As we tip our cap to the tip of the 2023 working season, it’s time to recap a few of our hottest working tales of the yr. This yr, the game noticed quite a lot of firsts and controversies, particularly for 100m world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who had an enormous glow-up from being kicked off an American Airways flight in January to successful her first 100m world championship title seven months later. We additionally witnessed the yr of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who broke three world data on the observe, received sick on the worst time ever, and did a beer mile at his bachelor get together.
With the Athletics Integrity Unit cleansing up the game earlier than the 2024 Paris Olympics, there at all times felt like there have been extra controversies than triumphs—in any case, here’s a countdown of the highest 10 hottest working tales of 2023, learn by YOU!
The world’s most well-known distance working household, the Ingebrigtsen’s, went separate methods with their long-time coach and father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, however the breakup got here out worse than rumoured. The Ingebrigtsen brothers pressured the Norwegian Athletics Affiliation to disclaim Gjert accreditation for any future main championships, prompting the brothers to share their experiences, revealing a previous marked by aggression, management, and bodily violence of their family. However the story is extra sophisticated than it seems as Gjert remains to be the coach of Jakob’s Norweigan 1,500m rival Narve Gilje Nordås, who received bronze behind Jakob on the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. With the Paris Olympics on the horizon, this story is way from over.
In one of many funnier tales of the yr, we discovered Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce takes all competitions significantly… even convey your mother or father to highschool day. Within the video, the previous Olympic and world 100m champion completely cooks all the opposite dad and mom in a 100m dash. She beat the sphere by in all probability 50 or so metres. I assume in case you are a “world champion” it’s a must to present everybody why.
An Italian age-grouper Alessandro Braconi was handed one of many longest bans within the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) database for the use/tried use, possession, and trafficking/tried trafficking of a prohibited substances. This follows his provisional suspension after a constructive drug check in March 2022., which he continued to compete though he was suspended. The 1:19 half marathoner is ineligible to compete till 2058. Braconi will probably be 72.
It was a rocky begin to the 2023 season for U.S. observe star Sha’Carri Richardson, as she was faraway from an American Airways flight after an argument with a flight attendant. Fortunately, Richardson was capable of flip it round and have the final snort, successful USATF Athlete of the 12 months and three medals on the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
The long run is vivid for Australian rising star Sophie Corridor, who, at 11, broke two world youth age group data in three days on the U14 Victoria Observe and Discipline Championships in Geelong, Australia. Corridor wasn’t the one 11-year-old making headlines in 2023—Canada’s Sawyer Nicholson set a brand new 5K age-group file within the fall, clocking 17:28.
This story was enjoyable on the time, however it didn’t age effectively. Excessive-school sprinter Issam Asinga ultimately received caught for doping and Noah Lyles grew to become the primary sprinter to win the 100 and 200 in the identical yr at a world championship since Usain Bolt did it in 2015.
We may be seeing the following Jakob Ingebrigtsen in entrance of our personal eyes with the rise of the Norwegian youth star Per August Halle. In August, the 13-year-old went sub-16 for 5K, recording a ridiculous quarter-hour and 52 seconds. We are able to’t wait to see Halle and Ingebrigtsen sq. off over 5,000m on the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Australia.
We now have reported on tons of of races about cheaters, however typically it’s necessary to spotlight runners doing the precise reverse. On this case, on the 2023 Quixote Half Marathon in Ciudad Actual, Spain, Moroccan distance runner Mohamed Massat placed on an unbelievable show of sportsmanship, giving the first-place prize cash and trophy to the second-place finisher who went the flawed approach. Massat nonetheless walked away with some prize cash for second place, however his selfless act and sportsmanship will lengthy be remembered.
This story is the other of sportsmanship. South African 100m file holder Carina Horn can’t cease dishonest. In August, Horn obtained her second anti-doping violation of her profession, which resulted in a six-year ban from athletics. The worst a part of all, she tried to disclaim it and paid for her B pattern to be examined, however it nonetheless got here up constructive for a similar substance—clenbuterol.
Some medals can imply little or no, whereas others can imply lots. A Calgary lady was in absolute shock after she went to get her medal engraved after ending the 2023 Chicago Marathon, and as a substitute of engraving her title, they engraved the F-word. All of it ended up being a basic mix-up between one runner and one other—a tough story to not look again and snort about.
Our hottest story of the yr, based on our readers.
