When world 200m champion Noah Lyles heard the news yesterday that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games would be postponed, his reaction was similar to that of countless other athletes: relief.

Ronnie Baker hasn’t had the best of luck in recent years.

Just four years after taking up running, Zak Hanna finished sixth in the 2019 World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) World Cup standings. Not bad for a part-time runner who works full time as a valet and driver for a car leasing company.

It is a little hard to fathom, but Hitomi Niiya – potentially one of Japan’s strongest track hopes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – hates running.

Ximena Restrepo made history on the track back in 1992. In finishing third in the 400m at the Barcelona Games, Restrepo became Colombia’s first track and field athlete to win an Olympic medal, and the first Colombian woman to win an Olympic medal in any sport.

Caroline Feith is a people person. Throughout her 20-year career as a manager, an athlete’s personality – not their performances or age or nationality – has been the most important factor when deciding whether to work with someone.

Catriona Bisset wants to set the record straight.

When Halimah Nakaayi burst into an exuberant dance of delight alongside her fellow Ugandan Winnie Nanyondo moments after clinching a shock 800m gold medal, it provided one of the feelgood memories of the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.

Contrary to popular belief, the Duplantis athletics dynasty didn’t start with Greg, father of pole vault world record-holder Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis.

For so much of her career, Allyson Felix let her performances do the talking. She was quiet, polite, respectful, an athlete whose magnificence on the track was matched by extreme modesty away from it.

For a sport that dates back to ancient Greek times, one century isn’t a particularly long period of time.

If being a high performance athlete is all about self-improvement then world heptathlon bronze medallist Verena Preiner unequivocally ticks every box.