus. Putting her thoughts to paper a month after the unfortunate incident, she said: &ldquo;Lo and behold! It was not a mirage. The time of the display unit was actually zero. My body grew limp. The initial rush of adrenaline that I felt during the race was quickly being replaced by all the worst kind of emotions - betrayal, hate, sadness, paranoia - all at the same time. God, why was this happening to me? I was shattered. I needed to have a good cry, so I left the arena.&rdquo;
Nearly six weeks later and ranked No.3 in the world in her event, Amusan shrugged aside the disappointment to open her campaign at the Tokyo Olympics as one of Nigeria&rsquo;s medal hopefuls and easily crossed the line first in 12.72. She lowered her time to 12.62 in the semifinal, also in first place to become the first Nigerian woman since Alozie at Sydney 2000 to feature in the final of the 100m hurdles at the Olympics. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61076c3a2f0dae9048f69213.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 In the final, she got out a bit late and paid dearly for it by placing fourth, one of the most difficult positions for an athlete to finish in. She said afterwards: &ldquo;Physically I was ready, but mentally I wasn&rsquo;t, so I think my mental part let me down. I&rsquo;m moving forward positively. It&rsquo;s another lesson, and by the time I come out of this, I will come back stronger.&rdquo;
Indeed, she came back stronger at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels, clocking the same time of 12.69 as eventual winner Visser. She then won the Diamond Trophy in Zurich, which she dedicates to her mum. She also dominated her final race of the season in Zagreb five days later.
&ldquo;That trophy is for my mother because I could remember after the Olympics, she fell terribly ill because she was crying so badly,"&nbsp;Amusan explains. "I&rsquo;m happy I gave her one reason to smile this year because she&rsquo;s been my number one pillar. She&rsquo;s up at 2am or 3am Nigerian time because she&rsquo;s always trying to watch my races and she&rsquo;s like: &lsquo;I won&rsquo;t sleep&rsquo;. So, I definitely dedicate the trophy to her.&rdquo;
Going forward, Amusan has only one target. &ldquo;I know a lot of people have tagged me the &lsquo;almost&rsquo; girl," she says. "I&rsquo;ve seen and heard a lot of comments. It&rsquo;s just sad knowing that I&rsquo;m that girl that people tag &lsquo;almost&rsquo; and that&rsquo;s the main force that&rsquo;s going to drive me next year. I don&rsquo;t want to be the &lsquo;almost&rsquo; girl. I want to be &lsquo;that girl&rsquo;, the girl that wins every competition.&rdquo;
The multiple continental champion certainly has all it takes to be &lsquo;that girl&rsquo;, so watch out for her in 2022.
Yemi Olus for World Athletics

“I’ll come back stronger.” That was the promise Nigerian hurdler Tobi Amusan made to herself and her fans after placing fourth in the 100m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics.

Delay is not denial for Amusan, who's ticking off her bucket list one hurdle at a time 

