The history of the annual Liding&ouml;loppet, the world&rsquo;s largest cross country running race, has been recognised with the World Athletics Heritage Plaque (category - Competition).
The Liding&ouml;loppet, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver competition that celebrates its 58th edition this weekend, is the 79th recipient of the World Athletics Heritage Plaque since the programme was created in December 2018.
Liding&ouml; &ndash; where the competition takes place &ndash; is an island suburb of Stockholm, while &lsquo;loppet&rsquo; is Swedish for &lsquo;race&rsquo;.
Since 1982, the race has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the world's largest cross country race. There are usually around 15,000 runners in the 30km, with other races bringing the total number of participants across the weekend to around 35,000 each year.
&ldquo;The Liding&ouml;loppet is rightly renowned as one of the world&rsquo;s great cross country running competitions,&rdquo; World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. &ldquo;Its history and ongoing legacy are well deserving of a World Athletics Heritage Plaque. 
&ldquo;A classic event in Sweden&rsquo;s annual sporting calendar, Liding&ouml;loppet&rsquo;s impact on the development of recreational running has been profound. It has encouraged hundreds of thousands to take up exercise and get enjoyment from running in the vast, beautiful Swedish countryside.&rdquo;
The <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics Heritage Plaque</a> is a location-based recognition, awarded for 'an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field athletics and of out-of-stadia athletics disciplines such as cross country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking'. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632d50fa5852bcc53f3f89dc.jpg" alt="Mikael Jansson, Mikkel M&ouml;rdrup, Anna &Ouml;berg and Chris Turner with the Liding&ouml;loppet plaque" />
Mikael Jansson, Mikkel M&ouml;rdrup, Anna &Ouml;berg and Chris Turner with the Liding&ouml;loppet plaque (&copy; Marcus Wicander)
</div>
<h2>Grete Waitz &ndash; 12 victories</h2>
Liding&ouml;loppet, which is organised by the sports clubs IFK Liding&ouml; Orientering (SOK) and IFK Liding&ouml; Track and Field (Friidrott), takes place on a challenging, undulating course. Three-time winner Malin Ewerl&ouml;f, who lives in Liding&ouml;, told stadium.se: &ldquo;The Liding&ouml; race is like long interval training. The toughest stretch is between 15-20km. Here it goes up and down all the time.&rdquo; 
The last 10km is most famous and called the 'last mile' (in Sweden, 10km is normally described as a 'mil'). At 25km, runners come to the famous 'Abborrbacken' (perch hill), a key challenge of the race. The hill is 540m in length, during which runners ascend 48m from sea level.
The initiators of the race in 1965 were Karl Axel "Kacke" Karlberg and Sven G&auml;rderud. Their inspiration came from an article by sportswriter Sven Lindhagen, who proposed an annual mass event for recreational runners comparable with the Vasaloppet for cross country skiers. The first ever Liding&ouml; race was 30km long and 644 runners signed up. Of these, 512 completed the distance.
The distance for senior men has remained 30km. In 1967, a women&rsquo;s race over 15km was established. Since 1996 women also have had an official distance over 30km. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632d50ba5852bcc53f3f89d9.JPG" alt="Runners in action at the Liding&ouml;loppet" />
Runners in action at the Liding&ouml;loppet (&copy; Liding&ouml;loppet)
</div>
Norway&rsquo;s five-time world cross country champion Grete Waitz was a 12-time winner of the women&rsquo;s 15km race. Other illustrious women&rsquo;s race winners include Ingrid Kristiansen, Tegla Loroupe, Angela Tooby, Lena Gavelin, Malin Ewerl&ouml;f, Sara Wedlund and Annemari Sandell.
The men&rsquo;s 30km has been won by many distance running luminaries including Tapio Kantanen, Knut Kvalheim, Douglas Wakiihuri, Benson Masya and Mustafa Mohamed.
Since 1968, a giant wreath has been awarded to the winner of each running category. A Kranskulla (Wreath Maiden) and a Kransmas (Wreath Man) are appointed each year from the members of the organising clubs to place the wreaths around the neck of each winner as they approach the finish line. That task is not easily accomplished while running!
Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage

The history of the annual Lidingöloppet, the world’s largest cross country running race, has been recognised with the World Athletics Heritage Plaque

Lidingöloppet - world’s largest cross country race honoured

Poland&rsquo;s Adrianna Sulek and Grenada&rsquo;s Lindon Victor are the winners of the 2022 World Athletics Combined Events Tour, rewarding their season-long consistency in the heptathlon and decathlon respectively.
The Combined Events Tour, which this year replaced the former Combined Events Challenge, takes athletes&rsquo; best three marks across the series and converts them into performance scores (as also used by the world rankings system). Winners of the Combined Events Tour receive a wildcard entry for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, as well as a US$30,000 bonus.
The top five at the end of the season are:
Heptathlon 1 Adrianna Sulek (POL) 3498 2 Annik Kalin (SUI) 3463 3 Emma Oosterwegel (NED) 3409 4 Claudia Conte (ESP) 3307 5 Bianca Salming (SWE) 3268 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/standings/2022/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full standings</a>
Decathlon 1 Lindon Victor (GRN) 3608 2 Simon Ehammer (SUI) 3578 3 Marcus Nilsson (SWE) 3436 4 Dario Dester (ITA) 3414 5 Finley Gaio (SUI) 3333 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/standings/2022/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full standings</a>
Sulek enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2022, which began with her silver medal at the World Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. That strong form continued outdoors on the Combined Events Tour, starting with her victory on home soil in Bydgoszcz at the Wiesław Czapiewski Memorial, the newest addition to the Gold level meetings on the tour, and a meeting that is named in memory of her former coach.
Just two weeks later, Sulek smashed her PB to finish second at the prestigious Hypo Meeting in G&ouml;tzis, scoring 6429. That remained her PB until the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, where she scored 6672. Although she narrowly missed out on a medal, ultimately placing fourth, she found consolation in the fact that she broke the long-standing Polish record.
Sulek ended her season by taking silver at the European Championships with 6532 &ndash; her fourth heptathlon this year in which she has exceeded 6400 points.
Annik Kalin finished second in the series, following a great season for the Swiss all-rounder. She won at the Multistars meeting in Grosseto with a national record of 6398. She went on to break that with her sixth-place finish at the World Championships (6464) and with her bronze medal at the European Championships (6515).
Emma Oosterwegel finished third in the series, having placed fifth in G&ouml;tzis (6265), seventh at the World Championships (6440) and joint first in Talence (6233).
Victor had a similarly high quality and consistent season. Like Sulek, Victor started the year by setting a national indoor record at the World Indoor Championships, scoring 6029. His first decathlon of the season was in G&ouml;tzis, where he finished second with 8447. He improved on that season&rsquo;s best when finishing fifth at the World Championships with 8474, his best score and placing at a global championships.
Just two weeks later he struck gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, but that event is not part of the Combined Events Tour, so he needed one more performance within the series. He headed to the Decastar meeting in Talence and not only won, but he broke his own national record in the process, scoring 8550.
That was enough to move him to the top of the tour leader board with 3608 points, ahead of Switzerland&rsquo;s Simon Ehammer and Sweden&rsquo;s Marcus Nilsson.
Ehammer made as much of an impact in the decathlon this year as he did in the long jump. He won in Ratingen with 8354, then improved on that national record with 8377 in G&ouml;tzis to finish third &ndash; a series in which he leaped a world decathlon best of 8.45m in the long jump. He focused on just the long jump at the World Championships, taking bronze, and then reverted back to the decathlon for the European Championships, earning silver with 8468.
Nilsson won in Arona (8115), while his fourth-place finishes in Ratingen (7927) and at the European Championships (8327) contributed to his third-place finish in the overall standings.
World Athletics

