Budapest23 Day Seven – Rojas off Canvas to Win on Knock-Out, Jackson Stuns, Lyles Double, Little Bronze
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On day seven, Budapest’s national athletics centre turned into the house of stoush. Over at the triple jump, Yulimar Rojas got off the canvas to win her fourth straight title by knock-out.
There they all were – 10,000 metres champion and defending 5000 metres champion Gudaf Tsegay, the woman who runs every event, and medals in most, Sifan Hassan, Kenyan teammates Beatrice Chebet, this year’s world cross-country champion, and Margaret Kipkemboi – lined up to thwart Faith Kipyegon’s hopes of completing an unprecedented 1500 and 5000 metres double.
When Victor Kiplangat drew clear of Leul Gebrsilase in the closing stages of Sunday’s men’s world championships marathon, it seemed the championships were bookended by Uganda distance runners.
More colloquially, Zurich’s meeting has been dubbed “the Olympics in one day.” A touch pretentious, yes, but when you’re there, the description so often seems apt. Like the night three world records went in 45 minutes, for example, just one of many such nights in the fabled history of the Zurich Weltklasse.
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone (or going): A Column by Len Johnson
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Sometimes it is only in defeat that you realise how good an athlete is. In the case of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, that should be how great.
Well, there you go. Just a couple of days before the Diamond League final in Eugene this weekend DL organisers announced a new system of wildcard entries.Seemingly moments later again, out come the entries. Guess what? A number of US athletes who have shown scant interest in the diamond league all year long are suddenly in the fields for the final, that’s what. The most notable? Athing Mu in the 800 metres.
Is Matthew Denny now Australia’s best male athlete?
Undeniably so, I’d say, a judgement that was true even before he burnished already considerable laurels by winning the discus at last weekend’s (16-17 September) Diamond League final. Victory merely confirmed his status.
There’s more than a touch of ping-pong – more formally, table tennis – in the relationship between Linden Hall, Jessica Hull and the Australian women’s national record for 1500 metres.
There’s a lot of noise about shoes right now, a rumble that only intensified when Tigst Assefa ran that other-worldly women’s marathon world record 2:11:53 in Berlin. In case you missed it, Assefa was shod in the very latest adidas super-shoe.
Australian athletics has been impacted by the tyranny of distance – and the tyranny of seasons – through 2023. And that won’t change as we enter 2024.