The outdoor international track and field season might have <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/feature/22-standout-moments-2022-track-field-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener">come to a close</a> but top-class competition continues with the return of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
As it did last year, the 2022-2023 calendar will again feature Gold, Silver and Bronze level fixtures and competition kicks off this weekend with the TCS Liding&ouml;loppet, a Silver level meeting, before the first Gold event &ndash; the Cardiff Cross Challenge &ndash; on 15 October. The Liding&ouml;loppet is the world&rsquo;s largest cross-country running race and has recently been recognised with the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque/news/lidingoloppet-cross-country-heritage-plaque" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics Heritage Plaque</a>.
The World Cross Country Tour calendar has expanded this season to currently include 17 Gold level meetings as well as five Silver fixtures and one Bronze event.
The series once again features some of the most prestigious international cross-country races in the world and will form a key part in the preparation of many athletes who will be targeting the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Bathurst 23 on 18 February.
After next month's Cardiff Cross Challenge in Wales, UK, the Gold series moves on to Poland and Spain before stops in USA, Italy, Belgium, Botswana, Kenya and Portugal.
2022-2023 World Cross Country Tour Gold calendar 15 Oct &ndash; Cardiff Cross Challenge, Cardiff (GBR) 23 Oct &ndash; Cross Country Bydgoszcz na Start, Bydgoszcz (POL) 23 Oct &ndash; Cross Internacional Zornotza, Amorebieta-Etxano (ESP) 6 Nov &ndash; Cross Internacional de Soria, Soria (ESP) 12-13 Nov &ndash; Cross Internacional de Atapuerca, Atapuerca (ESP) 20 Nov &ndash; XL Cross Internacional de Italica, Seville (ESP) 27 Nov &ndash; Cross Internacional de La Constitucion Alcobendas, Alcobendas (ESP) 1 Dec &ndash; Cross Champs, Austin, TX (USA) 18 Dec &ndash; Cross Internacional de Venta de Banos, Venta de Banos (ESP) 6 Jan &ndash; Campaccio International Cross Country, San Giorgio su Legnano (ITA) 8 Jan &ndash; Elgoibar Juan Muguerza Cross Country, Elgoibar (ESP) 15 Jan &ndash; Cinque Mulini, San Vittore Olona (ITA) 22 Jan &ndash; CrossCup de Hannut, Hannut (BEL) 28 Jan &ndash; Botswana Cross Country Challenge, Gaborone (BOT) 11 Feb &ndash; Sirikwa Cross Country Classic, Eldoret (KEN) 12 Feb &ndash; LII Gran Premio Caceres Campo a Traves, Caceres (ESP) 26 Feb &ndash; Cross das Amendoeiras em Flor, Albufeira (POR) <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-cross-country-tour/calendar-results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full Cross Country Tour calendar (including Gold, Silver and Bronze meetings)</a>
The World Athletics Cross Country Tour and the cross country rankings also form part of the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/press-releases/competition-decisions-qualification-championship-events" target="_blank" rel="noopener">qualification pathway for the 10,000m at future championships</a>. Starting with the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, the top eight men and top eight women in the cross country rankings, who are not already qualified via entry standard or world 10,000m ranking, will be automatically qualified. 
<h2>Tour wins for Kwizera and Daniel</h2>
The 2021-2022 World Athletics Cross Country Tour ran from September to March and a series of strong performances led to Burundi&rsquo;s Rodrigue Kwizera and Eritrea&rsquo;s Rahel Daniel becoming the overall winners.
The Cross Country Tour, which replaced the former Cross Country Permit series, takes athletes&rsquo; best three marks and converts them into performance scores (as also used by the world rankings system).
The top six at the end of the 2021-2022 season were:
Women 1 Rahel Daniel (ERI) 3820 2 Lucy Mawia (KEN) 3780 3 Beatrice Chebet (KEN) 3780 3 Likina Amebaw (ETH) 3780 5 Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi (KEN) 3760 6 Dolshi Tesfu (ERI) 3680 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-cross-country-tour/standings/2022/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full standings</a>
Men 1 Rodrigue Kwizera (BDI) 3840 2 Nibret Melak (ETH) 3780 3 Aron Kifle (ERI) 3760 4 Rogers Kibet (UGA) 3740 5 Thomas Ayeko (UGA) 3720 6 Joel Ayeko (UGA) 3700 <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-cross-country-tour/standings/2022/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full standings</a>
Kwizera and Daniel were both rewarded for their season-long consistency.
Kwizera won in Soria, San Sebastian, Seville, Alcobendas and Venta de Banos last year, also finishing second in Atapuerca, and he took that form into the new year, winning in Albufeira in February. The 2019 world cross country 11th-place finisher went on run a national 10km record of 26:56 in Herzogenaurach &ndash; putting him sixth on the world all-time list &ndash; and finished 16th in the world 10,000m final in Oregon.
