<p>The first time Favour Ofili had an inkling she could make a name for herself in athletics was when she made her first national team in 2018.</p>
<p>Just a couple of years prior, she was just a high school student in Delta State, southern Nigeria, with nothing to her name except a firm belief in her talent, ignited in her by her high school coach, Anne Otutu.</p>
<p>Ofili, who is still a teenager, is now rewriting the history books and breaking records.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62723a1e151a99fbd9666d45.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in action at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Favour Ofili in action at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games (&copy; Lukas Schulze for OIS/IOC)</p>
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<p><br />In 2019 she came close to breaking the Nigerian U18 400m best, clocking 51.51 on her way to advancing to the semifinals at the World Championships in Doha. Just a few months after starting her sports administration major at Louisiana State University (LSU), she set an African indoor 200m record of 22.75 and established herself as one of the leading sprinters on the US collegiate circuit.</p>
<p>It&rsquo;s little wonder she has been nicknamed &lsquo;Star Girl&rsquo; by followers of the sport in her home country.</p>
<p>At the end of last month, Ofili stormed to her first legal sub-11-second run in the 100m, racing to a lifetime best of 10.93 (2.0m/s) in Baton Rouge. It puts her third on the Nigerian all-time list, fifth on the African all-time list and fourth on this year&rsquo;s world list.</p>
<p>Earlier in the month, Ofili had registered PBs of 11.11 and 11.00, followed by a wind-assisted 10.90 (4.2m/s). And in Gainesville on 15 April she stormed to a national record of 21.96 over 200m, becoming the first collegiate athlete in history to break 22 seconds in the discipline.</p>
<p>Ofili refuses to get caught up in the excitement of her feats, though.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Since my Nigerian record, nothing has really changed; nothing special has changed,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I am trying to keep my head down and not allow whatever is happening online (the buzz) get to my head. I am just happy and grateful to God for making me the first Nigerian woman to do it (sub-22).</p>
<p>&ldquo;When I ran and I saw the time, 21.96, I was like &lsquo;Oh, okay&rsquo;,&rdquo; she explained in an interview with lsusports.net. &ldquo;It was an expectation that was meant to happen because of hard work. If it (21.96) came now, that means there are still more things that are coming for me when it comes to the 200m. All these things I have achieved now are nothing. People have done it before; I&rsquo;m not the first person to do it.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6272416a3f2f67e625b54c73.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Dan Vernon)</p>
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<p><br />During her early years in the sport, Ofili started out in the 400m. She won the girls&rsquo; 400m title at the 2017 National Youth Games, and then made her international debut at the 2018 African Youth Games in Algiers where she won the 400m in 53.57.</p>
<p>She went on to compete at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, finishing 10th overall, and then enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2019, starting at the African U18 Championships in Abidjan where she won the 200m and 400m in PBs of 23.38 and 52.28. She was later named the most outstanding female athlete of the championships.</p>
<p>Ofili contested both events at the senior Nigerian Championships later in the year, winning the 200m in 23.32 (-1.6m/s) and placing second in the 400m in a PB of 51.90. The latter performance earned Ofili a spot on the team for the African Games in Rabat, where she went on to claim 400m silver in another PB, 51.68, before anchoring Nigeria to gold in the 4x400m.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627241a83f2f67e625b54c79.jpg" alt="Nigeria's victorious 4x400m team at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Nigeria's victorious 4x400m team at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Dan Vernon)</p>
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<p><br />But it was when she secured an athletics scholarship to LSU in 2020 that her career really started to take off.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had always believed that with God everything thing is possible, and that I will be great in track and break records,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;But I knew that everything was going to start falling into place when I decided to come to the States. I knew that was the starting point.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In her freshman (first) year, Ofili won the 200m at the SEC Indoor Championships in 22.75 and reached the final at the NCAA Indoor Championships. She narrowly missed a podium place at the outdoor NCAA Championships, placing fourth in 22.45. Earlier in the season, she reduced her 400m PB to 51.49.</p>
<p>Ofili was looking forward to making her Olympic debut in Tokyo but she was among 10 Nigerian athletes who were barred from competing at the Games as the Nigerian Athletics Federation had not met its target of out-of-competition tests for its athletes.</p>
<p>But Ofili soon brushed aside that disappointment and channelled her energy into the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6272413f3f2f67e625b54c70.jpg" alt="Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Favour Ofili in the 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21 (&copy; Roger Sedres)</p>
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<p><br />She dominated her 200m heat (22.74) and semifinal (22.37) and then earned bronze in the final in a lifetime best of 22.23, finishing behind Olympic silver medallist Christine Mboma and Olympic finalist Beatrice Masilingi of Namibia.</p>
<p>One day after the 200m final, Ofili took bronze in the 4x100m and gold in the 4x400m, anchoring Nigeria to a world U20 lead of 3:31.46, just 0.62 shy of the African U20 record.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The World U20 Championships was a miracle competition for me,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Going into the competition, I was not physically or mentally okay because of what happened with my place on the Olympic team. I went to Nairobi to have fun and, to my greatest surprise, it turned out to be great. I learned a lot from that competition and it helped changed my mind-set.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As the owner of sub-11, sub-22 and sub-52 PBs for 100m, 200m and 400m, Ofili has already displayed remarkable range for a sprinter so young. For now, though, she doesn&rsquo;t want to specialise in one discipline, nor does she want to compare herself to other versatile sprinters such as Allyson Felix and Shericka Jackson.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/627240cc3f2f67e625b54c6d.jpg" alt="Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili (&copy; Roger Sedres)</p>
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<p><br />&ldquo;For now I don&rsquo;t have a permanent event,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I see myself achieving the speed for the shorter sprint events because that's what we (my coach and I) started focusing on from the indoors so we just have to maintain it and keep it going.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Allyson Felix is someone most athletes look up to because she is the most decorated US track and field Olympian,&rdquo; added Ofili. &ldquo;But I don&rsquo;t see myself as &lsquo;the next&rsquo; anyone; I see myself as me, Favour Chukwuka Ofili, who is coming up with the grace of God in my life. It&rsquo;s another motivation for me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 beckons, Ofili is excited at the prospect of returning to Hayward Field. When she competed there last year at the NCAA Championships, she finished just 0.03 shy of a medal.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The track felt good when I competed there last year,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It will be a great honour to compete there again for the World Championships.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She has even bigger goals in the long term, and feels she has only just scratched the surface.</p>
<p>&ldquo;As I get deeper into this track and field career of mine, I just want to keep my head down, focus on my studies which brought me here to the States and stay healthy,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;If you are healthy, you can really do anything.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Yemi Olus for World Athletics</strong></p>

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

The teenage sprinter from Nigeria is rewriting the record books

Breaking records is just the starting point for Ofili as she reaches for the stars

