Eighteen months since the last edition of the Schneider Electric Paris Marathon, the World Athletics Elite Label race returns to the French capital on Sunday (17).
The 2020 race was initially postponed before being cancelled, then the 2021 edition was moved to October instead of its usual April slot on the calendar. Having received the green light to go ahead, this year&rsquo;s race will have a mass field of about 35,000 runners, including a high-quality elite line-up.
The men&rsquo;s field features five runners with sub-2:06 PBs. Kenya&rsquo;s Nicholas Kirwa is the fastest in the men&rsquo;s field, courtesy of his 2:05:01 PB set in Milan in May. Compatriot Joel Kemboi Kimurer, who is also racing in Paris this weekend, finished 18 seconds adrift of Kirwa in Milan, recording a 2:05:19 personal best.
Elisha Rotich&rsquo;s career best is one second faster than Kemboi Kimurer&rsquo;s. The 31 year-old Kenyan, who clocked that time when finishing third in Amsterdam two years ago, also competed in Milan this year, finishing 10th in 2:06:44.
Stephen Chebogut also has strong credentials. The Kenyan won the 2015 Eindhoven Marathon in a PB of 2:05:52 and then finished second in Paris in 2017 in 2:06:57. The 36-year-old&rsquo;s only race this year was a 2:22:08 run in the altitude of Eldoret, but his most recent race at sea level was the 2019 Shanghai Marathon, where he ran 2:10:35.
Abdi Fufa carries strong recent form into this weekend&rsquo;s race. The Ethiopian set a PB of 2:05:57 when finishing second in a quality field in Ampugnano in April.
Ashenafi Moges and Moris Munene Gachaga are also ones to watch. Moges set his PB of 2:06:12 two years ago, while the latter recorded his best of 2:06:24 in 2020.
Hassan Chahdi&rsquo;s record of 2:09:11 makes him the fastest Frenchman in the field. Following his 45th place finish in the marathon at the Olympic Games, he clocked 31:12 for 10km three weeks ago, which makes his current shape difficult to gauge. That&rsquo;s not the case for Florian Carvahlo, however, who ran 1:01:05 at the Paris Half Marathon last month. He&rsquo;s now hopeful of improving on his 2:10:22 PB set in Valencia two years ago. 
<h2>Jeptoo returns to Paris</h2>
The women&rsquo;s race also looks set to be a tough contest.
Ten years after her victory on the streets of the French capital, Priscah Jeptoo returns to the Paris Marathon. The Kenyan went on to take the silver medal at the World Championships later in 2011 and then earned a medal of the same colour at the 2012 Olympic Games. She also won the London and New York marathons in 2013, but hasn&rsquo;t made it on to a marathon podium since then.
Her 2:20:14 PB, set back in 2012, makes 37-year-old Jeptoo the fastest woman in the field, but her 2:24:16 clocking from the 2019 Valencia Marathon probably gives a more accurate indication of her current form.
While Jeptoo is the biggest name in the women&rsquo;s field, Ethiopian duo Waganesh Mekasha and Sifan Melaku could start as the slight favourites, based on recent form.
Mekasha, a former track specialist, has a marathon best of 2:22:45 set in Dubai in 2019. She went on to achieve second-place finishes in Dongying and Shanghai later that year, but hasn&rsquo;t raced since. Melaku, meanwhile, last raced in February 2020 when she finished third in Seville in a PB of 2:23:49.
Tigist Memuye also shouldn&rsquo;t be discounted. The 31-year-old Ethiopian clocked a PB of 2:24:23 in Geneva just five months ago; a repeat, or even an improvement, of that performance should put her in contention for a podium finish.
Quentin Guillon for World Athletics

Eighteen months since the last edition of the Schneider Electric Paris Marathon, the World Athletics Elite Label race returns to the French capital 

Close battles expected at Paris Marathon

Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge is to take on Paris 2024 mass race hopefuls later this month in a running challenge being held to mark 1000 days until the Olympics in the French capital.
In an Olympic Games first, a mass participation marathon is planned for the same day, and following the same route, as the Olympic marathon in 2024 and on 31 October a pursuit-style 5km race will be held on the Champs-Elysee in Paris, with some of those mass participation marathon places up for grabs.
The challenge is to outrun Kipchoge, Kenya&rsquo;s world marathon record-holder who also claimed the world 5000m title in 2003 in a winning time of 12:52.79. While there are not many athletes who can beat the marathon great, the 2000 runners in action on the Champs-Elysee will at least get a head start. 
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 With the field split into different groups based on ability, Kipchoge will cover a longer distance and look to catch up with the rest of the runners. Those who manage to hold him off will secure their entry for the Paris 2024 mass participation marathon.
&ldquo;I am delighted to be heading to Paris 1000 days before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for a truly exceptional challenge,&rdquo; said Kipchoge.
&ldquo;Open to all, whatever their level, this unique race is a wonderful image of what running is about: it is accessible and open to everyone.
&ldquo;On one of the most beautiful avenues in the world, I challenge you to not let me catch you! I look forward to sharing this moment with you and inspiring you to run, give it your all and push your limits, before we see each other again in 2024.&rdquo;
Further information can be found on the <a href="https://www.paris2024.org/en/mass-participation-marathon-kipchoge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paris 2024 website</a>.

Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge is to take on Paris 2024 mass race hopefuls later this month in a running challenge being held to mark 1000 days until the Olympics in the French capital.