World indoor silver medallist Adrianna Sulek and Commonwealth champion Lindon Victor top the end-of-season standings

Sulek and Victor confirmed winners of World Athletics Combined Events Tour

The bulk of outdoor international track and field action has concluded for another year, so what better time to look back on some of the season&rsquo;s highlights.
It has been an unprecedented year in terms of outdoor major championships. Along with the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the season also featured the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali, the European Championships, the NACAC Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and various other regional and U20 area championships &ndash; and this, of course, was on top of the Wanda Diamond League and the Continental Tour circuits.
Here are 22 memorable moments - in no particular order - from another great year of athletics action.
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">World Athletics Championships Oregon22</h3>
<h2>McLaughlin&rsquo;s lap of wonder</h2>
In what will surely go down as one of the greatest athletics performances in history, Sydney McLaughlin smashed her own already sensational world record to win the 400m hurdles on home soil in Oregon. Her winning time of 50.68 would be competitive in most international 400m flat races.
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<h2> Crouser vs Kovacs shot put rematch</h2>
The men&rsquo;s shot put was one of the enduring moments from the 2019 World Championships, and the rematch between defending champion Joe Kovacs and Olympic champion Ryan Crouser was almost as thrilling. Crouser emerged as the champion, throwing a championship record of 22.94m to win by just five centimetres from his arch rival.
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<h2> Gidey gains gold in last-lap thriller</h2>
She has smashed world records on the track and roads over the past two years, but Letesenbet Gidey was still chasing a senior global title. The Ethiopian gritted her teeth in the closing stages of the 10,000m at the World Championships and held off a host of opponents in a nail-biting finish.
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<h2> Dominant Duplantis defies gravity</h2>
That he won the world title was no big surprise; Mondo Duplantis has dominated the pole vault for some time now. But the Swedish vaulter kept his cool at the World Championships and broke his own world record with a stunning 6.21m clearance, with clear daylight between him and the bar.
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<h2> Garcia&rsquo;s golden double</h2>
Few would have predicted that Peruvian race walker Kimberly Garcia would win a world title in Oregon. And even fewer would have had her down to complete the race walks double. But the 28-year-old did exactly that, winning gold over 20km and 35km and earning her country&rsquo;s first ever world titles in the process.
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<h2> Dos Santos crowned new king of the hurdles</h2>
Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos enjoyed a dream season in 2022, winning all of his 400m hurdles races and cementing his status as the world No.1 in his event. His best race of the year came in Oregon, where he won the world title in a championship record of 46.29 &ndash; the third-fastest time in history.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s32Em_RESO0" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Amusan&rsquo;s shock world record</h2>
At first many questioned the timing system. Could someone really break the world record by that much in a semifinal? But it soon became apparent that Tobi Amusan&rsquo;s 12.12 clocking in the 100m hurdles at the World Championships was legitimate, as she went even quicker in the final with a wind-assisted 12.06.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bY9DlgdrQM4" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Mayer regains world title</h2>
The expected duel with Olympic champion Damian Warner may not have materialised (the Canadian exited the competition with injury), but Kevin Mayer still had 10 disciplines with which to contend &ndash; plus the demons from the 2019 World Championships &ndash; on his way to winning his second world decathlon title in Oregon.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Oya8_wVA1ek" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Wanda Diamond League</h3>
<h2>One small step for Peters, one giant throw for javelinkind</h2>
Grenada&rsquo;s Anderson Peters made a statement at the opening Wanda Diamond League meeting of the year, sending his spear out to 93.07m in a thrilling battle with Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic. Peters went on to enjoy many more javelin duels throughout the year, including at the World Championships where he retained his title.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zjWv_R-RW14" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Krop comes of age</h2>
Three years after reaching the World Championships final as an 18-year-old, Jacob Krop enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2022. He finished second at the Diamond League meeting in Rome, clocking a PB of 12:46.79, and was runner-up again at the World Championships. But he finally enjoyed a moment of glory when winning at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels with a world-leading 12:45.71 in a race of incredible depth.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_kEke4mgiQ0" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Kipyegon climbs world all-time list</h2>
It may not have been the world record she craved, but Faith Kipyegon&rsquo;s 3:50.37 run over 1500m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco was no less impressive. Three weeks after winning her fourth global title at that distance, Kipyegon displayed her true dominance of the metric mile.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vDq4k024x8Y" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Mahuchikh rebounds with world lead in Brussels</h2>
After winning the world indoor title earlier in the year, Yaroslava Mahuchikh looked poised to dominate the outdoor season. The Ukrainian high jumper was defeated at the World Championships, but she rebounded at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels to win with a world-leading 2.05m, equalling the national record in the process.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JmHHvMf6tu4" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Continental Tour Gold</h3>
<h2>Allen goes to No.3 all time in New York</h2>
In his final year of track and field before embarking on a career in the NFL, Devon Allen produced the best run of his life to win at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in New York. In a clash with world champion Grant Holloway, Allen won the 110m hurdles in 12.84, moving him to third on the world all-time list, just 0.04 shy of the world record.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u9le2GlDpeo" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Fraser-Pryce kicks off season in style</h2>
There were several highlights in Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce&rsquo;s season, not least her fifth world 100m title in Oregon, but the first big &lsquo;wow&rsquo; moment of 2022 for the Jamaican sprinter came at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nairobi, where she won in 10.67 &ndash; what became the first of a record seven sub-10.70 clockings this year.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AzFW9U4X5jA" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Nowicki clinches hammer victory in Silesia</h2>
It&rsquo;s one of the longest and most hotly contested duels in athletics, and 2022 served up many more instalments in the Pawel Fajdek vs Wojciech Nowicki hammer rivalry. When the duo clashed on home soil at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Silesia, it was Olympic champion Nowicki who came out on top, throwing 81.58m to get the better of five-time world champion Fajdek.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62a8db99a71c1036b727aa28.jpg" alt="Wojciech Nowicki in the hammer in Silesia" />
Wojciech Nowicki in the hammer in Silesia (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)
</div>
<h2> Bol breaks world best</h2>
Before opening up her season at her specialist discipline, Femke Bol raced the 300m hurdles at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava. And while it is a rarely-contested event, the Dutch hurdler&rsquo;s winning time of 36.86 obliterated the previous mark, hinting at the strong season that was to come over the full lap distance.
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&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22</h3>
<h2>Tebogo goes into record books</h2>
Botswana&rsquo;s Letsile Tebogo had already shown his sprinting prowess by winning the world U20 100m title in Nairobi last year. He then displayed his raw speed when clocking a world U20 record of 9.94 in the heats at the World Championships. But he saved his best for Cali where he retained his world U20 title in 9.91, an improvement on his own world U20 record.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4gj8Zebqjd8" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2> Gold No.2 for Vilagos</h2>
Adriana Vilagos was another back-to-back winner in Cali. The Serbian javelin thrower successfully defended her title in style, winning with a championship record of 63.52m. She went on to claim silver at the senior European Championships.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sp7CghqutG0" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Elsewhere</h3>
<h2>Gold things come to those who wait</h2>
As had happened at the Olympic Games last year, Ugandan distance runner Jacob Kiplimo had to settle for another bronze over 10,000m at the World Championships. But the 21-year-old rebounded at the Commonwealth Games where he won the 5000m and 10,000m titles with a stunning burst of speed in the closing stages.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632b15c5d7222153552851e3.jpg" alt="Jacob Kiplimo wins the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games" />
Jacob Kiplimo wins the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
<h2> Winger&rsquo;s championship career ends on a high</h2>
Kara Winger&rsquo;s season was one of the feel-good stories of 2022. The experienced US javelin thrower, competing in her final year, was finally able to put behind her years of injury struggles and near-misses to enjoy the best season of her life. One of the many highlights came at the NACAC Championships where &ndash; in what was the 18th and final championship outing of her career &ndash; she won gold in a championship record of 64.68m. 
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<h2> Ingebrigtsen successfully defends his double</h2>
He narrowly missed out on doing the double at the World Championships, but Jakob Ingebrigtsen was a class apart at the European Championships in Munich, where he retained his 1500m and 5000m crowns.
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<h2> The creation of a new athletics discipline</h2>
And finally&hellip;
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Looking back on a busy season of international athletics

