There are two women&rsquo;s and two men&rsquo;s finals on day four at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 &ndash; two track middle-distance and two field events &ndash; plus some tasty heats and semifinals.
Day four may offer a smaller menu, but every selection appeals.
Let&rsquo;s start where the programme finishes &ndash; with the women&rsquo;s 1500m final and the men&rsquo;s steeplechase.
<h2>El Bakkali vs Girma. Can anyone else intrude?</h2>
You could depict the 3000m steeplechase final as a match race between one man who has everything but the world record and another who has the world record but no other titles.
Soufiane El Bakkali is the defending world champion and the reigning Olympic champion: the dominant athlete in the event in recent times. But he came up short in his assault on Saif Saaeed Shaheen&rsquo;s then world record in Rabat earlier this year.
No such problems for Ethiopia&rsquo;s Lamecha Girma at the Paris Diamond League in early June. Girma rode a late-race surge to a world record of 7:52.11, just over 1.5 seconds off the former mark.
Championship victories are another thing. Not that Girma&rsquo;s record is anything but excellent, mind you. He finished second to Conseslus Kipruto in Doha in 2019 in the race Kipruto should never have won, but did, and he was second again at both the Tokyo Olympics and last year&rsquo;s World Championships. He&rsquo;d love to rectify that blemish on his record in Budapest but must find a way to blunt El Bakkali&rsquo;s finishing speed.
Obviously, someone else has to claim a medal, but can anyone challenge the top pair? It will be tough seeing as both favourites have faster times (they are the only two sub-eight-minute men in the race) and superior finishes. But there are some interesting others in the final &ndash; New Zealand&rsquo;s fast-improving George Beamish, the Japanese pair Ryoma Aoki and Ryuji Miura and, of course, three Kenyan athletes: Leonard Bett, Abraham Kibiwot and Simon Koech. And anyone in a Kenyan singlet is a threat in the steeplechase.
<h2>Kipyegon first, daylight second?</h2>
Faith Kipyegon starts as an unbackable favourite in the 1500m final. She broke the world record in Florence this year, the mile record in Monaco and the 5000m record in between. She can kick fiercely off a slow pace and cruise easily through a faster race. She is the defending champion.
Sifan Hassan will need to have recovered well from her fall in the last 25 metres of the 10,000m to have any chance of beating Kipyegon or even gaining a medal.
Otherwise, or even if, any challenge is likely to come from the next generation. Ethiopia&rsquo;s precocious Birke Haylom is just 17 and already has a 3:54.93 to her name, while 21-year-old Diribe Welteji has run 3:55. Going off Diamond League form, the perennial Laura Muir and Australia&rsquo;s Jess Hull have been prominent, too.
But it&rsquo;s Kipyegon&rsquo;s race to lose &ndash; and she probably won&rsquo;t.
<h2>Echoes of Oregon</h2>
Last year in Oregon, China&rsquo;s Feng Bin pulled off one of the bigger upsets when she upstaged home favourite Valarie Allman and perennial champion Sandra Perkovic to win the women&rsquo;s discus.
By a simple twist of fate or, more likely, a quirk of the seeding algorithm, these same three found themselves in qualifying group A of the event on morning two. At Hayward Field it was Feng, Perkovic and then Allman. In Budapest qualifying it was Allman, Feng and Perkovic.
These three were the only throwers in their group to achieve the 64.00m automatic qualifying standard for the final. Two others &ndash; Claudine Vita and Laulauga Tausaga &ndash; did it in group B.
It would be no surprise to see the Oregon medallists repeat in the final here - but in what order? And is there another surprise packet lurking in the field?
<h2>Is it over?</h2>
They said it would last forever, an eternal bond between Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi sealed by their agreed tie in the Tokyo Olympic final.
Well, it&rsquo;s good news for romantics. The relationship was tested in qualifying, but it survived. Barshim took the direct route to the final, clearing 2.22m, 2.25m and 2.28m first time; Tamberi flirted with danger, but came through with a third attempt clearance at 2.28m to ensure his place.
No shortage of contenders will try to tear the pair apart in the final: Barshim was joined by Ryoichi Akamatsu and JuVaughn Harrison in going through without a blemish while Korea&rsquo;s Woo Sanghyeok had just one hiccup, requiring a second jump at 2.25m.
The sentimentalists can dream on.
<h2>...and also</h2>
First round action in the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles and men&rsquo;s 800m. Semifinals in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles and men&rsquo;s 400m.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

World Athletics Championships, Budapest 2023

Day four brings four gold medals

Five things to look out for on day four at WCH Budapest 23

After two days of morning and evening sessions at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, day three is the day to catch your breath as there are no morning session on days three and four.
Capitalise on the opportunity to sample the many delights of Budapest, eat early and get down to the National Athletics Centre for an evening session beginning with women&rsquo;s pole vault qualifying and showcasing four finals.
<h2>A sixth for SAFP?</h2>
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is beyond legend status in world sprinting. Here she is chasing a sixth gold medal in the 100m final. SAFP faces a real battle this time because a troublesome knee injury has restricted her to just a handful of competitions so far this season. Her Jamaican teammate Shericka Jackson, Sha&rsquo;Carri Richardson and perennial contender Marie Josee Ta Lou have all run considerably faster than Fraser-Pryce this year.
Can she do it? Maybe, she is a great champion, after all. Will she? Well, that&rsquo;s another question which will be answered at 9:50pm on day three.
<h2>More speed in men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles</h2>
The women&rsquo;s 100m is not the only event in which the pace will be on. Day three also has the semi-final and final of the men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles.
You can win the gold medal in the high hurdles with a clean run &ndash; indeed, that is probably the ideal approach. But sometimes you&rsquo;ve got to be prepared to crash and bash your way to the line, leaving a string of downed hurdles in your wake. Whatever it takes.
Grant Holloway can go either way. He is normally a clean hurdler &ndash; remarkably so &ndash; but he can crash and bash with the best, too. He deserves to be favourite, but he has also been known to lose his rhythm and his chances in the hectic late stages of the race. If he produces a reasonable run over the barriers, he will be very hard to beat.
Olympic champion Hansle Parchment advanced to the semis, as did most of the other key contenders. But Jamaica&rsquo;s world leader Rasheed Broadbell won&rsquo;t take any further part in the competition after crashing out of the heats.
In the final it&rsquo;s just a matter of getting over those 10 barriers as quickly as you can. And if you get a clean run, that&rsquo;s just a handy bonus.
<h2>Pedro Pichardo, meet Jaydon Hibbert</h2>
The withdrawal of defending champion Pedro Pichardo from the triple jump is an obvious disappointment. The charismatic Pichardo needed only one jump &ndash; his opener of 17.95m &ndash; to clinch the gold medal in Oregon.
You&rsquo;ve got to miss a performer like that. But Jamaican teenager Jaydon Hibbert, now a strong favourite to succeed Pichardo as world champion, makes a pretty good substitute.
Few athletes have made an impact on an event like Hibbert has in the triple jump this year. Turning 18 on 19 January, but already the world U20 champion, the youngster from Jamaica added 60 centimetres to his personal best in jumping 17.87m in May. He stayed in that vein, too, winning the NCAA title with 17.56m, his national champs with 17.68m, and 17.66m at the Diamond League meeting in Monaco.
Hibbert&rsquo;s trajectory (so far) has seen him progress from 16.05m in 2021, aged 16, to 17.27m in 2022 (17) and now to 17.87m. He has hit the triple jump like a rocket in a manner not unlike . . . well, not unlike a certain Pichardo. When Pichardo was 18, he hit 16.09m in 2011, then 16.79m in 2012 and then all the way to 17.69m in 2013.
The pair were to have met in Budapest in a battle of possible generational change. Now they will not, and on form the gold medal appears to be a battle between Hibbert, Hugues Fabrice Zango, Lazaro Martinez and Zhu Yaming.
One thing seems certain. As noted, Pichardo killed off the opposition in Eugene last year with a 17.95m opening jump. The competitive tension in Budapest should be maintained a lot longer than that.
<h2>Ceh, Stahl and Alekna headline men&rsquo;s discus</h2>
Day three&rsquo;s other gold medal will be decided in the men&rsquo;s discus where Kristjan Ceh, with occasional interruptions from Daniel Stahl, has reigned supreme in recent times. On the world list, Ceh (71.86m) leads Stahl (71.45m) and European champ Mykolas Alekna (71.00m) by almost a metre.
Andrius Gudzius, Lukas Weisshaidinger, Matt Denny and Alex Rose could threaten if, as often happens, some of the best on distance fail to live up to that form.
<h2>&hellip;not to forget</h2>
Day three will also see preliminary action in both men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s one-lap hurdles with Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos in men&rsquo;s semis and Femke Bol in the women&rsquo;s first round. There are also semis in the women&rsquo;s flat 400m.
Remember: there are always more upsets in heats than finals.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