Tsehay Gemechu set a course record while Amedework Walelegn made it an Ethiopian double at the Copenhagen Half Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Label Road Race, on Sunday (19).
Making the most of the flat course in Denmark&rsquo;s capital city, Gemechu took 52 seconds off her almost two-year-old PB, running a dominant 1:05:08 to improve the course record set by Sifan Hassan in 2018 by seven seconds. Walelegn, meanwhile, won a much closer men's race, holding off a challenge from Kenya&rsquo;s Keneth Renju to win by two seconds in 59:10.
Running behind her pacemaker Roy Hoornweg, who also paced Yalemzerf Yehualaw to her world half marathon record in Larne last month, Gemechu had her sights on the 1:05:15 race record set by the now double Olympic champion Hassan three years ago, but the big pre-event favourite wasn&rsquo;t alone in the opening stages. Her fellow Ethiopians Hawi Feysa, Gete Alemayehu and Beyenu Degefa, plus Kenya&rsquo;s Vivian Kiplagat, joined her in a lead group which went through 5km in 15:16 but by 10km (30:48) the pack was starting to stretch, with Alemayehu having been dropped and Gemechu still to the fore and looking comfortable.
A couple of kilometres later Gemechu, who finished fourth in the 2019 world 5000m final in Doha, had broken away and was running clear ahead of her compatriot Feysa, the 2017 U20 world cross country silver medallist. By 15km Gemechu, now running without her pacemaker, had a 13-second lead ahead of Feysa, with Kiplagat another 22 seconds back. That is how the positions remained to the finish line, but with Gemechu&rsquo;s advantage having grown to half a minute.
Feysa, who has a 2:23:36 marathon PB from Dubai last year but was making her half marathon debut, finished second in 1:05:41, with Kiplagat clocking 1:06:07 to take 31 seconds off her PB in third. Degefa was fourth (1:08:15) and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Yitayish Mekonene fifth (1:08:53).
&ldquo;I was hoping to break my personal best and run close to 65 minutes, and beating Sifan Hassan&rsquo;s race record of course is something special,&rdquo; said Gemechu, back racing in Denmark where she finished sixth at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus. &ldquo;I am very happy. It was a bit windy, so I had to work hard.&rdquo;
The men&rsquo;s race saw a group of nine athletes, plus pacemaker Abel Sikowo, pass the 5km mark in 13:55 and the 10km point in 28:01. As Sikowo dropped back just before 15km it was the pre-race favourite Walelegn, who claimed bronze at last year&rsquo;s World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, who took control, taking the field through that checkpoint in 42:15. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614736e25e1f4c5b1c48a04c.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> (&copy; Copenhagen Half Marathon / CPH Half)
 The podium was decided over the next kilometre, with Walelegn making a move along with Kenya&rsquo;s Daniel Mateiko and Renju. With around two kilometres remaining, Walelegn tried to break away but with a glance over his shoulder he could see it wasn't enough to lose his rivals. Then it was Renju&rsquo;s turn to push the pace and while Walelegn stuck close behind him, Mateiko was dropped and the race was down to two.
