When Sandor Szabo took to the start line at the 2013 World Mountain Running Championships, he was most likely the least experienced runner at the discipline.

On 25 May 1985, the IAAF Mobil Grand Prix, the world’s first professional global track and field circuit, administered by and operating with the authorisation of the then ‘International Amateur Athletic Federation’, today’s World Athletics, began in San Jose, California with the Bruce Jenner Classic.

Wayde van Niekerk was nervous. For an athlete of his calibre, an unofficial 100m race on grass in mid-February should have been a formality. A routine rust-buster. A glorified training session.

Athletes in different parts of the world are gradually returning to their regular training facilities as restrictions put in place in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic begin to ease.

We would all agree that living with a global pandemic has not been fun. Nonetheless, athletics has shown that it can and has been a beacon for optimism and hope in these challenging times.

As the athletics world took its first few tentative steps into 2020, the 2019 World Championships decathlon seemed a world away.

Having undergone serious shoulder surgery, elbow and achilles issues as well as a cancer scare, there is little wonder Maria Andrejczyk has had to draw upon her 'warrior' spirit after several years of turmoil.

Over the course of a running career that began in the early 1990s, New Zealander Melissa Moon amassed 21 national titles, and made national teams for the World Half Marathon Championships, World Cross Country Championships and World University Games. But it wasn't until she took on another challenge - running up and down mountain trails, and later up staircases that lead to the observation decks of the world’s tallest buildings, non-traditional venues that today’s runners in lockdown are beginning to embrace - that Moon finally found her true running calling.

Ron Freeman has produced numerous noteworthy accomplishments in his 72 years.

María Vicente loves athletics so much that even the combined events isn’t enough for her.

Andrew Douglas knows how it feels to spend an extended period of time away from the office.

It is not only the athletes who have been forced to adjust during the Covid-19 pandemic but also their coaches. We speak to a quintet of coaches to find out more.