Day two brings six gold medals

Five things to look out for on day three at WCH Budapest 23

The rain delays were quite the start to day one. But after stormy Saturday at the World Athletics Chamionships Budapest 23, Sunday can&rsquo;t be quite as bad, can it?
Day two brings six gold medals, beginning once again at Heroes&rsquo; Square with the women&rsquo;s 20km race walk and ending with the longest (10,000m) and shortest (100m) men&rsquo;s track events at the National Athletics Centre.
On the field, there&rsquo;s the women&rsquo;s long jump and men&rsquo;s hammer; and the heptathlon is completed with the long jump and javelin in the morning followed by the 800m in the evening. You&rsquo;ll be tired just watching!
<h2>Garcia-Perez? Perez-Garcia? Or someone else?</h2>
Peru&rsquo;s Kimberley Garcia was the queen of Oregon&rsquo;s roads last year as she doubled for gold medals in both the 20km and 35km race walks.
Spain&rsquo;s Maria Perez is set on ending Garcia&rsquo;s golden thread at two. She broke the Peruvian athlete&rsquo;s world record for 35km earlier this year and leads the 20km world list from her rival by just over a minute.
But wait, there are others. 2017 world champion Yang Jiayu heads a strong Chinese trio; Australia&rsquo;s Jemima Montag will be itching to step up from fourth place in Oregon to a medal; Italy&rsquo;s Olympic champion Antonetta Palmisano is sure to be a contender after overcoming injury issues.
The loop goes up and down along Budapest&rsquo;s World Heritage-listed Andr&aacute;ssy Avenue. Expect the competitive fire to get hotter lap by lap.
<h2>The long and the short of it</h2>
Day two closes with the shortest and longest men&rsquo;s track events on the programme. The 100m comes first; don&rsquo;t blink or you&rsquo;ll miss it. The 10,000m follows for those who prefer to watch races develop.
Defending champion Fred Kerley starts as slight favourite in the 100m in a very even field. Britain&rsquo;s Zharnel Hughes is the fastest man in the world this year. His past specialty, though, has been the 200m, which is also the domain of another possible 100m contender, Noah Lyles.
The same was true of Usain Bolt &ndash; until he won the Olympic sprint double in Beijing in 2008.
Italy&rsquo;s Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs has little current form to recommend him (nine races indoors at 60m, including European indoor silver, and a 10.21 clocking at the Paris Diamond League in early-June). Then there&rsquo;s South Africa&rsquo;s Akani Simbine, Kenya&rsquo;s Ferdinand Omanyala and Jamaica&rsquo;s Oblique Seville.
They can&rsquo;t all crowd on to the medals&rsquo; podium &ndash; much less the top step.
From a single 100m to a hundred consecutive 100m bring us to the 10,000m in which Joshua Cheptegei will defend his title and has a great chance of doing so successfully. He seems equally adept at championship racing as he is at the pace-made Diamond League distance events. He might not be the biggest kicker around, but his finishing speed is pretty darned good.
Even in the absence of Cheptegei&rsquo;s Ugandan teammate, world cross-country champion Jacob Kiplimo (hamstring), there are many threats. Berihu Aregawi split Kiplimo and Cheptegei in finishing second at the World Cross Country. With teammates Selemon Barega, the Olympic champion, and Yismaw Dilu, Ethiopia fields a trio of medal contenders.
The closing stages of this race should be something special.
<h2>Who steps in when Mihambo steps out?</h2>
With Olympic and two-time world champion Malaika Mihambo out due to injury, the women&rsquo;s long jump becomes one of the most open events in the championships.
Will it be Jamaica&rsquo;s Ackelia Smith, world leader at 7.08m, two-time world indoor champion Ivana Vuleta, US champion Tara Davis Woodhall or multiple championships medallist Ese Brume of Nigeria?
<h2>Hammering it home</h2>
In the night&rsquo;s other field final, Poland&rsquo;s world leader Wojciech Nowicki will be looking for his first World Championships gold medal after finishing third, second, fourth and second in the past four editions. In stark contrast Nowicki&rsquo;s teammate, Pawel Fajdek, will be aiming for his sixth win in the event.
Ethan Katzberg was the biggest surprise of the qualifying round, smashing the Canadian record with 81.18m, but the biggest cheers from the crowd will be reserved for home hope Bence Halasz.
<h2>Ongoing&hellip;</h2>
Continuing or just getting started are the 1500m for men (heats) and women (semifinals), the men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles with world record-holder Karsten Warholm, the women&rsquo;s 100m where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce goes for a sixth title, and the men&rsquo;s high jump and 110m hurdles.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

Five things to look out for on day two at WCH Budapest 23

Day one of any major championships offers a smorgasbord of highlights &ndash; while it may be light on for main courses, there&rsquo;s a huge variety of dishes to delight the taste buds.
The mains on day one of the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 &ndash; the men&rsquo;s 20km race walk, men&rsquo;s shot put, women&rsquo;s 10,000m and the mixed 4x400m &ndash; will see the first gold medals of the championships decided. For the rest, no fewer than 10 events will get under way.
Forget the fact only a few events are decided and rejoice in the opportunity to cast an eye over so many of the world&rsquo;s top athletes and assess their form.
<h2>Six more heroes for Heroes&rsquo; Square</h2>
Heroes&rsquo; Square on the Pest side of the Danube commemorates, among others, Prince &Aacute;rp&aacute;d and the six Magyar chieftains whose confederation at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries is widely recognised as Hungary&rsquo;s foundation.
The number six is appropriate: the WCH Budapest 23 will crown six more heroes in the historic square which is the start and finish for the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s 20km and 35km race walks and both marathons.
The opening day sees the men&rsquo;s 20km. It could be plus &ccedil;a change, plus &ccedil;a la m&ecirc;me chose with Japan&rsquo;s Toshikazu Yamanishi going for his third win in a row following successes in Doha and Oregon.
Yamanishi sits well down this year&rsquo;s world list, led by China&rsquo;s Zhang Jun at 1:17:38. Yamanishi finished third in Rio Major in May behind Brian Pintado of Ecuador. Olympic champion Massimo Stano is entered, as is Sweden&rsquo;s Perseus Karlstrom, the athlete who tops the world rankings. Brazil&rsquo;s Caio Bonfim and another Japanese race walker, world and Olympic silver medallist Koki Ikeda, won in La Coruna and Kobe respectively.
Any or all of these could pounce should Yamanishi put a foot wrong.
<h2>The big men let fly</h2>
Don&rsquo;t stand within 23 metres of the shot put circle at the National Athletics Centre would be this column&rsquo;s advice as the big men let fly in the shot put &ndash; make that 24 metres actually; defending champion Ryan Crouser has raised his world record to 23.56m this year.
Since the memorable battle between Joe Kovacs, Crouser and New Zealand&rsquo;s Tom Walsh in Doha in 2019 which saw Kovacs upset his US teammate Crouser with a winning 22.91m, edging out him and Walsh by a mere centimetre, the level of performance has remained through the roof.
Crouser dominates the territory beyond 23 metres with no fewer than eight of the 12 contests won at that distance or further. But Kovacs, and Walsh, remain capable of upsetting him &ndash; Kovacs three times, including at the Diamond League final late last year (admittedly when Crouser was not at his best physically).
Where the big three have led, others have followed. Eight others have thrown beyond 22 metres this year; seven of them will be throwing in Budapest.
To this moment, no one has thrown beyond the 23 metre-line and lost the competition. That statistic is surely on borrowed time.
<h2>Hassan does the matinee and the evening show</h2>
The Netherlands&rsquo; seemingly indefatigable Sifan Hassan sets off on her quest for three gold medals on day one. There&rsquo;s the 10,000m final in the evening session but before that comes the heats of the 1500m in the morning.
Assuming Hassan&rsquo;s hopes survive the first morning &ndash; she did fall in the 1500m heats at the Tokyo Olympics (but got up and won) &ndash; she faces a massive battle in the 10,000m against rivals led by Ethiopian world record-holder and defending champion Letesenbet Gidey and her teammate Gudaf Tsegay.
The 10,000m is a race for those who like the &lsquo;how&rsquo; of winning as much as the &lsquo;who&rsquo;, its 25 laps allowing plenty of scope for race plans to be hatched and dispatched, sometimes several times over.
<h2>Mixing it up</h2>
Relays never fail to entertain and the mixed 4x400m will close day one.
The USA won the inaugural world title in the event in 2019, but they were beaten by Poland at the Tokyo Olympics and by the Dominican Republic at last year&rsquo;s World Championships. All three nations will clash here in Budapest, and the world record looks to be in danger.
<h2>Doing the rounds</h2>
Keep an eye on everything else, too
The men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s 1500m heats will lead to the semifinals on day two; there are heats in the men&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase; the first day of the heptathlon is followed by the second (obviously); there&rsquo;s field event qualifying in the men&rsquo;s hammer, women&rsquo;s long jump, men&rsquo;s discus and triple jump; and qualifying and round one of the men&rsquo;s 100m.
You will have seen the gold medallists in all of those events, but you may not know who it was.
Len Johnson for World Athletics