Runners to race Kipchoge for Paris 2024 mass marathon places

Some of the UK&rsquo;s leading endurance runners will be in action when the Cardiff Cross Challenge hosts the first Gold standard meeting of the new World Athletics Cross Country Tour on Saturday (16).
The 2018 European 10,000m Cup bronze medallist Charlotte Arter, 2014 European cross country silver medallist Kate Avery, this year&rsquo;s Vitality Big Half winner Jake Smith and multiple Welsh champion Dewi Griffiths are among the athletes set for the event at Llandaff Fields in the Welsh capital, which will again host the first fixture in the British Athletics Cross Challenge Series.
Arter was the winner of the women&rsquo;s race when the Cardiff Cross Challenge was last held in 2019. The Cardiff athlete will return to race over 6400m along with the runner up that year, her training partner Jenny Nesbitt, who won European 10,000m Cup bronze in 2016 and is a European cross country team gold medallist.
Arter has prepared for her season opener with a Welsh record of 15:25 for 5km in Vienna, while 2019 UK Inter-Counties cross country champion Nesbitt has been fine-tuning her winter preparations at altitude in Font Romeu.
Like Nesbitt, Avery competed at the 2019 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Aarhus and is no stranger to Cardiff, having finished second to Denmark&rsquo;s multiple European U23 champion Anna Moller in 2018.
Izzy Fry is another athlete choosing to start her winter campaign in Cardiff and has previously finished runner up at the English National Cross Country Championships.
They will be joined by Jess Gibbon, who was fourth in Cardiff last time, plus former UK Inter-Counties champion Cari Hughes and Mhairi Maclennan, Philippa Bowden, Hannah Irwin and Imogen Wood.
In the men&rsquo;s race, Smith &ndash; fresh from running as a pacemaker in the London Marathon &ndash; will look to turn his road running pedigree as the UK&rsquo;s third fastest half marathon runner to cross country form over 9600m.
The 23-year-old, who ran his half marathon PB of 1:00:31 at last year&rsquo;s World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, also finished fourth at the Great North Run in September.
Lining up alongside Smith and Griffiths, who has seven Welsh cross country titles to his name, is Kadar Omar Abdullahi, who competed for the Athlete Refugee Team at the 2017 World Championships in London, plus Tokyo Olympian Zak Seddon and Omar Ahmed.
Zakariya Mahamed won the Cross Internacional Juan Muguerza in 2019 and the English National Championships last March as an U20 but will debut in the senior men&rsquo;s event in Cardiff.
Hugo Milner, Jack Gray, Jordan Rowe, Luke Prior and James Hunt will also be among those hoping to feature.
The action in Cardiff starts at 11:30am local time and culminates with the senior men&rsquo;s race at 2:50pm. A live highlights show of the event will be <a href="https://www.vincosport.com/live/145174/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">broadcast by Vinco Sport</a>, with fans in the US and Canada able to watch via <a href="https://cardiff-cross-challenge.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=13970&amp;do=videos&amp;video_id=311205" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Runnerspace</a>.
Alex Donald (Welsh Athletics) for World Athletics

The Cardiff Cross Challenge hosts the first Gold standard meeting of the new World Athletics Cross Country Tour.

Cross Country Tour Gold kicks off in Cardiff

Star Trek may seem like an unlikely starting point for environmental sustainability, but for former Canadian international sprinter Oluseyi Smith, the iconic sci-fi film and television series was the launchpad that led to him embarking on an enterprise of his own to address climate change.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I often tell the story about my own obsession with Star Trek in the 90s with Jean-Luc Picard played by Patrick Stewart. I would watch that show every day when I came back home (from school). It always created this world where humans were living in harmony with the world around them, where energy problems are a thing of the past. It was a great show and a great idea,&rdquo; recalls the now-retired 100m and 200m sprinter.
&ldquo;I understood that we didn&rsquo;t live in that kind of world, but I wanted to be part of it. I think that was part of the reason that I became an engineer, I wanted to do something that would allow us to achieve that. That was always in my mind from about 10 years of age.&rdquo; 
<h2>Off-the-field ambitions of a two-sport Olympian</h2>
Known as &lsquo;Seyi&rsquo;, the sprinter carried his interest in sustainability through a successful athletics career coupled with studying technical engineering and renewable technology in the UK at Loughborough University. As a sprinter, he represented Canada at the 2003 World Youth Championships, 2006 World Junior Championships, 2009 World Championships, 2009 Universiade, 2010 Commonwealth Games and 2012 Olympic Games, before switching to bobsleigh and representing Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
His biggest success was at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, where he was part of Canada&rsquo;s 4x100m team that placed fifth. Three years later, he missed out on Olympic bronze, when Canada were disqualified for a lane violation after initially finishing third. All the while Smith still nurtured environmental ambitions, but it took some pointed words from Barack Obama to spur him into action.
Living in Calgary, he attended a speech by the former US President that resonated with him.
&ldquo;Towards the end, he was telling people: &lsquo;Apathy is going to be the end of all of us.&rsquo; Because it&rsquo;s very easy to sit back and say: &lsquo;The world is going to hell, politicians are corrupt and everyone&rsquo;s an idiot,&rsquo; then you do nothing, sit back and judge. The question is: &lsquo;What will you &ndash; as individuals &ndash; do to try and address the problem, either in your house, your city or your country?&rsquo;
&ldquo;I kind of took that to heart and said: &lsquo;Yes, I don&rsquo;t do anything. I&rsquo;m an athlete. I do my sport. I do my job and I watch Netflix. I&rsquo;m not really giving back.
&ldquo;So, when the opportunity presented itself at the IOC with the Young Leaders Programme to support athletes who want to take up projects as long as they fit in with the UN&rsquo;s SDGs (United Nations&rsquo; Sustainable Development Goals), I said: &lsquo;This is it, I can take that Star Trek and Obama inspiration and that technical background. I can stay in athletics, stay in sport, have a renewables focus, and use my day job all in one.&rsquo;&rdquo; 
<h2>Creating Racing to Zero &ndash; &lsquo;We shouldn&rsquo;t underestimate the impact of grassroots events&rsquo;</h2>
Teaming up with fellow Canadian Olympians Oliver Scholfield (field hockey), Martha McCabe (swimming) and Donna Vakalis (modern pentathlon), Smith founded Racing to Zero with support from the IOC. The innovative programme focuses on grassroots athletics and encouraging sustainable practices, behaviour and education at local level meetings. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61682046ff471158cc702cf4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;We shouldn&rsquo;t underestimate the impact that grassroot events can have,&rdquo; Smith says. &ldquo;The international side is always the more appealing and glamourous. But the entry level stuff, where the base is, is the biggest bang for the buck. The (Olympic) Games only come around once every four years, yet there are more than 4000 small events every season in Canada alone. We mustn&rsquo;t forget entry level stuff.
&ldquo;I am on the IOC Sustainability Commission and I was a board member of the COC (Canadian Olympic Committee), so I was very aware of what international and national Olympic committees do in this space. But I was also a volunteer starting official at the lowest level events and I could just see this massive gap, so I figured here is where I can provide some value and apply those international best practices to the &lsquo;mom and pop&rsquo; meets at a level that makes sense.&rdquo;
This year, Racing to Zero undertook a three-point plan. Firstly, in educating the fans, athletes, volunteers and coaches around sustainability through online quizzes. Secondly, by working closely with meeting directors to provide objective guidance and advice on how to improve their sustainable practices and finally, providing water fountain facilities on site at meetings to reduce the reliance upon single use plastic water bottles. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61682079ff471158cc702cf7.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> 
<h2>Recognising sport&rsquo;s power to influence change</h2>
Smith recognises that athletics and sport in general has the power to influence wider change. But, he argues that it also has the infrastructure to make an immediate and tangible difference.
&ldquo;We have a platform, but so do artists and politicians. It&rsquo;s more than tweets and likes and speeches. It&rsquo;s results and we are really well suited for that compared to other sectors that are impacting the global issue. We have the umbrella structure internally of IOC (International Olympic Committee), IFs (International Federations), NOCs (National Olympic Committees) and National Sport Federations. We have the structures in place that make it possible to make a measurable impact.&rdquo;
Of course, the size and scale of the sustainability issue is vast, but Smith feels his experience of being an elite athlete holds him in good stead to meet the challenge.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Resilience is required, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;You can send a zillion emails and be ghosted. Athletes are very comfortable being uncomfortable, whether it&rsquo;s a training session and you have to do more reps &ndash; even though you are tired, you do it anyway. I think what probably helps me the most as an athlete is that I trust the process.
&ldquo;Every athlete has been in the situation where you get to a start line and you question: &lsquo;Am I fit? Am I fast enough? Am I going to do a good job here?&rsquo; But, the confidence you have comes from an entire season of having done the right thing with a tried and tested process.
&ldquo;Even though this is a tiny project in the large scheme of things, it could easily be swatted aside by people not paying any attention to me. I trust the process that me and the other three Olympians have done with emails, with contacts, with conversations with other researchers that have given us their data.
&ldquo;What I am doing is not too much different to what other people are doing in their own countries. Even though it may be difficult, I trust that this process works. I&rsquo;m a big fan of process. It worked for me as an athlete. It&rsquo;s why I didn&rsquo;t freak out on the Olympic stage.&rdquo;
That single-minded mentality is why this particular Star Trek fan is prepared to boldly go where no athlete has gone before in nurturing change at the grass roots.
Chris Broadbent for World Athletics