Daniel, meanwhile, won in Atapuerca in November and then finished fifth in Seville a week later. She returned in 2022 to claim the runner-up spot in San Giorgio su Legnano before winning at the Eritrean Cross Country Championships as well as in Albufeira. After that she switched to the track, finishing eighth in the 3000m final at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and then fifth in the 10,000m final at the World Championships in Oregon.
World Athletics

Top-class competition continues with the return of the World Athletics Cross Country Tour

World Cross Country Tour launches at Lidingöloppet

As the world prepares for November's COP27 in Egypt, Athletics Kenya has been advocating for increased transboundary cooperation for climate action. Working with athletes who have become climate action ambassadors, the governing body continues to seize strategic opportunities to spread the message.
Since August 2021 when it signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Athletics Kenya in cooperation with the Stockholm Environment Institute and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has installed four air quality sensors in the Kasarani Stadium, Nyayo Stadium, Nairobi National Park and Nakuru Athletics Club, with more to come.
Athletics Kenya President Jackson Tuwei recently travelled to Dakar, Senegal, with Kenya&rsquo;s 1992 Olympic 800m gold medallist William Tanui and Maxwell Nyamu, sustainability and communications officer. There they marked the third International Day of Clean Air for blue skies and participated in the 18th Session of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), organised by the UNEP Regional Office for Africa and the Government of Senegal under the theme 'Securing people's well-being and ensuring environmental sustainability in Africa'.
&ldquo;Athletes need a good environment and clean air to train optimally and to enable them to give good performances in competitions,&rdquo; said Tanui.
His local counterpart, 1988 Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist Amadou Dia Ba, who serves as director of the African Athletics Development Centre, said: &ldquo;I am ready to work with Athletics Kenya on climate action.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632e2d8e31673c1d1e8ffcaa.jpg" alt="Senegal&rsquo;s Amadou Dia Ba and Kenya&rsquo;s William Tanui in Dakar" />
Senegal&rsquo;s Amadou Dia Ba and Kenya&rsquo;s William Tanui in Dakar (&copy; Athletics Kenya)
</div>
<h2>Air quality sensor installed at venue of 2026 Youth Olympic Games</h2>
The week-long activities demonstrated cooperation between Athletics Kenya, the Senegalese Athletics Federation and the African Athletics Confederation. On the eve of the AMCEN meeting, an air quality device was installed at Diamniadio Stadium in Dakar, venue of the 2026 Youth Olympic Games. That was followed by a symbolic tree planting ceremony attended by dignitaries and schoolchildren.
&ldquo;A clean environment is important around stadiums,&rdquo; said Senegalese Athletics Federation President Sara Oualy. &ldquo;We will work to inspire athletes by connecting them with African athletes who are leading, like William Tanui. We are happy and will work for fruitful collaboration between Senegal Athletics and Athletics Kenya.&rdquo;
Each year, Africa records more than one million premature deaths associated with air pollution - indoors and outdoors. In fact, the continent faces a double burden of worsening air quality and climate vulnerability, which need to be addressed together.
<h2>37 measures for Africa identified</h2>
A report presented at the AMCEN conference, Integrated Assessment of Air Pollution and Climate Change for Sustainable Development in Africa, was prepared by the African Union Commission, the UNEP Regional Office for Africa, the Climate and Clean Air Coalition and the Stockholm Environment Institute. It has identified 37 measures that, if implemented, provide a tailored package of solutions for achieving clean air while also enabling African countries to meet climate obligations contained in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. The report states that most measures are already being implemented in parts of Africa. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/632e2ce731673c1d1e8ffca7.jpg" alt="Lawrence Nzuve, Ngongang Wandji Danube Kirt, Maxwell Nyamu, Aminata Mbow Diokhane, Baba Drame and Issa Mboup" />
Lawrence Nzuve, Ngongang Wandji Danube Kirt, Maxwell Nyamu, Aminata Mbow Diokhane, Baba Drame and Issa Mboup at Diamniadio Stadium (&copy; Athletics Kenya)
</div>
In 2022, for example, 19 African countries have established Ambient Air Quality Standards and another 17 have developed or are in the process of developing national action plans to reduce emission of short-lived climate pollutants. In addition, regional framework agreements for air pollution are in place for eastern, southern, west and central African regions. The Assessment concludes that it will take &ldquo;integrated approaches&rdquo; and proposes &ldquo;the establishment of an Africa Clean Air Programme as a continent-wide platform for partnership to facilitate data collection and action at national, regional and continental levels.&rdquo;
&ldquo;It is very important to develop this partnership between Athletics Kenya and Senegal Athletics because Senegal is preparing for a very important event &ndash; the Youth Olympics in 2026,&rdquo; emphasised Cheikh Fofana, Deputy Director of Environment in the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Government of Senegal.
