Record-breaking 2023 bodes well heading into Olympic year

2023 has brought with it a host of thrilling world record-breaking performances both on the track and on the road, heightening anticipation ahead of next year’s Paris Olympics.

Leading the way this year has been Kenya’s queen of the track Faith Kipyegon, who was deservedly named female World Athlete of the Year in Monaco on 11 December after her three world records and two World Championship gold medals.

In the space of a remarkable few weeks, the 29-year-old blitzed to world records in the 5000m, 1500m and the mile before heading to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest where she became the first woman to complete an extraordinary 1500-5000m golden double.

“This has been an amazing year for me. Making history, winning two gold medals in a championships is what I was dreaming for this season,” she said in Budapest. “I have been patient waiting to be able to break world records and win double golds. But my dream just came true, it is amazing. I have been pushing myself to the limits and I will continue to push myself in the future.”

Records are made to be broken however, and Kipyegon’s 5000m mark of 14:05.20 set at the Paris Diamond League meet in June was eclipsed just over three months later by Gudaf Tsegay.

Fresh from her gold in the 10 000m at the World Championships, the Ethiopian took a whopping five seconds off Kipyegon’s mark to set the new record at 14:00.21 at the final Diamond League meet of the season in Eugene, Oregon.

Fellow Ethiopian Lamecha Girma also showed record-breaking form in 2023. The 23-year-old powered to victory at that same Paris Diamond League meeting in 7:52.11 to shatter the previous record set by Saif Saaeed of Qatar nearly 20 years earlier.

That set up a tantalising showdown with Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali at the World Championships a few months later. But it was the Olympic champion who prevailed, taking the gold in 8:03.53 with Girma settling for silver in 8:05.44.

The United States finished atop the medal table in Budapest with 12 gold medals, including two for sprint sensation Noah Lyles (100 and 200m). Canada were second, Spain third thanks to their prolific race walkers, Jamaica fourth and Kenya fifth.

Apart from Kipyegon’s two, the east African nation’s other gold came from Mary Moraa who outgunned Olympic champion Athing Mu and the highly fancied Brit Keely Hodgkinson for 800m honours.

Other notable gold medal-winning performances from African athletes came from Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei in the 10 000m, his compatriot Victor Kiplangat in the men’s marathon, Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso in the women’s marathon, and Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango who became the first African to claim triple jump gold.

From an international perspective, Femke Bol was one of the names on everyone’s lips after her stunning performance in the women’s 400m and an incredible come-from-behind victory for the Dutch team in the 4x400m relay. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson produced the second-fastest time in history in the 200m, taking gold in a sensational 21.41 seconds. That left her just seven hundredths of a second off Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 35-year-old world record.

It was a World Championships to forget for South African medal hopefuls with 400m world record-holder Wayde van Niekerk showing excellent form in the build-up but then finishing last in the one-lap final in a sluggish 45.11 seconds. He was bumped up to seventh place only when Kirani James was disqualified for a lane infringement. There was also heartbreak for two-time Olympic finalist Akani Simbine, who was among the medal favourites in the 100m, but crashed out of contention after false starting in the semifinals.

In his absence, it was the young man from Botswana, Letsile Tebogo, who stepped up in the sprints. He ran a sensational national record time of 9.88 seconds to claim silver in the 100m behind American Noah Lyles (9.83), becoming the first African man to reach the podium in the event at a World Championships. Tebogo then followed that up with bronze in the 200m (again behind Lyles) in 19.81. Earlier in the year, he had set a new African record over 200m – eclipsing the previous mark set by Namibian icon Frankie Fredericks on his way to Olympic silver back in 1996.

Meanwhile, there was more joy for African athletes on the road with Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum breaking compatriot Eliud Kipchoge’s marathon world record in Chicago with an impressively quick time of 2:00.35.

It was Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa who set a new mark in the women’s marathon, winning in Berlin in a time of 2:11.53 to take a massive two minutes and 11 seconds off the previous world record. Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, who famously fell to the track metres short of the finish line of the 10 000m in Budapest, also impressed over 42km. In just her second marathon, the double Olympic champion on the track ran the second fastest time in history – 2:13.44.

Back in South Africa, Gerda Steyn ensured the records kept coming, bettering her SA marathon mark in Valencia earlier this month. In April Steyn also set a new course record on her way to victory in the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon and followed that up with another record at the Comrades Marathon just two months later – her time of 5 hours 44:54 bettering the previous mark of Frith van der Merwe, set on her historic run back in 1989.

In the men’s race it was defending champion Tete Dijane who claimed the title, also in course record time, reaching the finish in Durban in a time of 5 hours 13.58.

The year concluded with the World Athletics Awards ceremony in Monaco where, apart from Kipyegon’s accolade, Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas was named female field athlete of the year and Assefa claimed the out of stadia award for her astounding marathon performance.

Lyles was named men’s track athlete of the year and Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis took the men’s award in the field events after another world record set in the pole vault, while Kiptum was understandably handed the accolade for out of stadia performances.

Kenyan teenagers Faith Cherotich and Emmanuel Wanyonyi were named the Rising Stars of 2023.

Cherotich claimed bronze in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and Wanyonyi secured silver in the 800m, also going on to become Diamond League champion in 2023 after victories in three races.