The three individual men&rsquo;s Olympic sprint champions are set to compete at the Golden Spike &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in Ostrava on Tuesday (28).
Italy&rsquo;s Marcell Jacobs and Canada&rsquo;s Andre De Grasse, the Olympic gold medallists over 100m and 200m respectively, will clash over the shorter distance, then De Grasse will double up by contesting his specialist event. Olympic 400m champion Steven Gardiner, meanwhile, will take on world indoor champion Alexander Doom over one lap of the track.
The field event action will be similarly gripping with world and Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis headlining the pole vault, just five weeks after increasing his own world record to 6.24m in Xiamen. World champion Haruka Kitaguchi and multiple global medallist Jakub Vadlejch will feature in the javelin contests.
<div><a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/where-to-watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/662266efeb1fe998c3e66ae7.png" alt="CTG live stream - Inside Track" /></a>
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Jacobs has had just two individual outings this year, the latest being a 10.07 season&rsquo;s best to win in Rome last weekend. That makes the Italian the fastest of the Ostrava field this year on season&rsquo;s bests, though he&rsquo;s also one of four men in the line-up with a sub-10-second PB.
De Grasse, meanwhile, has a best this year of 10.11 and recently finished second at the Diamond League meeting in Marrakesh. Britain&rsquo;s Reece Prescod, who set his PB of 9.93 in Ostrava when winning in the Czech city two years ago, will be one to watch, as will Jamaica&rsquo;s Ryiem Forde.
Later in the evening, De Grasse will take on Jamaica&rsquo;s Andrew Hudson and Britain's Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake in the 200m.
Not including the few races where he has pulled up injured, Gardiner has been undefeated over 400m since the 2017 World Championships. But the Bahamian, who has a season&rsquo;s best of 44.45, could be pushed by Belgium&rsquo;s Doom, who won in Marrakesh last week with a lifetime best of 44.51.
The women&rsquo;s sprints should be similarly competitive. Poland&rsquo;s Ewa Swoboda and Italy&rsquo;s Zainab Dosso, who took silver and bronze respectively over 60m at the World Indoor Championships, will clash outdoors for the first time this year. Swoboda will be contesting her first individual race of the outdoor season, while Dosso is fresh from reducing the Italian 100m record to 11.02 in Savona.
Switzerland&rsquo;s European 200m champion Mujinga Kambundji and double African Games sprint champion Gina Bass are also in the line-up.
In the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles, European champion Pia Skrzyszowska takes on European leader Ditaji Kambundji, while world silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek is the strong favourite in the women's 400m.
<h2>Duplantis returns</h2>
One year after setting a meeting record of 6.12m, pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis returns to Ostrava&rsquo;s Golden Spike to try to improve on that mark.
The Swede is undefeated so far this year, winning all four of his indoor competitions &ndash; including taking gold at the World Indoor Championships &ndash; and then setting a world record of 6.24m on his outdoor season opened in Xiamen in April. One week later, he won in Suzhou with 6.00m.
Ernest John Obiena, who finished second to Duplantis at last year&rsquo;s World Championships, will also be in Ostrava.
The javelin is always one of the most popular and competitive events at the Golden Spike, and this year&rsquo;s edition is set to continue that tradition.
In the men&rsquo;s contest, home favourite Jakub Vadlejch will take on European champion Julian Weber and two-time world champion Anderson Peters. Four-time global medallist Vadlejch recently won in Doha with 88.38m, which puts him just one centimetre ahead of Weber on this year&rsquo;s world list. Peters is close behind with a best of 86.62m.
In the women&rsquo;s event, world champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan faces two-time world U20 champion Adriana Vilagos. Both women are undefeated this year and head to Ostrava with similar season&rsquo;s bests. Kitaguchi threw 63.45m last weekend to win in Tokyo, while Vilagos set a PB of 63.58m earlier this month in Offenburg.
Italy&rsquo;s Leonardo Fabbri will look to continue his sensational form in the shot put. The world silver medallist has this month racked up throws of 22.95m in Savona, 22.91m in Asti and 22.88m in Modena. His toughest opponent in Ostrava could be New Zealand&rsquo;s two-time world indoor champion Tom Walsh.
In other field event action, world indoor champion Molly Caudery takes on Slovenia&rsquo;s Tina Sutej and Katerina Stefanidi of Greece in the women&rsquo;s pole vault.
Elsewhere on the track, meanwhile, Djamel Sedjati and Ben Pattison, the world silver and bronze medallists, will clash over 800m. And in the women&rsquo;s 1500m, Ethiopian trio Tigist Girma, Netsanet Desta, Axumawit Embaye take on Ireland&rsquo;s Ciara Mageean.

63rd Ostrava Golden Spike

The three individual men’s Olympic sprint champions are set to compete at the Golden Spike