<p>Fred Kerley is an international man of mystery. He&rsquo;s a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it&rsquo;s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Fred is a Swiss Army knife,&rdquo; says US teammate Michael Cherry. &ldquo;He can do a lot of different sprint events.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Naturally, inquisitive minds want to know: What will Kerley run in June at the US Championships, where the team will be selected for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22?</p>
<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to wait and see,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>The meeting is only four days, with three rounds in each of Kerley&rsquo;s events. He quickly puts to rest any notion he&rsquo;d attempt the triple: &ldquo;No, it&rsquo;s a lot on the body.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And so the guessing game begins. Kerley is the only man in history who has won Wanda Diamond League races in the 100m, 200m and 400m.</p>
<p>In 2019, he contested only 400m races, culminating in the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.</p>
<p>Then Kerley stunned the athletics world by skipping the 400m at the US Olympic Trials and placing third in the 100m and fourth in the 200m. He became the surprise silver medallist in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics with a PB of 9.84. Switching back and forth between the two events, he finished his season with a spectacular 19.76 in the 200m at altitude in Nairobi.<br /><br /></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6268010b2b23f0f3232fb15d.jpg" alt="USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">USA's Fred Kerley secures 100m silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>On 16 April, the 26-year-old ran a sizzling 19.80 in the 200m at the USATF Golden Games in Walnut, California, bettering his own world-leading time of 20.04. Kerley chased down Michael Norman in the last 50 metres, his final burst taking him across the line at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold event.</p>
<p>As Kerley&rsquo;s momentum carried him around the curve, he held his arms out wide as if to say, &ldquo;How do you like that?&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Boy, is he a gamer,&rdquo; said Sanya Richards-Ross, the Olympic gold medallist and television commentator. &ldquo;He shows up in finals every single time. This young man always kind of has this chip on his shoulder. He keeps wanting to prove to us&hellip; &lsquo;Fred, we see you. You&rsquo;re a champion.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman could feel him. Kerley was on his right, methodically gaining down the stretch. &ldquo;You just kind of get a sense of presence,&rdquo; the 24-year-old says, &ldquo;you know what I mean?&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman ran 19.83 in his season opener and tweeted after the race that he &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be too mad&rdquo; because of his fast time. He added: &ldquo;Much respect for @fkerley99 but I&rsquo;m going to need that rematch sometime this year,&rdquo; to which Kerley replied: &ldquo;Respect.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Respect <a href="https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH">https://t.co/ENZi0vGAtH</a></p>
&mdash; Fred Kerley (@fkerley99) <a href="https://twitter.com/fkerley99/status/1515510175066517512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
<p><br />While Kerley is a prolific tweeter, favouring the hashtag #IAMHISTORY, he is a man of few words.</p>
<p>His thoughts on reeling in Norman? &ldquo;I got the W.&rdquo;</p>
<p>His goals for the rest of the season? &ldquo;Win.&rdquo;</p>
<p>What about time-wise? &ldquo;Win,&rdquo; Kerley repeats. &ldquo;Time is not my concern, it&rsquo;s all about the Ws that come.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The 6-foot-3 Kerley is undefeated so far this season across all three distances. In early March, he clocked 44.47 in the 400m in a meeting in Grenada, a time that was No.1 until Cherry went 44.28 at the Golden Games, while Olympic champion Steven Gardiner has since improved the world lead to 44.22. Kerley posted a time of 9.99 in the 100m, which ranks fifth on the world list, in a meet in Florida in late March.</p>
<p>His next race will be a 100m on 7 May at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, this season&rsquo;s next World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting.</p>
<h2>Renewed rivalries</h2>
<p>Kerley says he decides which distance to run based on where his training is taking him. Of course, the 100m and the 400m place different demands on his body. One requires explosiveness, the other a tolerance to pain.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Both of them got to give and take,&rdquo; Kerley adds. &ldquo;One got your head spinning and one got your legs spinning, too.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kerley believes his versatility can help promote his sport. He has rivals at every distance, from Norman, Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman in the US to Kirani James, Marcell Jacobs and Andre De Grasse from the international ranks.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Hey, I like to compete, so rivalry&rsquo;s rivalry,&rdquo; Kerley says. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s very important to have a rivalry in the sport because that&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s going to get more attention to track and field&mdash; like football and basketball. They&rsquo;ve got rivalries. But if we have rivalries between us, we&rsquo;re going to be big.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div style="text-align: center;"><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626801f365219027c99d31f3.jpg" alt="Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Fred Kerley and Michael Norman go head-to-head at the USATF Golden Games (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Kerley and Norman are two of the three members of the exclusive, sub-10, sub-20, sub-44 second club. The other is Wayde van Niekerk, the 29-year-old 2016 Olympic champion from South Africa.</p>
<p>Head-to-head, Kerley has the faster time in the 100m &mdash; 9.84 to 9.86 &mdash; while Norman is quicker at the 200m &mdash; 19.70 to 19.76. Norman also has the better 400m time of 43.45 to 43.64. Van Niekerk&rsquo;s times, meanwhile, are 9.94, 19.84 and the world record of 43.03.</p>
<p>While Kerley and Norman are cordial, they are both also supremely competitive. &ldquo;He does the same events as me &mdash; everybody is my enemy once you touch the track,&rdquo; Kerley says.</p>
<p>Norman has a similar mindset. &ldquo;Nobody wants to lose to anybody,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;So every time we race each other, it&rsquo;s like who&rsquo;s going to get the best of who that race.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He adds of Kerley: &ldquo;He&rsquo;s cool. All respect to Fred, no beef or animosity, or nothing like that. He&rsquo;s a great competitor, he&rsquo;s a good guy.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Norman says their rivalry keeps the sport &ldquo;unpredictable&rdquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When it comes having somebody who does an extremely similar thing as you,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;it just brings out the best in both of us and it elevates each other, so there&rsquo;ll be plenty more races down the road.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kerley adds that marketability and popularity &mdash; the 100m is the more glamorous event in the public eye &mdash; will have no bearing on which events he will choose for the World Championships.</p>
<p>However, he did acknowledge last year that he does have a long-term goal.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to be a legend, like Usain Bolt,&rdquo; Kerley said.</p>
<h2>No secret to success</h2>
<p>Originally a 200m runner coming out of high school, Kerley moved up to the full lap in college. At Texas A&amp;M, he won two NCAA titles.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/626803120805e5d0c23187f2.jpg" alt="US sprinter Fred Kerley" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">US sprinter Fred Kerley (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>He says there&rsquo;s no secret to how he is able to compete in three distances now. &ldquo;Training,&rdquo; Kerley explains. &ldquo;Training. And training.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But there has to be something else.</p>
<p>Michael Johnson was the Olympic gold medallist and world record-holder in both the 200m (19.32) and 400m (43.18), but his best time in the 100m was 10.09.</p>
<p>Usain Bolt holds the world records in the 100m (9.58) and 200m (19.19), but went no faster than 45.28 in the 400m. Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens were triple threats combined with the long jump, not the quarter-mile.</p>
<p>Kenny Bednarek, the Olympic silver medallist in the 200m, is a member of the sub-10, sub-20 and sub-45 club.</p>
<p>&ldquo;What Fred&rsquo;s been doing is pretty incredible,&rdquo; Bednarek says.</p>
<p>He adds that the transition between events requires a lot of adjustments. &ldquo;In the 400,&rdquo; Bednarek says, &ldquo;we&rsquo;re never really explosive. It&rsquo;s more maintaining your rhythm and the lactate and see who has the most guts to finish that last 150 stretch. In the 400, you can make a mistake, but you can correct it. In the 200 and the 100, you don&rsquo;t really have time.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After Kerley completed his Diamond League triple last year by winning the 100m at the Brussels meeting, a certain Twitter account posed a question.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So&hellip; which event will @fkerley99 focus on next year? Asking for a friend,&rdquo; wrote the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>&ldquo;800,&rdquo; Kerley replied, followed by three laughing emojis. &ldquo;Naw I just playing.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics<br /><br /></strong></p>

Fred Kerley is a threat to win any race he enters, no matter if it’s the 100m, the 200m or the 400m.