Racing to Zero is Smith's grassroots sustainability project.

How former sprinter Seyi Smith switched racing on the track for 'Racing to Zero'

Dobromir Karamarinov has been elected unopposed as European Athletics President at the 27th European Athletics Congress, a Special Election Congress, which was held at the Hotel Royal Savoy in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Thursday (14).
Karamarinov becomes the sixth European Athletics President after Adriaan Paulen (1970-1976), Arthur Gold (1976-1987), Carl-Olaf Homen (1987-1999), Hansjorg Wirz (1999-2015) and Svein Arne Hansen (2015-2020). Karamarinov has served as interim president since March 2020 after Hansen, who died in June 2020, was unable to fulfil his duties following a stroke.&nbsp;
"Thank you, once again, for your support and for putting your trust in me. Though I was unopposed in today&rsquo;s election, I do not take that support and trust for granted. To me, it is a huge honour to be elected as President, and to continue to serve European Athletics. I aim to do my very best to repay your support and trust," said Karamarinov in his acceptance speech.&nbsp;
Born in Bulgaria in 1958, Karamarinov was first elected to the European Athletics Council in 2007. After serving two terms as a Council Member he was elected as first vice president in 2015 before serving as interim president from March 2020.
Karamarinov was formerly an athletics coach and has a postgraduate degree in sports management. He is also the President of the Bulgarian Athletic Federation as well as the Association of the Balkan Athletic Federations.
In addition to Karamarinov's election as European Athletics President, Jean Gracia (FRA) was elected vice president ahead of Erich Teigamagi (EST) with 30 votes to 19 votes. He will serve alongside Cherry Alexander (GBR) and Libor Varhanik (CZE), both of whom were elected to serve full four-year terms at the 2019 European Athletics Congress in Prague.
The two vacant positions on the European Athletics Council were filled by Juergen Kessing (GER) and Henryk Olszewski (POL) who received 42 and 28 votes respectively ahead of Frank Carreras (GIB) and Luis Figueiredo (POR) with 18 and 10 votes respectively.
European Athletics for World Athletics

Karamarinov becomes the sixth European Athletics President.

Dobromir Karamarinov elected President of European Athletics

Less than a month after the conclusion of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series, top-level action will get under way again this weekend with the Cardiff Cross Challenge, the first Gold standard meeting of the new World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
It marks the start of a six-month stretch of high quality competitions, because just as the 2021-2022 Cross Country Tour nears its conclusion, the World Athletics Indoor Tour will begin, with the first Gold level fixture slated for 28 January in Karlsruhe.
As <a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-challenge-combined-events/news/world-tour-cross-country-combined-events-race-walking" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-challenge-combined-events/news/world-tour-cross-country-combined-events-race-walking">announced last month</a>, the Cross Country Tour has replaced the former Cross Country Permit series. As with the Continental Tour and World Indoor Tour, competitions within the Cross Country Tour have gold, silver or bronze status.
The development of these tours is part of a concerted effort by World Athletics to create a logical long-term global calendar of international events. It will also ensure more top-level competition opportunities and exposure for athletes in all areas of the sport.
Fourteen competitions currently feature on the 2021-2022 Cross Country Tour Gold calendar. The tour takes in many of the stops that formed part of the Cross Country Permit series, including the Cross Internacional de Soria, Cross de Atapuerca, Campaccio and Cinque Mulini. They now sit alongside new additions to the tour, including the CrossCup de Hannut, the Cardiff Cross Challenge and the Cross Country Classic&nbsp;in Eldoret, Kenya.
2021-2022 Cross Country Tour Gold calendar: 16 Oct &ndash; Cardiff Cross Challenge, Cardiff (GBR) 24 Oct &ndash; Cross Internacional Zornoza, Amorebieta (ESP) 31 Oct &ndash; Cross Internacional de Soria, Soria (ESP) 14 Nov &ndash; Cross de Atapuerca, Atapuerca (ESP) 21 Nov &ndash; Cross of Italica, Seville (ESP) 28 Nov &ndash; Cross Internacional de La Constitucion Alcobendas, Alcobendas (ESP) 19 Dec &ndash; Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos, Venta de Banos (ESP) 6 Jan &ndash; Campaccio International Cross Country, San Giorgio su Legnano (ITA) 9 Jan &ndash; Elgoibar Juan Muguerza Cross Country, Elgoibar (ESP) 16 Jan &ndash; Gran Premio Caceres Campo a Traves, Serradilla (ESP) 23 Jan &ndash; CrossCup de Hannut, Hannut (BEL) 30 Jan &ndash; Cinque Mulini, San Vittore Olona (ITA) 6 Feb &ndash; Cross das Amendoeiras em Flor, Albufeira (POR) 12 Feb &ndash; Cross Country Classic, Eldoret (KEN)
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-cross-country-permit/calendar-results?startDate=2021-10-01&amp;endDate=2022-12-31" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-cross-country-permit/calendar-results?endDate=2022-12-31&amp;startDate=2021-10-01">Full Cross Country Tour calendar (including Gold, Silver and Bronze meetings)</a>
Heading into its seventh season, and its second in a three-tier structure, the 2022 World Indoor Tour&nbsp;includes seven Gold standard meetings, all of which are among the top indoor meetings in the world. The Millrose Games and the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix, both of which were unable to go ahead last year, will be back for 2022. In total, 31 meetings feature in the&nbsp;2022 World Indoor Tour.
2022 World Indoor Tour Gold calendar: 28&nbsp;Jan &ndash; Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe (GER) 29 Jan &ndash; Millrose Games, New York City (USA) 13 Feb &ndash; New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Boston (USA) 17 Feb &ndash; Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, Lievin (FRA) 19 Feb &ndash; M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix, Birmingham (GBR) 22 Feb &ndash; Copernicus Cup, Torun (POL) 2 Mar &ndash; Villa de Madrid, Madrid (ESP)
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/calendar-results" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-cke-saved-href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/calendar-results?">Full World Indoor Tour calendar (including Gold, Silver and Bronze meetings)</a>
World Athletics

The first Gold standard meeting of the new World Athletics Cross Country Tour takes place this weekend.