Global sprint champions set to clash in Ostrava

In a race that was set up as a 10,000m world record attempt, the competitor who initially had no intention of challenging the record became the one ultimately to smash it.&nbsp;
The record now belongs to <a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/kenya/beatrice-chebet-14749924" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beatrice Chebet</a> of Kenya, who ran 28:54.14* to become the first woman under 29 minutes on the track. That performance, achieved on Saturday (25) at the Prefontaine Classic, is seven seconds faster than the previous world record of 29:01.03 that Letesenbet Gidey established in 2021. The race opened the Wanda Diamond League meeting with an immediate roar from the Hayward Field crowd.
Ethiopia&rsquo;s Gudaf Tsegay became the third-fastest all-time performer with her runner-up finish of 29:05.92, as four women ran faster than 30 minutes. The race also doubled as the selection race for Athletics Kenya&rsquo;s Paris Olympic team, and Chebet and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk (29:26.89) qualified.
In a race that took place before the Diamond League programme, Tsegay and Chebet stayed within a stride of the lights marking world record pace as they passed halfway in 14:31, until Chebet sped ahead with three laps remaining, the lead all her own, and with it the weight of a world record attempt.&nbsp;
Her move was motivated by seeing world 5000m record-holder Tsegay &ndash; who had initially requested a world record pace, only to decide against it because of discomfort in a foot, and change her mind again in recent days after feeling better &ndash; begin to fall behind the pace lights. Chebet said she entered the meeting to qualify for Paris, where she plans to contest both the 5000m and 10,000m, but her intent was not the record.
&ldquo;When Gudaf asked for a world record, I decided to say: &lsquo;Let me try to go for that to see how the body is.&rsquo; Because my body was not bad,&rdquo; said Chebet, the two-time world cross country champion who also claimed world 5km gold last year. &ldquo;I was comfortable to run a world record so when I saw Gudaf drop a bit, I said: &lsquo;Let me try to push it to see how it can go.&rsquo; When I got to the last two laps, I just got motivated and said, I&rsquo;m on a world record pace, so let me push the last 400m.&rdquo;
With 800m to go, Chebet pulled ahead of the pace lights by two whole strides as fans inside Hayward Field began standing in their seats.
After the finish, Chebet fell to the track, splayed out in exhaustion, as Tsegay finished and joined her on the track. When the women stood, they hugged as the new world record flashed on the scoreboard behind them. Chebet later returned to the track wearing a &lsquo;Stop Pre&rsquo; T-shirt, the same design that Steve Prefontaine wore at Hayward Field more than 50 years earlier.
After only her second ever 10,000m race, Chebet adds this world record to the world 5km record of 14:13 she set in Barcelona in December.
&ldquo;I knew a woman could run under 29, I&rsquo;ve known for a long time,&rdquo; said Sifan Hassan, who entered the meeting as No.2 all-time, and now ranks fourth. Hassan believes women &ldquo;can run 28:45&rdquo; in the future.
Four men sprinted within a step of one another toward the finish of Athletics Kenya&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s 10,000m trials, with Daniel Mateiko winning in 26:50.81 after a 56-second final lap to edge Nicholas Kipkorir, who ran a personal best of 26:50.94.&nbsp;
<h2>Kerr claims mile crown</h2>
In perhaps the most anticipated race, world 1500m champion Josh Kerr outduelled Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the Bowerman Mile in a British record of 3:45.34, breaking Steve Cram&rsquo;s 1985 record.&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66526df89b7311681d610c3d.jpg" alt="Josh Kerr pips Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the mile in Eugene" />
Josh Kerr pips Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the mile in Eugene (&copy; Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
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After the pacer came through halfway in 1:53, Kerr moved up to the front with 600m remaining and the favourites aligned at the front, with Ingebrigtsen and Yared Nuguse behind, and 2022 world champion Jake Wightman tracking Nuguse closely in fourth. That order was unchanged with half a lap remaining and no one could make up ground on Kerr, who ripped his sunglasses off after finishing before collecting himself and shaking the hand of Ingebrigtsen. The two had bantered through the press for months about their standing atop the 1500m.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I felt very strong through the first (kilometre) and I was like, you know what, it&rsquo;s time to press and push and see what these guys have got,&rdquo; Kerr said.&nbsp;
Ingebrigtsen was coming off an achilles tendon injury during the winter and opened his season in 3:45.60, with the US record-holder Nuguse third in 3:46.22. Ingebrigtsen said that although he was coming off missing time due to injury, he considered the race an improvement on last year at this time.
&ldquo;I tried to fight him,&rdquo; Ingebrigtsen said of Kerr, &ldquo;but today for me was more of a time trial. Of course, we&rsquo;re racing, but it&rsquo;s definitely some differences in terms of approach into this race because this, for some people, this is their final test, even before the Olympics in Paris. But this is not my final test. I think if anything, this is going to be an exciting summer. For myself, I think it&rsquo;s very good.&rdquo;
Even with Olympic and world champion Ryan Crouser a late withdrawal, the men&rsquo;s shot put was won by one of history's farthest marks. Joe Kovacs threw 23.13m, which stands as the seventh best winning mark of all time and as the second best throw of Kovacs&rsquo; career. In recent weeks while training at the sector Kovacs is building at his home, he has thrown well beyond Saturday&rsquo;s mark, so far that it &ldquo;hits the mulch&rdquo; in his backyard, he said. On Saturday, his winning throw pushed the limits of the stadium sector.
&ldquo;If I did a mulch throw here, I think I would be doing some landscaping at Hayward,&rdquo; Kovacs added.&nbsp;
Kovacs said he would have preferred to compete against Crouser to measure up to the world record-holder, and Leonardo Fabbri, the year&rsquo;s previous world leader, but said he understood that national trials were only three weeks away. It wasn&rsquo;t the only big throw, with Canada&rsquo;s Camryn Rogers breaking the meeting record while winning the hammer with 77.23m on her fifth attempt. DeAnna Price was second with 76.74m.&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66526dac9b7311681d610c3a.jpg" alt="Joe Kovacs celebrates his win at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene" />
Joe Kovacs celebrates his win at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene (&copy; Logan Hannigan-Downs / Diamond League AG)
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<h2>Hodgkinson takes top spot</h2>
In an 800m field that could be a Paris preview, Keely Hodgkinson made her move to the front with 150m remaining, passed world champion Mary Moraa and gained a step by the top of the final backstretch. That gap widened from there, with Hodgkinson winning in 1:55.78, breaking the tape with a slash of her hand. Moraa was second in 1:56.71, and Jemma Reekie and Nia Akins close behind.
Afterward, Hodgkinson revealed that during November training she had injured a ligament, tendon and hamstring at the back of her knee in what she called a &ldquo;freak accident&rdquo; while spraining her ankle. The injury sidelined her for the indoor season.
Tsigie Gebreselama took eight seconds off of Tsegay&rsquo;s previous world leading time to win the 5000m in 14:18.76, a personal best. Ethiopian women finished in the top six places, with Ejgayehu Taye second in 14:18.92 after a fierce fight for the line.
Hassan was seventh, in 14:34.38. There were no lingering effects from running the Tokyo Marathon, Hassan said. Instead, she said she was coming off of several hard weeks of training in the US at altitude. Now that her range has extended to the marathon, Hassan &ndash; who has earned gold at global championships from the 1500m to the 10,000m &ndash; said she would likely decide what event, or events, to focus on in Paris in July.
Another world lead was set in the 3000m steeplechase after Peruth Chemutai broke the Ugandan record in 8:55.09, which took three tenths of a second off of the previous world lead held by Beatrice Chepkoech, Saturday&rsquo;s runner-up in 8:56.51. They were the only women under nine minutes.
<h2>Sprint showdowns</h2>
Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson and Elaine Thompson-Herah lined up next to one another at the start of the 100m, but Richardson quickly made their showdown moot. Only Julien Alfred could stay within a step of the world champion, whose 10.83 was off the world lead of 10.77 but well ahead of the field. Alfred was second in 10.93, as one of three women &ndash; including Dina Asher-Smith &ndash; under 11 seconds. Thompson-Herah, the five-time Olympic champion, opened her season in ninth, in 11.30. Richardson said she was nervous &ldquo;but I used that nervousness as my motivation.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Christian Coleman held off Ferdinand Omanyala to win the men&rsquo;s 100m, 9.95 to 9.98.&nbsp;
Gerald Drummond won the 400m hurdles in 48.56 out of the eighth lane, pulling ahead in the final 50m after Roshawn Clarke faded from first to fourth. Rai Benjamin, the world leader, had initially been entered, only to withdraw after feeling slight discomfort coming off his world-leading victory the week prior in Los Angeles.
Three women were within three-hundredths of a second at the finish of the 100m hurdles before Cyrena Samba-Mayela won in 12.52, tying her own French record. She was just ahead of Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, in 12.54.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66528c05e653d29c3025aa95.jpg" alt="Cyrena Samba-Mayela wins the 100m hurdles in Eugene" />
Cyrena Samba-Mayela wins the 100m hurdles in Eugene (&copy; Matthew Quine / Diamond League AG)
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Grant Holloway led the 110m hurdles by the third barrier and widened the gap by a whole stride at midway en route to the season&rsquo;s fastest time of 13.03 &ndash; an improvement on the 13.07 he ran last week in Atlanta. Holloway extended his winning streak to 11 consecutive races in 2024. Only a late push by Daniel Roberts, second in 13.13, narrowed Holloway&rsquo;s margin of victory only slightly over a strong field that included five who made the final of last year&rsquo;s World Championships. Hansle Parchment, the Budapest silver medallist, was fourth in 13.28.
Diribe Welteji ran away with the 1500m victory in a personal best of 3:53.75, pulling Australia&rsquo;s Jessica Hull to an area record 3:55.97 in the process, with Elle St. Pierre right behind in 3:56.00, a PB by two seconds. Hull had made breaking the Australian record her goal at the last Prefontaine Classic, in September, and felt it was possible after becoming very comfortable running 62-second laps during training, she said.&nbsp;
Wearing what has become his trademark headband, one that on Saturday read &ldquo;conqueror,&rdquo; Kenny Bednarek led the 200m coming off the curve and won in 19.89, ahead of Courtney Lindsey&rsquo;s 20.09.&nbsp;
World silver medallist Valarie Allman led the discus from her first attempt but required a final throw of 67.36m to stay ahead of Yaime Perez, whose own final throw came close at 67.25m. Since winning the Tokyo Olympics, Allman said she had been searching for the past three years to recapture the rhythm that had led to her gold medal.&nbsp;
Emily Grove won the pole vault at 4.63m, beating Robeilys Peinado and Olympic and world champion Katie Moon, who each cleared 4.53m. At the pre-meeting press conference, Moon acknowledged that training has been interrupted since the winter because of trouble with her achilles&rsquo; tendon.&nbsp;
The triple jump world leader, Thea LaFond, finished second by nine centimetres, when her last attempt could not eclipse the first by winner Leyanis Hernandez Perez of 14.73m (2.1m/s).
Andrew Greif for World Athletics
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/calendar-results/7174055/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure

In a race that was set up as a 10,000m world record attempt, Beatrice Chebet of Kenya ran 28:54.14* to make history at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on Saturday