Day one of any major championships offers a smorgasbord of highlights

Five things to look out for on day one at WCH Budapest 23

<h2>Women's javelin</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/javelin-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/javelin-throw/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/javelin-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/javelin-throw/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/javelin-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Heading into last year&rsquo;s World Championships, Kelsey-Lee Barber looked an outside shot to retain her title, standing 25th on the 2022 world list with a season&rsquo;s best of 61.40m. The Australian proceeded to rip up the form book and become the first back-to-back winner in the women&rsquo;s javelin, nailing gold with 66.91m.
For good measure, she then won the Commonwealth title in Birmingham, edging out her teammate Mackenzie Little with a throw of 64.43m. This year, the double golden girl has been shy of a Midas touch, finishing outside the top spot in six outings.
The 31-year-old was beaten by Little at the Australian Championships in Brisbane in April and on the Diamond League circuit she has finished sixth in Lausanne and seventh in Silesia. A flash of encouraging form came in Paris in June when she finished runner-up to Japan&rsquo;s Haruka Kitaguchi (65.09m) with 62.54m.
That is 1.14m farther than her best before Oregon and good enough for No.10 on the 2023 list, 15 places higher than a year ago, so perhaps it would be ill-advised to bank on Barber failing to rise to the big occasion again and becoming the first three-time winner of the women&rsquo;s javelin.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62db986d631173f5ea6eb8e3.jpg" alt="Kelsey-Lee Barber in the javelin at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Kelsey-Lee Barber in the javelin at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
On form, Kitaguchi is the marginal favourite. In Oregon last year she earned bronze, Japan&rsquo;s first medal in a women&rsquo;s throwing event, behind Barber and the US veteran Kara Winger, who has since retired. The 2015 world U18 champion moved from third to first on the 2023 world list when she uncorked a national record of 67.04m in the final round at the Silesia Diamond League meeting on 16 July. With four of the best eight throws of the year, the 25-year-old has shown the most consistency, too.
Sigrid Borge stands second on the 2023 list but the four-time Norwegian champion has been unable to get anywhere close to the 66.50m she threw in Halle in May, her next best of 60.31m only good enough for sixth in the Silesia Diamond League meeting. She placed 11th in Paris and eighth in Lausanne.
Little is next on the list, having added almost a metre and a half to her PB to win ahead of Kitaguchi in Lausanne with 65.70m. With three of the top nine throws, the Commonwealth silver medallist has also found a high level of consistency.
Third in Lausanne was Lina Muze-Sirma, silver medallist at the World U20 Championships in Moncton back in 2010. Sixth in the final in Oregon last year, the 30-year-old is fourth on the 2023 world list, having thrown 64.78m in winning the Latvian title on 29 July.
Austrian champion Victoria Hudson threw 64.05m at Eisenstadt in May and placed fifth in her one Diamond League appearance of the year, in Lausanne.
Of the young guns of the event, Greece&rsquo;s European champion and 2021 world U20 silver medallist Elina Tzengko has thrown 63.65m, and her fellow 20-year-old Anni-Linnea Alanen of Finland 62.47m. In between them on the world list lie New Zealander Tori Peeters (63.26m) and Latvia&rsquo;s Anete Kocina (62.75m), while China&rsquo;s three-time medal winner Lyu Huihui, now 34, has a season&rsquo;s best of 62.35m.
Serbia&rsquo;s 19-year-old Adriana Vilagos threw a 63.52m PB to retain the world U20 title last year in Cali and has a season&rsquo;s best of 61.87m from her fourth-place finish in Lausanne.
Barber and Little are backed up on the Australian team by 41-year-old Kathryn Mitchell, sixth in the last three Olympic finals, who threw 61.84m at Eisenstadt in Austria on 26 July.
&nbsp;
<h2>Men's javelin</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/javelin-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/javelin-throw/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/javelin-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/javelin-throw/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/javelin-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
To date, Jakub Vadlejch has competed at 13 major championships at global and continental level. At the 14th time of asking, could it finally be his moment to hit the bullseye? The 2023 form book would suggest that there is a pretty good chance.
The 32-year-old pride of the Dukla Prague club that once boasted the imperious Czech king of distance running, Emil Zatopek, is the world leader thanks to a 89.51m throw at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on 13 June. He also boasts the year&rsquo;s fourth and fifth best throws, 88.63m and 88.38m, and finished his preparations for his sixth World Championships with a victory in the Monaco Diamond League meeting on 21 July.
Vadlejch won with 85.95m in Monte Carlo ahead of Julian Weber&rsquo;s 84.23m, his third victory in four head-to-heads this year against the German who snatched the European title from his grasp in Munich twelve months ago. He also got the better of Anderson Peters, the Grenadian who retained the world title in Oregon last year, for the fourth time in four encounters in 2023.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6f24e6b0-9ddd-4121-8c84-b7e64d4b5fc4.png" alt="Jakub Vadlejch in the javelin at the IAAF World Championships London 2017" />
Jakub Vadlejch in the javelin at the World Championships London 2017 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
It is six years now since Vadlejch came close to claiming the world title that his long-time coach and mentor Jan Zelezny captured in 1993, 1995 and 2001. In London in 2017 he was beaten by 16cm by Weber&rsquo;s former German teammate Johannes Vetter. He also took Olympic silver in Tokyo behind India&rsquo;s Neeraj Chopra, and world bronze in Oregon in 2022, behind Peters and Chopra.
Peters headed to Oregon last year as the clear favourite and was a class apart in the final, landing three 90m-plus throws. In 2023 his form has been fitful as he seeks to emulate Zelezny as a three-time world champion.
He stands sixth on the world list with 85.88m, which he threw for third place behind Chopra (88.67m) and Vadlejch (88.63) in the opening Diamond League meeting in Doha on 5 May. Fifth in Ostrava and Lausanne and fourth in Monaco, he has only won once on the European circuit, in Dessau in June.
On form, Weber and Chopra look to be the biggest threats to Vadlejch.
Weber stands second on the world list with the 88.72m throw that won him the German title in Kassel on 8 July and beat Vadlejch in Lausanne, finishing runner up to Chopra. Having filled fourth place in Oregon last year and at the Tokyo Olympics, the man from Mainz will be on a global medal mission in Budapest.
Chopra&rsquo;s winning throw in Lausanne, 88.67m, puts him third on the world list. In fact, the Olympic champion heads to Hungary with an unbeaten record, the Diamond League in Doha having been his only other competition in 2023.
Aside from Vadlejch, Weber, Chopra and Peters, three other potential podium contenders have ventured beyond 85 metres.
Nine-time Belgian champion Timothy Herman threw 88.67m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi back on 13 May but has managed a best of only 81.67m since then. The Finn Oliver Helander, eighth in Oregon last year, threw 87.32m as runner-up to Vadlejch in Turku.
Keshorn Walcott, the 2012 Olympic champion from Trinidad and Tobago, threw 85.85m at Kuortane on 17 June and took third place behind Vadlejch and Weber in Monaco.
Hungary has yet to produce a medal winner in the event but the home crowd in the magnificent new National Athletics Centre will get the chance to see a potential podium contender, of the near future if not quite the present, in Gyorgy Herczeg.
On 9 August, the day after his 19th birthday, the dynamic teenager claimed the European U20 title in Jerusalem. His winning throw was 79.45m &ndash; modest in comparison with the monster effort of 84.98m that he unleashed in the World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting at Eisenstadt in Austria on 26 July.
It eclipsed the European U20 record of 84.69m held since 2011 by Latvia&rsquo;s Zigismunds Sirmais that had stood since 2011. It was also a Hungarian record and the second farthest ever by an U20 athlete, bettered only by Chopra's 86.48m from the 2016 World U20 Championships.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's javelin