Top-level competition continues with Cross Country Tour and World Indoor Tour

World Athletics is deeply shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Kenya&rsquo;s Agnes Tirop at the age of 25 at her home in Iten.
One of the world&rsquo;s leading distance runners, Tirop broke the women-only world record for 10km last month, clocking 30:01 in Herzogenaurach. She was also the 2015 world cross-country champion, a two-time world medallist over 10,000m, and had placed fourth over 5000m at this year&rsquo;s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
&ldquo;Kenya has lost a jewel,&rdquo; Athletics Kenya said in a statement. &ldquo;She was one of the fastest-rising athletics giants on the international stage thanks to her eye-catching performances on the track.&rdquo;
"Athletics has lost one of its brightest young stars in the most tragic circumstances," said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. "World cross country champion at just 19, Agnes Jebet Tirop burst on to the global scene in 2015 and has been one of the world&rsquo;s best female distance runners over the past six years. This is a terrible blow to the entire athletics community, but especially to her family, her friends and Athletics Kenya and I send them all our most heartfelt condolences."
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta also paid tribute to Tirop.
"It is unsettling, utterly unfortunate and very sad that we've lost a young and promising athlete who, at a young age of 25 years, had brought our country so much glory through her exploits on the global athletics stage including in this year's 2020 Tokyo Olympics where she was part of the Kenyan team," said Kenyatta. "It is even more painful that Agnes, a Kenyan hero by all measures, painfully lost her young life through a criminal act perpetuated by selfish and cowardly people."
Born in Uasin Gishu County, Tirop first came to prominence in 2012 when, aged 16, she notched up a series of podium finishes in national-level cross-country races.
Those performances earned her a place on Kenya&rsquo;s team for the African Cross Country Championships in Cape Town where she secured the silver medal, finishing behind Faith Kipyegon. Later that year, Tirop secured another podium finish at a major event, taking bronze over 5000m at the World U20 Championships in Barcelona. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/991c983d-87e1-4e07-9a55-53a33b636bcf.png" alt="" width="100%" />
 Tirop turned the tables on Kipyegon at the start of 2013, securing a rare victory over her compatriot at the Kenya Cross Country meeting in Kericho. The finish was a lot closer at the World Cross Country Championships two months later, where Kipyegon finished a whisker ahead of Tirop to take gold.
Outdoors that year, Tirop improved her PBs across all track distances and raced on the senior international circuit, performing well in Diamond League races.
She capped her U20 career in 2014 with victory at the African Cross Country Championships in March and then earned another 5000m bronze medal at the World U20 Championships in Oregon.
Tirop joined the senior ranks in 2015, though few could have predicted how soon she&rsquo;d make an impression on the global distance-running scene. She claimed a surprise triumph at the World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, becoming the second-youngest winner of the senior women&rsquo;s title in the history of the event. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/ac8fbb58-31f6-44a6-900c-a73a9cbb2806.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 She continued to compete across a range of distances and on various surfaces, but shifted her focus to the 10,000m in 2017. After winning the Kenyan trial race at that distance, she took bronze at the World Championships in London in a PB of 31:03.50.
Tirop replicated that feat in 2019, taking another World Championships bronze over 10,000m in a PB performance, this time clocking 30:25.20. Earlier in the year she had set PBs of 14:20.68 for 5000m and 8:27.51 for 3000m. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/613dcd845054d2d43db8b225.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 She raced sparingly in 2020 but reduced her 3000m PB to 8:22.92 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha. 2021 was another lean racing year for Tirop, but she focused on quality rather than quantity; she finished third at Kenya&rsquo;s Olympic Trials, placed fourth at the Olympic Games over 5000m and then turned to the roads with a 10km world record of 30:01 in Herzogenaurach.
Her most recent race was a second-place finish over 10km in Geneva on 3 October, clocking 30:20.
World Athletics