Chebet breaks world 10,000m record, Kerr pips Ingebrigtsen in mile in Eugene

Stefka Kostadinova&rsquo;s world high jump record of 2.09m has remained unbeaten ever since she cleared that auspicious height at the 1987 World Athletics Championships, and it is fitting that her name is among the current list of global record-holders as the Bulgarian Athletics Federation celebrated its centenary on Friday (24)
To date, Bulgarian athletes have set 17 ratified world records outdoors and another three indoors, although only Kostadinova&rsquo;s mark remains on the record books.
However, the curious fact that all these record setters have been women would probably have seemed unbelievable at the time the federation was established 100 years ago.
Like many eastern and central European countries, organised athletics in Bulgaria had started to take hold at the end of the 19th century in boy&rsquo;s schools and colleges in the bigger towns and cities.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/8f75266a-dda8-444f-b30a-d0f4eda1298b.jpg" alt="Stefka Kostadinova" />
Stefka Kostadinova (&copy; Getty Images)
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<h2>&ldquo;Come to Paris&rdquo;</h2>
In the case of Bulgaria, historians have attributed this to the influx and influence of Swiss physical education teachers who were regularly employed in these institutions.
After the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 came to an end, men-only sports clubs in Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv were also established. Even though the focus of attention was on football, athletics events also periodically took place.
This somewhat ad hoc situation continued until 1923 when the International Olympic Committee sent an invitation to the Bulgarian National Sports Federation (BNSF) for the country to compete at the Olympic Games in Paris the following year &ndash; having only previously been represented at the Olympics when one of the aforementioned Swiss teachers living in the capital Sofia made his way to Athens in 1896 and competed as a gymnast under the Bulgarian banner &ndash; motivated by wanting to swell its numbers from the paltry 28 nations, 25 of whom competed in athletics, that went to Antwerp in 1920.
Consequently, the Bulgarian National Olympic Committee was created on 30 March 1923.
The Athletics Committee of the BNSF took charge of trying to select athletes for Paris and began sending out weekly bulletins giving updates on qualification standards, training programmes, measuring out running a 100m running track and other news such as how to buy running spikes from overseas suppliers since none were manufactured or stocked in Bulgaria.
<h2>Making history</h2>
Among these items of information was an announcement that trials had been organised at the Sofia racecourse on 24-25 May and, accordingly, on the first day of Bulgaria&rsquo;s very first national athletics competition, the Bulgarian federation was formed.
Ultimately, Bulgaria sent four athletes to Paris as part of a 24-strong team in four sports. However, despite a national athletics championships being inaugurated in 1926 &ndash; again only men&rsquo;s events, the first women&rsquo;s championships came along in 1936 and it was to be 1952 before the sprinter Tsvetana Berkovska became the first Bulgarian female athlete to go to the Olympics &ndash; there was little progress over the coming years after these promising beginnings.
It was not until the second half of the 20th century, with Bulgaria having not been invited to the London 1948 Olympics due to its role as a member of the Axis in World War II, and a radical change of the political environment, that athletics began to flourish.
As part of the post-World War II Soviet Bloc, organised sport started to play a much greater role in the culture and society of ordinary Bulgarians across the country, and this was combined with a noticeable rise in living standards from the mid-1950s onwards.
Bulgaria hosted its first Balkan Athletics Championships in 1958, having sent athletes to the very first one in Athens in 1930, and in 1960 sent its biggest ever Olympic athletics contingent of six men and four women to Rome, with pole vaulters Hristo Hristov and Dimitar Hlebarov memorably making the final and finishing 10th and 11th.
<h2>Landmarks by Stoykovski,&nbsp;Yorgova&nbsp;and Blagoeva</h2>
Four years later, Virzhiniya Mihaylova just missed out on a medal when finishing fourth in the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games discus, and a landmark was achieved in 1966 when triple jumper Georgi Stoykovski, who was seventh in Tokyo, won Bulgaria&rsquo;s first continental title at the 1966 European Athletics Championships.
Mikhail Zhelev also won the 1969 European 3000m steeplechase gold medal.
However, during the 1970s and 1980s the headlines were dominated by Bulgaria&rsquo;s female athletes, starting with Diana Yorgova winning the country&rsquo;s first Olympic athletics medal when she finished second in the Munich 1972 long jump.
Another silver went to high jumper Yordanka Blagoeva a few days later but just 20 days after having watched Germany&rsquo;s Ulrike Meyfarth take Olympic gold on home soil with a world record-equalling 1.92m, Blagoeva improved that mark by two centimetres to 1.94m in Zagreb.
It was the first of a plethora of world records set by Bulgarian women across a 16-year period that culminated in an epic period of two years between 1986 and 1988 that saw not only Kostadinova revise the record books three times but five successive reductions in the 100m hurdles world record, four of them by Yordanka Donkova and another by her compatriot and rival Ginka Zagorcheva.
Donkova&rsquo;s final mark of 12.21 on home soil in Stara Zagora on 20 August 1988 remained as the standard for 28 years until USA&rsquo;s Kendra Harrison improved it to 12.20 in 2016.
Just over a month after the last Bulgarian world record to date, Donkova flew to gold at the Seoul 1988 Olympic Games in an Olympic record of 12.38. Bulgaria&rsquo;s first Olympic athletics gold had been won by shot putter and 1972 bronze medallist Ivanka Khristova 12 years earlier in 1976 to fulfil her role as favourite having set world records in successive days in July 1976.&nbsp;
Women were mostly the ones taking the plaudits during Bulgarian athletics&rsquo; halcyon period in these two decades, but there were a few men taking medals and titles as well.
<h2>Markov takes triple gold</h2>
Following Petar Petrov&rsquo;s 100m bronze at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games for Bulgaria&rsquo;s first ever men&rsquo;s athletics medal, triple jumper Khristo Markov became the first and, so far, only men&rsquo;s Olympic champion when he took gold in Seoul to add to his 1986 European and 1987 world titles.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/665101216042e9e47cd880fe.jpg" alt="Khristo Markov at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul" />
Khristo Markov at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul (&copy; Getty Images)
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It's not a matter for much debate to say that Markov is Bulgaria&rsquo;s greatest ever male athlete.
Unfortunately, the 21st century has seen the current generation of Bulgarian athletes unable to emulate their predecessors.
Kostadinova&rsquo;s 1995 world title and Tereza Marinova&rsquo;s Sydney 2000 Olympic Games triple jump gold were the last occasions when the Bulgarian national anthem of Mila Rodino was played on a global stage.
No Bulgarian athlete has won a medal at the World Athletics Championships since 2007, although there was a moment to savour when two-time European Athletics Championships high jump silver medallist Mirela Demireva followed in the footsteps of Blagoeva and Kostadinova to finish second at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Off the track, the Bulgarian federation has also played its part in being part of the global athletics family.
In addition to the World University Games being staged in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital staged the 1971 European Athletics Indoor Championships and, more recently, the 1990 World Athletics U20 Championships and 2012 World Half Marathon Championships were held in Plovdiv and Kavarna respectively.
In 2020, Dobromir Karamarinov became the European Athletics President and currently sits on the World Athletics Council to extend Bulgaria&rsquo;s influence in the corridors of power.
Phil Minshull for World Athletics Heritage (with thanks to Anton Bonov and Yana Kasova of the Bulgarian Athletics Federation)

Stefka Kostadinova’s world high jump record has remained unbeaten ever since she cleared 2.09m in 1987 and it is fitting that her name is among the current list of global record-holders as the Bulgarian Athletics Federation celebrated its centenary

A century of Bulgarian athletics highlighted by Kostadinova's 37-year-old world record