WCH Budapest 23 preview: javelin

<h2>Men's hammer</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/hammer-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/hammer-throw/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/hammer-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/hammer-throw/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/hammer-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
The last time that Pawel Fajdek did not finish on top of the men's hammer podium at the World Championships was 2011, when Japan&rsquo;s Koji Murofushi took the title. Now, at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, the Polish great goes for a sixth successive victory, one that would match the record number of world titles won in a single event achieved by Sergey Bubka in the pole vault between 1983 and 1997.
But it is another Polish global gold medallist &ndash; Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki&nbsp;&ndash; who is the clear world No.1 in the event right now. Fajdek and Nowicki have clashed a total of 123 times in their career so far, with Fajdek leading that head-to-head record, 90-33. But Nowicki has finished ahead of Fajdek in their last eight competitions and he also got the upper hand at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, when he threw a PB of 82.52m to win his first global gold. That came after he gained bronze in Rio, and medals of the same colour at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, London in 2017 and Beijing in 2015.
While Nowicki leads this season&rsquo;s top list with his 81.92m throw from the Oslo Diamond League, and goes into the competition in Budapest as the favourite, the 34-year-old is not unbeaten this year and there are some strong contenders if he is not in top form come 20 August.
Nowicki has eight wins to his name so far in 2023, but he has finished second on two occasions &ndash; first to Rudy Winkler at the Irena Szewinska Memorial in Bydgoszcz on 6 June and then to Mykhaylo Kokhan at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Szekesfehervar on 18 July.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dcb504634aca8369109782.jpg" alt="Mykhaylo Kokhan in Oregon" />
Mykhaylo Kokhan in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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USA&rsquo;s Winkler finished seventh at the Tokyo Olympics and sixth at last year&rsquo;s World Championships on home soil in Oregon, but this season he sits second on the world top list behind Nowicki with his 80.88m throw at the USATF Throws Festival&nbsp;in Arizona in May.
Ukraine&rsquo;s 22-year-old Kokhan set his PB of 80.78m in Szekesfehervar in 2021 and he recorded 79.37m &ndash; his farthest throw in two years &ndash; to win again in the Hungarian city last month. That performance came three days after Kokhan&rsquo;s European U23 title win in Espoo and he will be hoping for more success on his return to Hungary as he targets a first senior world medal after his world U18 gold in 2017 and world U20 silver in 2018.
Bence Halasz carries home hopes. The Hungarian 26-year-old, who claimed world bronze in Doha in 2019, finished fifth in Oregon last year and set his PB of 80.92m when finishing second to Nowicki at the European Championships last August. He has a best of 78.27m in 2023, achieved in his most recent competition &ndash; on home soil in Szombathely &ndash; on 30 July.
One place above him on the entry list is Ethan Katzberg, who threw a PB of 78.73m to win the Canadian title at the end of July. Along with Fajdek, who has a best of 78.10m in 2023, Mexico&rsquo;s Diego del Real and Denzel Comenentia of the Netherlands have also surpassed 78 metres so far this year, with respective marks of 78.05m and 78.01m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Women's hammer</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/hammer-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/hammer-throw/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/hammer-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/hammer-throw/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/hammer-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
In May Brooke Andersen became the third athlete in history to surpass 80 metres in the women&rsquo;s hammer, throwing 80.17m in Tucson. Now the 27-year-old aims to become the third athlete in World Athletics Championships history to become a multiple gold medallist.
Andersen claimed her world crown with a 78.96m throw on home soil in Oregon, winning by more than three metres ahead of Camryn Rogers. But Rogers is also in PB form in 2023 and threw a Canadian record of 78.62m in Los Angeles in May.
Andersen has this season&rsquo;s top five winning performances to her name, backing up her 80.17m with marks of 79.80m, 78.79m, 78.69m and 78.65m, and she has won all bar one of her 10 competitions. Rogers has six of the top 12 this year and has also contested 10 competitions so far, winning eight of them. One of those wins was at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on 26 May, when she handed Andersen her single defeat.
Sitting ahead of Andersen on the world all-time list are world record-holder Anita Wlodarczyk, who threw 82.98m in 2016, and her US compatriot DeAnna Price, who recorded 80.31m in 2021.
Both Wlodarczyk and Price are also in action in Budapest. For Wlodarczyk, who has four world titles and three Olympic gold medals to her name, it is a return to the world stage after she missed last year&rsquo;s edition in Oregon due to injury sustained while apprehending a thief who had broken into her car.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/d1d49c87-78c8-4184-8324-d23bcdc9e303.jpg" alt="Poland's Anita Wlodarczyk in action in the hammer in London" />
Anita Wlodarczyk in action in the hammer in London (&copy; Getty Images)
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Price sits third on this season&rsquo;s top list with the 78.18m throw that got her the runner-up spot behind Andersen at the US Championships and she also has the chance to become a multiple world gold medallist following her 2019 victory in Doha. In Doha she took the title ahead of Poland&rsquo;s Joanna Fiodorow, who is now coach to men&rsquo;s Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki, and China&rsquo;s Wang Zheng.
That is one of three world medals claimed by Wang so far and the 35-year-old, who also claimed Olympic silver in Tokyo, will be looking to improve on her season&rsquo;s best of 74.12m to again put her in medal contention.
Wlodarczyk is one place ahead of Wang on the entry list, the Polish legend having thrown 74.81m in Banska Bystrica on 20 July.
USA&rsquo;s Janee' Kassanavoid claimed bronze in Oregon and will be aiming for the podium again. She goes into the competition at No.4 on this season&rsquo;s top list with a best of 76.60m from May.
Jillian Shippee is the fourth member of the US team in Budapest and she has thrown a 74.93m PB this year.
Finland&rsquo;s 20-year-old Silja Kosonen claimed the world U20 title in 2021 and she contests her second senior World Championships after finishing seventh on her debut in Oregon last year.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the men's and women's hammer

WCH Budapest 23 preview: hammer

<h2>Women's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
At the Tokyo Olympic Games, the hopes held by Sandra Perkovic of Croatia of winning a third consecutive title were ended by a breakthrough victory by Valarie Allman of the United States, who claimed gold with 68.98m.
Perkovic ended up in that most painful position &ndash; fourth &ndash; with a best of 65.01m.
There was a further blow for the hugely competitive Croatian in April 2022 as Allman threw a massive personal best of 71.46m, five centimetres farther than Perkovic&rsquo;s best and enough to bump her out of the world all-time top 15.
But later that year the 32-year-old Croatian offered startling evidence that she was still a serious contender at the top level as she produced a season&rsquo;s best of 68.45m to beat her US rival at the World Championships in Oregon.
Gold, however, went to China&rsquo;s Feng Bin, who produced a personal best of 69.12m to upset the form book. Allman took bronze with 68.30m, becoming the first US woman to win a world medal in the event.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62d8b6d4db65cb1314141b43.jpg" alt="Feng Bin in the discus at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Feng Bin in the discus at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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This year, however, the 28-year-old from Delaware produced another stellar effort at the same Triton Stadium in San Diego where she had thrown her personal best, recording 70.25m, which puts her top of this year&rsquo;s world list.
Feng, however, will defend her title from a place of strength, having thrown a best of 66.81m this year. She has won five of her six competitions this season, throwing beyond 66 metres in four of those. She also won the Asian title last month in her last competition before heading to Budapest.
European bronze medallist Jorinde van Klinken has a best this year of 67.05m, set in the throws-friendly venue of La Jolla, but she backed it up with a 66.77m victory at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
Olympic silver medallist Kristin Pudenz was disappointed to place 11th in Oregon last year, but she rebounded to take European silver on home soil with a PB of 67.87m. Her best throw this season, 66.84m, came when winning at the European Team Championships.
She is one of three Germans to have thrown beyond 66 metres this year; teammates Shanice Craft and Claudine Vita will be aiming to at least feature in the final.
Melina Robert-Michon will be competing at her 10th World Championships. The 44-year-old from France has reached eight World Championships finals to date, taking silver in 2013 and bronze in 2017. Her best this year is 65.49m, the sixth-best throw of her career.
Chioma Onyekwere will be aiming to make her first World Championships final, having missed out in 2019 and 2022. Earlier this year the Commonwealth and two-time African champion set a continental record of 64.96m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Men's discus</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/discus-throw/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/discus-throw/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/discus-throw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Sweden&rsquo;s Daniel Stahl, world and then European silver medallist in 2017 and 2018 respectively, broke through for world gold in Doha in 2019 and followed up by winning the Olympic title in Tokyo two years later.
But another talent was rising; Slovenia&rsquo;s Kristjan Ceh, who had finished fifth in the Tokyo Olympic final, earned the world title in Oregon last year with a championship record of 71.13m.
Another talent was also rising in the form of Lithuania&rsquo;s 19-year-old Mykolas Alekna, son of the double Olympic champion Virgilijus. He took silver in Oregon with 69.27m, becoming the youngest world discus medallist.
And a month later, even more extraordinarily, he beat Ceh and all three Olympic medallists &ndash; Stahl, his Swedish teammate Simon Pettersson and Lukas Weisshaidinger &ndash; to take gold at the European Championships in Munich with a championship record of 69.78m.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dcde81076391b172d7c58b.jpg" alt="Daniel Stahl at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Daniel Stahl at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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This year the rivalry has been renewed in earnest.
In California in April, Alekna became the youngest discus thrower in history to throw beyond 70 metres, moving up to 18th on the world all-time list with 71.00m, a European U23 record and an early leader on the 2023 world list.
Only another 3.88m to match his dad&rsquo;s best, set in 2000, which puts him second on the world all-time list behind the world record of 74.08m set in 1986 by East Germany&rsquo;s Jurgen Schult.
Ceh has taken the initiative in the Diamond League, winning in Doha &ndash; with a meeting record of 70.89m &ndash; Rabat and Stockholm.
In June in the Estonian town of Johvi, Ceh and Stahl put together a monumental contest which ended with the Slovenian winning in a personal best of 71.86m, the best seen in 2023, which saw him join Stahl and Russia&rsquo;s Yuri Dumchev at joint fourth place on the world all-time list.
But Stahl will have taken huge encouragement in Estonia from finishing second with 71.45m, which leaves him second on this year&rsquo;s world list.
And at the London Diamond League meeting in July, the Olympic champion served notice that he is not to be underestimated in Budapest as he won with 67.03m, with Matt Denny of Australia finishing second with 66.77m and Ceh third with 66.02m.
Meanwhile Olympic bronze medallist Weisshaidinger is fourth on the 2023 list with 70.68m, with Alex Rose of Samoa next on 70.39m. It&rsquo;s the first season in 40 years in which five or more men have thrown beyond 70 metres in the discus.
Lithuania&rsquo;s 2017 world champion and 2018 European champion Andrius Gudzius has thrown 67.66m this year and should not be underestimated.
Nor indeed should another Alekna, Mykolas&rsquo;s 22-year-old brother Martynas, who is 12th on the world list with 67.23m, one place above Olympic fourth-place finisher Denny (66.84m).
Like Lithuania, Jamaica also boasts three strong challengers: Roje Stona, who threw 68.84m in May, 2018 Commonwealth champion and 2019 world silver medallist Fedrick Dacres, and national champion Traves Smikle.
Mike Rowbottom&nbsp;for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's discus

