2018 In Athletics- One of the all-time Classics?

El CabaIIo

I was just reading an article there on Barega's 12:43 5k and another on ESPN ranking Kipchoge as the 2nd most dominant athlete in sport this year and it got me thinking that there has been some incredible performances across the board this year and maybe my memory is failing me but I can't quite think of any year that's matched it performance wise across the board. There's been tons of young blood on the rise with the likes of Barega, Duplantis, Rhonex Kipruto, Jakob Ingebritson, Sydney Mc Laughlin Samba, Rai Benjamin, Micheal Norman I could go. World records falling all over the place and some new rivaliries starting to sprout. Some performances that stick out:

Kipchoge breaking the Marathon World Record by 78 seconds(2:01:39)

Abraham Kiptum breaking Tadesse's 8 year old Half Marathon World Record(58:18)

Kevin Mayer breaking Ashton Eaton's Decathlon World Record by over 80pts(9126pts)

Beatrice Chepkoech taking over 8 seconds off the Womens Steeplechase World Record(8:44)

20 year Micheal Norman becoming the 5th Fastest 400m runner of All-time(43.61)

Shauna Miller-Uibo becoming the first Woman in 9 year to break 49 in the 400m followed home just a tenth of a second later by 20 year old Salwa Eid Naser(48.98 and 49.08)

22 year old Abderrahman Samba became only the second man in history and the first in 26 years to break 47 in the 400m hurdles when running 46.98. 20 year old Rai Benjamin ran the tied 3rd fastest all-time also this year with a 47.02 to tie him with the great Ed Moses.

21 year old Noah Lyles running under 19.7 4 times for the 200m

Barshim and Lysenko both jumping over 2.40 in the high jump.

Joshua Cheptegei taking down Komen's 15k world record on a course called 7 hills.

18 year old Sydney McLaughlin ran 52.75 for the 400m to make it into the top 10 fastest of all-time.

18 year old Armuand Duplantis vaulting the tied 2nd all-time highest outdoor pole vault when clearing 6.05m and followed in second place by 21 year old Timor Murgunov clearing 6.00m in the same event(The first time two people have ever cleared 6 metres at the same meet)

18 year old Selemon Barega becoming the 4th fastest man in history over 5000m when running 12:43 in the Diamond league final in Brussels in one of the greatest 5k's in history with 8 men breaking 13. Hagos Gebrewhit's 12:45 made him the 5th fastest man in history and Yomif Kejelcha's 12:46 was the fastest 3rd place finish in history and moved him to 7th fastest man in History just missing out on beating Eliud Kipchoge's PB.

Sifan Hassan ran the 3rd fastest womens mile ever in London in 4:14 with Tsegaye and Obiri following on in second and third place as the 6th and 7th fastest woman all-time. Jenny Simpson and Laura Muir followed in under 4:20(The first time ever that 5 women broke 4:20 in the same race)

18 year old Rhonex Kipruto missed oout on the 10k Road World Record by just 2 seconds when running 26:46 in Prague.

17 year old Jakob Ingebritsen ran a 3:52 mile in May and followed that up with a 3:31 1500m in Monaco in June(equivalant to 3:48 for the mile for the metrically challanged;)). He then done a senior double at the European Championships winning both the 1500m and 5000m and recorded a 5k PB of 13:17.

Emmanuel Korir became the 6th fastest man in history over 800m by running 1:42.05 two days after Nijel Amos ran 1:42.14

Tom Walsh threw the shot 22.67m to record the furthest throw in 15 years and move to 6th all-time.

19 year old Juan Miguel Echevarría recorded the longest jump since 1995 when he leapt 8.83 in Stokholm but just missed out on an PB elligible jump due to 0.1m/s too much of a tailwind.

This year also saw the most women ever to run under 2:19 for the marathon and the second fastest womens half marathon of all-time by Fancy Chemutai in 64:52 just missing out on the World record by 1 second. The Women's only half marathon record did go down though with Gudeta running 66:11.

One of the classics or meh?

IvoryTower

I've become an Ingebritsen fanboy after watching the doc, its going to be another fun year ahead

Sacksian

It really has been a great year when you see it laid out like that. There are deep rivalries in a few of the events which helps, particularly with some of the sprinters coming out the US and in the women's hurdles.

Also, Christian Coleman WR in 60m indoor, Michael Norman 400m WR indoor and Cheserek #2 all-time mile indoor.

walshb

Two really stand out for me

20 year Micheal Norman becoming the 5th Fastest 400m runner of All-time(43.61)

And Selemon Barega's 12:43 5k.....

El CabaIIo

walshb wrote: »

Two really stand out for me

20 year Micheal Norman becoming the 5th Fastest 400m runner of All-time(43.61)

And Selemon Barega's 12:43 5k.....

Barega said he could have gone 12:39 that day but didn't kick early enough because Gebrewhit was shadowing him and has a monster kick. Pretty insane when you think that the 2nd km split was a pedestrian 2:39 and their first lap was a 58 400. I'm in no doubt that he could've maybe nipped Bekele's World record that day with more even splits.

Saying that though, that was a once in a decade type race where he had a pacemaker until 4800m with Kejelcha pushing on, we might never see that again as Kejelcha will have learned a lesson just like Daniel Komon who refused to race Gebresalaisse because Geb used to just draft him until the final turn and try take the record with the sprint.