Rising sprint star Torrie Lewis and global gold medallist Isaac Beacroft are among the 68 athletes on Australia&rsquo;s team for the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24, taking place between 27-31 August.
Lewis is the national 100m record-holder who won the 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, while Beacroft set an Oceanian U20 record on his way to the U20 men&rsquo;s 10km race walk title at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24.
Featuring 35 women and 33 men, the team for Peru also includes Olympic Games-bound middle-distance runner Claudia Hollingsworth, who is one of eight athletes returning to the global U20 stage following their participation in the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia. Triple jumper Tiana Boras also returns after clinching Australia&rsquo;s first ever major championships medal in the event with bronze in Cali.
They are joined by athletes including sprinters Sebastian Sultana and Gout Gout, and the versatile Izobelle Louison-Roe, who will contest the high jump and triple jump.
With seven Australian U20 record-holders in individual events with 12 records between them, plus the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s 4x100m squads who have already inked the record books in 2024, the team stakes its claim as one of the strongest in Australian history.
Athletics Australia for World Athletics
<h2>Australian team for Lima</h2>
Women 100m: Torrie Lewis, Aleksandra Stoilova&nbsp; 200m: Torrie Lewis, Jessica Milat 400m: Jemma Pollard, Amelia Rowe 800m: Claudia Hollingsworth, Marie Celie Warneke 1500m: Ada Rand, Cleo Richardson 3000m: Amy Bunnage, Gabrielle Schmidt 5000m: Amy Bunnage, Gabrielle Schmidt 100m hurdles: Delta Amidzovski, Amali Butcher 400m hurdles: Alesha Bennetts, Sienna Farrell 3000m steeplechase: Allegra McGivern, Mia Toohey 10,000m race walk: Alexandra Griffin, Chelsea Roberts High jump: Izobelle Louison-Roe, Toby Stolberg Pole vault: Tryphena Hewett Long jump: Delta Amidzovski, Mia Scerri Triple Jump: Tiana Boras, Izobelle Louison-Roe&nbsp; Shot put: Xylavene Beale, Marley Raikiwasa Discus throw: Marley Raikiwasa, Chelsy Wayne Heptathlon: Mia Scerri 4x100m: Olivia Dodds, Olivia Inkster, Torrie Lewis, Jessica Milat, Thewbelle Philp, Chelsea Scolyer, Aleksandra Stoilova 4x400m: Sophia Gregorevic, Charlotte McAuliffe, Bella Pasquali, Ella Penman, Jemma Pollard, Amelia Rowe
Men 100m: Gout Gout, Sebastian Sultana 200m: Gout Gout, Sebastian Sultana 400m: Jett Grundy, Terrell Thorne 800m: Peyton Craig, Hayden Todd 1500m: Cameron Myers, Daniel Williams&nbsp; 3000m: Ky Hehir, Cameron Myers 110m hurdles: Rashid Kabba, William Wong&nbsp; 400m hurdles: Matt Hunt 3000m steeplechase: Toby Chippendale&nbsp; 10,000m race walk: Isaac Beacroft, Marcus Wakim High jump: Mitchell Hatfield&nbsp; Long jump: Jesuye Doherty, Mason McGroder Triple jump: Alex Epitropakis&nbsp; Shot put: Robert Marchesi-Scott Discus throw: Ethan Ayodele, Darcy Giddings Javelin throw: Edward Rogan Decathlon: Jack Whiteside 4x100m: Zach Della Rocha, Gout Gout, Cody Hasler, Jonathan Kasiano, Archer McHugh, Frankleen Newah-Jarfoi, Sebastian Sultana 4x400m: Adam Beiers, Jack Deguara, Jordan Gilbert, Jett Grundy, Caleb Kilpatrick, Terrell Thorne

World Athletics U20 Championships

Torrie Lewis, Isaac Beacroft and Claudia Hollingsworth are among the athletes on Australia’s team for the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24

Australia names team of 68 for World U20 Championships Lima 24

The Wanda Diamond League <a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/news/mile-clash-kerr-ingebrigtsen-nuguse-prefontaine-eugene" target="_blank" rel="noopener">continues on Saturday (25) in Eugene with the fifth meeting of the season</a>.
World record-holders, Olympic gold medallists and world champions will compete at the Prefontaine Classic.
The action will start at 12:50pm local time (GMT -7) with the women's discus and the main two-hour broadcast window will begin at 1:00pm local time with the men's 400m hurdles.
<a href="https://eugene.diamondleague.com/program-results-eugene/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results, programme and entry lists</a> | <a href="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/document/6651b53d343d0574797e71e9.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">media information sheets and athlete biographies</a>
<h3>Where to watch</h3>
The meeting will be streamed in a number of territories on the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@diamondleague/streams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wanda Diamond League YouTube page</a> from 1:00pm local time (GMT -7). The live stream will not be available in all territories.
To find out the broadcast rights holder in your country, check the list below. If your country does not appear on the list, please check local listings. The list is&nbsp;subject to change, and some broadcasters may only show highlights coverage, while others will show the meeting live.&nbsp;Please check your local listings to find out more information.&nbsp;
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border-color: #333333; border-style: solid;" border="1" width="90%" cellpadding="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Territories</td>
<td>Broadcaster/ rights holder</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Africa (English language):&nbsp;Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, C&ocirc;te d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, S&atilde;o Tom&eacute; and Pr&iacute;ncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland</td>
<td>Supersport (English)&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Africa (French language):&nbsp;Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia, S&atilde;o Tom&eacute; and Pr&iacute;ncipe, Mayotte</td>
<td>New World TV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Argentina</td>
<td>TeleRed, TyC Sports</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Azerbaijan</td>
<td>Saran Group, CBC Sport</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Baltics: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland</td>
<td>SIA All Media, Viasat Baltics, TV3 Sport</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Balkans:&nbsp;Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia</td>
<td>United Media - Sportklub</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belarus</td>
<td>Saran Group</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Belgium</td>
<td>VRT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Brazil</td>
<td>COB,&nbsp;TVN Sports, Globo Sport Brazil, Newco - BandSports</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bulgaria</td>
<td>Mobitel, A1 - Sport Max</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Canada</td>
<td>CBC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Caucasus/Central Asia: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan</td>
<td>Saran</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Caribbean: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Barth&eacute;lemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Bonaire, Bermuda, Cura&ccedil;ao, Sint Maarten</td>
<td>Flow Sports, CWC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Central America:&nbsp;Mexico, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname</td>
<td>Sky Mexico</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>China</td>
<td>CCTV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Chinese Taipei</td>
<td>Elta</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Czech Republic</td>
<td>Ceska Televize</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Denmark</td>
<td>TV3 Sport, Viasat Sport A/S Account</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Finland</td>
<td>MTV Katsomo</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Germany</td>
<td>Sky Deutschland</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Greece&nbsp;</td>
<td>TAF/ERT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hong Kong</td>
<td>PCCW</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Hungary</td>
<td>ASC1, MTVA</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>India</td>
<td>Viacom 18</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Israel</td>
<td>Charlton - Sport 1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Italy&nbsp;</td>
<td>Sky Italy / Sportface / Rai</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Malaysia</td>
<td>Measat, Astro</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Mongolia</td>
<td>SPS Mongolia</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Morocco</td>
<td>SNRT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Netherlands</td>
<td>Liberty Global Content, Ziggo Sports, NOS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>New Zealand</td>
<td>TVNZ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Norway</td>
<td>NRK</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Philippines</td>
<td>TAP DMV</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Poland</td>
<td>Polsat</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Portugal</td>
<td>Sport TV Portugal</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Qatar</td>
<td>ALKASS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Slovakia</td>
<td>RTVS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Singapore</td>
<td>Singtel, Starhub</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South America: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela</td>
<td>Panam Sports</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>South Korea</td>
<td>KBS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Spain</td>
<td>Telefonica</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sweden</td>
<td>TV4, SVT</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Switzerland</td>
<td>SRG</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Thailand</td>
<td>Cineplex, JKN</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Turkey</td>
<td>Saran Group, Ssport</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>United Kingdom</td>
<td>BBC</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ukraine</td>
<td>Setanta</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>USA</td>
<td>NBC Sports</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Australia, Bhutan, Cambodia, France, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Monaco, Myanmar (Burma), Romania, South Korea, Sri Lanka</td>
<td>Wanda Diamond League YouTube / Facebook</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2>Social media</h2>
- World Athletics: <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/WorldAthletics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/worldathletics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@worldathletics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok</a> - Wanda Diamond League: <a href="https://twitter.com/diamond_league" target="_blank" rel="noopener">X</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/DiamondLeague/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/diamondleagueathletics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>
&nbsp;

The Wanda Diamond League continues on Saturday (25) in Eugene with the fifth meeting of the season

How to watch and follow the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene

Women&rsquo;s world marathon record 2:11:53 Tigist Assefa (ETH) Berlin 24 September 2023 
Tigist Assefa&rsquo;s world marathon record of 2:11:53 set in Berlin last year has been ratified by World Athletics.
The Ethiopian smashed the previous mark by more than two minutes at the BMW Berlin Marathon on 24 September, becoming the first woman to run inside 2:13 and 2:12, and erasing the world record of 2:14:04 that had been set by Kenya&rsquo;s Brigid Kosgei in Chicago on 13 October 2019.
During Assefa&rsquo;s record-breaking run, a large pack of the leading contenders ran together through the early stages, passing through 5km in 15:58. 13 women were still in contact with the lead as they reached 10km in 31:45.
By 15km, reached in 47:26, Assefa and compatriot Workenesh Edesa had managed to open up a slight gap. Less than two kilometres later, Assefa was alone out in front and she went on to reach the half-way stage in 1:06:20, comfortably inside world record pace.
Assefa, still looking incredibly relaxed and composed, covered the 25-35km section in a remarkable 31:02. Spurred on by the knowledge that the world record was in the bag, Assefa picked up her pace in the closing kilometres and charged through the finish line in 2:11:53.
&ldquo;I hope that my performance will be motivation for young women athletes in Ethiopia and that the world record one year before the Olympic Games gives our country a boost for Paris,&rdquo; said Assefa.
World Athletics

Tigist Assefa’s world marathon record of 2:11:53 set in Berlin last year has been ratified.