22 standout moments from a memorable ’22 track and field season

An event launch has been held with just over six weeks to go until the Amazing Thailand World Mountain and Trail Running Championships welcomes many of the sport&rsquo;s best athletes to compete in Chiang Mai between 3-6 November.
More than 900 elite athletes from 46 Member Federations are set to race during the four-day festival, which features 80km and 40km trail races plus uphill mountain races for senior athletes, and classic up and down mountain races for both senior and U20 athletes.
A number of key figures came together at the Ministry of Tourism and Sports in Bangkok on Tuesday (20), as excitement continues to build for the first edition of an event that further develops the partnership between the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA), the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and the International Trail Running Association (ITRA), with support from World Athletics.
Situated 700km north of Bangkok, on the banks of the Ping River, Chiang Mai offers the most unforgettable beautiful scenery and is the largest tourist spot in the northern part of Thailand. The mountainous surroundings and the city&rsquo;s growing reputation for outdoor mass sporting events make it the perfect place to host the first-ever combined World Championships.
Speakers at Tuesday&rsquo;s launch event included Minister of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, Phiphat Ratchakitprakan; Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand, Varawut Silpa-archa; Assistant of the Prime Minister Office, Prasan Wangrattanapranee; President of Athletics Association of Thailand, Police General Sant Sarutanont; Governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Yuthasak Supasorn; Governor of the Sport Authority of Thailand, Kongsak Yodmanee; Governor of Chiang Mai Province, Prajon Prachsakul; Director General of the Department of Health, Suwannachai Wattanayingcharoen; Board Director of the National Sports Development Fund and Professional Sports Promotion, Supranee Guptasa; Alessio Punzi from World Athletics&rsquo; Competitions &amp; Events department; and Hilary Walker from the International Association of Ultrarunners. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632a2c3e86653636397cef42.jpeg" alt="Press conference for the Amazing Thailand World Mountain and Trail Running Championships" />
Press conference for the Amazing Thailand World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (&copy; Organisers)
</div>
&ldquo;We at World Athletics are delighted to see the first joint World Mountain and Trail Running Championships being held in Chiang Mai,&rdquo; said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
&ldquo;As off-road running continues to grow in popularity across the globe, and as we continually look to increase participation at all levels of our sport, we are pleased to be collaborating closely with the World Mountain Running Association, the International Association of Ultrarunners and the International Trail Running Association.
&ldquo;Each of our organisations shares the common ambition of promoting running in all its guises,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;We are working together to create more opportunities for distance runners across the globe to compete in a range of breathtaking landscapes and take on different challenges. Chiang Mai, with its striking mountains and ancient temples, is a great place for this inaugural event.&rdquo;
The championship race action kicks off with the uphill mountain races on Friday 4 November before the long trail (80km) and short trail (40km) races on Saturday 5 November and then the classic mountain races on Sunday 6 November.
There are also mass race elements to the long trail and short trail events, as well as 10km and 21km road races.

An event launch has been held with just over six weeks to go until the Amazing Thailand World Mountain and Trail Running Championships

Preparations gather pace for inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai

For Fernanda Maita, one phone call changed the course of her athletics career.
Maita was about to retire from the sport and focus on her studies when she was told to speak with the athletics planner at the Venezuelan National Sports Institute, Dennis Brito, to ask if she could train with the national team.
Brito said yes and a month later the then 15-year-old Maita embarked on a six-hour-long drive to Caracas, the capital of the South American country.&nbsp;
&ldquo;My mom told me: &lsquo;You have a future in athletics, you can do it,&rsquo;&rdquo; Maita explained.
Maita&rsquo;s first steps in athletics came at the age of five, when her parents used the sport as a method to calm her hyperactivity. As a child,&nbsp;Maita&nbsp;didn't like it. She wanted to dance and sing. But once she started competing and winning, she fell in love with the sport.
It would eventually lead Maita to the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22, where in August she was one of seven athletes on the Venezuelan team.
There, the 19-year-old achieved a personal best of 13.30m to finish fourth &ndash; the best place by a Venezuelan triple jumper in the history of the championships.
It even emulated the achievement of a certain Yulimar Rojas at the U20 event, the now multiple world and Olympic champion having finished seventh in her triple jump qualification round at the 2014 World U20 Championships in Eugene, where she also placed 11th in the long jump final. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6329ed74a049ec8779c108e8.jpg" alt="Fernanda Maita celebrates at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22" />
Fernanda Maita celebrates at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)
</div>
In Cali, Maita was the only Latina and Hispanic representative in the women&rsquo;s triple jump final. Her best mark exactly matched that of bronze medallist Tiana Boras of Australia and she finished fourth on countback, narrowly missing a place on the podium.
Having someone from your country that is the best in the world in your event is great, Maita said. Rojas has inspired a whole generation of young Venezuelan athletes with her outstanding performances.
And the triple jump is not the only thing in common between Maita and Rojas. The rising athletics star was born and raised in Anzoategui, the same Venezuelan state as Rojas.
&ldquo;People are always saying: &lsquo;You are the one who is going to take the crown from Yulimar,&rsquo;&rdquo; Maita said.&nbsp;
&ldquo;But I don't like being compared, I would like to be myself. I would like people to say: &lsquo;You are Fernanda, you are the next world champion.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Maita describes herself as a confident person who trusts her training and athletics skills. Her aim is to break the Venezuelan U20 record, which is the 13.65m Rojas leapt in 2014.
&ldquo;My mentality is that as long as I improve myself and improve my marks, everything is fine,&rdquo; Maita said.&nbsp;
She hopes to follow in the footsteps of her compatriot Rojas, and join her in future competitions.
&ldquo;As long as I am among the best in the world, it doesn't matter if I beat Yulimar or not,&rdquo; Maita added.
Another athlete with similar ambition is&nbsp;Mairy Pires, and the 17-year-old joined Maita on that Venezuelan U20 team of seven in Colombia.
From the comfort of her living room, Pires had watched the 2016 Olympic Games on television. That was the first time she heard about Rojas.
The youngster started mimicking the Olympian&rsquo;s jumping movements around the house.&nbsp;
&ldquo;What are you doing?&rdquo; Pires&rsquo;s mother asked.&nbsp;
&nbsp;&ldquo;I am practising.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6329edaea049ec8779c108eb.jpg" alt="Mairy Pires competes at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22" />
Mairy Pires competes at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Oscar Munoz Badilla)
</div>
Born in Guarico, Pires took part in a range of sports while growing up, including boxing, taekwondo and volleyball. By the age of 11 she had moved into athletics and started doing the high jump &ndash; taking the same route as Rojas, whose first steps in the sport were also in the vertical jumps discipline. Pires, however, had a passion for the triple jump.&nbsp;
Pires&rsquo;s coach didn't want her to do the triple jump, believing she was too young and in need of time to physically develop her body and muscles.&nbsp;
For one year, Pires insisted on doing the triple jump. One day, her coach allowed her to try it. Pires did three consecutive jumps and, much to her coach&rsquo;s surprise, she did well. He told her to do it again to make sure it wasn't beginner's luck.
And it wasn't.
Competing in Cali, the 17-year-old contested her first global event and finished 13th in her qualification group with a best jump of 12.30m.&nbsp;
&ldquo;My family and people from my home town tell me that I have to beat Yulimar,&rdquo; Pires said.
Since the 2016 Olympics in Rio, where Rojas claimed silver, the 26-year-old has been unbeaten in major international competitions. She is now a three-time world indoor champion, three-time world outdoor champion, the Tokyo Olympic champion and world record-holder.
It is a lot of pressure to try to follow in her footsteps, Pires explained, but at the same time, it is a motivation to keep going.
&ldquo;I have to keep working hard to be at the level of Yulimar,&rdquo; Pires added.&nbsp;
Diana Ramos for World Athletics