Versatile sprint force Kerley keeps Oregon options open

<p>Fast times &ndash; some with the help of a breeze &ndash; and one speedy turnaround highlighted the USATF Golden Games at Mt SAC&rsquo;s Hilmer Lodge Stadium in Walnut, California on Saturday (16).</p>
<p>However, the second stop in the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series wasn&rsquo;t as blustery as the first in Bermuda last weekend. In the final race of the meeting, Fred Kerley had a legal tailwind to prevail in the highly anticipated men&rsquo;s 200m.</p>
<p>With the wind gauge reading 1.6m/s, Kerley, the Olympic 100m runner-up, chased down compatriot Michael Norman and clocked a world-leading time of 19.80 to eclipse his previous best this season of 20.04.</p>
<p>Norman, who had an excellent start, was second in 19.83 followed by Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist Rai Benjamin in 20.01.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I came in pretty confident,&rdquo; said Kerley, who has also clocked times of 44.47 for 400m and 9.99 in the 100m so far this year. &ldquo;The race felt good and I finished strong. I got the &lsquo;W&rsquo;.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Kerley, whose time was four-hundredths off his lifetime best, said he has only one goal leading into the rest of the season: &ldquo;Win.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The whole part of track is competing and that&rsquo;s what I love to do,&rdquo; he added.</p>
<p>Norman, a gold medallist in the 4x400m in Tokyo, said he understood what he did wrong in the race. &ldquo;I kind of got excited and let the race plan leave my mind,&rdquo; Norman said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t run a great race, but it was a good opener so I just need to make the adjustments.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Gabby Thomas won the women&rsquo;s 200m a mere 24 minutes after placing third in the 100m.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/625b5719c742b8c5781354d8.JPG" alt="Gabby Thomas on her way to winning the 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Gabby Thomas on her way to winning the 200m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC (&copy; Kirby Lee)</p>
</div>
<p><br />Thomas, the Olympic bronze medallist from Tokyo, ran 22.02 (1.9m/s), just off the world-leading mark of 21.96 run by Favour Ofili a day earlier in Florida. In the 100m, Thomas ran a wind-aided 10.86 (3.3m/s) to finish behind Twanisha Terry at 10.77 and Aleia Hobbs in 10.80.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect (the turnaround) to be that quick,&rdquo; said Thomas, who had been chatting animatedly in the gap between events. &ldquo;I think I just got a little distracted with the media and talking to my coach and my agents, but it was a good warmup for the 200m and good preparation mentally.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Thomas also competed in Bermuda and said she was feeling fatigued after a tough week of travel. How much faster could she have gone if the 200m had been her only race instead of her third of the day? &ldquo;Oh gosh, hard to say,&rdquo; Thomas said. &ldquo;I would have liked to have dipped under 22, but you get what you get.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah ran the preliminary race of the 100m with a world-leading time of 10.89, then opted not to run the final.</p>
<p>Terry was content to claim that win with her fastest 100m, to beat her previous wind-aided time of 10.79 at the US Olympic Trials last year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;At least it was at my back this time!&rdquo; Terry said of the wind, which was in her face when she ran in the 200m in Bermuda, placing seventh. &ldquo;I told myself to stay patient and everything else would fall into place.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/625b56d0a0079f69f962289c.JPG" alt="Twanisha Terry wins the 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Twanisha Terry wins the 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC (&copy; Kirby Lee)</p>
</div>
<p><br />Micah Williams of the University of Oregon &ndash; who hopes to star at the World Championships on his home track later this summer in Eugene &ndash; won the men&rsquo;s 100m with a wind-aided time of 9.83 (2.5m/s), with Brandon Carnes second in 9.93.</p>
<p>Michael Cherry powered to victory in the men&rsquo;s 400m, posting a world-leading time of 44.28. Alison Dos Santos, the Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist, was second in a big PB of 44.54 with Bryce Deadmon third (45.13) and Kenny Bednarek, the Olympic 200m runner-up, taking fourth (45.37).</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been training super hard, so I&rsquo;m glad I can come out and show it off today,&rdquo; Cherry said. &ldquo;Just to see that I know the sky&rsquo;s the limit the rest of the season. When you have confidence, it&rsquo;s so hard to knock it down. I just believe in myself.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/625b56efa0079f69f962289f.JPG" alt="Michael Cherry wins the 400m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Michael Cherry wins the 400m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC (&copy; Kirby Lee)</p>
</div>
<p><br />Cherry said that he opened with 45.9 seconds last year and finished at 44.03. &ldquo;This year it&rsquo;s 44.2,&rdquo; he said with a grin, &ldquo;so hopefully I&rsquo;ll finish at 43.2.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Valarie Allman had an impressive series in the women&rsquo;s discus, topped by a best of 69.46m &ndash; exactly two metres shy of the continental record she set last week. Jorinde Van Klinken led the rest of the field at 62.91m.</p>
<p>Allman said she was happy to be part of the &ldquo;incredibly rich history at Mt SAC,&rdquo; where she was making her first appearance. But she said that after training in calm conditions in Texas, she didn&rsquo;t adjust as well to the wind as she would have liked to get the lift she needed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re chasing that big one,&rdquo; Allman said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to want it; it&rsquo;s another thing to know it&rsquo;s in you and I think I&rsquo;m kind of starting to get to that spot of figuring out, &lsquo;How do I reach my potential in the moment?&rsquo; It&rsquo;s a journey, but I&rsquo;m hoping one of these days I can find it when I&rsquo;m in the ring.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/625b5757c742b8c5781354db.JPG" alt="Valarie Allman, winner of the discus at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Valarie Allman, winner of the discus at the Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC (&copy; Kirby Lee)</p>
</div>
<p><br />In the men&rsquo;s discus, world and Olympic champion Daniel Stahl threw 67.65m, the second-best performance of the year behind his own 69.11m.</p>
<p>Tonea Marshall won the 100m hurdles in 12.46 with world record-holder Kendra Harrison second at 12.56. Tia Jones was third (12.59), followed by Tobi Amusan (12.61) and Cindy Sember (12.63).</p>
<p>&ldquo;You have legends in this race,&rdquo; Marshall said, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m just glad that I was able to come out on top and do what I do best, which is focus on me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Brooke Andersen produced a final-round effort of 76.76m to win the women's hammer, overtaking Camryn Rogers who moved into the lead in round five when equalling the Canadian record of 75.73m.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the field events, Vashti Cunningham easily won the women&rsquo;s high jump by clearing 1.96m to share the world lead, while Keturah Orji took the women's triple jump with a wind-aided 14.53m (2.6m/s).</p>
<p>World 800m silver medallist Raevyn Rogers opened her season with a winning run of 1:58.77, much faster than her previous openers. &ldquo;I felt free, I felt loose,&rdquo; said Rogers, who broke the collegiate record at Mt SAC in 2017 while racing for Oregon. &ldquo;I feel like I ran my best races by running free and running natural.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She also ran with a blue tint to her hair. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;ll be my signature,&rdquo; Rogers said. &ldquo;I feel like also this is a year of me stepping into how I feel like I am. My mom&rsquo;s like, &lsquo;Oh, maybe it&rsquo;s a phase&rsquo;. I&rsquo;m like &lsquo;no, I don&rsquo;t think I can go back to brown or blonde&rsquo;. I feel like the blue is me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Two-time Olympian Devon Allen won the 110m hurdles in 13.35 after running the first round in the men&rsquo;s 100m and clocking a PB of 10.12. He opted not to contest the 100m final, but Allen is pulling out all the stops this season since it will be his last on the track before joining the Philadelphia Eagles professional football team.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was hoping to go under 10 seconds in the 100m,&rdquo; said Allen. He said he&rsquo;s been working on his start and it wasn&rsquo;t very good in the hurdles. &ldquo;I thought I wasn&rsquo;t going to be as tired as I was from the 100m to that race, but it&rsquo;s OK. It&rsquo;s the first race of the season and I&rsquo;ve got plenty of time to get my fitness up.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the men&rsquo;s pole vault, Clayton Fritsch and Jacob Wooten claimed the early top spot on the world list at 5.80m, with Fritsch winning on fewer misses. He cleared 5.70m on his first attempt while Wooten needed two tries.</p>
<p>Darrell Hill threw 21.68m to win the men&rsquo;s shot put, while Danniel Thomas-Dodd won the women&rsquo;s shot with 18.92m.</p>
<p>Laquan Nairn leaped 8.22m in the last round of the men&rsquo;s long jump to win with a PB. Some other excitement in the event came when a discus thrown by Laulauga Tausaga landed in the pit. Luckily, the men were between jumps.</p>
<p><strong>Karen Rosen for World Athletics</strong></p>