WCH Budapest 23 preview: discus

<h2>Men's&nbsp; shot put</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/shot-put" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/shot-put/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/shot-put/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/shot-put/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/shot-put" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Ryan Crouser is an enigma.
The last time the US shot putter recorded a throw that was shorter than 22 metres was in April last year. Since then, he&rsquo;s broken his own world record and currently owns 17 of the 21 throws beyond 23 metres.
And unfortunately for his rivals, the 30-year-old insists he&rsquo;s still got a lot left in his tank.
When Crouser recorded his historic performance at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix in May by setting a world record of 23.56m, improving on his mark of 23.37m from 2021, the two-time Olympic champion stated: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really excited because it didn&rsquo;t feel polished. It felt like I had a tonne of power and I caught a big one.&rdquo;
One can only wonder what a &lsquo;polished&rsquo; throw from the defending world champion would look like, but that&rsquo;s for his rivals to find out.
Crouser led the US to their first ever shot put sweep in Oregon last year, taking the crown with a championship record of 22.94m, with 2019 world champion Joe Kovacs taking silver, and Josh Awotunde (22.10m) the bronze. Thanks to Crouser&rsquo;s wildcard as defending champion, the USA will field four men in the shot put, so their chances of another medal sweep will be improved with the inclusion of Payton Otterdahl.
The battle for medals will be intense, though. Two-time gold medallist Kovacs comes with a season&rsquo;s best of 22.69m set during his first outdoor competition in 2023. Tom Walsh, meanwhile, has a best of 22.58m, but the New Zealander has finished ahead of Kovacs in three of their four clashes this season. Having finished fourth in Oregon last year, Walsh will be keen to make it back on to the podium.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dcce4d52696fdc29b5f043.jpg" alt="Joe Kovacs in Oregon" />
Joe Kovacs in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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His compatriot Jacko Gill has reached the final at the past six global championships, and after setting a PB of 22.12m earlier this year, the 28-year-old should fancy his chances of improving on his seventh-place finishes from 2019 and 2022.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Rajindra Campbell sits in fourth on the world lists with the national record of 22.22m he set in Madrid, more than two metres farther than his pre-2023 best. The 27-year-old has the ability to compete for medals, but this will be his first global championships.
Earlier this month, Olympic fifth-place finisher Zane Weir posted a PB of 22.15m to win in Vicenza. His teammate Leonardo Fabbri beat Walsh and Tomas Stanek at the Rome Diamond League with 21.73m, and improved his season&rsquo;s best to 21.81m two weeks later. The Italian duo will hope to put up a formidable performance in Budapest.
World indoor champion Darlan Romani, the last man to beat Crouser at a major championships, has competed just once this year, throwing a best of 21.58m. But the Brazilian has finished in the top five at the past six global championships he has contested, so can never be ruled out.
Stanek, the 2021 European indoor champion, has a best this year of 21.90m, set when taking silver at the European Indoor Championships.
Other potential contenders include European champion Filip Mihaljevic, five-time Mexican champion Uziel Munoz multiple African champion Chukwuebuka Enekwechi and Luxembourg&rsquo;s Bob Bertemes.
&nbsp;
<h2>Women's shot put</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/shot-put" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/shot-put/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/throws/shot-put/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/throws/shot-put/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/throws/shot-put" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
One year on from Chase Ealey winning her country&rsquo;s first world title in the women&rsquo;s shot put, the US squad heads to Budapest with strong medal chances once again.
Ealey has been working on a new technique this year, which she hopes will be the key to her improving on her PB of 20.51m. While she has been working on ironing out the kinks of her throw, she has lost some of the consistency she enjoyed in 2022 when she was undefeated for the entire outdoor season.
Nevertheless, she remains one of the best throwers in the world, and she goes into Budapest with the second-best mark in the world this year.
Teammate Maggie Ewen goes to Budapest as the world leader and perhaps the most consistent performer on the circuit, having finished in the top two in eight of her past nine competitions. She smashed her PB with 20.45m in Westwood in May, then went on to win the US title in Eugene.
Ewen finished fourth at the 2019 World Championships and fifth at last year&rsquo;s World Indoors, but it looks as though she could finally claim her first global medal in Budapest.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dccf349b2e7955cdbf69e6.jpg" alt="Maggie Ewen at the World Championships" />
Maggie Ewen at the World Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
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Ealey and Ewen have gone head-to-head in 10 meetings this season (indoors and outdoors) and tied at 5-5. Teammates Adelaide Aquilla and Jalani Davis will also aim to impress.
With 12 global medals to her name &ndash; including two world titles and an Olympic gold &ndash; Gong Lijiao is the most decorated athlete in the line-up. She hasn&rsquo;t competed outside of China so far this year, but has displayed good form with a season&rsquo;s best of 20.06m at the end of June.
Teammate Song Jiayuan, a world and Olympic finalist in recent years, heads to Budapest off the back of victories at the Asian Championships and World University Games.
Portugal&rsquo;s Auriol Dongmo has also enjoyed a strong season so far, winning at the Diamond League meetings in Rabat and Paris. Having finished fourth in Tokyo and fifth in Oregon, the world indoor champion will have a strong desire to win her first outdoor global medal.
In Oregon last year, Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands beat Canada&rsquo;s Sarah Mitton to the bronze medal on countback, both throwing 19.77m. Mitton then went on to win the Commonwealth and NACAC titles. Mitton has thrown consistently beyond 19 metres this year, while Schilder has managed that feat just twice outdoors.
Danniel Thomas-Dodd, the world silver medallist in 2019, has this year improved her own Jamaican record to 19.77m. She followed that with 19.66m two weeks later, the second-best mark of her career, and then won at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
Fanny Roos, the fourth-place finisher at the 2022 World Indoors, is joined on the Swedish team by NCAA champion Axelina Johansson, the rising talent who has this year broken Roos&rsquo; national records, indoors and outdoors.
Germany, meanwhile, will be represented by Yemisi Ogunleye and Sara Gambetta, both of whom have surpassed 19 metres for the first time this year.
Yemi Olus-Galadima for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the men's and women's shot put