A press conference on the topic &lsquo;Connecting sports to Climate and Air Quality in Africa&rsquo; was held alongside the AMCEN meeting. The objectives of the conference were to:
<ul>
<li>Present and share the status of air quality and climate change in Senegal and the implications for sports,</li>
<li>Highlight the actions by sports organisations and federations to address air quality and climate action, including examples from Kenya and Senegal, and wider actions across Africa,</li>
<li>Give a platform for leading athletes and sportspeople from Senegal and Kenya to share their experiences on implications of climate and air pollution on sports, and the role of athletes in raising awareness about these challenges.</li>
</ul>
&ldquo;We look forward to sharing the experiences and pathway on Sports for Climate Action with Athletics Senegal and for consideration by other sister federations in Africa through the Confederation of African Athletics,&rdquo; said President Tuwei. &ldquo;We hope the African Union will assist us in championing this important venture.&rdquo;
Looking to the future, he noted: &ldquo;We will be seeking to work with the Confederation of African Athletics and our partners (UNEP and Stockholm Environment Institute) in enhancing and scaling up the training to other federations on Sports for Climate Action.&rdquo;
<h2>CAA for environment and climate action</h2>
Representing the CAA, Director General Lamine Faty said: &ldquo;Sport is one of the good ways to communicate environment protection and climate change. Air quality is important for athletes and more awareness activities will be organised with the expert knowledge of Athletics Kenya.&rdquo;
With these key bodies united for climate action, the week&rsquo;s activities were an important milestone for athletics and the environment in the African continent that will soon be hosting COP27.
Alice Annibali for World Athletics

As the world prepares for November's COP27 in Egypt, Athletics Kenya has been advocating for increased transboundary cooperation for climate action

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

Eliud Kipchoge and Keira D'Amato will lead two top fields when they make their highly anticipated returns to the BMW Berlin Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Platinum road race, on Sunday (25).
Kenya&rsquo;s Kipchoge is back at the scene of his 2:01:39 world record set in 2018, seeking &ldquo;a very good race&rdquo;, while D'Amato has her eye on another North and Central American record as she aims to become the first US winner of this race.
Kipchoge refused to be drawn on exactly what he would class as a &ldquo;very good race&rdquo;, but added: &ldquo;Berlin is a very good place where a human being can actually push limits. I still have to come back to Berlin to try and push limits.
&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say it will be a world record but I want to run a good race &ndash; be it a world record, be it a personal best, be it a good race. If all goes well and it is a personal best, a world record, then I will celebrate.&rdquo;
The 37-year-old returns to race in Berlin for the first time since that remarkable record four years ago, now as a two-time Olympic champion and with an unofficial marathon best of 1:59:41 to his name following the non-record eligible INEOS 1:59 Challenge time trial in Vienna in 2019.
&ldquo;I trust that I have shown the way to many athletes, to the next generation, that one day a human being will run under two hours on a normal course, like Berlin or somewhere else,&rdquo; added Kipchoge, who won the Enschede Marathon and his second Olympic marathon last year and then returned to Japan in March to win the Tokyo Marathon in 2:02:40.
&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I am going to Berlin to run under two hours, but I am going to Berlin to run a very good race that will make everybody inspired and love marathons.&rdquo;
With wins in 2015 and 2017 also on his CV, Kipchoge could match the record number of Berlin Marathon victories achieved by Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie, who won four consecutive titles between 2006 and 2009.
Among those looking to deny him will be defending champion Guye Adola, who won last year&rsquo;s race in 2:05:45. The Ethiopian&rsquo;s PB remains the 2:03:46 he ran on his debut in Berlin in 2017, when he went head-to-head with Kipchoge and eventually finished second, 14 seconds back. In 2019 he ran 2:04:42 to finish third in Valencia.
Kipchoge and Adola are among six athletes in the men&rsquo;s field to have dipped under 2:06 for the marathon, while 13 have gone sub-2:07. That list includes Kenya&rsquo;s Bethwel Yegon, who finished runner-up to Adola in Berlin last year in 2:06:14, and Eritrea&rsquo;s Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, who won the world marathon title in 2015 and clocked his PB of 2:05:34 when finishing third in Seville in February.
Ethiopia&rsquo;s 2019 Chicago Marathon runner-up Dejene Debela, Eritrea&rsquo;s Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom and Kenya&rsquo;s Mark Korir, who won the 2016 Frankfurt Marathon and 2015 Paris Marathon, also have PBs under 2:06.
In the women&rsquo;s race, D'Amato starts as favourite thanks to the 2:19:12 area record she set when winning the Chevron Houston Marathon in January. The 37-year-old went on to finish eighth at the World Athletics Championships on home soil in Oregon and earlier this month won the USA 20km Road Running Championships in 1:04:29 in hot conditions.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to run faster than that (2:19:12) in Berlin,&rdquo; said D&rsquo;Amato at the pre-event press conference. &ldquo;To win a great race such as Berlin would be a dream and a great career ambition.&rdquo;
The course record stands at 2:18:11, set by Kenya&rsquo;s Gladys Cherono in 2018.
