2023 World Athletics Championships (Budapest)

[AdelaideGT]

And yes!

Kurt Marschall breaks our male-medal drought with an equal-bronze. A fantastic & strategically sound clutch clearance at 5.95m to equal his PB made this his best ever international result.

His 6m attempts were nowhere near but if he had, this would've been the first time any championship saw 3 men over 6m.

 

[BGman]

And yes!

Kurt Marschall breaks our male-medal drought with an equal-bronze. A fantastic & strategically sound clutch clearance at 5.95m to equal his PB made this his best ever international result.

His 6m attempts were nowhere near but if he had, this would've been the first time any championship saw 3 men over 6m.

Brilliant by Kurtis, equal bronze medal sees him continue his climb up the world rankings.

 

[BGman]

Very unlikely unless someone else other than him sets a fast pace and he can wind-up from 800m out. He already ran the 1500 where he set a good pace in his prelim and got swamped.

He seems to have gone backwards since setting the Aussie mile record back in '21. Has he battled injury since then. I recall the after affects of a Covid booster hurt his Olympic effort.

 

[BGman]

"We decided that in this particular moment, sharing glory was just as good as earning it outright. To walk away healthy and with a gold medal, while celebrating with my friend that had jumped just as well, was a no-brainer."

Katie Moon responding to vile criticism by fellow Americans on social media after she decided to share the gold medal and world title with Nina Kennedy.

 

[Drummond]

At long last, all up to date!

Marschall was fantastic, heptathlon was great fun, watched it all, with some really young talent coming through. Mens 800m was a bit of an anticlimax, Arop just too good. Women’s 5000m was excellent. Wanted to see Hassan win but a great race nonetheless.

Mens 4x100 was great, Noah Lyles does the triple, and the women‘s relay was close too but really wanted Jamaica to win.

 

[AdelaideGT]

Great jumping by Patterson & Olyslagers to win silver & bronze.

First time two Aussies have ever medalled in the same event at a WC.

And takes our medal tally to Australia's biggest ever haul.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Fantastic last night of athletics. I missed the morning marathon - had to go to the footy at a stupid time of 12 noon.

Ingebrigsten like in Eugene made up for his 1500m * up by winning the 5000m, but it was a lot closer than in Eugene.

Great jumping by Patterson to set a PB and Olysagers to get bronze, but Ukrainian gold medallist Mahuchikh has been tipped as the next big thing since Doha when as an 18 year old won silver, and followed that up with a bronze in Tokyo, and silver again at Eugene. Plus all the limitations on being an athlete from Ukraine the last 18 months. At 21 nearly 22, she will be around for years.

The 800m was a great race in the final 150m or so. Fantastic that an athlete like Kenyan Moraa produces a PB to win a world championship. Pity Mu wasn't at her best this year.

Men's javelin, I just love how when India finally produces a world star in Chopra, his nearest rival is a Pakistani where no other Pakis have threatened in the past. Nadeem never took the lead after Chopra's first throw was the winning throw, but his 3rd or 4th throw where he got within a 30 or 40cms, livened up the comp.

The women's 3000m steeplechase was another Kenyan dominance, but this time dominating was Kenyan turned Bahrani Yavi, who won easily from 2 Kenyans taking the minor medals.

Yanks were always going to win the men's 4x400m relay, but the battle for minor medals was the usual tight finish. France after sending the equal 2nd biggest team finally won a medal - silver but after a slow first few days ended up with nine x top 8 places so they might deliver a few medals next year in Paris.

The women's 4x400m was redemption for Femke Bol. Somehow in the last 30m or so, she bridged a 10m gap to go from 3rd to 1st and overtake the Jamaicans and Brits, and make up for falling over with 10m to go the first night and lose gold to the yanks in the mixed relay. It was probably the highlight of the meet for me.

The yanks were dqed in the heats of this relay and they weren't certainties to win the final. Bol was completely spent after the race. Think Bol was lying on the track or sitting on it, for 5 minutes before she had the energy to get up.

I cant find any official splits but looking at the replay I reckon Bol ran her leg in about 47.5 to 48.0 seconds. Not bad when the 400m was won in 48.76 by Paulino of Dominican Republic, which was the 23rd fastest ever 400m run by a woman, but the 6th fastest this century.

Another great world champs, look forward to Paris and then Tokyo 2025, where hopefully the stadium will be packed every session rather than empty as during the covid affected Olympics.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Australia's 6 medals is the biggest haul in the 19 World championship editions. 11 top 8 placings, which I think is the 3rd most top 8 placings.

Oz finished =8th on the placings table with 51 pts, after =9th in Eugene with 47pts (11 top 8 placings) and 10th in Tokyo with 52pts (14 top 8 placings). This is the 2nd highest on the WC rankings table after 1999 in Seville when Oz finished 7th with 58 pts and 13 top 8 finishes, in the build up to the Sydney Olympics.