WCH Budapest 23 preview: shot put

<h2>Women's triple jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/triple-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/triple-jump/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/triple-jump/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/triple-jump/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/triple-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Since 2017 only one woman has stood on the top of the triple jump podium at global major championships: Venezuela&rsquo;s Yulimar Rojas. The queen of the discipline will look to continue her reign at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
After becoming the first woman to win three world titles in the discipline in Oregon last year, the 27-year-old has the chance to go for a record-extending fourth victory. If successful, Rojas will own a quarter of all the women&rsquo;s triple jump titles in World Athletics Championships history, following the discipline&rsquo;s introduction to the programme in 1993.
She won in London in 2017 with a 14.91m jump, in Doha in 2019 with a 15.37m leap and in Oregon in 2022 with 15.47m. During that time she also became an Olympic champion, winning in Tokyo with a then world record of 15.67m, and she took her tally of world indoor title wins to three, topped by the phenomenal 15.74m she soared to set an outright world record at the 2022 edition in Belgrade.
The last time Rojas was beaten in her specialism was more than two years ago and although she lost when making her senior global championships debut at the Olympics in Rio, she still secured silver.
In 2023 she has extended her total of 15-metre-plus jumps to 44, those performances including a 15.16m win at the Central American and Caribbean Games and a 15.18m victory at the Diamond League meeting in Silesia.
That&rsquo;s a barrier that two other athletes on the entry list have surpassed in their career so far. USA&rsquo;s Jasmine Moore jumped an area record of 15.12m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque in March, while Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk leapt 15.02m to win the European title in Munich last August.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/287b5eb0-c857-40af-8e8d-634a528f565a.jpg" alt="Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019" />
Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)
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That NCAA performance saw Moore become the first woman in history to surpass seven metres in the long jump and 15 metres in the triple jump indoors, as she completed a jumps double having won the long jump title with a 7.03m leap. Bekh-Romanchuk is also a double talent and has won global medals in both disciplines &ndash; world outdoor silver in the long jump in Doha in 2019 and world indoor silver in the triple jump in Belgrade in 2022. With runner-up finishes in the Diamond League in Rabat and Silesia this year, Bekh-Romanchuk will be pushing for the podium once more and both she and Moore are also entered for the long jump in Budapest.
While the 15-metre mark has eluded her so far, Cuba&rsquo;s Leyanis Perez Hernandez has come incredibly close, jumping 14.98m to secure silver behind Rojas at the Central American and Caribbean Games on 5 July. The 21-year-old, who finished fourth in the world final in Oregon last year, claimed her first Diamond League win in Rabat, beating Bekh-Romanchuk and Jamaica&rsquo;s Shanieka Ricketts, who is also among the contenders in Budapest. Ricketts claimed world silver medals behind Rojas in Doha and Oregon and also finished fourth at the Olympics in Tokyo.
Perez Hernandez is joined on the Cuban team by Olympic fifth-place finisher Liadagmis Povea, while the entry list also includes Jamaica&rsquo;s NCAA champion Ackelia Smith, world fifth-place finisher Thea LaFond of Commonwealth of Dominica, Bahamian record-holder Charisma Taylor, and USA&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Tori Franklin and Keturah Orji, who finished ahead of Moore at the US Championships.
&nbsp;
<h2>Men's triple jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/triple-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/triple-jump/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/triple-jump/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/triple-jump/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/triple-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
While there is an outstanding favourite in the women&rsquo;s event, the men&rsquo;s features several contenders. And the late withdrawal of defending champion Pedro Pablo Pichardo has thrown the event open even further.
Jaydon Hibbert is the world leader and world U20 record-holder, Hugues Fabrice Zango is the world indoor record-holder and a three-time global medallist, and Lazaro Martinez is the world indoor champion.
They fill the top three spots on the entry list.
Jamaica&rsquo;s Hibbert has steadily been building on the breakthrough that saw him win the world U20 title in Cali last year. Aged just 17, his reaction to jumping a championship record of 17.27m in the very first round of that competition proved how much it meant. Overcome with emotion, he grabbed his head and then collapsed to the track in shock.
That performance came a year after he secured world U20 silver in Nairobi and he has since become the indoor and outdoor NCAA champion, who jumped a world U20 record of 17.87m at the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge on 13 May. He has backed that up with 17.68m to win the Jamaican title, 17.66m to finish second at the Diamond League in Monaco &ndash; his first competition in Europe &ndash; and 17.56m to win the NCAA title.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62ec2ad2503ab612b9e4bc10.jpg" alt="Jaydon Hibbert in triple jump qualification at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22" />
Jaydon Hibbert in triple jump qualification at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 (&copy; Marta Gorczynska)
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Hibbert has four of the top eight performances so far this season and Zango has three, led by the 17.81m he recorded to finish second at the Diamond League meeting in Doha.
Burkina Faso&rsquo;s Zango, the world silver medallist in Oregon last year who also has Olympic and bronze medals on his CV, has won all bar two of his competitions in 2023, finishing second at the Diamond League meetings in Doha and Florence, and then winning in Monaco.
At the World Indoor Championships last year, Martinez overcame years of injury struggles to add a senior world title to the world U18 and U20 crowns he claimed between 2013 and 2016.
So far this year, the Cuban has finished third at the Diamond League in Florence and fourth in Doha and Monaco, with a season&rsquo;s best of 17.51m set when winning at the Central American and Caribbean Games.
Zhu Yaming made the podium in Tokyo and Oregon, claiming Olympic silver and world bronze, and will want to challenge for a top three spot again. He set his PB of 17.57m in Tokyo and has a best this season of 17.36m, set when winning at the Chinese Championships in June.
Indian record-holder Praveen Chithravel will hope to build on the PB of 17.37m he set in Havana in May that puts him fifth on this season&rsquo;s top list, while others pushing for top eight places will be Algeria&rsquo;s Yasser Mohammed Triki and Cuba&rsquo;s Cristian Napoles. Four-time world medallist Will Claye features on the US team along with Chris Benard and Donald Scott.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's triple jump