World Athletics U20 Championships

Fernanda Maita and Mairy Pires took another leap forward at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22

The rising Venezuelan triple jumpers following in the footsteps of Rojas

Women's world 100m hurdles record 12.12 Tobi Amusan (NGR) Eugene 24 July 2022
Men's world pole vault record 6.21m Mondo Duplantis (SWE) Eugene 24 July 2022
Women&rsquo;s world 400m hurdles record 50.68 Sydney McLaughlin (USA) Eugene 22 July 2022 51.41 Sydney McLaughlin (USA) Eugene 25 June 2022 
Men&rsquo;s world U20 100m record 9.94 Letsile Tebogo (BOT) Eugene 15 July 2022
&nbsp;
The world records set by Tobi Amusan, Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 have been ratified.
Amusan&rsquo;s 12.12 in the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles semifinals, Duplantis&rsquo;s 6.21m in the men&rsquo;s pole vault final and McLaughlin&rsquo;s 50.68 in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles final are all now officially in the record books, as is the world U20 mark of 9.94 set by Letsile Tebogo in the men&rsquo;s 100m heats.
McLaughlin&rsquo;s was the first of the senior records to fall at this year's World Athletics Championships, the US 23-year-old obliterating her own previous world record with a time of 50.68. It is the fourth world 400m hurdles record of McLaughlin&rsquo;s career following her 51.90 at the 2021 US Olympic Trials, 51.46 at the Olympic Games in Tokyo and 51.41 achieved at this year&rsquo;s US Championships. That 51.41 has also now been ratified. 
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 Since 2019 &ndash; in less than three years &ndash; the world record has been improved by almost two seconds. The mark of 52.34 had stood for 16 years before USA&rsquo;s Dalilah Muhammad took it to 52.20 and then 52.16. On 27 June 2021, McLaughlin broke it for the first time.
&ldquo;The time is absolutely amazing and the sport is getting faster and faster,&rdquo; said McLaughlin. &ldquo;Just figuring out what barriers can be broken. I only get faster from here.
&ldquo;The level in the 400m hurdles is certainly improving. We have a full group of girls that are willing to push our bodies to the next level and we are seeing times drop.&rdquo;
Two days later, during the final session of the World Athletics Championships, Amusan and Duplantis ensured that the event ended on an incredible high.&nbsp;
After clocking an African record of 12.40 in the 100m hurdles heats, the world was put on notice that 25-year-old Amusan was capable of something special.
The next day, she ran 12.12 (0.9m/s) in the semifinals to improve the world record of 12.20 that had been set by USA&rsquo;s Kendra Harrison in London in 2016. Amusan wasn&rsquo;t done there, though, and she followed that remarkable performance with a wind-assisted 12.06 (2.5m/s) to win the final. 
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 &ldquo;The goal was to come out and to win this gold,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Honestly, I believe in my abilities, but I was not expecting a world record at these championships.&rdquo;
While Amusan might not have been banking on a world record, Duplantis&rsquo;s development means that there is a certain level of expectation whenever he takes to the runway. He lived up to it again in Oregon.&nbsp;
Clearing 6.21m on his second attempt, the Swedish 22-year-old improved his own world record by a centimetre. It was the fifth time that Duplantis had broken the global mark, but the first time that he had achieved the feat outdoors.&nbsp; 
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 Duplantis set his first world record in Torun in February 2020 when he cleared 6.17m and followed that with 6.18m in Glasgow a week later. Then this year, both times in Belgrade, he cleared 6.19m on 7 March and then 6.20m at the World Indoor Championships on 20 March.
The performance in Oregon secured him his first outdoor world title.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;It is the medal I was missing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Usually, it (the world record) is always somewhere in the back of my mind, but today I was focused on the win.&rdquo;
Meanwhile, another record was broken in Oregon when Botswana&rsquo;s Tebogo stormed to a time of 9.94 (1.1m/s) to win his 100m heat. 
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 That time has now been ratified as a world U20 record, although the 19-year-old did go even faster at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 at the start of August, running 9.91 to win gold. That time is awaiting ratification.
World Athletics

Amusan’s 12.12 in the 100m hurdles, Duplantis’s 6.21m in the pole vault and McLaughlin’s 50.68 in the 400m hurdles are all now in the record books, as is the world U20 mark of 9.94 set by Letsile Tebogo in the 100m