Although D'Amato might be the only athlete in the field with a sub-2:20 PB, there are several athletes who will be looking to break that mark for the first time to challenge her for victory.
Ethiopia's Gutemi Shone Imana ran her personal best of 2:20:11 in Dubai in 2020 and then clocked 2:21:46 in Prague last year, while her compatriots Workenesh Edesa and Sisay Gola have respective PBs of 2:20:24 and 2:20:50, Gola's set when finishing second in Seville in February.
Kenya's Maurine Chepkemoi and Vibian Chepkurui are the other two sub-2:21 women in the field. Chepkemoi set her PB of 2:20:18 in Amsterdam in 2021, while Chepkurui will want to continue her progress after running 2:24:29 to win in Vienna on her debut last year and then 2:20:59 to retain her title in April.
Ethiopia&rsquo;s Bekelech Gudeta won the Prague Marathon in 2:22:56 in May, while Tigist Abayechew ran 2:22:45 when finishing fourth in Dubai in 2020.
Another athlete to watch will be Kenya's 2019 world 10,000m fourth-place finisher Rosemary Wanjiru, who makes her marathon debut and will be looking to follow the example of Gotytom Gebreslase, who won in Berlin last year when racing over 26.2 miles for the first time.
Ethiopia's Nigsti Haftu, who has a half marathon best of 1:06:17, also lines up for her debut.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics 
<h2>Elite fields</h2>
Women Keira D'Amato (USA) 2:19:12 Gutemi Shone Imana (ETH) 2:20:11 Maurine Chepkemoi (KEN) 2:20:18 Workenesh Edesa (ETH) 2:20:24 Sisay Gola (ETH) 2:20:50 Vibian Chepkurui (KEN) 2:20:59 Tigist Abayechew (ETH) 2:22:45 Bekelech Gudeta (ETH) 2:22:56 Sayaka Sato (JPN) 2:23:27 Risper Chebet (UGA) 2:23:45 Yukari Abe (JPN) 2:24:02 Meseret Belete (ETH) 2:24:25 Lisa Weightman (AUS) 2:25:15 Natasha Wodak (CAN) 2:26:19 Kanako Takemoto (JPN) 2:26:23 Sonia Samuels (GBR) 2:28:04 Rika Kaseda (JPN) 2:28:29 Ayuko Suzuki (JPN) 2:28:32 Hikari Onishi (JPN) 2:28:56 Ftaw Zeray (ETH) 2:29:15 Katja Fischer (GER) 2:42:39 Julia Mayer (AUT) 2:46:35 Rosemary Wanjiru (KEN) Debut Nigsti Haftu (ETH) Debut 
Men Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2:01:39 Guye Adola (ETH) 2:03:46 Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (ERI) 2:05:34 Dejene Debela (ETH) 2:05:46 Mark Korir (KEN) 2:05:49 Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom (ERI) 2:05:53 Ashenafi Moges (ETH) 2:06:12 Deme Tadu Abate (ETH) 2:06:13 Bethwel Yegon (KEN) 2:06:14 Awet Habte (ERI) 2:06:25 Ryu Takaku (JPN) 2:06:45 Limenih Getachew (ETH) 2:06:47 Hiroto Inoue (JPN) 2:06:47 Zablon Chumba (KEN) 2:07:18 Kenya Sonota (JPN) 2:07:23 Kento Kikutani (JPN) 2:07:26 Kazuki Muramoto (JPN) 2:07:36 Tadashi Isshiki (JPN) 2:07:39 Atsumi Ashiwa (JPN) 2:07:54 Daisuke Doi (JPN) 2:08:13 Nguse Amlosom (ERI) 2:08:23 Rintaro Takeda (JPN) 2:08:48 Yuki Matsumura (JPN) 2:09:01 Byambajav Tseveenravdan (MGL) 2:09:03 Tatsuya Maruyama (JPN) 2:09:36 Abel Kipchumba (KEN) 2:09:39 Stephen Scullion (IRE) 2:09:49 Koshiro Hirata (JPN) 2:09:57 Masashi Nonaka (JPN) 2:09:57 Peter Herzog (AUT) 2:10:06 Abraham Kipyatich (KEN) 2:10:51 Jamsran Olonbayar (MGL) 2:11:02 Kamil Jastrzebski (POL) 2:11:08 Leonard Barsoton (KEN) 2:11:11 Gantulga Dambadarjaa (MGL) 2:11:18 Renqing Dongzhibu (CHN) 2:11:54 He Jie (CHN) 2:12:00 Johannes Motschmann (GER) 2:12:18 Mike Sayenko (USA) 2:13:00 Haftom Welday (ERI) 2:13:47 Frank Schauer (GER) 2:14:43 Konstantinos Gkelaouzos (GRE) 2:14:44 Erik Hille (GER) 2:15:04 
&nbsp;

Eliud Kipchoge and Keira D'Amato will lead two top fields when they make their highly anticipated returns to the World Athletics Elite Platinum road race on Sunday

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

<a href="#FR">fran&ccedil;ais</a>
Seven Member Federations have been placed on the new Competition Manipulation Watch List following an investigation of suspicious competition results conducted by the Athletics Integrity Unit&nbsp;(AIU).