WCH Budapest 23 preview: triple jump

<h2>Men's long jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/long-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/long-jump/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/long-jump/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/long-jump/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/long-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Two Indian athletes head the men&rsquo;s long jump top list going into the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. One of them made the final in Oregon last year, finishing seventh; the other exited the championships in the qualifying round. This year, they have both set PBs: 8.42m by Jeswin Aldrin and 8.41m by Murali Sreeshankar, and it remains to be seen if the pair can replicate that form on the big stage, considering that Wang Jianan&rsquo;s winning mark in Oregon was 8.36m. Wang&rsquo;s season&rsquo;s best this season is 8.26m.
Aldrin achieved his spectacular leap while competing at the Indian Open Jumps Competition held at his training ground, the Inspire Institute of Sport in Bellary, India. His most recent outing this year was at the CITIUS Meeting in Bern, which he won with 8.22m.
His teammate Sreeshankar, who is sixth on the world rankings, broke ground with his PB of 8.41m to win the Indian Championships. The Commonwealth Games silver medallist has also been active on the circuit and has competed in two Diamond League meetings this season, placing third in Paris in 8.09m, and fifth in Lausanne.
Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou has consistently jumped beyond eight metres this season and will set his sights on upgrading his silver from Oregon to gold in Budapest. With victories in Paris, the Gyulai Istvan Memorial, the European Team Championships and Greek Championships, where he recorded 8.38m, the 25-year-old looks good for gold. His strongest showing this year was at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais where he jumped a world-indoor-leading 8.41m.
Taipei&rsquo;s Lin Yu-Tang broke through the ranks to third on the global standings with his 8.40m jump posted at last month&rsquo;s Asian Championships in Bangkok. His only competition outside Asia this season was the Brisbane Track Classic in Australia where he placed third with 7.97m and he now prepares to make his World Championships debut.
The Jamaican squad of Carey McLeod (8.40m), Wayne Pinnock (8.37m) and 2019 world gold medallist Tajay Gayle (8.27m) will be on a mission to reclaim the title Gayle lost in Oregon. The 27-year-old failed to record a legal jump during the qualifying rounds, and will aim to make amends this time.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/e8d416fd-e28b-4635-9a12-30fd3c17b716.jpg" alt="Tajay Gayle at the 2019 World Championships" />
Tajay Gayle at the 2019 World Championships (&copy; AFP/Getty Images)
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Jamaican champion Pinnock won the 2022 NCAA title, while McLeod upstaged him this year to win the gold. McLeod makes his World Championships debut, as does Namibian Chenault Lionel Coetzee who set a national record of 8.27m back in April &ndash; the ninth longest jump this season (tied with Gayle).
Last year&rsquo;s bronze medal winner Simon Ehammer of Switzerland leapt a season&rsquo;s best of 8.32m in Oslo and placed second in Paris with 8.11m, but just above him is the US champion Marquis Dendy whose season&rsquo;s best of 8.34m puts him in seventh place on the top list. Also on the US team are Jarrion Lawson, the silver medallist from London in 2017 whose season&rsquo;s best is 8.13m, and Steffin McCarter, who was fifth in Oregon.
Italy&rsquo;s newly crowned European U20 champion and teenage sensation Mattia Furlani has had quite a season. The 18-year-old upstaged the rest of the field to snatch the win in a lifetime best of 8.24m at the FBK Games, and went on to set an outstanding, though slightly wind-aided, distance of 8.44m (2.2m/s) in Savona, and is certainly one to watch.
&nbsp;
<h2>Women's long jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/long-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/long-jump/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/long-jump/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/long-jump/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/long-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
A new winner will emerge in the women&rsquo;s long jump and with four athletes having jumped seven metres or more this season, and with eight of them within the 6.90m range, the stage is set for an electrifying contest.
Germany&rsquo;s 2019 and 2022 winner Malaika Mihambo, who also won Olympic gold in Tokyo, is out of the championships due to injury, and her rivals would no doubt cherish their prospect of one less hurdle to surmount.
Topping the world standings is Jamaican Ackelia Smith, who soared to a PB of 7.08m to win the Big 12 Conference Championships, taking her to second on the Jamaican all-time list. The 21-year-old NCAA champion will hope to become the first Jamaican woman in World Championships history to win a medal in the event.
Over the years, USA have won a total of eight gold medals, and the trio of Tara Davis-Woodhall, Quanesha Burks and Jasmine Moore will aim to continue that tradition, with four-time winner Brittney Reese being the last champion from the US (2017).
Ranked fourth in the world, Davis-Woodhall has gone over seven metres three times this season, including a wind-aided mark of 7.11m (2.1m/s) set at the USATF Bermuda Grand Prix back in May, and a season&rsquo;s best of 7.07m two weeks prior. The US champion has recorded top three finishes in her three Diamond League appearances this season, and having missed out on competing at the World Championships last year, the 24-year-old will have a point to prove in Budapest. &nbsp;
Moore will be going for the long jump and triple jump double at these championships, as she did in Oregon last year, and will first compete in the former. With a PB leap of 7.03m, which she posted to win at the NCAA Indoor Championships, the 22-year-old will hope to replicate that form once again.
Burks was beaten to the bronze medal in Oregon by Brazilian Leticia Oro Melo, whose jump of 6.89m was just 1cm farther than the US athlete&rsquo;s. Burks&rsquo; victory at the London Diamond League, where she jumped 6.98m, will be a big boost to her confidence ahead of the championships.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64dbb4c9be13c10980071d9c.jpg" alt="Quanesha Burks in Oregon" />
Quanesha Burks in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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While her rise in the women&rsquo;s long jump would appear as sudden to some, it is evident that Larissa Iapichino has been putting in the work as she follows in the footsteps of her mum, two-time world champion Fiona May. The European U23 champion, who won the U20 title in 2019, stunned the likes of Mihambo and Ivana Vuleta to secure three consecutive Diamond League victories, first on her home turf in Florence, and then in Stockholm and Monaco, where she was inspired to a PB of 6.95m.
The city of Budapest holds some significance for the silver medallist at this year&rsquo;s European Indoor Championships. Exactly 25 years ago, her mother ascended to the long-standing Italian record of 7.11m during the 1998 European Championships where she claimed a silver medal, and as the 21-year-old heads to the same city, a thought on her mind must be breaking that record, having already erased her indoor national record of 6.91m, replacing it with 6.97m.
With an illustrious career spanning nearly two decades and with a massive PB of 7.24m, two world indoor titles, two World Championships bronze medals and four Diamond League trophies among many other impressive laurels, clinching a long-evasive global gold medal would be the prefect icing for Vuleta. Coming with a best this year of 6.98m, which she set at the European Indoor Championships where she won bronze, the 33-year-old Serbian has shown no signs of slowing down.
Great Britain&rsquo;s Jazmin Sawyers will be making her fourth appearance at the World Championships, and replicating her 7.00m jump at the European Indoor Championships where she struck gold, would greatly improve her chances for a medal.
Asian champion Sumire Hata (6.97m), Romanian Alina Rotaru-Kottmann (6.96m), Marthe Koala (6.94m) of Burkina Faso and Serbian Milica Gardasevic (6.91m) are hitting form at the right time.
Silver medallist from Oregon, Ese Brume, will target a longer jump than her season&rsquo;s best of 6.81m if she&rsquo;s to be in contention for a medal. The same is the case for Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, the silver medallist at Doha 2019, whose best jump this year is 6.59m recorded at the Diamond League in Florence. The 2022 European champion will also compete for honours in the triple jump.
Yemi Olus-Galadima for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the men's and women's long jump

WCH Budapest 23 preview: long jump

<h2>Women's pole vault</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/pole-vault" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/pole-vault/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/pole-vault/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/pole-vault/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/pole-vault" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Katie Moon has been the dominant force in the women&rsquo;s pole vault for a third successive outdoor season. The Olympic champion in Tokyo and the world champion on home soil in Oregon last year, the 32-year-old US vaulter has notched victories on the Diamond League circuit in Doha, Florence and Lausanne and heads the 2023 world outdoor list with the 4.90m clearance that earned her a first US outdoor title on a happy return to Hayward Field on 9 July.
With vaults of 4.82m, 4.81m and 4.80m also to her name, Moon boasts four of the top six marks this year, heading into the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. However, the former gymnast has been beaten three times, no-heighting at the Drake Relays in May, finishing third behind Australia&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games champion Nina Kennedy and France&rsquo;s Margot Chevrier in Paris, and second on countback to Finland&rsquo;s Wilma Murto in the London Diamond League on 23 July.
Murto cleared a season&rsquo;s best 4.80m in the English capital and the victory will have provided a timely psychological boost to the 25-year-old who improved by a staggering 13cm to claim the European title with a 4.85m clearance in Munich last year. Making the podium at global level would represent further progression for the flying Finn, who won the European indoor title in Istanbul in March. She finished joint sixth in Oregon last year and equal fifth at the Tokyo Olympics.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63512bcc0305c94d95d90fc8.jpg" alt="Wilma Murto competes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo" />
Wilma Murto competes at the Olympic Games in Tokyo (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
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For Moon, apart from the chance of landing a first global gold medal under her married name, there is the prospect of becoming only the third woman to win back-to-back world outdoor titles, following in the footsteps of her compatriot Stacy Dragila (1999-2001) and Russia&rsquo;s Yelena Isinbayeva (2005-2007).
As Katie Nageotte, she won on countback in Oregon last year from US teammate and former training partner Sandi Morris, both women scaling 4.85m, with Kennedy third (4.80m), Slovenia&rsquo;s Tina Sutej fourth and Greece&rsquo;s former world and Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi fifth (both 4.70m).
Morris, runner up in the last three world outdoor finals, beat Moon to world indoor gold in Belgrade in March last year but has endured a disappointing outdoor season. The 31-year-old&rsquo;s season&rsquo;s best, 4.71m, dates back to the Doha Diamond League meeting on 5 May, when she finished third to Moon and Sutej. Her other Diamond League outings have yielded fifth-place finishes in Florence and Paris, and sixth in London.
Sutej, the world indoor bronze medallist, cleared a season&rsquo;s best of 4.76m in Doha and the Slovenian vaulter has also finished second in Florence, third in London and fourth in Lausanne. She was second to Moon (4.83m) on the 2023 indoor lists, with 4.82m
Kennedy is just ahead on season&rsquo;s outdoor bests courtesy of a 4.77m vault that secured victory in Paris. The 2022 Diamond League final winner has also placed third in Paris and fourth in London.
Second to Moon on the world outdoor list in Eliza McCartney, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist who has been plagued by achilles tendon trouble in recent years. The 26-year-old New Zealander has only one made one Diamond League appearance in 2023, placing third behind Moon and Murto in Lausanne, but nailed a 4.85m vault at Schifflange in Luxembourg on 30 July, her best mark for four years.
Stefanidi has not finished outside the top five in a global final indoors or out since 2015 but the 33-year-old&rsquo;s stock has fallen somewhat this season. On the Diamond League circuit, she opened with a solid enough fourth-place in Doha but slumped to eighth in Florence and Paris and ninth in Lausanne before rallying to fifth in London with a season&rsquo;s best of 4.62m.
Canada&rsquo;s 2018 Commonwealth champion Alysha Newman has cleared 4.73m and Chevrier, New Zealander Olivia McTaggart, Britain&rsquo;s Commonwealth silver medallist Molly Caudrey and Bridget Williams of the US have all negotiated 4.71m. Williams went higher indoors, 4.77m, while Amalie Svabikova of the Czech Republic, who took European indoor bronze behind Murto and Sutej in Istanbul, cleared 4.72m.
&nbsp;
<h2>Men's pole vault</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/pole-vault" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/pole-vault/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/pole-vault/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/pole-vault/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/pole-vault" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Twelve months ago Mondo Duplantis was on top of the world in the metaphorical as well as the literal sense as he headed to the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.
Unbeaten in 2022, the peerless Swedish prince of the pole vault had landed the world indoor title with a world record 6.20m clearance and stood 16cm clear of his closest rival on the world outdoor list. He proceeded to claim his first senior world outdoor title with a world record 6.21m. Silver and bronze went to Chris Nilsen of the USA and Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines with 5.94m.
&ldquo;I felt so relaxed and calm going into the championships,&rdquo; Duplantis recalled in a recent interview with <a href="https://worldathletics.org/videos/playlist/latest-videos" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics&rsquo; Inside Track</a>.
This time, it&rsquo;s slightly different. Duplantis goes into the World Championships in Budapest on the back of rare defeat &ndash; only his fourth since 2019. Looking hot and bothered in oppressive conditions at the Monaco Diamond League on 21 July, the world champion and world record-holder finished fourth with a best of 5.72m. &ldquo;It was just a bad day,&rdquo; he insisted.
The fact is the 23-year-old still leads the 2023 world outdoor list, thanks to the 6.12m he cleared in Ostrava in June. He also, of course, improved his world record to 6.22m indoors in Clermont-Ferrand in February &ndash; and he boasts the second best outdoor vault, 6.11m in Hengelo, and five 6-metre-plus outdoor clearances in all in 2023.
The next best on the world outdoor list, KC Lightfoot, set a North American record in Nashville in June, but he and Sam Kendricks, the world champion in 2017 and 2019, finished joint fourth in the US Championships in Eugene on 8 July, failing to make the cut for Budapest.
Of those who could potentially profit from another Duplantis off-day at the World Championships, only Obiena has cleared six metres this year, the man from Manila joining the elite club with an Asian record 6.00m success at Bryggen in Norway on 10 June. Obiena was one of those to claim the Swede&rsquo;s prized scalp in Monaco, finishing second with 5.82m, the same height as third placed Kurtis Marshcall.
Nilsen took the victory with 5.92m, equalling his season&rsquo;s best. The US champion has built up a fine major championship record, finishing runner up to Duplantis at the Olympics in Tokyo and at the World Championships last year, and also third at the World Indoor Championships in 2022.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/64db9d0d6349f8ffac3f13c6.jpg" alt="Chris Nilsen at the World Championships in Oregon" />
Chris Nilsen at the World Championships in Oregon (&copy; Getty Images)
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However, Duplantis is a supreme major championship performer, having claimed five successive titles: European, world outdoor and world indoor in 2022 and Olympic and European indoor in 2021. He was 19 when he suffered his last defeat on the big occasion, as runner up to Kendricks at the 2019 World Championships.
&ldquo;Budapest is the main goal for 2023,&rdquo; he told Inside Track. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s where I want to be at my best. As long as I can get the gold and defend the title, that would make a good year.&rdquo;
Marschall, the former world U20 and two-time Commonwealth champion from Australia, has had a good year, raising his PB to 5.95m at Sotteville in France last month. So has Norway&rsquo;s Sondre Guttormsen. He joined the six-metre club in March, scaling 6.00m at altitude at the NCCA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque and won the European indoor title in Istanbul. Outdoors, he has cleared 5.90m - as has Turkey&rsquo;s Ersu Sasma.
Other possible podium contenders include Zach Bradford and Zach McWhorter, who claimed selection ahead of Lightfoot and Kendricks at the US Championships. They have cleared 5.87m and 5.86m, respectively.
Piotr Lisek boasts a relatively modest season&rsquo;s best of 5.82m but the 30-year-old Pole &ndash; third in 2015, second in 2017 and third in 2019 &ndash; showed the glimpse of a return to form with fourth place behind Duplantis, Kendricks and Nilsen in the Silesia Diamond League meeting.
Simon Turnbull&nbsp;for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's pole vault