Ratified: Assefa’s world marathon record

Going strictly by time, the Bowerman Mile at the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday (25) is one of the fastest races in the meeting&rsquo;s 49-year history.
Add in the storylines, and it&rsquo;s one of the most anticipated, too.
Featuring seven men with lifetime bests faster than 3:50, Olympic and world championship gold medallists, world record-holders and rivals whose banter has preceded the matchup for months, the mile caps a Wanda Diamond League meeting at Hayward Field whose potential for world-leading marks extends far beyond its final event.
Consider, for one, the women&rsquo;s 800m, and the early window it will open into this summer&rsquo;s Olympics. The field includes six of the eight competitors from last year&rsquo;s World Championships final in Budapest, including gold medallist Mary Moraa and silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson. Notably absent will be bronze medallist Athing Mu, the Olympic champion, who was initially scheduled to race but has been withdrawn out of precaution because of a sore hamstring.
Raevyn Rogers, the 2019 world silver medallist whose image adorns a tower standing high above Hayward Field, also is entered, along with Jemma Reekie, Nia Akins and Halimah Nakaayi, who is coming off a victory at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix.
World champion Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson and Elaine Thompson-Herah headline the women&rsquo;s 100m, along with world indoor 60m champion Julien Alfred and Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith, while world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman and Ackeem Blake are among the fastest entered in the men's 100m.
Perhaps the most dominant athlete entering the meeting is Grant Holloway, the world 110m hurdles champion who has won all 10 races he has contested this year, including the indoor season and heats. That also includes running a world-leading 13.07 into a headwind to win in Atlanta last weekend.
The three-time world champion's last loss came on the very same Hayward Field track, at last September&rsquo;s Prefontaine Classic. The only remaining gap on Holloway&rsquo;s resume is an Olympic gold medal, and Saturday&rsquo;s race could be an early preview of Paris, as the field includes five who raced in last summer&rsquo;s World Championships final in Budapest, including silver medallist Hansle Parchment and Daniel Roberts, who earned bronze.
Shot put world record-holder and multiple world and Olympic champion Ryan Crouser will open his outdoor season in his home state and at the stadium where he owns the facility record, while trying to best Leonardo Fabbri&rsquo;s world-leading mark of 22.95m.
Since 2023, Crouser has lost in just one final &ndash; and it was at September&rsquo;s Prefontaine Classic to Joe Kovacs, who won in Los Angeles last weekend with 22.93m, and is entered again. Payton Otterdahl, who owns the world No.3 mark this year, also is in the field.
Those events offer no shortage of global medallists. Few, however, carry the prospect for as much drama as the mile.
Over the past year, Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr, who outkicked Ingebrigtsen for last year&rsquo;s world title in Budapest, have carried on a battle of words through the press about who could prevail in Paris.
Commonwealth champion Olli Hoare, who is part of the field following his 1500m win in Los Angeles last week, said the sport was better for the attention drawn by the back-and-forth between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr &ndash; but added that other racers wanted to strike the appropriate level of respect for their competitors, such as Yared Nuguse, whose PB of 3:43.97 was set battling Ingebrigtsen (4:43.73) down to the line at September&rsquo;s Pre Classic.
&ldquo;This is a big one. This is going to be a big one for a lot of egos,&rdquo; Hoare said in Los Angeles. &ldquo;But I think it&rsquo;s going to be a big one for me because it&rsquo;ll be the first race where I&rsquo;ll have an inkling of where I am with the world&rsquo;s best. There&rsquo;s a bit of tossing and turning with the banter but you can&rsquo;t disrespect that field. If you do, you&rsquo;ll get eaten alive.&rdquo;
That list of seven men under 3:50, which includes Hoare, notably doesn&rsquo;t include Jake Wightman, who will be racing Ingebrigtsen for the first time since their duel at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, when Wightman won gold; Abel Kipsang, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympics; Geordie Beamish, less than three months after he stormed to the world indoor title; or Lamecha Girma, the steeplechase world record-holder who is making his mile debut.
&ldquo;Jake Wightman&rsquo;s back, he&rsquo;s a world champion,&rdquo; Hoare said. &ldquo;Yared Nuguse, 3:43 mile &ndash; these guys are keeping quiet and they&rsquo;re going to wait for their opportunity to strike. And when they do strike, I guarantee they will make a comment.&rdquo;
They are not the only accomplished names entered in the distances.
Athletics Kenya will determine its men's and women's Olympic 10,000m qualifiers at Hayward Field, with Kenya's two-time world cross-country champion Beatrice Chebet, the world leader at 5000m this season, part of a women's race that will include world champion Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, eight months after Tsegay set the world 5000m record on the same track.
World record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech will attempt to retain her controlling hold over the steeplechase when she races top challenger Faith Cherotich. The Kenyan duo produced the two fastest times in the world this year at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen, which Chepkoech won in 8:55.40 to Cherotich&rsquo;s 9:05.91. Olympic silver medallist Courtney Frerichs will no longer run after injuring the ACL and meniscus in her right knee.
One week after winning in Los Angeles, Diribe Welteji leads the 1500m field that includes 13 women who have run under four minutes. World indoor 3000m champion Elle St Pierre, who won the 5000m in Los Angeles, is running her first 1500m of the season, with Laura Muir, Nikki Hiltz, Jessica Hull, Hirut Meshesha and Cory McGee also entered.
Multiple world and Olympic gold medallist Sifan Hassan, as well as world No.2 Ejgayehu Taye, will feature in the 5000m.
In the field, world and Olympic pole vault champion Katie Moon opens her outdoor season against Sandi Morris, and in the triple jump four of the top five women this season are entered, led by Thea LaFond, whose 15.01m jump to win the world indoor title in Glasgow still stands as the mark to beat.
Olympic discus champion Valarie Allman has not lost in Eugene in two years, a run that includes claiming September&rsquo;s Diamond League final. That could change on Saturday because of the presence of world leader Yaime Perez, who finished second to Allman in Xiamen last month.
In the men&rsquo;s 200m, top US sprinters who will duel at the Olympic trials only weeks later will face off. Kenny Bednarek, fresh off a world-leading 19.67 in Doha, is scheduled to race against world No.2 Courtney Lindsey (19.71), with world silver medallist Erriyon Knighton making his season debut. Joe Fahnbulleh and Kyree King, winner of the Los Angeles Grand Prix 100m, are also entered.
Another winner in Los Angeles, Rai Benjamin, headlines the men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles, and he enters with considerable confidence after running 46.64, the ninth-fastest performance of all time.
&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m the fastest guy in the field, honestly,&rdquo; Benjamin said of potential Olympic chances.
The women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles and women&rsquo;s hammer will not count towards Diamond League points totals, but will be more potential previews for global championships.
Women who account for five of the year&rsquo;s six fastest times, all of whom are separated by fractions of a second, will face off in the hurdles. Tonea Marshall, fresh off her victory in Los Angeles in 12.42, leads 2019 world champion Nia Ali, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, two-time world champion Danielle Williams and world indoor champion Devynne Charlton.
Brooke Andersen&rsquo;s 79.92m throw from earlier this month remains the world-leading hammer mark this season but she will be challenged by world champion Camryn Rogers, 2019 world champion DeAnna Price and world silver medallist Janee&rsquo; Kassanavoid, who own the next three farthest throws this season.
Andrew Greif for World Athletics