The World Athletics Council approved the introduction of a Competition Manipulation Watch List at its meeting in Oregon in July, in response to an AIU investigation prompted by 17 reports of suspicious competition results during the qualification period for the 2021 Olympic Games.
The World Athletics Competition Department will work with Member Federations who are placed on the Watch List to improve and reform their competition procedures.
Their position on the Watch List will be kept under review by the Council with the aim of those Member Federations being able to demonstrate that they should no longer remain on the Watch List. All seven federations have already engaged positively with World Athletics in that regard.
The following Member Federations have been placed on the <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=9a163edc-09fc-4501-8376-74832c7e792c.pdf&amp;urlslug=Competition%20Manipulation%20Watch%20List" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Competition Manipulation Watch List</a>:
Albania Armenia Georgia Kyrgyzstan Moldova Turkey Uzbekistan
Please note that this decision reflects the high degree of risk of results manipulation within the Member Federation&rsquo;s territory and not the conduct of individual officials or specific cases. Any conduct-related matters will be referred to the AIU for investigation.&nbsp;
World Athletics will not recognise results achieved at competitions hosted by these Federations, except for the following:
<ul>
<li>Official international or area championships</li>
<li>Competitions which form part of the following international competition structures: Diamond League Continental Tour World Indoor Tour World Race Walking Tour World Combined Events Tour World Cross Country Tour World Athletics Label Road Races</li>
<li>National championships, provided certain conditions are fulfilled and subject to World Athletics approval.</li>
</ul>
 World Athletics reserves the right to appoint up to three International Technical Officials to ensure these competitions are conducted appropriately, at the expense&nbsp;&nbsp;of the Member Federation.
These conditions apply to the above Member Federations from today (23).
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: &ldquo;The integrity of our sport is our highest priority at World Athletics. Without it, we don&rsquo;t have a sport. That is why we established the independent AIU, to identify and address all threats to integrity. I would like to thank the AIU for their continued hard work to protect our sport. Maintaining integrity requires eternal vigilance and this is a timely reminder that all our Member Federations must be equally committed to upholding the principles of fair competition.&rdquo; 
<h2>Four medals reallocated from historic age manipulation cases</h2>
World Athletics has also taken action to annul the results of 11 athletes from World Athletics Series events between 2001 and 2013 due to age manipulation.
These historic cases were referred to World Athletics by the Athletics Integrity Unit &ndash; the independent integrity body for the sport &ndash; following its investigations into the birthdates of these competitors. This has resulted in the concerned athletes being stripped of results, and in some cases, medals being reallocated.
Nine of the athletes have been identified as overage at the time of the championships in which they competed, and two athletes have been identified as underage.
These investigations have led to the reallocation of medals in the following events: the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles at the 2002 World Junior Championships (Shi Dongpeng of China disqualified, Shamar Sands of The Bahamas awarded the silver medal and Richard Phillips of Jamaica awarded the bronze medal); the men&rsquo;s long jump at the 2003 World Youth Championships (Saudi Arabia&rsquo;s Ahmed Nezar H. Al-Sharfa disqualified and Andrejs Maskancevs of Latvia awarded the bronze medal); and the men&rsquo;s medley relay at the 2005 World Youth Championships (Saudi Arabia disqualified and South Africa awarded the bronze medal).