World-leading marks from Elaine Thompson-Herah and Michael Cherry

Kerley flies to 200m victory in close clash with Norman at Mt SAC

<p>It&rsquo;s more often at the dining room table, when they are a few hours into an enthralling board game, that the Kambundji sisters unleash their most competitive fervour against one another.</p>
<p>Many think that these two Swiss sprinting icons get better from competition in training, but this could not be further from the truth. For 29-year-old world 200m bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji, her 19-year old sister Ditaji, and the family as a whole, training is more supportive than combative. On the track, they genuinely want each other to succeed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When Ditaji was younger breaking my club records, people would speculate that Ditaji would be faster than me, and made it seem like we would have some sort of rivalry,&rdquo; Mujinga said. &ldquo;But it&rsquo;s actually the opposite. I want her to be better than me, to break my records. I want her to experience everything I have had and more.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622c8de6c670440c9917c1a7.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><br /><em>Mujinga and Ditaji Kambundji have enjoyed travelling to the same competitions on the international indoor circuit this year (&copy; Athle.ch)</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The sibling rivalry narrative is a relatable one, and something that many fans like to grasp on to. It is understandable, of course, to think that child athlete prodigies might grow up pitted against each other, trying to outdo one another, leading to a healthy dose of competition. Biblical and mythological lore teach us to believe that siblings are naturally sworn enemies, even if they are good friends. But the Kambundji family has taken a different approach.</p>
<p>Mujinga and Ditaji are the second and fourth daughters to their father, Safuka &ndash; a Congolese-Swiss track-and-field afficionado (and well-known charismatic fan in the Swiss running scene) and a Bernese mother, Ruth. As such, they grew up speaking fluent French, German, and English, and are readily accepted as Swiss icons countrywide, despite admitting that their Italian could use a little bit of work. In addition to cultivating a multi-lingual facility, their parents encouraged them to try sports.<br /><br /></p>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>The eldest Kambundji daughter, Kaluanda, began a track programme, and found herself to be quite talented. Then Mujinga joined the club, then Muswama (who missed out on last year&rsquo;s season due to injury), and by the time Ditaji came of age it seemed like the natural thing to do.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve basically been on the track my whole life,&rdquo; Ditaji said. &ldquo;I tried a few other things, but because my sisters were finding success, it only made sense for me to join. And it&rsquo;s been much easier for me because they laid the path.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Now Ditaji is old enough to travel the international circuit, but they actually grew up mostly training in different environments, mainly due to the age gap.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />In 2009, Mujinga won the European Youth Olympic Festival and showed an exceptional degree of potential. In 2013, she moved to Mannheim, Germany, for several years to train, and eventually broke national records at 100m and 200m. From 2016-2019, Mujinga earned bronze medals at the European Championships (100m), European Indoor Championships (60m), World Indoor Championships (60m) and the World Championships (200m).</p>
<p>All this time, Ditaji was at home in Bern, going to school and performing well. She always had natural speed, but when she tried the hurdles, she realised she could be one of the greatest. Ditaji won the European U20 title last year and qualified for the Olympics, where she finished eighth in her heat. She then went to the World U20 Championships in Nairobi as a favourite going into the 100m hurdles final, but an unfortunate DQ meant she lost out on podium glory. She ended her season on a high, though, by competing at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, where she and Mujinga finally travelled to a professional competition together.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622c8cb9c670440c9917c198.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Above: Mujinga Kambundji in action at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Below: Ditaji Kambundji in action at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham (&copy; Getty Images)</em></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622c8ce1c670440c9917c19b.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;Over the past few years I remember going to competitions and seeing other sisters, like Jodie Williams (28) and her sister, Hannah (23), and thought, &lsquo;That looks fun, I&rsquo;d love to do that with my sister one day&rsquo;,&rdquo; Mujinga said, who was mostly traveling alone.</p>
<p>Track and Field has other famous thriving sisters, like Ethiopia&rsquo;s Diababa sisters, who share four Olympic Gold medals and 15 world titles among them in middle and long-distance running. There&rsquo;s also Sweden&rsquo;s Jenny and Susanna Kallur, the Swedish twins who were dominant together on the European sprint hurdling scene in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>In addition to competition, one advantage siblings might have is travelling the circuit with some familiarity. Travelling around the world as an elite athlete is exciting, but it can get lonely. Moving from hotel to hotel, often not knowing the language, can be physically and mentally taxing. Being there with someone who understands you in the way that only a sibling can.</p>
<p>Ditaji, too, recognises how special it is that she gets to share all of these experiences alongside Mujinga moving forward, both to use her as a resource and have fun. &ldquo;I have all of these first experiences with my sister which makes it special,&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;but I also get to ask a lot of advice on a lot of things now, but we&rsquo;re really good at reminding each other to have fun.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622c8d20c670440c9917c1a1.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><em>Having a sibling and friend around makes travelling to international competitions a less lonely experience for Mujinga and Ditaji Kambundji (&copy; Athle.ch)</em></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Having a burst of youthful energy helps Mujinga experience cities around the world, and the competitions, with fresh eyes. As Ditaji begins a full-time life on the international circuit, they are making it a priority to at least get a glimpse into the lives of people who live in the cities in which they compete. They try to carve out time to at least go on a walk and get a cup of coffee or tea in each city they travel to. And while Mujinga sees Ditaji&rsquo;s light-natured approach to competition as a virtue, and something that will likely taker her far (including breaking Mujinga&rsquo;s records), Mujinga seems to be hitting her stride more strongly than ever.</p>
<p>When they return to Bern together to train, they enjoy returning to a simple life, where their main off-track hobby is gardening, tending to plants, and buying new ones. After training sessions and wanting to conserve energy, they often go to the plant store to browse for plants. This has created a fun side hobby, but one that introduces new logistical problems when it comes to regular international travel. In addition to the stress of world-class competition, Ditaji is learning from Mujinga the stress that comes with leaving plants unattended. Luckily, between their mother and two other sisters, they can usually find willing plant-sitters in a pinch.</p>
<p>Both sisters have their main sights this year set on the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 and the European Championships in Munich in August. Before that, though, they&rsquo;ll both head to the Serbian capital later this month for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.</p>
<p>Ditaji follows a saying Mujinga repeats frequently: &ldquo;Just get to the final, because then anything can happen.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Regardless of what does happen this year and moving forward, the two sisters will be smiling, and truly, genuinely, wishing the other one does her best.</p>
<p><strong>Hannah Borenstein for World Athletics</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622c8d39c670440c9917c1a4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><br /></strong><em>Ditaji and Mujinga Kambundji: siblings and friends for life (&copy; Athle.ch)</em></p>

Training is more supportive than combative. On the track, they genuinely want each other to succeed

No sibling rivalry, just mutual support, between Kambundji sisters

<p>All eyes will be on Udodi Onwuzurike when he steps out to compete at the University of Washington this weekend in his first race of 2022.</p>
<p>Because quite unlike how the &lsquo;underdog&rsquo; tag worked in his favour at the World U20 Championships in Nairobi where he wasn&rsquo;t considered much of a threat until he stunned the pre-event favourites to strike gold in the 200m, there will be no hiding place for the 18-year-old as he commences his collegiate career with the Stanford Cardinal.</p>
<p>Indeed, the US-based Nigerian sprinter admits that his life has changed since winning a global title. Getting to compete for Stanford University is an opportunity Onwuzurike considers an offshoot of his spectacular performance in Nairobi where he clocked an impressive 20.21 to win ahead of Botswana&rsquo;s 100m champion Letsile Tebogo and South Africa&rsquo;s Sinesipho Dambile.</p>
<p>Not only was Onwuzurike&rsquo;s winning time a Nigerian U20 record, it&rsquo;s also inside the entry standard for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>His feat made him the first Nigerian in World U20 Championships history to win 200m gold since 1996 when Francis Obikwelu won the sprint double, and the second fastest Nigerian over the distance in 2021, only behind former NCAA champion Divine Oduduru.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Definitely my life has changed in a significant way since winning the world U20 title in Nairobi,&rdquo; said the economics major. &ldquo;Before, I would never have walked and someone there would have recognised me or seen me the on the track or seen me at worlds or somewhere or on social media. All these other people who are in track have noticed me so I will say my life has changed significantly enough in the track world.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Also, just being on campus and being able to come to Stanford is a great feeling, because if I hadn&rsquo;t been able to run those good times, I would not have been able to come to a school like this, so it really changed my life a lot.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JuYdF1CsZYc" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Competing in the NCAA circuit has been one of Onwuzurike&rsquo;s lifelong dreams. Having gained valuable experience from his time at high school where he shattered several records, the Brother Rice High School alumnus believes he is somewhat prepared for the new challenge.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I started running track almost recreationally at fifth or sixth grade, but coming into my freshman, sophomore year of high school is when I wanted to seek a collegiate level of track and take it more seriously,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;I would say high school sort of prepared me, gave me time management and discipline but I need to get a little used to the whole collegiate system.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had a lot of success in high school but I&rsquo;m very excited for what the collegiate system holds for me, and I feel like I can really do well. There&rsquo;s actually a little pressure for me to perform as the first Stanford-affiliated man and individual to win a world U20 track title, but I don&rsquo;t mind; I&rsquo;m just happy to be here and I&rsquo;m excited to run.&rdquo;</p>
<p>With the stiff level of competition in the NCAA, Onwuzurike believes the lessons learned from his outing in Nairobi last summer will go a long way in shaping his future.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Looking back at that experience, I feel it has definitely boosted my confidence a lot,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Going to Nairobi and not even knowing I was capable of all that or being able to make it to this level of track, it certainly boosts my confidence. I think it also gave me a lot of experience because now I&rsquo;m going into every race, just focusing on my lane and my own space knowing that once I put my mind to it, I&rsquo;m capable of obtaining it.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The Michigan native is anticipating an exciting competition at the World Championships in Oregon at the renovated Hayward Field. But his first experience of the venue will be at the outdoor NCAA Championships.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Oregon has a good track and by the World Championships, I would have raced at Oregon multiple times since the NCAA Championships are being held in Oregon,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It will be something special so I&rsquo;m really looking forward to it. I&rsquo;m definitely taking things one day at a time but I&rsquo;m hoping to make the final and see what I can do.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And while many may feel that making the final is quite a tall order for Onwuzurike, he believes he has all it takes to make a statement this year, especially having clocked a wind-aided 20.13 (2.3m/s) in the semifinals in Nairobi, narrowly missing the championship record in the process.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I definitely see myself doing 19 seconds this year,&rdquo; says Onwuzurike, who has a 100m PB of 10.23. &ldquo;My biggest target for this season will probably be running under 20 seconds in the 200m and then trying to do a sub-10 in the 100m and obviously just trying to race at the national (NCAA) championships. Winning the NCAA title has always been the goal.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Onwuzurike, who turns 19 at the end of January, will be eligible to defend his title at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 later this year. But beyond the US collegiate season, he is still unsure of how his season will shape up.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to compete at the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships in Oregon,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And if I do go to the World U20 Championships, I&rsquo;m just going to go with the same mentality I went with the last time; maybe not the underdog this time around but just focusing on myself, knowing what I&rsquo;m capable of and going out there and performing.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Yemi Olus for World Athletics</strong></p>