WCH Budapest 23 preview: pole vault

<h2>Men's high jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/men/high-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/high-jump/men" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/high-jump/outdoor/men/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/high-jump/outdoor/men/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/high-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
If any moment showed that Qatar&rsquo;s Mutaz Barshim is ready to win a fourth consecutive world high jump title at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, it came at last month&rsquo;s Silesia Diamond League meeting. There, after seeing the Italian with whom he shared the last Olympic title, Gianmarco Tamberi, and Germany&rsquo;s Tobias Potye clear 2.34m at their second attempts &ndash; while he had failed &ndash; Barshim skipped to 2.36m and went over first time to set a world lead and meeting record.
Neither Tamberi nor Potye, for whom 2.34m was a personal best, could proceed further. Once again, the elastic athlete from Doha was bouncing up and down in glee.
Barshim, 32, has had to compete cautiously in recent years to counteract a severe back problem. Tamberi, 31, also returned from an awful ankle injury to re-establish himself at the top. Both have the talent, and character, to win. But you can&rsquo;t help thinking Barshim will find the way again.
Tamberi, however, will have the extra incentive of trying to win a first world outdoor gold to add to his indoor version from 2016. Potye is clearly a medal contender, too.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/623702fab36e2265279fbb93.jpg" alt="Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22" />
Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Another man who could spoil the party for the joint Tokyo Olympic champions is JuVaughn Harrison of the United States, who stands second in the 2023 top list after winning the London Diamond League meeting on 23 July with 2.35m. It was the third Diamond League victory of the season for the 24-year-old from Alabama - a record that bodes well for his World Championships chances.
A strong challenge will also be posed by Korea's Woo Sanghyeok, fourth in Tokyo and who last year won world indoor gold and world outdoor silver.
Look out New Zealand&rsquo;s Commonwealth Games champion Hamish Kerr, who set an Oceanian record of 2.34m indoors this year, plus Australia&rsquo;s Joel Baden and Ukraine&rsquo;s world bronze medallist Andriy Protsenko.
&nbsp;
<h2>Women's high jump</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/budapest23/timetable/bydiscipline/women/high-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/high-jump/women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/jumps/high-jump/outdoor/women/senior/2023" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/jumps/high-jump/outdoor/women/senior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/jumps/high-jump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
Yaroslava Mahuchikh fled the Russian bombardment of her native city of Dnipro last year and, after a six-day car journey, arrived in Belgrade where she added the world indoor high jump title to the world outdoor silver and Olympic bronze she had already collected.
At last year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships in Oregon she missed out on gold on countback. Will Budapest be where this huge talent earns the outdoor global gold she deserves?&nbsp;
Her form this year has maintained its high level - indoors, she headed the world list with 2.02m and won the European title; outdoors she stands second in the top list with a best of 2.01m achieved at the Rabat Diamond League meeting.&nbsp;
But the 21-year-old faces formidable opposition from two athletes who have electrified the event in Australia over the past two years - Eleanor Patterson, who claimed the world title in Oregon after both she and her Ukrainian rival cleared 2.02m, and Nicola Olyslagers, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics as she set the Oceanian record that&nbsp;Patterson later equalled.
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62e9a6b0a83a1d170775300d.jpg" alt="Ealeanor Patterson in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Ealeanor Patterson in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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On 29 June in Lausanne&rsquo;s Place Centrale Olyslagers, 26, matched that record again to defeat a field including Mahuchikh, and at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on 21 July the Australian won the honours as she cleared 1.99m, with Mahuchikh, her Ukraine teammate Iryna Gerashchenko, Patterson and Serbia&rsquo;s Angelina Topic all clearing 1.96m.
Patterson, 27, who took world indoor silver behind Mahuchikh last year, is currently equal ninth on the season top list thanks to that performance. Gerashchenko stands third in the world list with the 2.00m she cleared in Lausanne.
Meanwhile, Serbia will be expecting more from their 18-year-old phenomenon Angelina Topic - whose mother Biljana is the Serbian women&rsquo;s triple jump record-holder who was fourth in the 2009 World Championships, and whose father Dragutin is the Serbian high jump record-holder and winner of the 1990 European title.
In 2022, aged 16, Topic set a Serbian record of 1.96m before going on to take the European U18 title in Jerusalem with 1.92m and world U20 bronze with 1.93m. She concluded her breakthrough season by earning bronze at the European Championships in Munich, again with an effort of 1.93m, becoming the youngest medallist of that edition of the competition.&nbsp;
In January this year she improved her national record to 1.94m. Can this startling talent reach another major podium in the Hungarian capital?
Also moving into medal contender mode is Britain&rsquo;s former heptathlete Morgan Lake, who has cleared 1.97m outdoors and 1.99m indoors this season.
A third Ukrainian is also in the mix - 2017 world silver medallist Yuliia Levchenko, who has jumped 1.98m this season, as has Germany&rsquo;s Christina Honsel.
Jamaica&rsquo;s hopes will be carried by Lamara Distin, who has an indoor height of 1.97m to her credit this year.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

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