Surpasses the 2-0-2 = 4 medals in Berlin 2009 (Hooker and Dani Samuels won gold)and the 1-1-2 in both Athens 1997 and Seville in 1999 (Freeman won both golds).

Last time Oz won 6 medals at an Olympics (2-3-1) was 1968 in Mexico City when Ralph Doubell won the 800m, Maureen Caird won the then 80m hurdles, Peter Norman won silver in the 200m, Pam Kilborn won silver in the 80m hurdles, 17 year old Raelene Boyle won silver in the 200m, and country woman Jenny Lamy won bronze in the 200m as well. But there was only 36 events. Men had 24 like today, Woman only 12 and no mixed relay.

Only other 6+ Olympic medal hauls was Melbourne 1956 4-2-6 =12 and Tokyo 1964 1-1-4 =6 (Betty Cuthbert won the inaugural 400m event).

Looking at other nations
Canada won 4 golds, its never won more than 2 golds at world champs and 6 medals in total is its equal best at a world champs. They did win 4 golds in 1928 when Percy Williams did the 100/200m double and they won the women's 4x100m relay and women's high jump. Edit they won 8 medals in 1928, then 1932 in LA won 9 medals (1-3-5) their biggest ever haul at an Olympics.

Germany along with France and Italy sent the equal 2nd biggest team of 78 and didn't win a medal but 13 placings between 4th and 8th, so they might make a big jump next year. France only won 1 medal, 2nd last event of the meet won silver in the men's 4x400m relay, and only had 8 x top 8 placings which would have been a bit disappointing for them in the lead up to Paris. Italy finished =8th with Oz and Netherlands after 12th at both Eugene and Tokyo.

Jamaicans are getting more top 8 placings in some field events it seems and adding to their sprint results, shot put, discuss and high jump here to go with their placings in traditional strength in long jump and triple jump events.

Spain has decided to concentrate on walking events. Won all 4 events.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

For an easy reference point a few years into the future I will put up some World athletics tweets with videos of races and field events. Will only do 5 per post for those who have slow processors.


Women's 4 x 400m relay





Men's 5000m




Women's 800m






Women's 4x100m






Men's 4x100m

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Men's 800m




Women's 5000m




The Goat




Men's 200m





Women's 200m - Shericka Jackson so disappointed she didn't knock off Flo-Jo's 35 year old tainted WR. She might never be in this sort of form ever again in her career.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Athletics Oz high-performance head Andrew Faichney, is pretty happy with Oz athlete results.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/athlet...aths-team-utensil-a-hoop-20230828-p5dzua.html

Budapest: Having delivered the best performance by an Australian athletics team in more than 50 years, Australia could “do anything” in track and field at the Paris Olympics next year, the national high-performance coach has declared.

Australia’s high jump pair Eleanor Patterson and Nicola Olyslagers winning silver and bronze on the last night of competition lifted Australia to six medals – more than the nation has ever won before at a world championship and the most medals by Australia at a world meet since the 1968 Olympics.

“We can do anything in Paris to be honest,” Andrew Faichney, high-performance head said.
Nina Kennedy led the medal haul with her gold in the pole vault, race walker Jemima Montag won silver, javelin thrower Mackenzie Little and pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall both won bronze, then on Monday morning (AEST) Patterson and Olyslagers jumped into respective silver and bronze medals.

It was clearly the most medals by an Australian team at a world championship since the event began in 1983. It was Australia’s best total medal haul at the worlds since 2009 when Australia won four medals, but two of them were gold and two bronze, as opposed to one gold, two silver and three bronze here.

“It’s not ludicrous to say that we are at the moment, right now, (at least) the equal best team on results, and we have to be proud of that. Really, really proud of that, and that is what we don’t want to go back from and have greater success next year at the Olympics............................

 

[Drummond]

Great work by Patterson and Olyslagers, both tremendous efforts. The Ukrainian is a freak though and hard to see how she’s going to be between at any major championship anytime soon.

Mens 5000m was brilliant, Chopra is a total gun in the javelin, and the womens 4x4 was incredible. FEMKE BOL!!! I was yelling at the TV lol

Outstanding 9 days of athletics. Superb stuff.

 

[AdelaideGT]

“It’s not ludicrous to say that we are at the moment, right now, (at least) the equal best team on results, and we have to be proud of that. Really, really proud of that, and that is what we don’t want to go back from and have greater success next year at the Olympics............................

lol - what is he even saying there? How about starting over again and putting all those words into a few sentences that are actually comprehensible?

If he was drunk, I can possibly forgive him...

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

This French athletics coach, ex head coach at ALTIS in Atlanta had graphics of the men's and women's 4x400 relay splits. Don't know where he got them from but World Athletics have still not put any splits up for the last day like they did on day 1 for the mixed 4x400.

I obviously rounded up the change over by an extra second. 48.79 is still bloody quick given that whilst its a flying start its only about 0.4 to 0.5 seconds given the clumbsy way 400m batton changes happen. Klaver made a decent improvement on her 400m final time of 50.33 which got her 6th place.

https://twitter.com/pjvazel

 

[BGman]

Great jumping by Patterson & Olyslagers to win silver & bronze.