Nigerian teenager looking to join the sub-20 club

From underdog to champion in Nairobi, Onwuzurike sets his sights on the big stage

A look back at the key moments of 2021 in the sprints

2021 review: sprints

<p>For many young sprinters that have emerged in recent years, being touted as &lsquo;the next Usain Bolt&rsquo; can be something of a poisoned chalice.</p>
<p>No one, not least a teenager, needs that kind of pressure on their shoulders, after all. And the focus for any young athlete should of course be on making a name for themselves; not on trying to become a replica of a past once-in-a-generation star.</p>
<p>But sometimes the comparisons are unavoidable &ndash; especially when a superstar&rsquo;s records are broken.</p>
<p>Erriyon Knighton made headlines earlier this year when he broke Usain Bolt&rsquo;s world U18 best for 200m by 0.02. The 17-year-old US sprinter scorched to a 20.11 victory in Jacksonville in late May, beating a field that included established international seniors including 2016 world indoor 60m champion Trayvon Bromell, European 100m champion Zharnel Hughes and 2014 European 200m champion Adam Gemili.</p>
<p>Knighton, who earlier in the year had clocked a wind-assisted 9.99 and wind-legal PB of 10.16 over 100m, didn&rsquo;t compete again until the US Olympic Trials where, at the time of the first round, he had just the 10th-fastest PB of the 200m field.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60d8339d335e3daf72054627.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />But he caught almost everyone &ndash; opponents and fans &ndash; by surprise when he blazed to a 20.04 PB in the first round, finishing comfortably ahead of world champion Noah Lyles, breaking the North American U20 record and rewriting Bolt&rsquo;s world U18 best.</p>
<p>This was just the first round. And it looked as though Knighton wasn&rsquo;t even going flat-out.</p>
<p>Sure enough, he moved up a gear the next day for the semifinals. Once again, Knighton was drawn in the same heat as Lyles. And once again, Knighton produced the fastest time of the round with a 19.88 PB, this time breaking Bolt&rsquo;s world U20 record of 19.93 that had stood since 2004. And this, despite Knighton having two more full years as an U20 athlete.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Heading into the US Trials, for me it was just about making the final, I didn't know I was going to make the team,&rdquo; says Knighton. &ldquo;My prelim was a good race, I ran 20.04, and I felt really good and made it to the semifinals. Then I ran 19.88, which put me at the top of the list going into the finals. At that point, it became all about making the team, so I just ran as fast as I could and hoped that I'd make the team.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/60d9b8256153404114f35410.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />Little more than 24 hours later, Knighton lined up for the biggest race of his short career to date. Despite being the youngest in the field by six years, he wasn&rsquo;t overawed by the occasion and kept his cool to finish third in a lifetime best &ndash; and another world U20 record &ndash; of 19.84. He was just 0.1 behind Lyles, 0.06 behind Kenny Bednarek, who would go on to take Olympic silver over the distance, and 0.06 ahead of Fred Kerley, who went on to earn Olympic 100m silver.</p>
<p>More significantly, though, Knighton&rsquo;s third-place finish meant he had booked his spot on the US team for the Tokyo Olympics.</p>
<p>In between the Trials and the Games, Knighton had one race and finished a highly respectable third at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Szekesfehervar, just 0.06 behind Canada&rsquo;s Andre De Grasse, who went on to win gold over the distance in Tokyo.</p>
<p>The competition was a valuable one ahead of his Olympic debut. And once he arrived in Tokyo, he simply tried to soak in as much of the experience as he could.</p>
<p>&ldquo;After securing my place on the team, I was nervous because it felt as though I had a new burden on my back,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The Olympics was just my second time competing overseas, but I had to just keep my mind focused and train consistently.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61ae1ad4265aaeb8eeba13ab.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;It felt pretty good to be part of the US team,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;When I got to Tokyo, it felt like a new world. It's so different to the US, so when I got there I was just taking everything in. I talked to some of the athletes who've been doing this for a really long time, trying to learn from them and take in every piece of knowledge I could get because it was my first Olympics.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Knighton&rsquo;s Olympic encounter was incredibly similar to his US Trials campaign. Once again, he won his heat (20.55) and semifinal (20.02). Once again, he finished behind Bednarek and Lyles in the final. The only difference was that De Grasse finished ahead of the US trio, meaning Knighton finished fourth, just outside the medals.</p>
<p>Although he was initially disappointed to miss out on a medal by just 0.19, Knighton soon realised the magnitude of his achievement.</p>
<p>&ldquo;At the time I was a bit upset that I didn't get a medal, but I tried to look on the bright side of things and realised that placing fourth at such a young age is a huge accomplishment,&rdquo; he says.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My Tokyo experience, and getting fourth place, is actually my highlight of the year. And it gives me something to build on going into the next Olympics.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61ae1ae9265aaeb8eeba13ae.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Rising star, guided by established stars</h2>
<p>Knighton&rsquo;s Olympic performance and numerous world U20 records led to him being named the Male Rising Star of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021.</p>
<p>He beat the likes of French sprint hurdler Sasha Zhoya, US 400m hurdler Sean Burrell, Ethiopian distance runner Tadese Worku and Kenyan 800m runner Emmanuel Wanyonyi. Given the high-quality list of finalists, Knighton was pleasantly surprised to receive the award.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I really didn't know (if I would win),&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I thought it was going to be super close between me and the hurdler (Zhoya).&rdquo;</p>
<p>A big part of Knighton&rsquo;s success this year, he says, is down to the people and training partners with whom he surrounds himself. He trains in Florida alongside the likes of world 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway, 2016 world indoor long jump champion Marquis Dendy and 2016 world U20 long jump champion Yanis David.</p>
<p>Holloway, in particular, has become something of a mentor to Knighton.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Almost everything I've learned about being a professional athlete has come from Grant,&rdquo; says Knighton. &ldquo;After the Olympic Trials, he told me to just believe in myself and to not let anyone set unrealistic goals for me. He told me the sky is the limit.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Going into each training session, everyone in the group has the shared goal of getting better. I also know that I will continue to improve simply by being around them because I can see they're all hungry to do the work that's required to achieve their big goals.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61ae1b0d265aaeb8eeba13b4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />Knighton has already started to turn his attention to his targets for 2022, which includes earning a global medal on home soil at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Making the podium is my goal for the World Championships,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;And I&rsquo;d love to be picked for a relay, whether it&rsquo;s the 4x100m or 4x400m. I'd also love to compete at the World U20 Championships in Cali. I feel like I missed an opportunity by not being in Nairobi this year.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He has also learned to embrace the Bolt comparisons, taking them as a compliment as opposed to a burden.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It feels really good (to be faster than Bolt was at this age), but I try to stay humble with it and not get a big head,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I just have to keep training and hopefully I can keep progressing at this rate.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I would like to break Usain Bolt's world record. I'm going to do all I can to get there, but I'll just take it step by step.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Technically and physically, I think I can get a lot stronger,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;Getting a bigger base and knowing how to run the 200m right. Once I learn how to really run it, I think I'll be a lot better.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61ae1afa265aaeb8eeba13b1.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />For now, though, the 17-year-old is simply trying to make the most of every opportunity that comes his way, using them as stepping stones to future long-term success.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Kids my age don't really get to do what I do, so these experiences mean a lot,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I'm trying to take in as much as I can.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Ten years&rsquo; time is a really big jump. If I can do what I&rsquo;ve got to do and train really hard, maybe I could be a triple Olympic champion one day. It all starts right now.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