This is the full list of results which have been annulled:
<ul>
<li>Shi Dongpeng, CHN (overage): 2002 World Junior Championships 110m hurdles (silver).</li>
<li>Awet Nftalem Kibrab, ERI (overage): 2013 World Youth Championships 3000m (5th).&nbsp;</li>
<li>Aberu Kebede, ETH (overage): 2007 World Cross Country Championships 6km (16th).</li>
<li>Mulu Seboka, ETH (underage): 2005 World Championships marathon (48th).</li>
<li>Lhoussaine Dhame, MAR (overage): 2002 World Junior Cross Country Championships (29th), 2003 World Junior Cross Country Championships (18th).</li>
<li>Ali Ahmad S. Al-Amri, KSA (overage): 2006 World Junior Championships 3000m (10th).</li>
<li>Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi, KSA (overage): 2001 World Youth Championships discus (5th), 2002 World Junior Championships discus (15qb), 2004 World Junior Championships discus (9th).</li>
<li>Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi, KSA (overage): 2001 World Youth Championships shot put (12th).&nbsp;</li>
<li>Ismail Al-Sabani, KSA (overage): 2005 World Youth Championships 800m (7th&nbsp;h6) and medley relay (bronze), 2008 World Junior Championships 400m (8th&nbsp;s2) and 4x400m (6th&nbsp;h2).</li>
<li>Ahmed Nezar H. Al-Sharfa, KSA (overage): 2003 World Youth Championships long jump (bronze), 2006 World Junior Championships long jump (18th q).&nbsp;</li>
<li>Taher Belkorchi, MAR (underage): 2007 World Youth Championships 1500m (6th), 2008 World Junior Championships 1500m (6th).</li>
</ul>
 World Athletics thanks those Member Federations involved for their co-operation with the AIU&rsquo;s investigations and is not proposing to take any further action.
Commenting on these issues, the Chairman of the AIU David Howman said: "Today's announcements demonstrate that World Athletics and the Athletics Integrity Unit are committed to protecting the sport from all kinds of integrity threats. The Competition Manipulation Watch List is an important protective measure to support honest and hardworking athletes who may otherwise be robbed of their rightful place in major events. The AIU is currently investigating several specific allegations of competition manipulation relating to qualification for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. I thank World Athletics for taking action on historical age manipulation cases, based on evidence provided by the AIU. The rightful medallists have finally been acknowledged, and I&rsquo;m sure this is very meaningful to them. While this step has corrected some historic wrongs, age manipulation continues to be a concern in athletics, and the AIU is actively investigating more recent allegations of this nature.&rdquo;
World Athletics
<a name="FR"></a>&nbsp;
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&nbsp;
<h1>World Athletics publie la Liste de surveillance relative &agrave; la manipulation des comp&eacute;titions</h1>
Au terme d&rsquo;une enqu&ecirc;te men&eacute;e par l&rsquo;Unit&eacute; d&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; de l&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme sur des r&eacute;sultats de comp&eacute;tition suspects, sept F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres ont &eacute;t&eacute; plac&eacute;es sur la nouvelle liste de surveillance relative &agrave; la manipulation des comp&eacute;titions.&nbsp;
En effet, lors de sa r&eacute;union tenue en juillet, en Oregon, le Conseil de World Athletics avait approuv&eacute; la mise en place d&rsquo;une liste de surveillance, apr&egrave;s une enqu&ecirc;te r&eacute;alis&eacute;e par l&rsquo;UIA et d&eacute;coulant de 17 cas de r&eacute;sultats de comp&eacute;tition suspects durant la p&eacute;riode de qualification en vue des Jeux olympiques 2021.
Le d&eacute;partement Comp&eacute;tition de World Athletics travaillera avec les F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres figurant sur la Liste pour am&eacute;liorer et r&eacute;former leurs proc&eacute;dures en mati&egrave;re de comp&eacute;tition.
Le Conseil r&eacute;examinera la situation de ces F&eacute;d&eacute;rations, l&rsquo;objectif &eacute;tant qu&rsquo;&agrave; terme ces derni&egrave;res soient en mesure de d&eacute;montrer que leur pr&eacute;sence sur la Liste de surveillance n&rsquo;est plus n&eacute;cessaire. Les sept f&eacute;d&eacute;rations se sont d&eacute;j&agrave; investies positivement aupr&egrave;s de World Athletics dans ce sens.
Les F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres suivantes ont &eacute;t&eacute; plac&eacute;es sur <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=43f272b2-c426-483a-bed5-cc1b62a00e92.pdf&amp;urlslug=Competition%20Manipulation%20Watch%20List" target="_blank" rel="noopener">la liste de surveillance</a> :
Albanie&nbsp; Arm&eacute;nie&nbsp; G&eacute;orgie&nbsp; Kirghizistan&nbsp; Moldavie&nbsp; Turquie&nbsp; Ouzb&eacute;kistan&nbsp;
Cette d&eacute;cision est fond&eacute;e sur le fait que le risque de manipulation des r&eacute;sultats est &eacute;lev&eacute; sur le territoire de ces F&eacute;d&eacute;rations mais ne vise pas la conduite individuelle d&rsquo;officiels ou des cas sp&eacute;cifiques. Toute question li&eacute;e &agrave; la conduite sera renvoy&eacute;e devant l&rsquo;Unit&eacute; d&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; de l&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme pour enqu&ecirc;te.