Prefontaine Classic

The Bowerman Mile is one of the fastest - and most anticipated - races at the Prefontaine Classic

Mile clash the big attraction in Eugene

Only a year after winning his long-sought world title, one of the world&rsquo;s top sprinters couldn&rsquo;t run away from the sport fast enough.
Michael Norman had spent every year since he was a teenager consumed by athletics, attempting to live up to the considerable promise that first showed in 2016, when he nearly made the US Olympic team while still in high school. But that changed in 2023. Injured and frustrated by changes that had not gone to plan, the 2022 world 400m champion &ldquo;completely shut out&rdquo; athletics following July&rsquo;s US Championships.&nbsp;
He stopped training. He left the country on vacation. When the World Athletics Championships began in Budapest, he watched only the races featuring Rai Benjamin, his longtime friend and training partner, and nothing else. He didn&rsquo;t watch a meeting again until the World Athletics Relays, nine months later.&nbsp;
The unplanned break &ldquo;gave me peace,&rdquo; he said, and made him more patient and mature as an athlete. When Norman returned to training on 1 November under his former coach, Quincy Watts, he was out of shape. Yet it had been more than worth it. Taking what he called &ldquo;small, small steps moving in the right direction&rdquo; left him refreshed and ready to go after what he called his ultimate 2024 goal: Olympic redemption.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It gave me the clarity that I needed because I was on a downward spiral toward hating the sport, so I was like, I just need to take a step back, gather myself before I get into this like, point of no return,&rdquo; Norman said after winning at Saturday&rsquo;s <a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/news/los-angeles-grand-prix-2024-benjamin-mclaughlin-levrone" target="_blank" rel="noopener">USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix</a> in 44.53. &ldquo;It was really important for me to give myself the space and be a normal person for just a little bit of time.&rdquo;
It wasn't Norman&rsquo;s first time seeking deeper answers about his running. After the sprinter set the US high school record for 400m, he finished fourth at the NCAA Championships one year later, only to respond the following season by breaking the collegiate record and turning professional. In 2021, after fading from pre-race favourite to fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, Norman spent the next several months trying to understand what had led to an outcome he described at the time so &ldquo;devastating" that the gold medal he earned for his leg on the US 4x400m team in Tokyo provided zero solace. He poured that frustration into his training in 2022 and rebounded by claiming the world 400m gold medal in Oregon in front of a raucous crowd of US fans.&nbsp;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62db60f63201da1f7aa0fd45.jpg" alt="Michael Norman celebrates his 400m win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Michael Norman celebrates his 400m win at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Coming off that victory, Norman opted for change, dabbling in shorter sprints. As part of his move to drop down to the 100m, he switched coaches from Watts to John Smith. Yet by last May, he had felt discomfort behind a knee while racing in Doha and was never fully healthy again. After finishing eighth in the 100m at the 2023 US Championships, Norman said he had dealt with tendonitis as well as &ldquo;setback after setback.&rdquo;
He did not use the bye into the World Championships 400m field he had earned as the 2022 champion. He began his hard break instead, just days after the US Championships, and re-examined the sacrifices he'd made for his career.
&ldquo;When I&rsquo;m in competition and training mode I kind of have that mentality where track comes first over everything and that comes with all aspects of my life &ndash; friendships, relationships, just anything,&rdquo; Norman said. &ldquo;So, when I felt like the track side of my life was falling apart, I was like, &lsquo;OK, I need to take a step back and just kind of be a regular human being. Catch up with some friends I haven&rsquo;t talked to in years, just be a normal 26-year-old.&rsquo; And that&rsquo;s what I did. I took a step back.
&ldquo;I think it was really healthy for me to have that break. It got to a point where it was very tiring, especially when I wasn&rsquo;t seeing the fruits from my labour. I just said, you know what? What do I want to do as a person right now?&rdquo;
Norman proposed to his girlfriend. A self-described foodie, Norman ate what he wanted, or skipped breakfast. He travelled to Mexico for the first time while on vacation with high-school friends. After returning from his Mexican vacation, Norman was invited by Benjamin, the No.2 all-time 400m hurdles star, to drop by at training in Los Angeles before Benjamin left for Budapest and the World Championships. Norman caught up with Benjamin and former training partners including Kendall Ellis, &ldquo;and I was like, I miss it,&rdquo; Norman said. &ldquo;Coach Watts came and then I was like, this is where I&rsquo;m supposed to be. And that was the decision that, I&rsquo;m going back here.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hard to be patient with yourself when you don&rsquo;t really see a clear path of where to go or where you&rsquo;re heading so, yeah, it&rsquo;s been quite difficult. But if you have the right people around you, they&rsquo;ll remind you of the good, the bad and they&rsquo;ll help you through any situation. I think that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s helped me a lot.&rdquo;
It wasn&rsquo;t his only homecoming. Norman would also be going back to the 400m. His reasoning?
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just not worth the risk to jump down into those shorter events, especially in a year like this just because if you don&rsquo;t execute and you don&rsquo;t perform the way you want to, or the way that people expected &hellip; things don&rsquo;t look good,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s safer and less of a risk for me to be competing in the 400m, which I still enjoy just as much.&rdquo;
His 2024 season has also not gone necessarily as smoothly as hoped, despite running a 44.21 clocking on 4 May that puts him at No.3 this season. What he called &ldquo;body-type issues&rdquo; limited how much he could sprint between January and May, and they &ndash; along with last season&rsquo;s injuries &ndash; are why he called managing his health the theme of his year. That, and redemption.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s quite a journey,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s exciting.&rdquo;
Andrew Greif for World Athletics

The XXXIII Olympic Games

Michael Norman had spent every year since he was a teenager consumed by athletics

At peace, Norman on journey to Olympic redemption

"When I see someone win from a Caribbean island, I feel like I win, too."
Jereem Richards is a multiple global medallist, who got 400m gold for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
He also formed part of his nation&rsquo;s victorious 4x400m team at the 2017 World Championships in London and in an exclusive interview with <a href="https://worldathletics.org/videos/playlist/latest-videos/66474054ac6a7dcbab8cae3f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics Inside Track</a>, the 30-year-old talks about the Caribbean connection in athletics ahead of Paris 2024 from where he hopes to bring home his first Olympic medal.
Click the thumbnail to watch:<a href="https://worldathletics.org/videos/playlist/latest-videos/66474054ac6a7dcbab8cae3f" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/66473ef5df1e6599ba2ad962.jpg" alt="Jereem" /></a>
"I would say Trinidad and Tobago is a melting pot of the Caribbean. We have a very diverse people and we have a mixture of cultures when it comes to food, music and everything like that. It&rsquo;s definitely a really great country," he says.
"Track and field, to me, means a lot. To Trinidad and Tobago it is definitely one of the most successful sports we had in history, I would say the most successful sport we had in the history of Trinidad and Tobago. I try my best to use my platform to not just educate people about the sport, but keep the people of Trinidad and Tobago interested in track and field.
"It means a lot to see a fellow Caribbean island athlete win something. It definitely feels special.&nbsp;
"A piece of advice to someone young in track and field, I would say: try to find the good in each and every situation. Even if things don&rsquo;t go your way, there&rsquo;s going to be something, some part of that bad situation, that had good in it. And even if you can&rsquo;t find the good in it, use it as an example of what not to do or use it as motivation working forward.
"This has been my dream, to be an Olympic medallist, from the first day I started running track and field, and I&rsquo;m just excited to go through the cycle this year and see how it turns out in Paris. I think my entire life journey builds up to this moment."