Ratified: world records for Amusan, Duplantis and McLaughlin

Determining the greatest Olympian of all time is a subjective question, not simply a matter of mathematics.
When set against US swimmer Michael Phelps' collection of 23 golds, and Paavo Nurmi and Carl Lewis&rsquo; track and field collections of nine apiece, Emil Zatopek's four do not quite stack up.
But, then, the hattrick the great Czech soldier achieved at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 was unprecedented. Seventy years on, and on the centenary of Zatopek's birth, it remains unmatched in the annals of distance running.
Winner of the 10,000m gold at the London Olympics in 1948, Zatopek successfully defended that title in the Finnish capital, then won the 5000m, before announcing that he would be contesting the marathon on the final day of competition, 27 July.
It would be the first 26.2-mile race of his hugely eventful life.
It was described as a last-minute decision but in fact the initial suggestion that he should run the marathon as well as the 5000m and 10,000m in the Finnish capital had come from one of his army bosses the previous year.
As Zatopek recalled: &ldquo;A lot of people were saying, &lsquo;So, Emil, it&rsquo;s going to be two gold medals in Helsinki, not just one like in London, right?&rsquo; Lieutenant-Colonel Sabl had a more interesting idea: &lsquo;You know, the nicest solution would be to enter all three long distance events, and win them all.
&ldquo;&lsquo;What&rsquo;s a marathon for you, since you&rsquo;re running 30km a day anyway?&rsquo;&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/a9ba25db-d739-42da-8149-e10d849888ec.jpg" alt="Emil Zatopek" />
Emil Zatopek (&copy; Getty Images)
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As Pat Butcher pointed out in his brilliant 2016 biography, Quicksilver: The mercurial Emil Zatopek, 12 months before the Games Zatopek chose to test his endurance by running two 20,000m track races in the space of two weeks.
In the first, he knocked over a minute off Viljo Heino&rsquo;s world record with 61:15.8, also improving the Finn&rsquo;s one hour record en route with 19,558m.
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t even out of breath afterwards,&rdquo; Zatopek reflected. &ldquo;A world record was never so easy. I&rsquo;d discovered that races above 10km were easier for me than those under.&rdquo;
In the second race, Zatopek ran the first sub-one-hour 20,000m in history &ndash; 59:51.8 &ndash; plus the first 20km-plus one-hour run, reaching 20,052m before stopping.
After winning the 5000m final in Helsinki, becoming the second man after Finland&rsquo;s Hannes Kolehmainen in 1912 to achieve the Olympic 5000m-10,000m double, Zatopek went to the training track to test out the pace he needed to run to be among the contenders in the marathon. To his astonishment, the Czech team coaches kept imploring him to slow down, shouting at him that he was running far too quickly.
<h2>&lsquo;Human Lokomotiv&rsquo;</h2>
The son of a carpenter, Zatopek was born on 19 September 1922 in Koprivnice, Northern Moravia. As the seventh of eight children, his parents had run out of typical Czech or Moravian names so gave him a French one.
He started running when he was sent to become a live-in apprentice at the Bata shoe factory in Zlin. Introduced to interval training by coach Dr Ali Haluza, such was his zest for hard work he worked up towards training three times a day, often completing 100 x 400m reps.
After joining the Czech Army, he would keep fit by running 10-12km in deep snow in the forests near the Milovice Academy wearing heavy boots and three pairs of jogging bottoms.
As Butcher recounts in his book, Zatopek talked about his prodigious training load in a 1967 BBC Radio interview with Harold Abrahams, the 1924 Olympic 100m champion. &ldquo;My maximum was 50km in a day, 350km in a week, about 200 miles,&rdquo; he told the former British sprinter.
His determination mirrored in a distinctively tortured running gait that earned him the sobriquet the &ldquo;Human Lokomotiv&rdquo;, Zatopek&rsquo;s capacity for speed endurance took him past 18 world records between 1951 and 1955, at distances ranging from 5000m to 35,000m. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62e1843f3748d0a71f5f5644.jpg" alt="Emil Zatopek leads in front of Alain Mimoun during the Olympic 5000m in Helsinki 1952" />
Emil Zatopek leads in front of Alain Mimoun during the Olympic 5000m in Helsinki 1952 (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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<h2>"Pace too slow"</h2>
So when it came to the marathon in Helsinki in 1952, Zatopek was equipped for the challenge of facing the man he considered to be the favourite. More than equipped, it transpired.
Six weeks earlier, Jim Peters had taken a stunning six minutes off Kitei Son&rsquo;s world record with a time of 2:20.42.2 in the Polytechnic Marathon, from Windsor to Chiswick in the western suburbs of London.
After enduring the humiliation of being lapped by Zatopek in the Olympic 10,000m final in London&rsquo;s Wembley Stadium in 1948, Peters had turned to the challenge of the marathon, training twice a day and logging 130 miles a week while running an optician&rsquo;s practice near the English capital.
He proceeded to take the world record down to 2:17:39 in 1954, the year he infamously staggered to a severely dehydrated halt within sight of the line in the Empire Games marathon in Vancouver, but in Helsinki in 1952 the barrier-breaking Briton was no match for the not so much burgeoning as steamrollering phenomenon of Zatopek.
Taking note of Peters&rsquo; starting number in the newspaper the day before, Zatopek sought him out on the start line and introduced himself. Peters&rsquo; intention was to lead from the gun and burn off the opposition but, wilting in the heat &ndash; as he was to in Vancouver &ndash; he was caught by Zatopek and the Swede Gustaf Jansson after 15km.
&ldquo;For about two to three miles we ran alongside each other, none of us saying a word,&rdquo; Peters recalled in his autobiography In The Long Run. &ldquo;Then, just before we were due to turn for home, Zatopek suddenly spoke to me.
&ldquo;&lsquo;The pace?&rsquo; he said. &lsquo;Is it good enough?&rsquo; At that moment I was just about all in, but I didn&rsquo;t want to show it, so I said, &lsquo;Pace too slow.&rsquo;
&ldquo;He looked at me for a few moments, as calm and unruffled as if he were sitting down at a picnic instead of having run 12 miles very fast, then he said: &lsquo;You say too slow. Are you sure the pace is too slow?&rsquo;
&ldquo;I said, &lsquo;Yes&rsquo;. He shrugged his shoulders and a few moments later he and Jansson put on a little spurt and opened up a gap of about 10 yards.
&ldquo;Then Zatopek turned round as if to make sure where I was, and having satisfied himself, he set about in deadly earnest to the business of getting his third Olympic gold medal.&rdquo;
The fading Peters dropped out at 20 miles, suffering from cramp. Zatopek entered the stadium with a clear lead and chants of &ldquo;Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek! Za-to-pek!&rdquo; echoing around the arena.
He crossed the line in 2:23:03, an Olympic record. The victorious Jamaican men&rsquo;s 4x400m relay quartet hoisted him on to their shoulders for a mutual lap of honour.
It was his second joint celebration of the Games, his victory in the 5000m having coincided with the gold medal javelin success of his wife, Dana Zatopkova. They also shared a birthday and not only does 19 September 2022 mark the centenary of the birth of&nbsp;Zatopek but also of&nbsp;Zatopkova, the javelin star born in the town of Frystat on exactly the same day as her future husband.
Zatopkova's Olympic javelin gold was one of many honours achieved during her own career. She set a world record of 55.73m in Prague in 1958 and claimed Olympic silver at her fourth Games in Rome in 1960, eight years after her triumph in Helsinki. Zatopkova also won two European titles, in 1954 and 1958, and the first was part of another golden double with Zatopek &ndash; Zatopkova winning the javelin with 52.91m and Zatopek taking the 10,000m title in 28:58.0, both championship records. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/39ab0186-8a30-4ede-82bb-644ac0005af9.jpg" alt="Dana Zatopkova and Emil Zatopek at the 1952 Olympic Games" />
Dana Zatopkova and Emil Zatopek at the 1952 Olympic Games (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
In 1956, at the Melbourne Olympic Games, Zatopkova finshed fourth in the javelin, while Zatopek returned to the Olympic stage to defend his marathon title. Just six weeks after undergoing a hernia operation, the gutsy runner came sixth.
Zatopek&rsquo;s tracksuit top from Melbourne was donated by Zatopkova in 2018 to the World Athletics Heritage Collection. It was on display in the <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Museum of World Athletics (MOWA)</a> exhibition in Eugene and can be permanently viewed in glorious 360-degree 3D on MOWA&rsquo;s online museum platform.&nbsp;
<h2>"You deserve it"</h2>
After Soviet forces quelled the Prague Spring uprising in 1968, Zatopek was banished from the Czech capital to the notorious Jachymov uranium mine, where he worked as a labourer for six years.
Long after his death in 2000, aged 78, his legend lives on &ndash; to many of us, as the greatest Olympian of all time.
To qualify for consideration for such a subjective honour requires more than mere athletic dominance. It requires the kind of golden spirit Zatopek showed when the great Australian world record-breaker Ron Clarke visited him in Prague.
Clarke suffered misfortunes in the Olympics, collapsing in the high altitude at the 1968 Games in Mexico. When Zatopek dropped him off at Prague airport, he handed him a small parcel and said: "Not out of friendship but because you deserve it."
When the plane was airborne, Clarke retired to the privacy of the lavatory and unwrapped the box. "There, inscribed with my name and that day's date, was Emil's Olympic 10,000m gold medal from 1952," he recalled.
"I sat on that toilet seat and wept."
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage 
&nbsp;
<div style="padding: 0px 20px 5px 20px; border: 2px solid #69d7e1;">
<h2>Sportuj Jako Z&aacute;topkovi</h2>
A series of athletics events will take place across the Czech Republic on 19 September to honour Dana Zatopkova and Emil Zatopek on the centenary of their births. The initiative &ndash; "Sportuj Jako Zatopkovi" &ndash; will see more than 10,000 athletes compete across 100 stadiums, the first in Houstka, where Zatopek broke the world one hour record in 1951.
A javelin event will also take place in Nehvizdy, where Czech athletes Martin Konecny, Irena Gillarova and Martina Pisova will compete along with athletes such as 2019 European U20 champion Carolina Visca of Italy and Finnish champion Sanne Erkkola. 
</div>
&nbsp;

Determining the greatest Olympian of all time is a subjective question, not simply a matter of mathematics.