World&nbsp;Athletics a d&eacute;cid&eacute; de ne plus reconna&icirc;tre les r&eacute;sultats obtenus lors de comp&eacute;titions organis&eacute;es par ces F&eacute;d&eacute;rations. Cela ne concerne pas les comp&eacute;titions suivantes&nbsp;:
<ul>
<li>Les Championnats continentaux ou internationaux officiels</li>
<li>Les comp&eacute;titions qui font partie des structures de Comp&eacute;titions internationales suivantes&nbsp;: Ligue de diamant Circuit continental Circuit mondial en salle Circuit mondial de marche athl&eacute;tique Circuit mondial d&rsquo;&eacute;preuves combin&eacute;es Circuit mondial de cross-country Courses sur route World&nbsp;Athletics &agrave; label</li>
<li>Les championnats nationaux, sous certaines conditions et sous r&eacute;serve de l&rsquo;approbation de World Athletics.</li>
</ul>
 World Athletics se r&eacute;serve le droit de nommer jusqu&rsquo;&agrave; un maximum de trois Officiels techniques internationaux pour officier lors de n&rsquo;importe laquelle de ces comp&eacute;titions aux frais de la F&eacute;d&eacute;ration membre.
Ces conditions s&rsquo;appliquent aux F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres indiqu&eacute;es ci-dessus &agrave; compter d&rsquo;aujourd&rsquo;hui (23).
Le pr&eacute;sident de World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, a d&eacute;clar&eacute; : &laquo;&thinsp;&Agrave; World Athletics, l&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; de notre sport est la priorit&eacute; absolue. Sans int&eacute;grit&eacute;, notre sport n&rsquo;existe pas. C&rsquo;est pourquoi, nous avons institu&eacute; l&rsquo;UIA qui est ind&eacute;pendante et charg&eacute;e d&rsquo;identifier et de traiter toute menace visant l&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute;. Je tiens &agrave; remercier l&rsquo;UIA pour son travail assidu aux fins de prot&eacute;ger notre sport. Pr&eacute;server l&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; requiert une vigilance de tous les instants. &Agrave; ce propos, il convient de rappeler que toutes nos F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres doivent s&rsquo;engager aussi fermement dans ce sens pour d&eacute;fendre les principes d&rsquo;une comp&eacute;tition juste.&thinsp;&raquo; 
<h2>Quatre m&eacute;dailles r&eacute;attribu&eacute;es &agrave; la suite de cas ant&eacute;rieurs de manipulation li&eacute;e &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;ge</h2>
World Athletics a &eacute;galement pris des mesures pour annuler les r&eacute;sultats de 11 athl&egrave;tes obtenus lors de comp&eacute;titions de la S&eacute;rie mondiale d&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme disput&eacute;es entre 2001 et 2013 pour cause de manipulation li&eacute;e &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;ge.
L&rsquo;Unit&eacute; d&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; de l&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme, l&rsquo;instance ind&eacute;pendante charg&eacute;e de l&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; du sport, a transmis ces cas ant&eacute;rieurs &agrave; World Athletics apr&egrave;s avoir effectu&eacute; des v&eacute;rifications sur les dates de naissance de ces athl&egrave;tes. En cons&eacute;quence, les r&eacute;sultats des athl&egrave;tes concern&eacute;s ont &eacute;t&eacute; annul&eacute;s, et dans certains cas, les m&eacute;dailles ont &eacute;t&eacute; r&eacute;attribu&eacute;es.
Neuf des athl&egrave;tes ont &eacute;t&eacute; identifi&eacute;s comme &eacute;tant trop &acirc;g&eacute;s au moment des championnats auxquels ils ont particip&eacute; et deux athl&egrave;tes ont &eacute;t&eacute; identifi&eacute;s comme &eacute;tant trop jeunes.
Les enqu&ecirc;tes men&eacute;es ont d&eacute;bouch&eacute; sur la r&eacute;attribution de m&eacute;dailles dans les &eacute;preuves suivantes : le 110m haies masculin aux Championnats du monde juniors 2002 (le Chinois Shi Dongpeng a &eacute;t&eacute; disqualifi&eacute;, Shamar Sands des Bahamas a re&ccedil;u la m&eacute;daille d&rsquo;argent et Richard Phillips de Jama&iuml;que la m&eacute;daille de bronze)&thinsp;; le saut en longueur masculin aux Championnats du monde juniors 2003 (le Saoudien Ahmed Nezar H. Al-Sharfa d&rsquo;Arabie Saoudite a &eacute;t&eacute; disqualifi&eacute; et Andrejs Maskancevs de Lettonie a re&ccedil;u la m&eacute;daille de bronze)&thinsp;; le relais medley masculin aux Championnats du monde cadets 2005 (l&rsquo;Arabie Saoudite a &eacute;t&eacute; disqualifi&eacute;e et l&rsquo;Afrique du Sud a re&ccedil;u la m&eacute;daille de bronze).