Covering Renju&rsquo;s move, Walelegn was determined to take the top spot and with another look over his shoulder at 21km he strode down the final stretch to victory. Renju&rsquo;s runner-up time of 59:12 was a PB and his first half marathon under the hour, while Mateiko was third in a PB of 59:25. The top four all ran under 60 minutes, with Ethiopia&rsquo;s Abe Tilahun finishing fourth in a PB of 59:46, while Norway&rsquo;s Zerei Kbrom, returning to the half marathon for the first time since 2016, ran a more than six-minute PB of 1:00:07 for fifth.
The event incorporated the Danish Championships, with Annah Ritah Nagadya (1:16:49) and Abdi Hakin Ulad (1:03:30) claiming the national titles.
Behind the elite action, the mass event had close to 20,000 entries.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
<h3>Leading results </h3>
Women 1&nbsp;Tsehay Gemechu (ETH) 1:05:08 2&nbsp;Hawi Feysa (ETH) 1:05:41 3&nbsp;Vivian Kiplagat (KEN) 1:06:07
Men 1&nbsp;Amedework Walelegn&nbsp;(ETH) 59:10 2 Keneth Renju&nbsp;(KEN) 59:12 3 Daniel Mateiko&nbsp;(KEN) 59:25 
<h2>Maru and Chepkemoi claim a Kenyan double in Valencia</h2>
The Kenyan pair of Emmanuel Maru and Joyce Chepkemoi took commanding victories at the&nbsp;15km Nocturna Valencia Banco Mediolanum,&nbsp;a&nbsp;World Athletics Elite Label Road Race, on Saturday (18) in the Mediterranean Spanish city which has witnessed a plethora of world records on road events in previous years. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614712b07d523f81d89a0777.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />(&copy; Organisers)
 The men&rsquo;s race began at a steady 2:50-per-kilometre pace and the large nine-man pack went through the opening 5km in 14:12 behind schedule to break the course record of 41.55 set in 2019. All the main favourites were in the lead pack, led by Kenya&rsquo;s Emmanuel Bor and his compatriot Maru. Bor&rsquo;s relentless rhythm paid dividends and by the seventh kilometre only two athletes remained in touch in the guise of Maru and Joseph Karanja.
After a 28:16 10km split, Bor began to lose ground with the clock reading 33 minutes, and Maru took advantage to unleash his devastating change of speed and open a sizeable advantage over his pursuers.
Maru&rsquo;s late burst of speed didn&rsquo;t prove to be enough to threaten the course record and he had to settle for a 42:14 clocking, head and shoulders ahead of Karanja, runner-up in 42:36, while Bor completed the podium still under the 43-minute barrier (42:49).
The unheralded 20-year-old Maru boasts modest career bests of 13:50.44 for the 5000m and 29:11.69 at the 10,000m in the altitude of Nairobi last March.
By far the main attraction in the women&rsquo;s event was Burundi&rsquo;s Francine Niyonsaba, fresh from setting a world 2000m record of 5:21.56 four days earlier in Zagreb.&nbsp;Yet the Olympic 10,000m fifth-place finisher only could stay in the leading group for the opening three kilometres as the pace, dictated by Kenyans Gladys Chepkurui and Chepkemoi, proved too fast for the two-time world indoor 800m champion who was running her first ever race of more than 10km. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614712cf7d523f81d89a077a.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />(&copy; Organisers) 
 The Kenyan tandem reached the 5km checkpoint in 15:38 while Niyonsaba travelled back in third. Shortly afterwards Chepkurui managed to leave Chepkemoi behind but her lead was short-lived as the latter caught Chepkurui a couple of kilometres later. The pair went through the 10km point slightly under 32 minutes to dash any hope of breaking the course record of 46:52 set two years ago. 