World record-holder Tirop dies

The World Athletics Continental Tour enjoyed a memorable 2021 season with numerous world, area and national records set across the 12 Gold meetings in the series.
In the second of a two-part series, we look back at this year&rsquo;s highlights from the tour.
&nbsp;
<h2>Turku, 7-8 June</h2>
Marcin Krukowski improved his Polish javelin record to 89.55m and compatriot Wojciech Nowicki won the men&rsquo;s hammer with 80.77m.
Senni Salminen set a Finnish record of 14.51m in the women&rsquo;s triple jump, adding 29 centimetres to her previous best and 22 centimetres to the meeting record. 
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 Sweden&rsquo;s world champion Daniel Stahl won the discus with 68.11m, and Germany&rsquo;s Christin Hussong took the women&rsquo;s javelin with a meeting record of 66.63m.
Other meeting records came through Bahrain&rsquo;s Winfed Yavi, who clocked 9:17.55 in the women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase, and Kenya&rsquo;s 21-year-old Mary Moraa, who won the women&rsquo;s 800m in 1:59.95.
&nbsp;
<h2>Bydgoszcz, 30 June</h2>
Home athlete Anita Wlodarczyk laid down a huge marker ahead of the defence of her Olympic hammer title as she won with 77.93m, her farthest effort since winning the European title in 2018.
Wlodarczyk&rsquo;s flourish followed DeAnna Price&rsquo;s win with 80.31m at the US Olympic Trials.
&ldquo;My message is that I am back and I am ready,&rdquo; said Poland&rsquo;s four-time world champion.
Her international teammate and fellow four-time world champion Pawel Fajdek set a meeting record of 82.77m in the men&rsquo;s hammer. 
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 Namibia&rsquo;s 18-year-old Christine Mboma won the women&rsquo;s 400m by almost half the straight in 48.54.
Chris Nilsen of the United States won the men&rsquo;s pole vault with a stadium record of 5.92m.
Ethiopia&rsquo;s Worknesh Mesele ran a meeting record of 1:59.39 in the women&rsquo;s 800m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Szekesfehervar, 5-6 July</h2>
Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, only third in the 100m at the Jamaican Olympic Trials two weeks earlier, won the 100m here in 10.71 &ndash; just 0.01 shy of her personal best.
Her 34-year-old compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the world champion, was second in 10.82.
Akani Simbine of South Africa raised his Tokyo 2020 hopes by winning the men&rsquo;s 100m in an African record of 9.84.
Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Hugues Fabrice Zango had a monumental contest in the men&rsquo;s triple jump before the former, competing for Portugal, won with a fourth-round distance of 17.92m. Pichardo had broken Christian Taylor&rsquo;s meeting record of 17.68m with his second-round effort of 17.82m but his rival from Burkina Faso matched it in the third round, setting an African record. 
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 Six other meeting records fell.
Jamaica&rsquo;s 400m specialist Shericka Jackson continued to impress over 200m, running 21.96 to inflict upon Shaunae Miller-Uibo her first defeat at the distance since the 2017 World Championships, with the Bahamian finishing second in 22.15.
New Zealand&rsquo;s Tom Walsh won the men&rsquo;s shot put with 22.22m.
Femke Bol of the Netherlands won the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in 52.81 ahead of Shamier Little of the United States, who clocked 52.85.
Two-time world 5000m champion Muktar Edris, who had failed to make Ethiopia&rsquo;s Olympic team, set a personal best and Hungarian all-comers&rsquo; record of 7:30.96 in the men&rsquo;s 3000m.
Lithuania&rsquo;s European bronze medallist Liveta Jasiunaite had produced the first meeting record of the day with her javelin victory of 62.73m.
Turkey&rsquo;s 2016 European champion Yasmani Copello won the men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles in 48.35.
Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus won the men&rsquo;s high jump with a world-leading 2.37m.
Puerto Rico&rsquo;s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won the 100m hurdles in 12.34.
Canada&rsquo;s world and Olympic silver medallist Andre De Grasse won the men&rsquo;s 200m in 19.97 from Kenny Bednarek of the United States, who clocked 19.99.
The men's and women's hammer contests were won by rising Ukrainian talent Mykhaylo Kokhan and Poland&rsquo;s Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk.
Kokhan, 20, threw a personal best of 80.78m to defeat Poland&rsquo;s European champion Wojciech Nowicki (80.58m) while Wlodarczyk won with 74.76m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Silesia, 5 September</h2>
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, suitably rested after her 10.60 victory in Lausanne 10 days earlier, won the 100m here in a meeting record of 10.81.
It was a Polish all-comers&rsquo; record for the 34-year-old double Olympic champion, breaking the 10.93 mark set by Ewa Kasprzyk in 1986, and one of six meeting records acclaimed by a crowd of 32,000. 
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 Germany&rsquo;s Johannes Vetter won the men&rsquo;s javelin with 89.60m while Poland&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Maria Andrejczyk won the women&rsquo;s event with 61.77m.
Olympic champion and world record-holder Ryan Crouser of the United States won the shot put with 22.39m. Fellow Olympic gold medallist Gianmarco Tamberi was also victorious; the Italian won the high jump with 2.30m.
Home discus thrower Piotr Malachowski, the 2015 world champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist, made an emotional farewell appearance aged 38, finishing fourth with 62.29m as Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia won with 66.65m.
Two weeks after winning the world U20 title over the distance, Ethiopia&rsquo;s Tadese Worku set a meeting record of 7:36.47 to win the 3000m. Morocco&rsquo;s Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El-Bakkali was second in a personal best of 7:37.18.
Further meeting records came from Portugal&rsquo;s Auriol Dongmo, who won the shot put with 19.32m, Nigeria&rsquo;s Tobi Amusan, who clocked 12.64 in the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles, Britain&rsquo;s Jemma Reekie, who was timed at 2:35.47 in the 1000m and Kenya&rsquo;s Wycliffe Kinyamal, who won the men&rsquo;s 800m in 1:44.63.
Pawel Fajdek, Olympic hammer bronze medallist, beat fellow Pole and Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki with a final effort of 79.60m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Zagreb, 13-14 September</h2>
Burundi&rsquo;s Francine Niyonsaba broke the women&rsquo;s 2000m world record in the Croatian capital, clocking 5:21.56.
The Diamond League 5000m champion eclipsed the previous world record of 5:23.75, set indoors by Ethiopia&rsquo;s Genzebe Dibaba in 2017. 
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 The Olympic men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s discus champions were victorious as Sweden&rsquo;s Daniel Stahl threw 67.79m and Valarie Allman of the United States managed 69.63m to beat home favourite Sandra Perkovic's 66.48m.
The women&rsquo;s 200m saw Namibia&rsquo;s 18-year-old Christine Mboma clock 22.04 to beat Jamaica&rsquo;s Shericka Jackson, who ran 22.30.
Double Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser of the United States threw beyond 22 metres with all six efforts, setting a meeting record of 22.84m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Nairobi, 18 September</h2>
Trayvon Bromell of the United States bettered his own world-leading 100m mark at the Kip Keino Classic as he won in 9.76, with home runner Ferdinand Omanyala second in an African record of 9.77.
Bromell had run 9.77 earlier in the year and won the US Olympic trials but failed to reach the Tokyo final. He is now equal sixth on the world all-time list, matching the mark set by fellow US sprinter Christian Coleman in winning the 2019 world title.
Omanyala, 25, the first Kenyan to reach the men's Olympic 100m semi-finals, knocked 0.09 off his previous best, bettering the mark of 9.84 set earlier in the season by South Africa&rsquo;s Akani Simbine. 
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 Fred Kerley of the United States, the Olympic 100m silver medallist, won over 200m in a personal best of 19.76.
In the women&rsquo;s 200m Namibia&rsquo;s 18-year-old Olympic silver medallist and Diamond League champion Christine Mboma won in 22.39.
Kenya&rsquo;s double Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon won the 1500m in 4:02.40.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

In the second of a two-part series, we look back at this year’s highlights from the tour.