"When I see someone win from a Caribbean island, I feel like I win, too"

Jereem Richards: small islands, big dreams

South Africa&rsquo;s Prudence Sekgodiso achieved her first ever victory in a Wanda Diamond League meeting, winning the 800m at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d&rsquo;Athl&eacute;tisme in Marrakesh in a world-leading 1:57.26 on Sunday (19).
There were also meeting records for Chase Jackson in the women&rsquo;s shot put and Lazaro Martinez in the men&rsquo;s triple jump, while home favourite Soufiane El Bakkali once again delivered in the steeplechase.
Sekgodiso had been undefeated so far this year on home turf, but this was the 22-year-old&rsquo;s first international race of the season and she duly raised her game. Olympic finalist Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia led through the first lap in 57.07, but Sekgodiso timed her finish to perfection to emerge victorious with her second PB of the year, taking 0.79 off the mark she set in Pretoria in March.
Alemu was second in 1:57.70 and Noelie Yarigo was further back in third in 1:59.96.
In the final race of the night, El Bakkali ensured the fans in the stadium went home happy as he triumphed in the steeplechase.
The Moroccan was contesting his first steeplechase of the season and was up against talented Ethiopian duo Getnet Wale and Samuel Firewu, as well as Kenya&rsquo;s Amos Serem. After an opening kilometre of 2:42.62 from the pacemaker, Wale took up the running and led through 2000m in 5:30.66.
He ended up as El Bakkali&rsquo;s toughest challenger in the closing stages, but the world and Olympic champion crossed the line first in 8:09.40 to maintain his winning streak. Wale was a close second in 8:09.78 with Serem a further second back in third.
There was an even closer finish in the women&rsquo;s 5000m. A breakaway pack of five women &ndash; comprising Kenya&rsquo;s Edinah Jebitok and Ethiopia&rsquo;s Medina Eisa, Fotyen Tesfay, Melknat Wudu and Likina Amebaw &ndash; emerged in the closing stages. That was reduced to three on the final lap as Tesfay, Eisa and Jebitok started to sprint for the line.
Just when it looked as though Tesfay was going to hold on, her compatriot Eisa came charging through to take the win by 0.05 in 14:34.16. Tesfay was at least rewarded with a PB, as was Jebitok (14:35.64).
Shortly before the Ethiopian 1-2 in the 5000m, there was a Kenyan 1-2 in the men&rsquo;s 800m.
The consistent Emmanuel Wanyonyi, still just 19 years of age, held off a strong challenge from compatriot Wyclife Kinyamal to win in 1:43.84. Kinyamal followed in 1:43.98 while France&rsquo;s Yanis Meziane was third (1:44.13).
France&rsquo;s Azeddine Habz stole a march on a competitive 1500m field to run away with victory in 3:32.86. Contesting his first outdoor race of 2024, the European indoor bronze medallist positioned himself near the front of the pack from the outset while Ethiopia&rsquo;s Lamecha Girma initially stayed towards the back of the field.
Girma, along with British duo Elliot Giles and George Mills, moved up through the field with a lap to go, but Habz had already started his long run for home by then and could not be caught. He finished 0.61 ahead of Mills, who just caught Giles on the line. Girma was fourth in 3:33.54.
<h2>National and meeting records fall on the field</h2>
Serbian teenager Angelina Topic notched up her second high jump victory in this year&rsquo;s Wanda Diamond League, this time with a national record.
Nine days after winning in Doha with 1.94m, the European bronze medallist dominated the competition, winning with a first-time clearance at 1.95m and then going on to clear a Serbian record of 1.98m on her third try. Germany&rsquo;s Christina Honsel was second with 1.91m.
Chase Jackson broke a 10-year-old meeting record in the shot put with a second-round heave of 20.00m, adding 31 centimetres to Valerie Adams&rsquo; mark from 2014. The two-time world champion took an early lead with 19.62m, then threw her winning mark in the next round. Germany&rsquo;s world indoor silver medallist Yemisi Ogunleye was her closest challenger, throwing 19.40m.
Recent world record-breaker Mykolas Alekna racked up his third consecutive competition beyond 70 metres in the discus. The Lithuanian fouled his first attempt but then took the lead in round two with 69.94m. He then unleashed a 70.70m throw in round four &ndash; just eight centimetres shy of the meeting record &ndash; to extend his lead over Australia&rsquo;s Matt Denny (67.74m). World and Olympic champion Daniel Stahl was third with 67.49m.
The meeting record &ndash; admittedly one of the more vulnerable ones in the books &ndash; fell with the first attempt in the men&rsquo;s triple jump. Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo bounded out to 16.76m in round one to break a 10-year-old meeting record of 16.62m that had stood to Nelson Evora. Cuba&rsquo;s 2022 world indoor champion Lazaro Martinez then exceeded it with 17.10m in round three, which remained the best mark of the day.
Elsewhere, Switzerland&rsquo;s Angelica Moser won the women&rsquo;s pole vault with 4.73m as Italy&rsquo;s Roberta Bruni placed second with 4.65m.
<h2>Doom strikes at 400m</h2>
World indoor champion Alexander Doom opened his individual outdoor campaign, and the Belgian clearly picked up where he left off from the indoor season.
Nigeria&rsquo;s Emmanuel Bamidele got off to a strong start and led at half way, but Doom, Muzala Samukonga and Bayapo Ndori were all close behind on the final bend. As they came into the home straight, Bamidele&rsquo;s challenge started to fade, while the other three forged ahead.
Just as he had done at the World Indoor Championships over 400m and in the 4x400m, Doom timed his finish well to claim victory in a PB of 44.51, which puts him second on the Belgian all-time list in between Jonathan (44.43) and Kevin Borlee (44.56).
Samukonga was second in a season&rsquo;s best of 44.54 and Ndori took third (44.59).
Two-time world champion Shericka Jackson made her long-awaited 200m season debut and emerged with a victory &ndash; but only just.
Jackson, the second-fastest woman of all time, crossed the line in first place in 22.82 (-1.0m/s) but instead of pulling away from the field to win by a clear distance, as she often does, the Jamaican appeared to be fighting for victory all the way. Maboundou Kone of the Ivory Coast was second in 22.96.
Cameroon&rsquo;s Emmanuel Eseme got the better of Olympic 200m champion Andre de Grasse in the men&rsquo;s 100m, winning in 10.11 (-0.8m/s) to the Canadian&rsquo;s 10.19.
World bronze medallist Rushell Clayton led a Jamaican 1-2 in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles, winning in 53.98 from compatriot Shiann Salmon, who clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 54.27.
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/diamond-league/calendar-results/7174052/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>

South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso achieved her first ever victory in a Wanda Diamond League meeting