Marking the centenary of the birth of Zatopek

Commonwealth champion Lindon Victor broke his own Grenadian record with 8550 to win the decathlon at the Decastar meeting in Talence on Sunday (18), winning the overall men&rsquo;s title in the World Athletics Combined Events Tour in the process.
The women&rsquo;s Decastar heptathlon title, meanwhile, went right down to the wire as Emma Oosterwegel of the Netherlands and Ivona Dadic of Austria ended in a tie for victory, both women scoring 6233.
Victor was contesting his fourth decathlon of the year, having finished second in G&ouml;tzis and fifth at the World Championships before his triumph at the Commonwealth Games, but he showed relatively little sign of fatigue in Talence at this late stage of the season.
The 29-year-old opened his campaign with a wind-assisted 10.61 (3.1m/s) in the 100m, finishing second to Germany&rsquo;s Manuel Eitel with 10.44. Switzerland&rsquo;s Finley Gaio was third in 10.63.
Gaio leapt into the lead after the long jump, soaring 7.76m. That was seven centimetres farther than USA&rsquo;s Steven Bastien, his mark a PB, while Victor recorded 7.49m and Eitel 7.29m.
Come the shot put it was Victor&rsquo;s turn to launch ahead thanks to a 15.75m throw, almost a metre farther than any of his rivals. France&rsquo;s Makenson Gletty recorded 14.88m and Eitel a 14.86m PB. Lithuania&rsquo;s Edgaras Benkunskas topped the high jump with 2.08m, while Estonia&rsquo;s Risto Lillemets and USA&rsquo;s Jack Flood both cleared 2.05m and Victor 2.02m.
Victor ended day one with a win in his 400m heat, clocking a PB of 48.20 for the day&rsquo;s third-quickest time behind Germany&rsquo;s Malik Diakite (47.74) and Gaio with (48.19), giving the Grenadian an overnight score of 4438 and a 128-point lead over Gaio.
Victor&rsquo;s strong series continued on Sunday, starting the day with a 14.70 run in the 110m hurdles, just a few hundredths shy of his season&rsquo;s best. Gaio, an international-standard hurdler in his own right, dominated that event with a 13.68 run, giving him a brief lead before slipping down the leaderboard over the course of the day.
But Victor responded in the next event, throwing 51.00m &ndash; the best mark of the day &ndash; in the discus to regain the lead. Eitel remained in contention too, throwing 43.53m.
Victor equalled his 4.80m season&rsquo;s best in the pole vault and followed it with a 66.01m throw in the javelin, another strong event for the Grenadian, giving him a lead of almost 400 points going into the final event. &nbsp;Eitel remained in second place, following his 4.80m vault and a 60.51m javelin throw. Lillemets, meanwhile, climbed up to third place thanks to a 5.00m vault and 59.82m javelin throw.
Diakite was a comfortable winner of the 1500m, but all eyes were on Victor and whether he&rsquo;d do enough to break his own national record. He pulled out a lifetime best of 4:43.74, bringing his score to 8550 &ndash; an 11-point improvement on his previous best.
Eitel and Lillemets held on to their podium places, finishing second and third respectively with scores of 8193 and 8149. France&rsquo;s Makenson Gletty was close behind in fourth (8141).
In the heptathlon, 2018 world indoor pentathlon silver medallist Dadic started with 13.81 in the 100m hurdles, won by France&rsquo;s Esther Turpin in 13.51 from Oosterwegel, the Olympic bronze medallist, in 13.66.
Sweden&rsquo;s Bianca Salming topped the high jump, clearing 1.86m as USA&rsquo;s Ashtin Zamzow-Mahler managed 1.80m and Dadic and Turpin both went over 1.77m. Next up was the shot put, Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Ruckstuhl leading the way with a PB throw of 14.68m, adding 10 centimetres to her previous best. Salming had the second best mark of 14.41m, while Oosterwegel threw 13.75m and Dadic 13.68m.
The day came to a close with the 200m, Dadic clocking 24.11 to give her a day-one score of 3689, 112 points ahead of Salming. Oosterwegel, meanwhile, was further down in fifth, almost 200 points adrift of the leader.
Dadic extended her lead in the first event of the second day, leaping 6.01m in the long jump. Oosterwegel recorded a best of 5.92m, moving her into second place overall.
But everything changed in the javelin. Oosterwegel launched her spear out to a lifetime best of 55.47m and catapulting herself into the lead, nine points ahead of Dadic, who threw 43.92m.
Dadic knew she had to finish a stride ahead of Oosterwegel in the final event, the 800m, to claw back the points deficit and regain the lead. And she did indeed finish ahead, clocking 2:11.12 to Oosterwegel&rsquo;s 2:11.78, but it was &lsquo;only&rsquo; enough to bring her level with the Dutch all-rounder, both women scoring 6233. Salming held on to third place with 6028.
The performance also elevated Oosterwegel up to third in the overall Combined Events Tour standings.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-combined-events-tour/calendar-results/7171048/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>

Victor sets Grenadian record of 8550, Dadic and Oosterwegel tie with 6233 as the World Athletics Combined Events Tour comes to a close in Talence

Victor wins Decastar decathlon, Dadic and Oosterwegel tie for heptathlon title

Ethiopian duo Milkesa Mengesha and Tadu Teshome took top honours at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday (18). And with 15 men finishing inside an hour at the World Athletics Elite Label road race, the event witnessed record depth.
Mengesha, the 2019 world U20 cross-country champion, beat a quality field to notch up his second half marathon victory of the year, winning in a PB of 58:58. Teshome, meanwhile, smashed her PB to lead an Ethiopian 1-2-3, winning in 1:06:13.
After a steady opening 5km of 14:02, the pace dropped slightly in the following few kilometres of the men&rsquo;s race as the large lead pack reached 10km in 28:10. The leading contenders &ndash; which included Mengesha and his compatriots Amedework Walelegn and Chala Regasa, Kenya&rsquo;s Felix Kipkoech, Vincent Kipkemoi and Edmund Kipngetich, and South Sudan&rsquo;s Dominic Lobalu &ndash; then started to increase the pace.
By the time of the 15km checkpoint, reached in 42:06, the lead pack was down to 12. They remained bunched together for a few more kilometres before Mengesha started to ease away, carving out a small lead before going on to win in 58:58. Compatriot Walelegn followed him home in 59:05, two seconds ahead of Kipkoech.
Lobalu, winner of the 3000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Stockholm earlier this year, was fifth in a national record of 59:12. Further back, Switzerland&rsquo;s 40-year-old Tadesse Abraham became the oldest man in history to finish inside 60 minutes for a half marathon, clocking 59:53. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632731fae539ace6511ee941.jpg" alt="Milkesa Mengesha wins the Copenhagen Half Marathon" />
Milkesa Mengesha wins the Copenhagen Half Marathon (&copy; Organisers)
</div>
In contrast to the men&rsquo;s race, which increased in pace as it went on, the women&rsquo;s race started off remarkably quick but soon became a war of attrition as athletes tried to hold on as best they could.
When the first 5km was covered in a swift 15:19, most of the lead pack decided to ease off the pace, but Teshome and Tsigie Gebreselama maintained that tempo for another 5km, reaching 10km in 30:40 &ndash; inside both of their PBs for 10km.
Gebreselama then broke away from Teshome and opened up a gap of 30 seconds by 15km, reached in 46:39, but it didn&rsquo;t last. Teshome came back over the next few kilometres and caught her compatriot with about two kilometres to go.
Once she was in the lead, Teshome continued to pull away and she went on to win in 1:06:13, 22 seconds ahead of Gebreselama, who was making her half marathon debut. Ethiopia&rsquo;s Tiruye Mesfin almost caught Gebreselama, eventually finishing third in 1:06:42.
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Women 1 Tadu Teshome (ETH) 1:06:13 2 Tsigie Gebreselama (ETH) 1:06:35 3 Tiruye Mesfin (ETH) 1:06:42 4 Magdalena Shauri (TAN) 1:06:52 5 Eunice Chumba (BRN) 1:07:34 6 Sintayehu Tilahun (ETH) 1:07:41 7 Janet Ruguru (KEN) 1:07:51 8 Anchalem Haymanot (ETH) 1:08:09 9 Vicoty Chepngeno (KEN) 1:08:22 10 Betelihem Afenigus (ETH) 1:08:35
Men 1 Milkesa Mengesha (ETH) 58:58 2 Amedework Walelegn (ETH) 59:05 3 Felix Kipkoech (KEN) 59:07 4 Vincent Kipkemoi (KEN) 59:09 5 Dominic Lobalu (SSD) 59:12 6 Chala Regasa (ETH) 59:13 7 Edmund Kipngetich (KEN) 59:25 8 Matthew Kimeli (KEN) 59:39 9 Titus Kimutai (KEN) 59:44 10 Ronald Kirui (KEN) 59:51