Sometimes the Bolt comparisons are unavoidable 

Rising star Knighton taking one step at a time in pursuit of greatness

<p>When an athlete makes history by achieving something that has never been done before, you&rsquo;d think they&rsquo;d struggle for motivation in the aftermath.</p>
<p>But Elaine Thompson-Herah &ndash; who this year became the first woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the 100m and 200m &ndash; says winning the World Female Athlete of the Year award has simply given her more motivation for next year and beyond.</p>
<p>The 29-year-old Jamaican beat a high-quality list of finalists &ndash; including world record-breakers Yulimar Rojas, Sydney McLaughlin and Sifan Hassan &ndash; to secure her spot as the top woman in the sport for 2021.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s very special to win this award, because I was up against some phenomenal women,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;To capture the double, repeat my titles, get the world lead of 10.54, it is just an amazing feeling.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The season was a tough one, but we went out there with our heart and our soul and we put on a show,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honour to win this award and I&rsquo;m humbled to accept it. It will keep me motivated as I continue to work towards my targets.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/612187db4c5a7049da430eb2.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />Thompson-Herah accomplished her first Olympic sprint double in 2016 when she sped to 100m and 200m victories in 10.71 and 21.78 respectively in Rio. Coming just a year after her 2015 breakthrough season, in which she took world 200m silver in 21.66, it seemed as though she&rsquo;d be the next big force in sprinting, but injuries prevented her from reaching the podium in any individual event at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships.</p>
<p>When the achilles problems recurred in 2020, she feared it would count her out of the Tokyo Olympics. But the postponement of the Games worked in her favour.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was so happy (about having a year &lsquo;off&rsquo; competing) because I was in boots recovering from an achilles injury in 2020,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Even though the achilles injury was challenging and meant I was unable to sprint or even walk at times, I continued to work. To come back from that and achieve what I did is a surreal feeling and I&rsquo;m happy and proud.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Every champion has struggles that they&rsquo;ve been through. There will always be obstacles and you have to learn to hurdle them &ndash; you&rsquo;re never too old to learn new stuff. I think I&rsquo;ve learned a lot over the past year, and the main thing is that I&rsquo;ve learned to listen to my body. Like any athlete who wants to be a champion, you tend to want to train through your pain, but sometimes it&rsquo;s better to rest and listen to your body, which will help you in the long run. That&rsquo;s one of the mistakes I&rsquo;ve made in the past; I&rsquo;d try to push through the pain.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Having smartly rehabbed her way through her achilles injury, Thompson-Herah got her 2021 season off to a strong start, speeding to a wind-assisted 10.76 and a wind-legal 10.78 in early May. She was surprisingly beaten in both disciplines in high-quality races at the Jamaican Championships, but her third-place finishes in 10.84 and 22.02 were more than sufficient to earn her places on the team for the Olympic Games.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You get a lot of motivation when you achieve your first victory of the season,&rdquo; she says, looking back on her year. &ldquo;You think, &lsquo;okay, I&rsquo;m ready for the next one&rsquo;, then each race comes and you want to be better.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Job done at the national championships, she then headed to Europe to continue her preparation for the Games and showed she was rounding into top form with victory over 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Szekesfehervar. She stopped the clock at 10.71, a Hungarian all-comers&rsquo; record and just one hundredth shy of her PB &ndash; but, more significantly, finishing comfortably ahead of compatriot and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Yz1i1GK6c0" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Her Olympic campaign began three weeks later with an incredibly easy looking 10.82 100m heat win &ndash; faster than the gold medal-winning times at all but four editions of the Games. And she then went even quicker in the semifinals, winning her race in 10.76.</p>
<p>But even then, her margin of supremacy and winning time in the final still came as a shock. Despite running into a -0.6m/s headwind, she claimed gold in an Olympic record of 10.61 to win by 0.13 &ndash; which, in sprinting terms, is significant.</p>
<p>Following one rest day to reflect on a Jamaican podium sweep in the shorter sprint, Thompson-Herah was back on track for the 200m. She ran a comfortable &ndash; though borderline risky &ndash; 22.86 to advance from her heat, but then looked imperious in the semifinals as she stopped the clock at an equal PB of 21.66, despite slamming on the proverbial brakes before the finish line.</p>
<p>She went on to claim 200m gold in 21.53, breaking the long-standing Jamaican record that had previously been held by sprint icon Merlene Ottey, and moving to second on the world all-time list.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61093e38f92b560c3905c9dd.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />She wasn&rsquo;t done there, though. She capped her Olympic campaign three days later when joining her Jamaican teammates to claim gold in the 4x100m, setting another national record with 41.02 and exceeding what she achieved in Rio.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The 200m was the hardest event because we didn&rsquo;t get much rest,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Normally we&rsquo;d have one round each day, but in Tokyo we had the first two rounds on the same day, which was super difficult. In the nine months before the Games, we geared our training around preparing for that, but it was still a little bit challenging.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Every time I go out there, I want to be a better version of myself,&rdquo; she adds, explaining her general racing approach. &ldquo;I try to compete with myself and to nail every race I get.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610d5041420bba34329a7272.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />That also explains why she has so much respect for Karsten Warholm, winner of the Male Athlete of the Year award.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was tuned in for his Olympic final,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;45 seconds &ndash; most elite men are running that in the flat 400m! He&rsquo;s really pushing the boundaries.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Thompson-Herah came close to breaking boundaries in the latter stage of the season. Competing against a high-quality 100m field at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene, she sped to a world-leading national record of 10.54, moving to second on the world all-time list. It was also just 0.05 shy of the long-standing world record.</p>
<p>It took Thompson-Herah completely by surprise.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The 10.54 felt kind of slow!&rdquo; she reveals. &ldquo;When I crossed the line, I didn&rsquo;t see the time straight away, but it felt sluggish and kind of awkward. But sometimes a race may not feel perfect, yet you end up running fast. When I finally saw the time, I was overwhelmed, elated, excited, everything.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zowU0sdtJSo" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />She hopes to return to Eugene&rsquo;s Hayward Field for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22. Although she&rsquo;d like to win multiple gold medals, as she has done at the past two Olympic Games, her main goal will simply be to win her first individual world title.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am definitely looking forward to the World Championships in Eugene because I don&rsquo;t yet have an individual world title,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;The aim is to try to do the double, or even three golds. I felt the track and know what it feels like, so I am looking forward to a good championships. And it&rsquo;s closer to home, of course.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Before then, she may compete at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade22, but those plans are not yet confirmed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The World Indoors is on my radar but I am just going to see how my body feels,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I enjoy the 60m, even though I am not a quick starter. I do need the speed, of course, and I&rsquo;d love to win my first world indoor title, but it all depends on how I feel nearer to the time. I&rsquo;m just taking things step by step at the moment.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-theme="dark">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">"I went very close to the world record so you know, anything is possible," hints newly crowned Female World Athlete of the Year <a href="https://twitter.com/FastElaine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FastElaine</a>.<br /><br />&ldquo;The <a href="https://twitter.com/WCHoregon22?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WCHoregon22</a> is most definitely my next big target."<br /><br />Watch this space 👀 <a href="https://t.co/ZRou2Osbh0">pic.twitter.com/ZRou2Osbh0</a></p>
&mdash; World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1466121743274237952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2021</a></blockquote>
<p><br />Along with winning world titles and breaking world records, one of Thompson-Herah&rsquo;s other long-term goals is to continue to inspire young athletes, particularly in Jamaica.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It means a lot to be Jamaican,&rdquo; she explains. &ldquo;I started running when I was about six years old, and as a young girl growing up, making the Olympics was my dream. We have the Boys and Girls Championships back home in Jamaica, which is like a mini Olympics for Jamaicans. Everybody learns to be competitive there, which we then bring into elite performance.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Once you turn professional, it&rsquo;s all about making a name and your own brand, but for us as Jamaicans we also want to put our little island out there. When I was younger, I&rsquo;d look up to Veronica Campbell-Brown, Merlene Ottey, Usain (Bolt) and Asafa (Powell), so for me to become one of those big stars like them, it&rsquo;s amazing.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My advice for young athletes would be to just believe, keep working and stay focused. The athletics world isn&rsquo;t an easy one. But put in the work, take motivation from your fans, and just have fun. If you put in the work, you&rsquo;ll get the result that you want.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to be a great athlete and a great person overall. This sport has taught me a lot, and I have learned a lot over the years. I never dreamed I could travel the world, so I&rsquo;m grateful for everything this sport throws in my hands.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to leave a legacy in this sport that will inspire the younger generation to go on and do even greater things than I&rsquo;ve done.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

When an athlete makes history by achieving something that has never been done before, you’d think they’d struggle for motivation in the aftermath.