2021 Continental Tour Gold review – part two

Following a somewhat challenging inaugural season in 2020, the World Athletics Continental Tour got into full swing in 2021 with 12 Gold level meetings hosted in nine different countries, spread across four continental areas.
In the first of a two-part series, we look back at the highlights of a memorable 2021 Continental Tour Gold season.
&nbsp;
<h2>Eugene, 24 April</h2>
Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas, the 2016 Olympic champion, set a meeting record of 49.08 to win the 400m, breaking the stadium record at the legendary Hayward Field.
World finalist Rudy Winkler of the United States won the hammer with a personal best of 81.98m. 
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 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.46 &ndash; 0.14 off her world-leading PB at that time.
Michael Norman ran 44.67 to win the 400m from training partner Rai Benjamin, who clocked 44.97.
Britons Laura Muir and Eilish McColgan won the 1500m and 5000m respectively in 4:01.54 and 14:52:44.
&nbsp;
<h2>Tokyo, 9 May</h2>
In the test event for the stadium that would later host Olympic athletics, Qatar&rsquo;s world champion Mutaz Barshim and home athlete Naoto Tobe shared victory in the high jump following an inconclusive jump-off.
After clearing all heights from 2.15m to 2.30m and then failing at 2.33m, they vainly took it in turns to decide the winner at 2.33m, 2.31m and 2.29m before calling it a day. An interesting precedent in the Olympic stadium&hellip; 
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 Elsewhere in the Ready Steady Tokyo meeting, home athletes Kazuki Kurokawa and Ryuji Miura, both 19, excelled in the 400m hurdles and 3000m steeplechase respectively.
Kurokawa won with a personal best of 48.90 and Miura won in a national record of 8:17.46 &ndash; both Olympic qualifying marks.
More success for the host nation came in the women&rsquo;s 1500m, which world U20 champion Nozomi Tanaka won by more than three seconds in 4:09.10.
&nbsp;
<h2>Mt SAC, 9 May</h2>
Home sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson ran two sub-10.80 100m times.
The 21-year-old, who had run 10.72 earlier in the season to move to sixth on the world all-time list, clocked 10.74 (1.1m/s) in her heat and won the final with 10.77 (-1.2m/s).
Statistical reckoning indicated the latter time would have been worth 10.69 in still conditions and 10.58 with a 2.0m/s following wind, the maximum allowable for record purposes. 
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 Rai Benjamin, running his first 400m hurdles race since taking silver at the 2019 World Championships, won his specialist event in 47.13, 0.15 off his personal best. He bettered the 1979 track record of 47.89 set by two-time world and Olympic champion Edwin Moses. Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands was second in a national record of 47.50 and 20-year-old Alison Dos Santos third in a Brazilian record of 47.68.
Benjamin's run was one of four early world-leading marks set by home athletes.
The three others came in the women's 400m hurdles, won by home Shamier Little in 53.65, the women&rsquo;s 1500m, where Elle Purrier ran 3:58.36, and the men's pole vault, where Pan American champion Chris Nilsen cleared 5.91m to knock Sweden's world record-holder Mondo Duplantis off the top spot.
World champion Noah Lyles ran 19.90 to win the 200m, beating fellow US sprinter Kenny Bednarek by 0.04.
Gabby Thomas won the women's 200m in 22.12, with 35-year-old Allyson Felix, the 2012 Olympic champion, second in 22.26, her fastest time since 2016.
&nbsp;
<h2>Ostrava, 19 May</h2>
Uganda&rsquo;s world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder Joshua Cheptegei fell short of his world record target in the 3000m, but his winning time of 7:33.24 was one of five world-leading marks set at the 60th Golden Spike meeting. 
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 Germany&rsquo;s 2017 world champion Johannes Vetter won the javelin with 94.20m.
Two teenage British runners won the 800m races as 19-year-old Keely Hodgkinson reduced her best to 1:58.89 and Max Burgin, a day before his 19th birthday, won the men&rsquo;s race in a European U20 record of 1:44.14 &ndash; the fastest in 2021 to that point and an Olympic qualifying time.
There was a world lead too in the men&rsquo;s 10,000m, where Uganda&rsquo;s 20-year-old Jacob Kiplimo, the world half marathon champion, clocked 26:33.93.
Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson of the United States won over 200m in 22.35 and Sweden&rsquo;s pole vault world record-holder Mondo Duplantis earned victory with 5.90m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Boston, 23 May</h2>
World 100m hurdles record-holder Kendra Harrison broke the meeting record at the adidas Boost Boston Games, clocking 12.49.
US compatriot Grant Holloway, the world indoor record-holder, also broke a meeting record for the 110m hurdles with 13.20. 
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 Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas stepped down to the 200m and won in 22.08.
Further meeting records went in the rarely run 200m hurdles events, through Jamaica&rsquo;s Shiann Salmon in 24.86 and Brazil&rsquo;s Alison Dos Santos in 22.11.
&nbsp;
<h2>Hengelo, 6 June</h2>
Sifan Hassan lowered the women&rsquo;s world 10,000m record to 29:06.82 in the stadium where she had set a European record of 29:36.67 in October 2020.
The world 1500m and 10,000m champion took more than 10 seconds off the 29:17.45 mark set by Ethiopia's Almaz Ayana at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
She went through halfway in 14:38.75 and ran a 2:45 final kilometre, lapping the entire field before sinking to the track in delight.
&ldquo;Wow, to run this world record here today in Hengelo is something I could only dream of,&rdquo; said Hassan after adding this latest mark to her world records in the mile, one hour event and road 5km &ndash; albeit that Ethiopia&rsquo;s Letesenbet Gidey would beat it with 29:01.03 two days later on the same track. 
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HWgwuDUNZuc" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
 That was a perfect start to the 40th Fanny Blankers Koen Games and 21-year-old world pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis kept the bar high with a 6.10m victory, which remained the best clearance of 2021.
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in a meeting record of 12.44.
Britain&rsquo;s world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith ran her first sub-11.00 100m time of the season, clocking a meeting record of 10.92.
Home athlete Femke Bol also broke a meeting record as she won her first 400m hurdles race of the season in 54.33.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

In the first of a two-part series, we look back at the highlights of a memorable 2021 Continental Tour Gold season.