First time two Aussies have ever medalled in the same event at a WC.

And takes our medal tally to Australia's biggest ever haul.

Like to see the pole vault and high jump. Cant find footage on YT, any ideas?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Like to see the pole vault and high jump. Cant find footage on YT, any ideas?

Every session is on SBS on Demand, so you will get some but not all the event footage there.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I've said before I'm a sucker for these montage videos at the end of the games or world champs where you see stuff that isn't on the normal broadcast of an individual event.

I love the first bit of footage in this one below - I have never seen an athlete jump for joy over the finish line like Kenyan Mary Morra in a PB, doing better than her bronze in Eugene and her.

Looks like you have to click on near top of the tweet to open a new tab to see the video as if you hit the play button it just takes you to the Budapest 2023 WCs website, which does have video highlights of events and interviews for every individual day.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Did this graphic on the weekend to see who has done well over the last 3 big global meets, ie Tokyo, Eugene and Budapest.

Around 2009, Athletics Australia set out in their 3 year strategic plan, and have repeated it since, that they want to achieve top 10 nation status in world athletics. One way of measuring that is using the World Athletics placings tables. They award 8pts for gold, 7 for silver, 6 for bronze down to 1pt for 8th place. Now I thing medals should be worth more say 16, 12, 8 and 4th is worth 5 pts etc, but the system is the system. So AA set a number of top 8 and top 16 placings they think the athletes team should achieve at Olympics and World Championships at Senior, Junior and Youth level major events.

The last 3 senior level global meets, Australian athletes have achieved this. Since 2008 the results have been

2008 -12th 40pts, 2012 - 12th 29 pts, 2016 - 12th 33 pts

2009 - 11th 45pts, 2011 - 12th 34pts, 2013 - 15th 27pts, 2015 - 18th 19pts, 2017 - 18th 23pts, 2019 - 29th 14 pts

Australian athletes tend to lift for Olympics and in the past haven't treated WCs as that important especially year after the Olympics. But the depth is a lot better and the field events and walking events is where Oz's strength is.

Nicole McDermott and Brooke Stratton got married after Tokyo and their surname changed.

 

[The Passenger]

It's a couple of weeks old but just saw this from Katie Moon re: the split gold in the pole vault.



Couldn't agree more. Going up and down measures until there is "tiebreak" just doesn't feel like the right way to decide the jumps events. As she says they aren't endurance events and the pole vault especially has a high element of danger involved for a heavily fatigued athlete.

I would suggest changing the rule so that misses at a higher mark count more against the athlete, so for a shared gold both athletes would need a completely identical card (in terms of their misses). In the case of the recent pole vault champs, Kennedy would have actually been in the gold medal position as she missed at 4.70 whilst Moon missed at 4.75 (along with a bunch of other identical misses from both of them). In the case of the 2020 Olympics high jump, both jumpers had only three misses all at the same height so it would still be a shared gold. I think WA would rather see just one gold medal given out as much as possible and that simple rule change is a good compromise (IMO).

I would also take it out of the hands of the athletes, enshrine in the actual rules and not have it be done in terms of an agreement between the two.

 

[AdelaideGT]

Imagine if there was a tie for the last qualifying place in a track final (eg like the recent women's 100m where the Brit & the Pole - I think - were equal) and just after finishing the race officials said 'you two need to race off now... no, not later. right now'. There would be an outrage lol.

But that's what some expect pole vaulters to do in a tied situation.

In any event, it would be challenging. But in the vault it is downright dangerous.

I also feel sorry for swimmers who have to do a swim-off (at the end of a session) to determine if they make the final (or even semi).

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Imagine if there was a tie for the last qualifying place in a track final (eg like the recent women's 100m where the Brit & the Pole - I think - were equal) and just after finishing the race officials said 'you two need to race off now... no, not later. right now'. There would be an outrage lol.

But that's what some expect pole vaulters to do in a tied situation.

In any event, it would be challenging. But in the vault it is downright dangerous.

I also feel sorry for swimmers who have to do a swim-off (at the end of a session) to determine if they make the final (or even semi).

Whilst I agree with what you are saying, it really does depend on how taxing the event is IMO.

Having run an extra 11 seconds or so an hour or two after the tie, isnt as taxing as having to take several vaults after being in a 4 hour comp.

If there wasnt a lane 9 in athletics then a run off would have to happen.

The throwing events you could have a single extra throw, that isnt that taxing, however its not really fair as having 3 throws which would be very taxing.

High Jump is like pole vault goes hours and who knows how many jumps it would take to break the tie. Its probably why we have only seen the sharing of golds in these two events at global level events.

Long jump and triple jump an extra jump wouldnt be that taxing, but 3 would but be fairer and more taxing.

In swimming I dont think a 50m swim would be that taxing, that distance is where the most ties happen. 100m + events are more taxing, but you can pace yourself in those as time is irrelvant, you just have to win.