The 26-year-old Chepkemoi made her move with less than three kilometres left, when she easily broke away from her fellow Kenyan to romp home unopposed in 47:24. A fading Chepkurui crossed the finish line over one minute in arrears (48:30), with Niyonsaba being a distant third in 50:37. The victor holds a 10,000m lifetime best of 30:59.01 set in Hengelo last June.
More than 6000 runners took part in the event held on a pleasant night (20&ordm;C).
Emeterio Valiente for World Athletics
<h3>Leading results </h3>
Women 1 Joyce Chepkemoi (KEN) 47:24 2 Gladys Chepkurui (KEN) 48:30 3 Francine Niyonsaba (BUR) 50:37
Men 1 Emmanuel Moi Maru (KEN) 42:14 2 Joseph Karanja (KEN) 42:36 3 Emmanuel Bor (KEN) 42:49 
<h2>Kiprono and&nbsp;Cherono win in Rome</h2>
Clement&nbsp;Langat&nbsp;Kiprono and&nbsp;Peris Lagat Cherono achieved a Kenyan double at the&nbsp;Acea Run Rome the Marathon, a&nbsp;World Athletics Label Road Race, on Sunday (19).
Kiprono won the men&rsquo;s race in 2:08:23, beating his compatriot Emmanuel Naibei by five seconds. Deresa Geleta from Ethiopia crossed the finish line in 2:08:42 for third place, as Kenya triumphed for the 14th time in the Eternal City. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614734875e1f4c5b1c48a043.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> (&copy; Giancarlo Colombo)
 Eritrea's 2015 world champion and New York Marathon winner&nbsp;Ghirmay Ghebreslassie dropped out of the race shortly before the 21km mark.
The leading pack went through 21km in 1:03:42, 30km in 1:31:27 and 35km in 1:46:35.&nbsp;
Kiprono, who claimed U20 silver at the 2010 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz and set a PB of 1:00:29 in the half marathon in Houston in 2018, launched his decisive kick in the final kilometres and went on to win his debut marathon.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I am happy with my win," said&nbsp;Kiprono, who&nbsp;lives and trains in Eldoret. "I had never run a marathon. I achieved my best result at the Houston Half Marathon in 2018."
Cherono took the honours in the women&rsquo;s race in 2:29:29, beating her compatriot Judith Jurubert (2:30:50) and Ethiopia's Fantu Zewude Jifar (2:32:02).
The women&rsquo;s race was decided in the final stages when Cherono closed the gap on her fellow Kenyans Winfridah Moraa Moseti and Jurubert, who had led for most of the competition. Cherono broke away shortly before the 40km mark to cross the finish line clear.&nbsp; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/614734a35e1f4c5b1c48a046.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> (&copy; Giancarlo Colombo)
 The 2021 edition of the Acea Run Rome the Marathon featured 7500 runners, who started at dawn from the Fori Imperiali and passed in front of the Vittoriano in Piazza Venezia, the Circus Maximus, Castel Sant&rsquo;Angelo, Viale della Conciliazione, St. Peter&rsquo;s Basilica, the Foro Italico and the Mosque.
Diego Sampaolo for World Athletics
<h3>Leading results </h3>
Women 1 Peris Lagat Cherono (KEN) 2:29:29 2 Judith Jurubert (KEN) 2:30:50 3 Fantu Zewude Jifar (ETH)&nbsp;2:32:02
Men 1 Clement&nbsp;Langat&nbsp;Kiprono&nbsp;(KEN) 2:08:23 2 Emmanuel Naibei&nbsp;(KEN)&nbsp;2:08:28 3&nbsp;Deresa Geleta (ETH)&nbsp;2:08:42