2021 Continental Tour Gold review – part one

Diana Kipyogei and Benson Kipruto landed a Kenyan double at the 125th edition of the BAA Boston Marathon on Monday (11), winning the World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race in 2:24:45 and 2:09:51 respectively.
Kipyogei, contesting just her third ever marathon and her first in the Abbott World Marathon Majors series, emerged with the biggest victory of her career to date after making her break at about 29km. Kipruto, who finished 10th in Boston in 2019, waited until 35km to make his move, landing his second marathon victory of 2021. Both winners also recorded significant negative splits.
Up until Kipyogei&rsquo;s break, the women&rsquo;s race had been going at a relatively conservative pace with most of the runners in the lead pack seemingly reluctant to make a move. A large group of about 20 women, led by USA&rsquo;s Nell Rojas, went through 10km in 35:00 and that pace was maintained through the half-way point, which was reached in 1:14:11 with 15 women still in the pack.
Kipyogei, two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat, fellow Kenyans Caroline Chepkoech, Mary Ngugi and Monicah Ngige were among those still in the lead group at 25km, along with Rojas, Ethiopia&rsquo;s 2018 world half marathon champion Netsanet Gudeta and Workenesh Edesa. About 15 minutes later, though, Kipyogei started to make a break and by 30km she had a 10-second lead over the rest of the field.
Gudeta tried to make up the deficit on Kipyogei and she joined the Kenyan at about 21 miles, but Kipyogei dug in again and started to open up a gap on her Ethiopian rival.
This time it proved decisive and by 40km Kipyogei&rsquo;s lead had grown to 27 seconds. Further back, Kiplagat looked extremely comfortable and had passed Gudeta to move into second place, while Ngugi and Ngige were a few strides behind the top trio.
Kipyogei&rsquo;s lead was too great, though, and she went on to win in 2:24:45 after covering the second half in 1:10:34. Kiplagat, now aged 41, finished second in 2:25:09 while Ngugi came through for third place in 2:25:20.
"I am very happy," said Kipyogei, who set her PB of 2:22:06 when winning in Istanbul last year. "The hills were the toughest part, I kept looking over my shoulders to make sure no one was coming back."
CJ Albertson was the story of the men&rsquo;s race for the first 20 miles. The US runner made an early break and had opened up a one-minute gap shortly after passing 5km in 14:29, just outside 2:02 schedule.
Although his pace dropped slightly from there on, his lead over the sizeable chase pack continued to grow, passing through 10km in 29:32 and 15km in 45:01. By the time Albertson reached the half-way point in 1:04:08 &ndash; faster than his official best for the distance &ndash; his lead had grown to two minutes and 13 seconds.
But that was about as much as his rivals were prepared to give him today in Boston. The chase pack &ndash; which now comprised 16 men, including 2017 Boston winner Geoffrey Kirui, two-time Boston winner Lelisa Desisa, and Ethiopian half marathon record-holder Jemal Yimer &ndash; worked together to make up the deficit on Albertson. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61646ef3eb7c933807f46d32.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 By the time Albertson reached 30km (1:33:03), his lead was down to 54 seconds. He was finally caught shortly before the 21-mile point, and just a few minutes later he had fallen off the back of the lead pack, which still had 14 men in contention.
Not long after passing 35km in 1:49:25, Kipruto put his foot down and opened up a significant gap on the rest of the pack. The Kenyan covered the next five-kilometre segment in 14:05, which stunned his opponents, who suddenly found they were some 37 seconds adrift with little more than two kilometres to go.
Kipruto &ndash; who later revealed he was unaware that Albertson had made that early break in the first half &ndash; maintained his punishing pace to the finish, eventually crossing the line in 2:09:51. Lemi Berhanu emerged from the pack to take second place in 2:10:37 from compatriot Yimer, who finished third in 2:10:38 on his debut at the distance.
"It was slower than I thought it would be as there were no pacemakers," said Kipruto. "The fans really helped, though."
It's Kipruto's second marathon victory of the year following his 2:10:16 win in Prague in May. Before this year, his only other triumph over the classic distance came in Toronto in 2018 (2:07:24); he returned to the Canadian city one year later and set a PB of 2:05:13 to finish fourth.
Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics 
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Women 1 Diana Kipyogei (KEN) 2:24:45 2 Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 2:25:09 3 Mary Ngugi (KEN) 2:25:20 4 Monicah Ngige (KEN) 2:25:32 5 Netsanet Gudeta (ETH) 2:26:09 6 Nell Rojas (USA) 2:27:12 7 Workenesh Edesa (ETH) 2:27:38 8 Atsede Baysa (ETH) 2:28:04 9 Biruktayit Eshetu (ETH) 2:29:05 10 Tigist Abayechew (ETH) 2:29:06
Men 1 Benson Kipruto (KEN) 2:09:51 2 Lemi Berhanu (ETH) 2:10:37 3 Jemal Yimer (ETH) 2:10:38 4 Tsedat Ayana (ETH) 2:10:47 5 Leonard Barsoton (KEN) 2:11:11 6 Bayelign Teshager (ETH) 2:11:16 7 Colin Bennie (USA) 2:11:26 8 Dejene Debela (ETH) 2:11:38 9 Wilson Chebet (KEN) 2:11:40 10 CJ Albertson (USA) 2:11:44