Sekgodiso clocks world 800m lead in Marrakesh

Despite thinking he was &ldquo;done for&rdquo; in the closing stages of the U20 men&rsquo;s 10km at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24, <a href="https://worldathletics.org/athletes/australia/isaac-beacroft-14963962" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Isaac Beacroft</a> refused to give up.
Persevering to get gold on his international debut, the 16-year-old launched himself into the global spotlight in Turkiye. Now, with 100 days to go to the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24, Beacroft has another major contest on his radar.
The team event in Antalya was Beacroft&rsquo;s first ever competition outside of Australia and only his second ever race on the road. But judging it to perfection, <a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-race-walking-team-championshi/world-athletics-race-walking-team-championshi-7199325/news/report/antalya-24-u20-men-10km-report" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in a thrilling finish he reeled in race leader Shi Shengji of China to claim the crown</a> in an Oceanian U20 record of 39:56.
Known for his record-breaking exploits in Australia, Beacroft made further history by becoming the youngest ever winner of an U20 title at the event.
&ldquo;I'm just amazed, I can't believe it. I'm so happy with what I just did,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I thought I was done for when the Chinese athlete put about 50 metres or so on me and then I clawed it back. Someone got put in the penalty box and I just thought, &lsquo;okay, that&rsquo;s my opening here&rsquo;. I took on the race and timed it right.&rdquo;
He will hope to do the same when he returns to the track for the World U20 Championships in Peru, where he will contest the 10,000m race walk on 30 August.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve qualified for the World U20 Championships so hopefully I can get there and give that a good shake as well,&rdquo; added Beacroft, who will turn 17 on 18 July. &ldquo;For now, I&rsquo;ll live in the present, celebrate this, get back home to Australia and get among it with my mates, see my family and keep doing what I do, I guess.&rdquo;
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dMUO40QquBk?si=Cd1qqqN4bJM3ExTq" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>AFL&rsquo;s loss is athletics&rsquo; gain</h2>
What he has been doing has been working very well, so far. Beacroft began race walking as an under-nine, through a Little Athletics programme. His father, David, and some of his family had been race walkers as younger athletes and Beacroft junior found his own passion for the sport. Now David is his coach.
&ldquo;I found race walking great, so stuck at it, kept going and now I&rsquo;ve ended up here, which is just unreal,&rdquo; said the teenager.
Despite having broken numerous age group records, for a long time athletics was not his sole focus. Beacroft also played Australian rules football, training with the GWS Giants Academy.
Now concentrating on race walking, most of his training is done in Blacktown in New South Wales, where he is based. He also goes on training camps, one of those being at altitude in the Perisher Valley in January, when he spent time in the company of some of the nation&rsquo;s senior stars.
Maintaining Australia&rsquo;s legacy in the race walks is important to Beacroft and that made his experience in Antalya even more special.
&ldquo;We got bronze in the team (men&rsquo;s 10km team event in Antalya, alongside Riley Coughlan) and the last time we did that was Declan Tingay and Kyle Swan (in 2018), who we&rsquo;ve got a lot to do with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re all on the team now and everyone gets along. That&rsquo;s another point of success for me &ndash; the team environment in Australia. We&rsquo;re all tightly knit and it&rsquo;s so good to follow in their footsteps and take it on &ndash; take on the world.&rdquo;
<h2>All steps lead to Lima</h2>
Beacroft&rsquo;s title win in Antalya has understandably provided great motivation, especially as he looks to take on the world again in August. He is also determined to do his family and support network proud.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s big motivation. The gold medal, I&rsquo;ve got plenty of people to thank for that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just really want to emphasise my support crew. I don&rsquo;t say it much, but I appreciate dad and mum and everyone in my group, my friends, my girlfriend &ndash; everyone. I couldn&rsquo;t do it without them.&rdquo;
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6649e132876f1a5a2ba56d49.jpg" alt="Isaac Beacroft with his fellow World Race Walking Team Championships medallists Shi Shengji and Luo Jiawei" />
Isaac Beacroft with his fellow World Race Walking Team Championships medallists Shi Shengji and Luo Jiawei (&copy; Francesca Grana)
</div>
One of the team managers in Antalya was a certain Jared Tallent, the four-time Olympic and three-time world race walk medallist who also claimed six World Race Walking Cup medals and two Commonwealth Games medals during his highly successful career.
He is of course someone that Beacroft looks up to and having the chance to learn from such figures is not something the teenager takes for granted.
&ldquo;He shares his experiences and really helps me out,&rdquo; said Beacroft. &ldquo;And Brent Vallance, too. He is the head coach of Australia race walking and he has got some awesome advice.&rdquo;
And when someone like Tallent describes an athlete as a &ldquo;generational talent&rdquo;, it would be wise to take note.
&ldquo;I had the privilege of witnessing Isaac&rsquo;s incredible speed and potential at our national walks camp in January, where he impressed national lead coach Brent Vallance and me with his training,&rdquo; said Tallent. &ldquo;He challenged our best senior athletes, and we knew then that he would be a force to be reckoned with at Antalya, and therefore no surprise he won gold.
&ldquo;Isaac is a generational talent and a technically brilliant walker. It's been amazing to watch his progression over the past couple of years, as he's consistently set new records at every distance in Australia under the guidance of his coach, David Beacroft. He's a humble and supportive teammate, and it's great to see him and his fellow competitors working together towards success. Australia now has the deepest field of quality junior male race walkers we've ever had.
&ldquo;Australia has a rich history of success at the Olympics in race walking, with seven medals in the last 20 years,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;However, we've gone 28 years without a world junior medal in the walk. With 100 days until Lima, Isaac is poised to break that drought as the favourite to win gold. I'll do everything I can to support athletes and coaches in Australia to achieve success and continue our proud tradition in race walking.&rdquo;
While Beacroft also hopes his journey will include success in Lima and beyond, he&rsquo;ll be making sure to relish it all. He even has advice for athletes looking to follow in his own footsteps.
&ldquo;If I could give any advice for anyone coming through &ndash; enjoy the sport, that&rsquo;s what gives you the success,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A base platform of really loving what you do, and then all the success comes with it.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Despite thinking he was “done for” in the closing stages of the U20 men’s 10km at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Antalya 24, Isaac Beacroft refused to give up

From Antalya to Lima for rising race walk star Beacroft

Australia&rsquo;s Rose Davies continued her breakthrough by taking apart the 5000m meeting record at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; in Tokyo on Sunday (19).
The 24-year-old, who before this year had never broken 15 minutes for 5000m, set her third PB of the year to win by more than three seconds in 14:41.65, less than two seconds outside the Oceanian record.
The race set off at a steady pace with 1000m being passed in 3:00.19 and 2000m in 5:59.01. Davies and Kenya&rsquo;s Margaret Akidor then started to push the pace and reached 3000m in 8:55.41. The next kilometre was covered in another 2:56 as the pair started to ease away from Davies&rsquo; compatriot Isobel Batt-Doyle.
With a 2:50 final kilometre, Davies finally shook off the challenge of Akidor and went on to cross the line in 14:41.65 with Akidor finishing second in 14:41.65. Batt-Doyle was a distant third in 15:08.67.
Davies broke 15 minutes for the first time in Melbourne earlier this year with 14:57.54, and then reduced her PB to 14:47.86 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Suzhou last month.
Japanese javelin star Haruka Kitaguchi delighted the home crowd by snatching victory in the sixth round, just as she had done at the World Championships in Budapest last year.
New Zealand&rsquo;s Tori Peeters took an early lead with 61.16m, while Kitaguchi opened with 60.20m. World silver medallist Flor Denis Ruiz Hurtado of Colombia moved into pole position in round five with 62.06m, which prompted Peeters (61.26m) and Kitaguchi (62.02m) to improve.
But with her final throw of the competition, Kitaguchi sent her spear out to 63.45m to take a well-received triumph in front of her adoring fans.
There were further Japanese victories in the men&rsquo;s hurdles events. National record-holder Rachid Muratake clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 13.22 (-0.6m/s) to win the 110m hurdles comfortably from Senegal&rsquo;s Louis Francois Mendy (13.50).
All-round hurdles talent Ken Toyoda was a similarly dominant winner of the 400m hurdles. He clocked a PB of 48.36 to finish several strides ahead of compatriot Haruto Deguchi (48.91).
China&rsquo;s Wu Yanii took the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles in 12.80, crossing the line 0.10 ahead of Japan&rsquo;s Yumi Tanaka.
Australian champion Yual Reath equalled his PB of 2.30m to take a confidence-boosting victory over 2022 world indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok in the high jump. Reath, who has won nine of his 11 competitions this year, had a clean card up to and including 2.27m, which Woo needed three tries to clear. The Korean went no higher, but Reath went on to clear 2.30m on his second attempt before ending his series with three solid but unsuccessful tries at 2.33m.
China&rsquo;s Zhang Mingkun sailed out to a lifetime best of 8.13m in the final round of the men&rsquo;s long jump to displace 2016 world indoor champion Marquis Dendy as the leader. The US athlete finished second with 8.07m.
Elsewhere, New Zealand&rsquo;s Zoe Hobbs was a comfortable winner of the women&rsquo;s 100m in 11.17 (-0.3m/s). Hiroki Yanagita won a close men&rsquo;s final in 10.21 (-0.1m/s), although Hakim Sani Brown posted the fastest time of the day with his 10.07 clocking in the heats.
<a href="https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-continental-tour/calendar-results/7200559/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a>
Watch World Athletics Continental Tour Gold highlights on <a href="https://worldathletics.org/videos/playlist/world-athletics-continental-tour-gold-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Inside Track</a>

Seiko Golden Grand Prix

Australia’s Rose Davies continued her breakthrough by taking apart the 5000m meeting record at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix

How to watch and follow the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo

Coaching Matters Series returns with focus on the coach-athlete relationship

Sasha Zhoya: homecoming

Duplantis and Caudery defy conditions, De Grasse does double in Ostrava

Warholm, Jackson and Ingebrigtsen among stars on show in Oslo