Mengesha wins in 58:58, Teshome triumphs in 1:06:13

Mengesha and Teshome secure Ethiopian double in Copenhagen on day of record depth

The achievements of multiple Olympic champions Eric Lemming and Jim Thorpe, who were respectively awarded the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in 2018 and 2021, were publicly recognised on Saturday (17) at Stockholm&rsquo;s 1912 Olympic Stadium, where their plaques were unveiled and placed on permanent display.
Sweden&rsquo;s <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque/news/world-athletics-heritage-plaque-award-launch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lemming</a>, who was one of the first dozen recipients of the Heritage Plaque, and USA&rsquo;s <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque/news/thorpe-radke-world-athletics-heritage-plaque" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thorpe</a>, who was honoured on the eve of the Tokyo Olympic Games, were among the standout athletes from the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.
The <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics Heritage Plaque</a> is a location-based recognition, awarded for 'an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field athletics and of out-of-stadia athletics disciplines such as cross country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking'.
Saturday&rsquo;s ceremony was organised by the Swedish Central Association for the Promotion of Athletics (SCIF). The two champions were represented by family members including Fredrik Lemming (great grandson), Mary Thorpe (granddaughter) and John Thorpe (grandson) who unveiled the plaques, in the presence of Erik D Ramanathan, the USA Ambassador to Sweden, and other distinguished guests. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632743fbd51accbd745d391e.JPG" alt="Cousins Mary and John Thorpe, beneath the Heritage Plaque to their grandfather Jim Thorpe" />
Cousins Mary and John Thorpe, beneath the Heritage Plaque to their grandfather Jim Thorpe (&copy; Bo Landin)
</div>
 &ldquo;There can be no more appropriate permanent location to display these two Heritage Plaques than in the stadium that witnessed Lemming and Thorpe crown their athletics careers,&rdquo; World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. &ldquo;These plaques were awarded in the posthumous category of &lsquo;Legend&rsquo;, which is a description that fits comfortably with their athletics achievements. &ldquo;I would like to especially thank SCIF for organising today&rsquo;s unveiling and for ensuring that the families were represented. That Thorpe was recently reinstated as the sole winner of the pentathlon and decathlon, makes this long-planned ceremony a perfectly timed recognition of those Olympic triumphs of 1912.&rdquo;
<a href="https://scif.se/about-scif/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SCIF</a>, which was founded on 7 May 1897 in the Royal Palace in Stockholm and continues to enjoy royal patronage, is based at the Olympic Stadium. The association&rsquo;s offices are in one of the stadium&rsquo;s castle-like towers.
&ldquo;It is with great honour and pride that we see the Stockholm Stadium, the oldest Olympic arena still in use, being awarded these two Heritage Plaques,&rdquo; SCIF President Rajne Soderberg said. &ldquo;Their achievements in 1912 are truly legendary and to have them on display in a likewise legendary arena makes a perfect match.
&ldquo;We at the SCIF, that was the driving force behind the Olympic Games in 1912 as well as building the stadium, are thrilled to see the Stockholm Stadium being one of only two arenas in the world to have received two World Athletics Heritage Plaques." 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632743c5d51accbd745d391b.JPG" alt="Rajne Soderberg (left) with Fredrik Lemming, beneath plaque honouring Eric Lemming and the foundation of IAAF" />
Rajne Soderberg (left) with Fredrik Lemming, beneath plaque honouring Eric Lemming and the foundation of IAAF (&copy; Bo Landin)
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<h2> 'Greatest athlete in the world'</h2>
Eric Lemming, with three Olympic gold medals in the javelin (one in the freestyle event), retained his title in 1912. His legend is even the greater if we consider another four medals in the 1906 interim Olympic celebration, a Games that is no longer recognised by the International Olympic Committee. Lemming was the inaugural javelin world record-holder with 62.32m, which he set later in 1912. He held the world mark for just under seven years and is regarded as a pioneer and one of the all-time greats of the event.
The plaque honouring Lemming&rsquo;s achievements also commemorates the foundation on 17 July 1912 of World Athletics, then known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation. The meeting, which saw the formation of the world governing body for athletics, took place during the Games of the V Olympiad in Stockholm.
Following Jim Thorpe&rsquo;s victories in the pentathlon and decathlon, he was declared by King Gustav V of Sweden to be the &ldquo;greatest athlete in the world&rdquo;. Thorpe easily won the pentathlon by finishing first in four of the five events and he set a world record of 8412 points in the decathlon. However, Thorpe was subsequently disqualified for alleged professionalism.
A long hard-fought battle was waged for Thorpe&rsquo;s reinstatement. Thorpe died in 1953 and sadly it was only in 1983 that his family received his gold medals. However, while reinstated, Thorpe was recognised only as a co-winner, sharing the Olympic titles with the two athletes who had been elevated to first place after his disqualification. Finally, on 15 July 2022, the battle was won, with Thorpe redeclared the outright <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/news/jim-thorpe-sole-decathlon-pentathlon-winner-1912-olympics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1912 Olympic champion in the pentathlon and decathlon</a>.
Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage

The achievements of multiple Olympic champions Eric Lemming and Jim Thorpe have been publicly recognised