Tsehay Gemechu set a course record while Amedework Walelegn made it an Ethiopian double at the Copenhagen Half Marathon

Gemechu breaks course record at Copenhagen Half Marathon

The Kip Keino Classic &ndash; and, indeed, the 2021 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series &ndash; ended on a high with some incredible performances at Nairobi&rsquo;s Kasarani Stadium on Saturday (18).
In the closest finish of the day, the 100m duel between USA&rsquo;s Trayvon Bromell and Kenya&rsquo;s Ferdinand Omanyala produced two of the fastest performances in history in the short sprint as Bromell won in a world-leading 9.76 ahead of Omanyala&rsquo;s African record of 9.77 (1.2m/s).
Bromell had a good start from the blocks and quickly opened a gap on the rest of the field before Omanyala began to close in on the US champion in the final stages. Bromell just held on for victory and improved his PB by 0.01, moving to equal sixth on the world all-time list, two places ahead of Omanyala. 
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 &ldquo;I may not have grabbed the gold in Tokyo, but given where I came from, I feel I&rsquo;ve already won,&rdquo; Bromell posted on social media after the race. &ldquo;Five years ago I underwent surgery. 2017-19 I was at home watching track from the couch. Now it's 2021 and I&rsquo;m the sixth fastest in history.&rdquo;
Other than the 2009 World Championships final and 2012 Olympic final, this was the only other time in which two men have finished inside 9.80 &ndash; with legal wind &ndash; in a 100m race. It should be noted, however, that Nairobi&rsquo;s altitude would have benefited the sprints events.
USA&rsquo;s Olympic 100m silver medallist Fred Kerley made good use of the occasion to end his season with a 200m PB. The former 400m specialist came off the bend in first place then continued to pull ahead of Botswana&rsquo;s Isaac Makwala, crossing the line in 19.76 (2.0m/s). Makwala took second place in 20.06 and Filippo Tortu, the anchor leg runner on Italy&rsquo;s victorious Olympic 4x100m team, placed third in 20.11. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61460e1d526099418d228a0e.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Three winners from the World U20 Championships that were held at the same venue last month emerged victorious again here as they ran against some of the world&rsquo;s best senior athletes.
It took almost 20 minutes, and two false starts in between, for one of the most anticipated events of the programme to finally start; the women&rsquo;s 200m between Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Ivory Coast and Namibia&rsquo;s Christine Mboma, the Olympic silver medallist and world U20 champion.
Ta Lou held a slight lead in the first half of the race, but Mboma came strongly on the home straight to win in 22.39 (0.2m/s). Ta Lou was second in 22.98 while Aminatou Seyni of Niger took third place in 23.33.
Before Mboma, another world U20 champion &ndash; Kenya&rsquo;s Vincent Keter &ndash; had defeated a quality field to win the men&rsquo;s 1500m in 3:35.99. Abdelatif Sadiki of Morocco came second in 3:36.63 followed by Adihena Kasaye of Ethiopia in 3:38.18.
Noah Kibet had earned the bronze medal at the World U20 Championships, but he surprised a high-quality senior 800m field with a bold move on the last lap that his competitors could not match. He won the race in 1:44.97 ahead of Collins Kipruto (1:45.68) and Cornelius Tuwei (1:45.90). Olympic silver medallist Ferguson Rotich was fourth.
From the celebrations Soufiane El Bakkali produced after winning the men&rsquo;s steeplechase, it became clear that he really wanted the win as much as the Kenyan runners wanted to beat him on their home soil. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ivf_PxsNHlA" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 The Olympic champion waited until the last 300m before sprinting and opening the gap at the front. The rest followed him in a single file as the Moroccan went ahead to win the race in 8:21.20. Abraham Kibiwot took second in 8:22.33 ahead of Chala Beyo who finished third in 8:23.37. Immediately after the win, El Bakkali could hardly contain his delight as he removed his singlet and walked around the stadium bare-chested.
In the women&rsquo;s race, Celliphine Chespol, who has battled with injuries since 2019, returned to winning ways in 9:30.55. The expected showdown between 2015 world champion Hyvin Kiyeng and Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai didn&rsquo;t materialise as both failed to finish. Fancy Cherono and Jackline Chepkoech finished second and third respectively.
Arguably, the most predictable outcome came in the women&rsquo;s 1500m. Two-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon ran behind Winnie Nanyondo, who was one of the pace makers here, and ensured she did just enough to hold off Ethiopia&rsquo;s Hirut Meshesha to win the race in 4:02:40. Meshesha ran 4:03.01 for second place while Freyweyni Hailu ran 4:04.39 for third place. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61460e70526099418d228a11.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Mary Moraa was delighted to secure another home victory, winning the 800m in 2:00.11 ahead of world champion Halimah Nakaayi (2:00.63).
Having narrowly missed out on Olympic selection in both the 10,000m and 5000m, Margaret Kipkemboi Chelimo enjoyed a comfortable victory in the 5000m in 14:55.27, finishing 17 seconds ahead of Eva Cherono and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk.
Four-time world champion Pawel Fajdek won the men&rsquo;s hammer with 78.33m, while Katrine Koch Jacobsen set her eighth and ninth national records of the year to win the women&rsquo;s hammer. Having already become the first Danish woman to throw beyond 65, 66, 67, 68 and 69 metres earlier in the season, she continued her remarkable progress in Nairobi with throws of 70.54m and 71.09m.
Elsewhere, Serbia&rsquo;s Milica Gardasevic won the women&rsquo;s long jump with a wind-assisted 6.68m (2.2m/s) and Aliaksei Katkavets was the only man to throw beyond 80 metres in the javelin, winning with 82.65m.
Justin Lagat for World Athletics