Athlete of the Year award motivates Thompson-Herah to work towards career goals

<p>We continue our countdown to the <strong>World Athletics Awards 2021</strong> on 1 December by taking a closer look at the achievements of the five women and five men who have this week been confirmed as the finalists for the Athlete of the Year awards.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Elaine Thompson-Herah</h2>
<p>In an outstanding year for sprinting, Elaine Thompson-Herah was the top performer in the world and became the first woman in history to win back-to-back Olympic sprint doubles.</p>
<p>The Jamaican got her 2021 season off to a strong start, speeding to a wind-assisted 10.76 and a wind-legal 10.78 in early May. She was surprisingly beaten in both disciplines in high-quality races at the Jamaican Championships, but her third-place finishes in 10.84 and 22.02 were more than sufficient to earn her places on the team for the Olympic Games.</p>
<p>Job done at the national championships, Thompson-Herah then headed to Europe to continue her preparation for the Games and showed she was rounding into top form with victory over 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Szekesfehervar. She stopped the clock at 10.71, a Hungarian all-comers&rsquo; record and just one hundredth shy of her PB &ndash; but, more significantly, finishing comfortably ahead of compatriot and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/649130096?h=f560ddcc79" width="640" height="640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />In her final outing before heading to Tokyo, Thompson-Herah claimed a confidence-boosting victory over 200m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Gateshead, confirming she was ready to defend her Olympic titles in the Japanese capital.</p>
<p>Her Olympic campaign began with an incredibly easy looking 10.82 100m heat win &ndash; faster than the gold medal-winning times at all but four editions of the Games. And she then went even quicker in the semifinals, winning her race in 10.76.</p>
<p>But even then, her margin of supremacy and winning time in the final still came as a shock. Despite running into a -0.6m/s headwind, she claimed gold in an Olympic record of 10.61 to win by 0.13 &ndash; which, in sprinting terms, is significant.</p>
<p>Following one rest day to reflect on a Jamaican podium sweep in the shorter sprint, Thompson-Herah was back on track for the 200m. She ran a comfortable &ndash; though borderline risky &ndash; 22.86 to advance from her heat, but then looked imperious in the semifinals as she stopped the clock at an equal PB of 21.66, despite slamming on the proverbial brakes before the finish line.</p>
<p>After promising more, she delivered more in the final. She claimed 200m gold in 21.53, breaking the long-standing Jamaican record that had previously been held by sprint icon Merlene Ottey, and moving to second on the world all-time list.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The ups and downs (since the 2016 Olympics) have been so many,&rdquo; she said after her 200m victory. &ldquo;To come here five years later and to win two events is just amazing.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61055066a77afcf45a2f9b16.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />She wasn&rsquo;t done there, though. She capped her Olympic campaign three days later when teaming up with her Jamaican teammates to claim gold in the 4x100m, setting another national record with 41.02.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The feeling is surreal to capture three golds and we got a national record,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We are grateful."</p>
<p>Many would have forgiven Thompson-Herah for taking her foot off the gas after the euphoria of her Olympic triple triumph, but she stunned the world yet again in her first race after the Games. Up against another high-quality 100m field at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene, she stormed to victory in 10.54, consolidating her position as the second-fastest woman in history for the event.</p>
<p>She rounded out her season with a 10.64 run in Lausanne, finishing a close second to Fraser-Pryce, and victories in Paris (10.72) and at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich (10.65) &ndash; her 15th sub-11-second performance of the year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was a long season with ups and downs,&rdquo; said the 29-year-old. &ldquo;But next year, the world record is definitely on my mind.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Karsten Warholm</h2>
<p>The men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles final in Tokyo was, without doubt, a defining moment for the sport.</p>
<p>The World Championships final in 2019 provided just a small taste of what to expect when Norway&rsquo;s Karsten Warholm held off USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin to retain his title. And while the pandemic forced the postponement of the Olympics, it also increased the anticipation for the most hotly contested discipline of the No.1 sport at the Games.</p>
<p>Benjamin was the first to show his cards in 2021. The talented all-round sprinter clocked a world-leading 47.13 in early May and followed it with victory at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha. Warholm, meanwhile, opened his outdoor campaign by breaking his own world best in the 300m hurdles with 33.26.</p>
<p>Benjamin then responded with a 46.83 run to win the US Olympic Trials, displacing Warholm in the No.2 spot on the world all-time list and coming within 0.05 of the long-standing world record. But Warholm, in his first 400m hurdles race of the year, finally accomplished what he&rsquo;d been threatening to do for the past few years and broke Kevin Young&rsquo;s world record with a 46.70 run at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Oslo.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/649139540?h=dcec21021c" width="640" height="640" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />"It has been really tough sitting at home and doing hard work and knowing that people are taking a shot at that world record for a long time, and seeing how Rai ran at the Trials,&rdquo; said Warholm. &ldquo;All respect to my competitors but it's very special and nice for me to be able to be the first to break that world record. It was important to me. It&rsquo;s also very special to do it here in Bislett in front of a great crowd, and I really think there is more in the tank.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He wasn&rsquo;t wrong. He won in Monaco eight days later with 47.08, improving on his own meeting record set 12 months prior, confirming all was on track for the Olympics later that month.</p>
<p>Warholm breezed through the rounds in Tokyo, winning his heat in 48.65 and his semifinal in 47.30 &ndash; faster than his gold medal-winning times at the past two World Championships and the 2018 European Championships. All the big contenders, Benjamin included, also safely advanced to the final, setting the scene for a mouth-watering showdown.</p>
<p>It didn&rsquo;t disappoint. The duo pushed one another the entire way, but Warholm ultimately proved the strongest, edging ahead in the closing stages to cross the line victorious.</p>
<p>Then people looked to the clock, and for a brief moment it appeared as though the figures may be incorrect. Surely it wasn&rsquo;t possible for a human to break 46 seconds for the event? But then, Warholm has always seemed borderline superhuman. And soon his winning time was confirmed at a staggering 45.94.</p>
<p>In what will go down as not only the best ever 400m hurdles race but one of the greatest moments in athletics history, the rest of the field produced stunning times too. Benjamin finished second in 46.17 &ndash; well inside the previous world record &ndash; and Brazilian youngster Alison dos Santos claimed bronze in 46.72, faster than Young&rsquo;s pre-2021 world record time. The athletes in fourth, fifth and sixth all finished comfortably inside 48 seconds.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6108e095315c5c8e31410f1f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;This is by far the biggest moment of my life,&rdquo; said Warholm. &ldquo;Last night I had this special feeling in my chest when I'm nervous. It's the feeling I had as a six-year-old on Christmas Eve. It's a feeling you don't think you'll ever have again. But I had it last night.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just so big,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;I had a world championships (gold). I had European championships. I had the world record, the European record. The Olympic gold medal is what everybody talks about. I knew this race was going to be the toughest of my life, but I was ready.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He maintained his 400m hurdles winning streak after the Olympics, claiming the Wanda Diamond League crown in Zurich in 47.35 before wrapping up his season with victory at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin.</p>
<p>Even then, almost six weeks after his triumph at the Games, few had managed to contextualise what Warholm had achieved in Tokyo. But perhaps his arch-rival Benjamin put it best when, in the aftermath of the Olympic final, he said: &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Usain Bolt&rsquo;s 9.5 was better than this.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And not many would disagree.</p>

We take a closer look at the achievements of the five women and five men who have been confirmed as finalists for Athlete of the Year.

Focus on finalists: Elaine Thompson-Herah and Karsten Warholm

<p><strong><em>Men&rsquo;s world U20 400m hurdles record</em></strong><br /><em>47.85 Sean Burrell (USA) Eugene 11 June 2021</em></p>
<p><strong><em>Women&rsquo;s world U20 200m record</em></strong><br /><em>21.81 Christine Mboma (NAM) Tokyo 3 August 2021</em></p>
<p><br />The world U20 records set by Sean Burrell and Christine Mboma earlier this year have been ratified.</p>
<p>Burrell clocked 47.85 on the third day of NCAA Championships action in Eugene, Oregon, on 11 June to improve the world U20 400m hurdles record of 48.02 which had been set by Danny Harris on 17 June 1984.</p>
<p>The 19-year-old LSU freshman, who only started racing the 400m hurdles this year, took a second off his previous best with his record-breaking performance at Hayward Field.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Everybody kept telling me to use what I know, use my speed,&rdquo; the former 200m and 400m specialist told ESPN. &ldquo;I came into the hurdles this year because we already had two 400m guys and I would have just been the third. I had a background of the (sprint) hurdles a little bit, so I came into it with my speed and a little bit of technique, and the times just kept dropping.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Mboma, meanwhile, achieved her world U20 200m record at the Tokyo Olympic Games, running 21.81 in the final to claim silver behind Jamaica&rsquo;s Elaine Thompson-Herah.</p>
<p>The 18-year-old also ran 22.11 in her heat and 21.97 in her semifinal, although those times will not be ratified as world U20 records due to no doping control having been carried out.</p>
<p>Her 21.81 in the Olympic final improves on the ratified world U20 record of 22.18 run by Allyson Felix in Athens on 25 August 2004, while the 22.17 clocked by Sha'Carri Richardson in Texas in 2019 remains pending ratification.</p>
<p>With her second place finish in the final, Mboma became the second Namibian athlete to ever claim a medal at the Olympics.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is my first Olympics,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I came here for experience, but I did better (than I expected). I am really happy with my performance. I am proud of myself.</p>
<p>"In the past, every time I ran against the best athletes, I felt nervous. But I don't feel nervous now.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>World Athletics</strong></p>

The world U20 records set by Sean Burrell and Christine Mboma earlier this year are now official.