Heritage Plaques for Lemming and Thorpe unveiled in Stockholm's Olympic Stadium

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Brian Hewson, two-time Olympic competitor and 1958 European 1500m gold medallist, died on Tuesday (13) at the age of 89.
Hewson represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games and was one of the first athletes to run a sub-four-minute mile, clocking 3:59.8 in 1955. As well as his 1958 European title, Hewson also claimed two Commonwealth Games silver medals in the 880 yards, in 1954 and 1958.
Born in Croydon in Surrey on 4 April 1933, Hewson attended Pollards Hill Junior School in London and then Mitcham Grammar School before training as a tailor at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
It was while at Mitcham Grammar School that Hewson&rsquo;s athletics journey began. He joined Mitcham Athletics Club and was coached by Frank Drew before joining Austrian coach Franz Stampfl, who also guided athletes including Roger Bannister and Chris Chataway.
Bannister became the first man to run a mile within four minutes on 6 May 1954 and just over a year later, on 28 May 1955, Hewson became the fifth athlete to ever achieve the feat when he finished third behind Hungary&rsquo;s Laszlo Tabori and Chataway at the White City Stadium in London with his 3:59.8 run. <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage/news/heritage-ron-delany-trophy-laszlo-tabori-bib" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tabori&rsquo;s number from that race was donated to the World Athletics Heritage Collection in 2020.</a>
Hewson made his Olympic debut in 1956, finishing fifth in the 1500m final in Melbourne. His strongest season came in 1958, when he won his European 1500m title in Stockholm and finished second at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff to secure his second successive Commonwealth 880 yards silver medal after his runner-up finish in Vancouver four years earlier.
Hewson&rsquo;s build up to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome was disrupted by a calf injury but he still managed to race and finished fourth in his heat.
Hewson retired from athletics after the Rome Olympics and continued working as a tailor at Simpson's of Piccadilly in London before setting up his own company. His career would continue to revolve around clothing, sport, fashion and retailing, seeing him become a women's fashion buyer for English Lady and a sportswear and sporting goods buyer for Debenhams. He then joined the Incentive Group where he was involved in the design and manufacture of corporate uniforms for major UK multi-national companies.
Hewson was married to Marion and was father to James, Caroline and Charles, stepfather to Tim, Sally, Robert and Penny, and a much-loved grandfather.
World Athletics

Brian Hewson, 1933-2022

1958 European 1500m champion Hewson dies

The Turkish athletics federation has opted for a low-key celebration of its centenary in 2022. Dates differ between sources as to when exactly from June to August 1922 the federation was founded, partly because of differences between the Rumi and Georgian calendars, but there is no doubt that the country has a rich athletics history.
Evidence suggests that the first athletics competition in Turkey that would be recognisable by modern standards was organised by a Monsieur Curel, a French physical education teacher, at the Mekteb-i Sultani school in the Kagithane neighbourhood of Istanbul from which the famous Galatasaray Sports Club emerged.
In 1870, Curel organised a &lsquo;training day&rsquo; for the school in which there were various athletics events, and the students were rewarded with various prizes as well as a meal of lamb and rice.
By the end of the 19th century, athletics competitions were taking place in several Turkish cities, notably among the Greek community in Smyrna &ndash; modern day Izmir &ndash; and usually organised by the multi-sports clubs that were typical in many European countries at that time.
Vahram Papazyan was the first Turkish athlete to compete at a major overseas competition when he travelled to the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens, despite being only 13 years old, and ran in the 800m and 1500m.
The Ottoman Empire as it was then joined the International Olympic Committee in 1911 and then made a public appeal for sportsmen to represent it at the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games.
<h2>Stockholm the starting point</h2>
Papazyan and Migirdic Migiryan answered their call. Unfortunately, neither man was close to challenging for medals. Papazyan failed to finish both his opening 800m and 1500m while Migiryan competed in three throwing events as well as the pentathlon and decathlon, finishing 28th and last in the latter event, although he would compete alongside the legendary Jim Thorpe in both the combined event contests.
However, Migiryan does have the distinction of being the first Turkish athlete to finish in the top eight of any Olympic sport when taking seventh place in the two-handed shot put; although there were only seven competitors, and he was more than three metres adrift of his nearest rival.
During the following decades, athletics slowly began to take hold in the country despite Turkey not sending anybody to the 1920 Olympics owing to the Greco-Turkish war.
Following the end of the war, the Turkish Athletic Federation founded in 1922 as a branch of the Turkish Sports Associations Union and, following the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, athletes were sent to the Olympic Games of 1924 and 1928.&nbsp;
Turkey was also one of the original six nations that competed in the first official Balkan Athletics Championships in 1930 &ndash; its first victory coming the following year when a Turkish quartet won the 4x100m &ndash; and the country has only missed two editions since in 1957 and 1974; first hosting the championships in Istanbul in 1935 and on 12 subsequent occasions, most recently in Izmir in 2009.
<h2>Sarialp steps forward</h2>
Ruhi Sarialp won Turkey&rsquo;s first Olympic athletics medal when he took the 1948 triple jump bronze, upsetting the odds and jumping 15.025m (converted as the distances in London were measured in feet and inches), less than five centimetres behind his Turkish record of 15.07m from earlier that summer and he was one of the few competitors to perform close to his best in the chilly conditions.
Two years later, Sarialp also finished third at the European Athletics Championships in Brussels to get Turkey&rsquo;s first continental athletics medal and rightfully remains an icon of Turkish athletics, staying involved with the sport long after his retirement in 1953.
Turn the clock forward 20 years from London and Ismail Akcay, who had won the 1966 and 1968 Balkan marathon titles and would win again in 1971 and 1973, almost emulated Sarialp when he finished fourth in the challenging conditions over the classic distance in Mexico City. He would also go on to finish fifth in the following year&rsquo;s European Athletics Championships.
By the admission of the Turkish federation itself, athletics stagnated in the country during the 1970s and 80s but started to recover its place as one of the country&rsquo;s most popular and successful sports as the end of the last century drew to a close.
Turkey&rsquo;s reputation was rocked by some high-profile doping cases in the early 21st century,&nbsp;but in recent times the problem appears to have become much less pernicious thanks to efforts of both World Athletics and the Turkish federation.
<h2>Copello and Can</h2>
Yasmani Copello, who won bronze in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games 400m hurdles, and Yasemin Can have done much to restore Turkey&rsquo;s standing.
The latter won a European 5000m and 10,000m double in 2016 and triumphed at four consecutive European Cross Country Championships between 2016 and 2019. Can also impressively regained her continental 10,000m crown at last month&rsquo;s European Athletics Championships in Munich. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63247c365a7571084ea54220.jpg" alt="Yasmani Copello at the Rio 2016 Olympics" />
Yasmani Copello at the Rio 2016 Olympics (&copy; Getty Images)
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<h2>Guliyev gets gold in London</h2>
The 2017 World Athletics Championships &ndash; especially Thursday 9 August &ndash; was also a high-water mark for Turkish athletics with Ramil Guliyev speeding to Turkey&rsquo;s first ever world title when he won the 200m.
After running an outstanding bend, Guliyev was fractionally ahead of the rest coming into the home straight and never relinquished his lead.
Barely 30 minutes after Guliyev had won his title, Copello was inspired to take a 400m hurdles silver medal behind Karsten Warholm.
No Turkish athlete has won a medal at the three subsequent global athletics celebrations but with Can resurgent and returning to her superb early career form in 2022, and Guilyev and Copello still competitive in international competition despite being well into their 30s, there are hopes that this brief barren streak may be broken at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest next year.
Into the bargain, there is the emerging pole vault talent Ersu Sasma, a finalist at the Tokyo Olympic Games and this year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships, and others such as triple jumper Necati Er and race walker Meryem Bekmez, who could potentially enter the reckoning for medals in the Hungarian capital.
The grassroots base is certainly there for Turkish athletics to prosper in the near future, with almost 200,000 licensed athletes and more than 1000 clubs across the country. In addition, in 2023 there will be the promotional and motivational boost of the European Athletics Indoor Championships being held in Istanbul when the refurbished Atakoy Athletics Arena stages the event next March, following in the footsteps of the same venue being the host of the 2012 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
Phil Minshull for World Athletics Heritage

The Turkish athletics federation celebrates its centenary in 2022.

Kipchoge breaks world record in Berlin with 2:01:09

World Cross Country Tour launches at Lidingöloppet

Athletics Kenya, Senegalese Athletics Federation and CAA join efforts for climate action

Kipchoge and D'Amato head fields for Berlin, where records could fall

World Athletics publishes Competition Manipulation Watch List