The Kip Keino Classic – and, indeed, the 2021 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series – ended on a high with some incredible performances at Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium on Saturday (18).

Bromell blasts to world-leading 9.76 in Nairobi

The Kip Keino Classic – and, indeed, the 2021 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series – ended on a high

Poker fan Devon Allen has raised the stakes in the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles after breaking 13 seconds for the first time at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Zagreb earlier this week.
The 26-year-old US sprint hurdler left Olympic gold medallist Hansle Parchment and bronze medallist Ronald Levy in his wake as he clocked 12.99, the second fastest time of the year, following hot on the heels of his victory at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich and the ISTAF meeting in Berlin to close out his competition year with three-of-a-kind impressive wins.
With exactly 300 days to go to the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, taking place at Eugene&rsquo;s Hayward Field where Allen represented the University of Oregon in both American football and track and field, Allen has a strong hand heading into the off-season. And, with next year&rsquo;s World Championships, the first ever in the US taking place on such familiar territory, Allen is excited at his prospects. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/ca1c578e-bcf1-48c7-b0b0-8f1d6a6f4744.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;It&rsquo;ll be pretty cool to be back in Hayward Field,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been back there a few times since it&rsquo;s been the new field.
&ldquo;We (US) actually get four athletes in the 110m hurdles next year as Grant Holloway gets a bye as world champion so we will be pretty deep in the hurdles. I think the competition has been building up for the past four or five years between Jamaica and the US. They&rsquo;ve been very consistent, a lot of fast Jamaican hurdlers, a lot of fast American hurdlers and consistently doing well and winning championships.
&ldquo;Being in front of a home crowd &ndash; especially for me because that&rsquo;s where I went to school &ndash; I think it&rsquo;s an advantage for all the US athletes,&rdquo; adds Allen. &ldquo;We also won&rsquo;t have to deal with travel and jetlag. We&rsquo;ll have that advantage and a lot of us in the US will have run at that stadium and will have competed in that stadium a month before to make the US team. So, we will have that familiarity and feeling good about the area, what to do and what to eat.&rdquo;
Allen still holds fond memories of playing football for the University of Oregon as wide receiver from 2014 through to 2016. But for the past few years he has been fully focused on the track. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/9ed5e6f6-5405-4187-be9b-8a55acc0f5ac.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;I played (football) my whole life,&rdquo; says the affable Allen. &ldquo;After the Olympics (Rio 2016) I played again and then in my third game of the season, I tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), my second ACL injury, so after that I decided to put football on hold and focus on track. I wanted to see what my potential was with a healthy season.
&ldquo;I would love to try to play (football again) eventually,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I know it&rsquo;s not an easy path. I know it&rsquo;s not easy to be elite at everything. The most ideal scenario would be to win the gold and be so dominant that I could play football and train for just a few months for the track. But it&rsquo;s not that easy; there are too many guys that are too good.&rdquo;
Allen first burst on to the international scene by winning the US Olympic Trials in Eugene in 2016 in 13.03 &ndash; a time that remained his lifetime best until his run in Zagreb this month &ndash; before going on to finish fifth in his debut Olympics.
The knee injury curtailed his progress and he was again hampered in 2020. But despite that, he has continued to qualify for a spot on the US team at every outdoor global championships from 2016 onwards &ndash; no mean feat for a country with such incredible depth and a cut-throat selection system. And he has just enjoyed his best-ever season in the sport, including winning the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich.
He was also fourth in the Olympic final in Tokyo, and although it is a position few athletes savour, he drew the positives. 
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 &ldquo;I joked with my coach that if the Olympics were last year, I wouldn&rsquo;t even have made the team,&rdquo; said Allen, who recorded a season&rsquo;s best of 13.36 in 2020. &ldquo;At the time I was injured, so I lucked out that I had an extra year to get healthy and make the team. I&rsquo;d liked to have run a little bit better in the final, but it&rsquo;s not like I ran poorly. 13.14 is still fast and those guys are great competitors too.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s so many things that can go wrong or not perfect that throw you off a little bit,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I think, based on my ability and talent, I should have and could have won a medal. But that doesn&rsquo;t take anything away from the other guys that are super talented as well. 1-2-3 just ran a fast race as well. It&rsquo;s just one of those things. After the race I was a little bit upset. But then I reflected, and it wasn&rsquo;t like I ran 13.50 and crashed and burned.&rdquo;
Allen is headstrong both on and off the track. In his down time, he enjoys playing poker. &ldquo;I like to play live poker a little bit,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Especially when travelling on the road, like in London around Piccadilly Circus and some of the casinos in that area. In Birmingham too, there&rsquo;s a casino next to the hotel on the Diamond League circuit. Same goes for Monaco too.&rdquo;
He sees parallels in the tension around the table on the track.
&ldquo;If you play poker and you have a big hand, the heart rate starts to go. You can feel the heart beating in your throat a little bit. To have that cool, calm collected look on your face is important. You go through scenarios in your head, what&rsquo;s important and focus on what&rsquo;s going on.
&ldquo;The nerves are a big component and it&rsquo;s a natural adrenalin response. But there&rsquo;s a slippery slope; too much of it can be bad and too little of it can be bad. So, you try to find that little magic balance by controlling your breathing and focus on a specific task, especially in track and field. That&rsquo;s why I like to be playful in my pre-race routine when the camera is on me and try to joke around, even after the race. 
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 &ldquo;If you focus too much, it takes too much emotional energy which can take a toll on your body physically. I try not to focus on the race too much at all until they say &lsquo;on your marks&rsquo; and then click on and focus on every little thing technically for about 50 seconds to a minute, that&rsquo;s how long it takes to getting in your blocks to the race and that&rsquo;s not really too long amount of time to focus.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like taking a test at school, which might take an hour,&rdquo; he continues. &ldquo;But after that you&rsquo;re tired, drained physically because you have been focusing for so long. A lot of people I see warming up and they are so intense and tight and it&rsquo;s not necessarily good for the overall outcome of the performance.&rdquo;
And if the exuberant Allen does succeed in Eugene next summer, expect much more than a poker-faced reaction from the home town hero.
Chris Broadbent for World Athletics

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