23 exciting questions about the World Championships Budapest 2023 - Part 3

As we look ahead to the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, we've put together 23+1 questions to keep an eye out for at the biggest Hungarian sporting event of all time! Following the first and second part, here are eight more interesting questions that will make you want to buy your tickets or packages now!

17. Will Neeraj Chopra win the World Championships title after his Olympic gold medal?

Neeraj Chopra brought the Queen of Sports closer to one and a half billion people by winning the Tokyo Olympics two years ago. The 2021 victory for the Indian icon wasn’t a huge surprise, as he has been the world junior record holder in javelin throwing since 2016. 

Last year at the World Championships, he "only" won a silver medal, but he still could improve his results: his recent personal best of 89.94 is a national record. Also, his six best results all come from 2022. He would arrive in Budapest with two goals: to break the 90m barrier and become India's first world champion in athletics. He will also need to throw more than 90 metres on the final night, because Johannes Vetter, who missed last season due to injury, is already preparing for his return. 

18. Who will win the men's 800 metres?

The men's middle distances can usually bring more exciting tactical battles than the sprint events. This is no coincidence, as there is no time for such battle in the 100 and 200 metres, nor can it be a body-on-body fight, as they run in separate lanes up to the 400 metres.

This is not the case in the 800m, where the last two seasons of the Wanda Diamond League introduced 11 different winners. However, the most important races of recent years have been won by Emmanuel Korir, who won the Olympic title in 2021 and the WCH title in 2022 and has been unbeaten in the DL finals. He will be the man to beat in Budapest on the evening of 26 August. 

19. What will Oregon history maker Kimberly García do?

Kimberly García put Peru on the map at the 2022 World Championships by winning the 20km and 35km race walk to claim her country's first two medals in outdoor World Championships history. Can she repeat the same feat in the fabulous city centre of Budapest?

20. Which American shot putter giant will have the centimetres in his favour?

Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs could have the first biggest fight of Budapest 23! The duel between the two best shot putters of all time could bring even a world record on the first night. Crouser, the world record holder with 23.37m, and two-time world champion Kovacs (with a 23.23m PB) will be decided by centimetres again. Just like in 2019, when Kovacs, who has Hungarian roots, won his second world title by throwing a centimetre longer.

21. How will Shaunae Miller-Uibo's reappearance in the 200 metres go?

The Bahamian star has made a brave move for 2023 by abandoning the single-lap distance as the reigning 400m champion and after a long time focusing on the 200m again. Yet she will be no stranger to the distance in Budapest, having won bronze at the world championships six years ago and made the final at the last Olympics.

Her personal best is 21.74 seconds, but to reach the podium also in Budapest, she would definitely require better time as Jamaica's golden generation, Shericka Jackson, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, as they would continue their fantastic history on the evening of 25 August.

22. Can Tobi Amusan run under 12 seconds on the 100m hurdles?

Tobi Amusan flew over the hurdles at the last World Championships like they weren't there. She did it with a height of 1.56 metres, which make her performance more unique. Perhaps only Fraser-Pryce being shorter among the superstars of track and field. In Oregon, she ran a world record 12.12 in the semi-finals first and then went on to win gold in the final with an even better time.

However, her time of 12.06 was with too much tailwind for an official record. Nigeria’s first ever gold medallist is aiming to break the 12-second barrier in Budapest on 24 August. If she can do it, it will be the biggest sensation of 2023’s greatest show on Earth.

23. Is there a way back to the top for Sifan Hassan after a poor season?

The Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete was in sensational form at the 2021 Olympics: she won the 5000m and 10,000m in Tokyo and took bronze in the 1500m. In 1500 metres, she even managed to qualify in first place (!) in the heats after falling in the last lap.

After these successes, 2022 was quite a low-key year for her: she failed to finish on the podium at the World Championships (6th in the 5000m, 4th in the 10 000m) and did not even compete at the European Championships. If she can get her motivation back, she could still be the star of the long distances in Budapest.

+1 Is the medal table getting more colourful?

More and more people are discovering that athletics is a wonderful and diverse sport, played at a high level all over the world. Athletes from 45 countries have signed up for the medal table in the 2022 World Championships, including 29 countries that have won world titles.

In the history of the world championships, athletes from 104 countries have stood on the podium, with 74 nations taking gold medals. Last year, Tobi Amusan of Nigeria, Kimberly García of Peru and Norah Jeruto of Kazakhstan became the first world champions of their countries. More countries could be added to the list of winners in Budapest: between 19 and 27 August, Puerto Rico, Burkina Faso, Serbia, South Korea and the host, Hungary could all introduce a new world champion for instance.

With just over 200 days to go until the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, buy your tickets or packages quickly to get the best seats for watching the battle of the superheroes!