Voici la liste compl&egrave;te des r&eacute;sultats qui ont &eacute;t&eacute; annul&eacute;s :
<ul>
<li>Shi Dongpeng, CHN (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde juniors 2002 au 110m haies (argent)</li>
<li>Awet Nftalem Kibrab, ERI (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde cadets 2013 au 3000m (5e)</li>
<li>Aberu Kebede, ETH (trop &acirc;g&eacute;e)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde 2007 de cross-country au 6km (16e)</li>
<li>Mulu Seboka, ETH (trop jeune)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde 2005 au marathon (48e)</li>
<li>Lhoussaine Dhame, MAR (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde juniors de cross-country 2002 (29e), Championnats du monde juniors de cross-country 2003 (18e)</li>
<li>Ali Ahmad S. Al-Amri, KSA (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde juniors 2006 au 3000m (10e)</li>
<li>Sultan Mubarak Al-Dawoodi, KSA (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde cadets 2001 au lancer de disque (5e), Championnats du monde junior 2002 au lancer de disque (15e), Championnats du monde juniors 2004 au lancer de disque (9e)</li>
<li>Sultan Abdulmajeed Al-Hebshi, KSA (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde cadets 2001 au lancer du poids (12e)</li>
<li>Ismail Al-Sabani, KSA (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde cadets 2005 au 800m (7e, s&eacute;rie 6) et relais medley (bronze), Championnats du monde junior 2008 au 400m (8e&nbsp;s&eacute;rie 2) et 4x400m (6e&nbsp;s&eacute;rie 2)</li>
<li>Ahmed Nezar H. Al-Sharfa, KSA (trop &acirc;g&eacute;)&nbsp;: Championnats du monde cadets 2003 au saut en longueur (bronze), Championnats du monde juniors 2006 au saut en longueur (18e)</li>
<li>Taher Belkorchi, MAR (trop jeune) : Championnats du monde jeunesse 2007 au 1500m (6e), Championnats du monde junior 2008 au 1500m (6e)</li>
</ul>
 World Athletics remercie les F&eacute;d&eacute;rations membres impliqu&eacute;es pour leur collaboration dans le cadre des enqu&ecirc;tes men&eacute;es par l&rsquo;UIA et ne pr&eacute;voit pas de prendre d&rsquo;autres mesures.
&Agrave; propos de ces questions, le pr&eacute;sident de l&rsquo;UIA, David Howman, a d&eacute;clar&eacute; : &laquo;&thinsp;Les annonces d&rsquo;aujourd&rsquo;hui d&eacute;montrent l&rsquo;engagement de World Athletics et de l&rsquo;Unit&eacute; d&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute; de l&rsquo;athl&eacute;tisme &agrave; prot&eacute;ger le sport contre tous les types de menaces &agrave; l&rsquo;int&eacute;grit&eacute;. La Liste de surveillance relative &agrave; la manipulation des comp&eacute;titions est une mesure de pr&eacute;vention majeure pour soutenir les athl&egrave;tes int&egrave;gres et d&eacute;vou&eacute;s qui, sans cette mesure, pourraient se voir priv&eacute;s d&rsquo;une place l&eacute;gitime dans les grands &eacute;v&eacute;nements. L&rsquo;UIA enqu&ecirc;te actuellement sur plusieurs all&eacute;gations de manipulation de comp&eacute;tition en lien avec les performances de qualification pour les Jeux olympiques de Tokyo 2020. Je remercie World Athletics d&rsquo;avoir pris des mesures concernant les cas ant&eacute;rieurs de manipulation li&eacute;e &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;ge, sur la base des &eacute;l&eacute;ments fournis par l&rsquo;UIA. Les m&eacute;daill&eacute;s m&eacute;ritants ont enfin &eacute;t&eacute; reconnus et je suis s&ucirc;r que cela signifie beaucoup pour eux. Bien que cette mesure ait corrig&eacute; certains torts pass&eacute;s, la manipulation li&eacute;e &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;ge reste une pr&eacute;occupation en athl&eacute;tisme. L&rsquo;UIA diligente actuellement des enqu&ecirc;tes sur des all&eacute;gations plus r&eacute;centes de cette nature.&thinsp;&raquo;
World Athletics

Seven Member Federations have been placed on the new Competition Manipulation Watch List following an investigation of suspicious competition results conducted by the Athletics Integrity Unit

World Athletics publishes Competition Manipulation Watch List

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.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jV_8KfaIY14" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<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.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m7jhM8aY3NQ" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<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.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7W-tNhEhjYE" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<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.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o_FnI0kCX7w" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<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.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1cAkO4876jY" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<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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<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.
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<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.
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&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.
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Jacob Kiplimo wins the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games (&copy; Getty Images)
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<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. 
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Press conference for the Amazing Thailand World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (&copy; Organisers)
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&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. 
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Fernanda Maita celebrates at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)
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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; 
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Mairy Pires competes at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Oscar Munoz Badilla)
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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; 
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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>

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