Diana Kipyogei and Benson Kipruto land a Kenyan double 

Kipyogei and Kipruto triumph in Boston

Men&rsquo;s world indoor triple jump record 18.07m Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) Aubiere 16 January 2021
Men&rsquo;s world indoor shot put record 22.82m Ryan Crouser (USA) Fayetteville 24 January 2021
Men&rsquo;s world U20 200m record 19.84 Erriyon Knighton (USA) Eugene 27 June 2021
Men&rsquo;s world U20 110m hurdles records 12.93 Sasha Zhoya (FRA) Nairobi 20 August 2021 12.72 Sasha Zhoya (FRA) Nairobi 21 August 2021
Women&rsquo;s world U20 4x100m record 42.94 Jamaica (Serena Cole, Tina Clayton, Kerrica Hill, Tia Clayton) Nairobi 22 August 2021
Men&rsquo;s world U20 4x100m record 38.51 South Africa (Mihali Xhotyeni, Sinesipho Dambile, Letlhogonolo Moleyane, Benjamin Richardson) Nairobi 22 August 2021
&nbsp;
World indoor records from Hugues Fabrice Zango and Ryan Crouser, plus a handful of world U20 records set by teenage talents Sasha Zhoya and Erriyon Knighton in 2021, are among the latest marks to have been ratified.
Zango produced one of the first stand-out performances of 2021. The triple jumper from Burkina Faso bounded out to a sensational 18.07m last-round leap in Aubiere on 16 January. It was the first time the 18-metre barrier had been surpassed indoors, and it broke the world indoor record of 17.92m that had been set by Zango&rsquo;s coach, Teddy Tamgho, at the European Indoor Championships in Paris on 6 March 2011.
&ldquo;With this distance, I feel immense pride and joy to have accomplished something unique,&rdquo; said the world bronze medallist, who went on to set an African outdoor record of 17.82m during the outdoor season before taking bronze at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
US shot putter Crouser started the year as he meant to go on at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting in Fayetteville on 24 January. In what was his first outing of 2021, and in the first round of the competition, the 28-year-old launched his shot out to 22.82m, breaking the long-standing world indoor record of 22.66m that had been set by USA&rsquo;s Randy Barnes in Los Angeles on 20 January 1989.
Crouser backed up his winning throw with efforts of 22.70m, also beyond the previous world indoor record, and 22.48m.
&ldquo;I felt really nervous on the first throw, but I had a ton of energy,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I feel like there's more there.&rdquo;
His instinct turned out to be right; later in the year, Crouser went on to break the world record with 23.37m, then retained his Olympic title with an Olympic record of 23.30m before going on to set a Wanda Diamond League record of 23.15m in Eugene.
Knighton was one of the revelations of the US Olympic Trials in Eugene. The 17-year-old breezed through his 200m heat in a world U18 best of 20.04, then won his semifinal in a world U20 record of 19.88 &ndash; which was ratified earlier in the year &ndash; and eventually placed third in the final on 27 June, improving his own world U20 record to 19.84 and booking his place on USA&rsquo;s Olympic team.
Knighton went on to place fourth in the Olympic final in 19.93, just 0.19 shy of a medal. He will be an U20 athlete throughout all of 2022 and 2023.
Zhoya has been similarly prolific in his record-breaking this year. The French sprint hurdler dipped under 13 seconds for the 110m hurdles (99cm height) on his way to winning the European U20 title in July, marking him as the favourite for the world U20 title in Nairobi in August.
He still managed to exceed expectations, though. He sped to a world U20 record of 12.93 (-0.4m/s) in the semifinals on 20 August and then went significantly faster in the final on 21 August, clocking 12.72 (1.0m/s).
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the quickest time on any hurdle height and that makes me really happy,&rdquo; said Zhoya. &ldquo;Now all I need to do is to replicate my junior performance to the senior category as I now focus into transiting into the seniors.&rdquo;
One day later, on the final day of the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21, there were two world U20 records within the space of 15 minutes.
Jamaica&rsquo;s quartet of Serena Cole, individual 100m champion Tina Clayton, Kerrica Hill and Tia Clayton sped to victory in the women&rsquo;s 4x100m in 42.94, smashing the previous world U20 record of 43.27 that had been set by Germany at the European U20 Championships in Grosseto on 23 July 2017.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s great that Tia was able to win a medal because she didn&rsquo;t have a chance to win a medal in the 100m,&rdquo; Tina Clayton said of her twin sister. &ldquo;She came out here and executed well.&rdquo;
South Africa&rsquo;s quartet of Mihali Xhotyeni, Sinesipho Dambile, Letlhogonolo Moleyane and Benjamin Richardson were similarly well drilled en route to their 38.51 triumph in the men&rsquo;s race 15 minutes later. Their time broke the world U20 record of 38.62 that had been set by the USA in San Jose on 20 July 2019.
&ldquo;We worked for it, and it feels like a very great achievement,&rdquo; said anchor leg runner Richardson. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for me and my team doing it together; we&rsquo;re all fast and together we got to a world record.&rdquo;
World Athletics

World indoor records from Hugues Fabrice Zango and Ryan Crouser, plus a handful of world U20 records set by teenage talents Sasha Zhoya and Erriyon Knighton in 2021, are among the latest marks to have been ratified.

Ratified: world records for Zango, Crouser, Zhoya and Knighton

Italy's&nbsp;Henri Aymonod and&nbsp;Joyce Muthoni Njeru of Kenya have been crowned the overall&nbsp;World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) World Cup champions following the final race of the 2021 series at Chiavenna-Lagunc on Sunday (10).
The&nbsp;Kilometro Verticale Chiavenna-Lagunc was a fitting setting to decide the winners of the overall World Cup as well as the&nbsp;short uphill category, with the winners of Sunday's race &ndash;&nbsp;Aymonod and Austria's&nbsp;Andrea Mayr &ndash; also claiming those category titles.
The start lists featured a mix of short uphill specialists and athletes more comfortable with longer races, but committed to adding to their World Cup points totals. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61635ea2db267732db60277d.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Kenya's 2021 WMRA World Cup winner Joyce Muthoni Njeru (&copy; Luca Coluccia)
 The women set off for the&nbsp;historic vertical kilometre race first, at 20 seconds intervals, with the top ranked athletes going last.
It was an exciting morning, seeing the top three change as the competition progressed. Eventually it was Mayr who won by a huge margin, but an agonising one second outside of her own course record in 35:41.
In second place it was Italy's Francesca Ghelfi in 39:16 and in third was last year&rsquo;s winner, Ireland's Sarah McCormack, in 39:56.
Then it was time for the men, also setting off at 20 second intervals. It was an incredibly close race, with the top six all finishing within 90 seconds of each other.
It was no surprise to find Aymonod coming out on top &ndash; his third victory here in a row &ndash; in 31:40.
Italy's Tiziano Moia was second in 32:18 and Nadir Maguet completed the Italian clean sweep in 32:40.
Finishing behind&nbsp;Aymonod and&nbsp;Mayr&nbsp;in the overall short uphill category at the end of the series are&nbsp;Njeru and&nbsp;Slovenia's&nbsp;Mojca Koligar in the women's standings and&nbsp;Moia and his fellow Italian Andrea Rostan in the men's standings.
In the overall World Cup, Britain's Charlotte Morgan and Hungary's Sandor Szabo claim the runner-up spots, with Italy's Alice Gaggi and Kenya's Geoffrey Gikuni Ndungu placing third.
Kirsty Reade (WMRA) for World Athletics 
<h3>WMRA World Cup results</h3>
Overall World Cup
Women 1 Joyce Muthoni Njeru (KEN) 2 Charlotte Morgan (GBR) 3 Alice Gaggi (ITA)
Men 1 Henri Aymonod (GBR) 2 Sandor Szabo (HUN) 3 Geoffrey&nbsp;Gikuni&nbsp;Ndungu&nbsp;(KEN) 
Short uphill category
Women 1 Andrea Mayr (AUT) 2 Joyce Muthoni Njeru&nbsp;(KEN) 3 Mojca Koligar (SLO)
Men 1 Henri Aymonod (ITA) 2 Tiziano Moia (ITA) 3 Andrea Rostan (ITA) 
Classic mountain category
Women 1 Joyce Muthoni Njeru&nbsp;(KEN) 2&nbsp;Lucy&nbsp;Wambui&nbsp;Murigi (KEN) 3 Alice Gaggi (ITA)
Men 1&nbsp;Geoffrey Gikuni Ndungu&nbsp;(KEN) 2 Sandor Szabo (HUN) 3 Henri Aymonod (ITA) 
Long mountain category
Women 1 Charlotte Morgan (GBR) 2 Marcela Vasinova (CZE) 3 Belen Perez (ESP)
Men 1 Raul Criado (ESP) 2 Peter Frano (SVK) 3 Kamil Lesniak (POL) 
<a href="https://www.wmra.info/files/world_cup/2021_WORLD_CUP/Wcup_Positions/WCUP_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a>

The final race of the 2021 series at Chiavenna-Lagunc was won by Henri Aymonod and Andrea Mayr.

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