Ratified: world records for Mboma and Burrell

<p>As the countdown to the <strong>World Athletics Awards 2021</strong> continues, we shine a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year&rsquo;s Rising Star awards.</p>
<p>The winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Christine Mboma</h2>
<p>The Namibian teenager not only notched up four world U20 records over the half-lap sprint, she pieced together one of the greatest seasons of any senior 200m sprinter in history.</p>
<p>She set a PB of 22.73 in her first race of the year back in May, then improved to 22.67 to win in Prague, following it with a victory in Madrid 12 days later.</p>
<p>But despite that string of victories, the form she displayed at the Olympic Games took many of her rivals by surprise. She won her heat in 22.11, breaking the world U20 record, then improved to 21.97 in the semifinals before clocking 21.81 in the final to take silver.</p>
<p>That remained her only loss in a 200m final in 2021. From there, she went on to win the world U20 200m title in 21.84 and anchored Namibia to silver in the 4x100m. She dipped below 22 seconds again to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels, then went even faster six days later to win the Diamond Trophy in Zurich, clocking another world U20 record of 21.78.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DdShcgLKdes" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Mboma capped her season with victories in Zagreb (22.04) and Nairobi (22.39).</p>
<p>In total, Mboma recorded five sub-22-second performances over 200m this year. Only Jamaican legend Merlene Ottey (seven, 1990) and world record-holder Florence Griffith-Joyner (six, 1988) have achieved more in a single season.</p>
<p>Mboma now also owns the six fastest times in history by an U20 athlete.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Emmanuel Wanyonyi</h2>
<p>Emmanuel Wanyonyi raced exclusively in Nairobi this year and won only one final &ndash; but that victory came in the race that mattered most.</p>
<p>Before he reached the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21, Wanyonyi had finished second at the Kenyan trials for the event, meaning he had barely registered on the radar as a pre-championship medal hope.</p>
<p>But, inspired by running in front of a home crowd in Nairobi, Wanyonyi was the fastest through each round of the men&rsquo;s 800m at the World U20 Championships, clocking 1:46.51 in his heat and 1:46.15 in his semifinal. By the time he advanced to the final, the 17-year-old was brimming with confidence.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hxn18G0LQGI" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Teammate Noah Kibet led for the first half of the final, going through 400m in a swift 49.39 with Wanyonyi just a stride behind. Kibet continued to lead until the final bend when Algeria&rsquo;s Mohamed Ali Gouaned edged ahead, but Wanyonyi wasn&rsquo;t finished.</p>
<p>Digging deep, Wanyonyi hit the lead with about 30 metres remaining and crossed the line in 1:43.76. Not only was his time a championship record, it was also a Kenyan U18 best.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Running a time of 1:43.76 at high altitude and setting a championship record has just confirmed that indeed I am good in this race,&rdquo; said Wanyonyi, who is coached by 2007 world champion Janeth Jepkosgei. &ldquo;I will keep pushing to see how much I can lower my new personal best. Who knows, maybe I can one day bring down Rudisha's world record.&rdquo;</p>

We focus on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year’s Rising Star awards.

Spotlight on Rising Stars: Christine Mboma and Emmanuel Wanyonyi

<p>As the countdown to the <strong>World Athletics Awards 2021</strong> continues, we shine a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year&rsquo;s Rising Star awards. The winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Silja Kosonen</h2>
<p>Despite a sporting background that includes football, swimming, skiing and orienteering, it is within athletics that Silja Kosonen has navigated her way to the very top.</p>
<p>From world and European U20 titles to global age-group and national senior records, it has been a standout year for the 18-year-old Finnish thrower, who started the season with a hammer best of 71.34m to her name.&nbsp;</p>
<p>That wasn&rsquo;t to remain her PB for long. Making her season debut in the snow at the Finnish Winter Throwing Championships in Kaustinen in early March, Kosonen improved to 72.44m &ndash; a senior national record that also broke the long-standing European U20 record set by the late 2000 Olympic champion Kamila Skolimowska.&nbsp;</p>
<p>A few months later, she graduated from being the best ever in Europe to the best in the world, throwing 73.43m in Vaasa in June to break the 16-year-old world U20 hammer record held by China&rsquo;s Zhang Wenxiu. With that performance the teenager secured her second successive Finnish Championships gold, and she went on to claim the European U20 title in Tallinn.</p>
<p>But in a busy year, Kosonen still had plenty to aim for. Making her Olympic debut in Tokyo two weeks later, she threw 70.49m to finish 14th in qualifying, a mark which saw her place in the top half of the field.</p>
<p>By the time she lined up at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kosonen had thrown beyond 70 metres in six competitions throughout the season and she added another to that tally to gain her first global gold in Kenya.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_RUjExOzGG8" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Starting her series with 70.53m, she improved to a championship record of 71.64m in the second round and recorded 68.41m in the third, before fouling the fourth, throwing 65.28m in the fifth and then 70.63m in the sixth.</p>
<p>She later explained how her win meant &ldquo;everything&rdquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It shows that I can get good results, even under a lot of pressure,&rdquo; said Kosonen, who led a repeat of the European podium also featuring French thrower Rose Loga and Maryola Bukel of Belarus. &ldquo;I can say that I am a world champion. It means so much.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It has just been the perfect season. I&rsquo;m going to remember this day forever. Out of my five well taken throws, three of them were above 70 metres, and that shows me that I am on the right track in my career.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Well and truly on track, if this year&rsquo;s performances are anything to go by.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Erriyon Knighton</h2>
<p>Still aged just 17, Erriyon Knighton is already the fastest U20 200m runner of all time and he will remain eligible for the age group throughout all of 2022 and 2023.</p>
<p>The world U20 record he broke this year? It belonged to a certain Usain Bolt, as did the world U18 best Knighton also improved. During a superb season of sprinting, the US athlete took his PB in the half lap event from 20.33 to 19.84 and became an Olympic finalist, finishing just 0.19 shy of a medal in fourth.</p>
<p>A huge achievement, but he had wanted even more. &ldquo;I just never want to feel this feeling ever again,&rdquo; he said later. &ldquo;So, I just have to come back again.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The goal from the start was to make the podium. I&rsquo;m just taking it all in, that&rsquo;s all you can do.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>He certainly seemed to take the season in his speedy long stride. Hailing from Tampa in Florida, Knighton had turned professional at the start of the year and opened his outdoor season with a 200m PB of 20.31 before running a wind-assisted 9.99 for 100m. He took 0.01 off his 200m best at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting at Mt SAC but then really stormed into the spotlight in Jacksonville at the end of May. Winning against some top competition, he ran 20.11 to take 0.02 from the world U18 best set by Bolt in 2003.</p>
<p>Then it was time for the US Olympic Trials. First the teenager cruised to another world U18 best of 20.04 to win his heat and he later explained how he believed a time of 19.8 or 19.7 would be needed to make the US Olympic team.</p>
<p>He was up for the challenge.</p>
<p>He won his semifinal in 19.88, breaking the world U20 record of 19.93 set by Bolt in 2004, and went even quicker in the final, his time of 19.84 placing him third, to secure his spot on the team for Tokyo.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />Once there, at what was only his second ever competition outside of the USA, he won his heat and semifinal in respective times of 20.55 and 20.02 before running 19.93 in the final to finish behind only Canada&rsquo;s Andre De Grasse and his US teammates Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be dangerous in the future,&rdquo; silver medallist Bednarek said when asked about Knighton after the race. &ldquo;Seventeen years old and being able to run this fast. He&rsquo;s raw, got a lot of talent and a lot of things to work on. He&rsquo;s definitely going to be a monster in the future.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>