Pierce LePage in the decathlon discus at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2023 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the combined events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of other event groups.
Women’s heptathlon
Season top list
| 6988 | Anna Hall (USA) | Gotzis | 28 May |
| 6740 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | Budapest | 20 August |
| 6501 | Anouk Vetter (NED) | Budapest | 20 August |
| 6495 | Emma Oosterwegel (NED) | Talence | 24 September |
| 6480 | Adrianna Sulek (POL) | Gotzis | 28 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Anna Hall (USA) | 1423 |
| 2 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | 1387 |
| 3 | Anouk Vetter (NED) | 1367 |
| 4 | Nafissatou Thiam (BEL) | 1363 |
| 5 | Emma Oosterwegel (NED) | 1316 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) | 6740 |
| 🥈 | Anna Hall (USA) | 6720 |
| 🥉 | Anouk Vetter (NED) | 6501 SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Katarina Johnson-Thompson (GBR) 6740
World Athletics Combined Events Tour: Emma Oosterwegel (NED) 3433
Asian Championships: Ekaterina Voronina (UZB) 6098
South American Championships: Martha Araujo (COL) 5785
Pan-American Games: Erin Marsh (USA) 5882
Asian Games: Zheng Ninali (CHN) 6149
Season at a glance
Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson produced one of the gutsiest performances of the World Athletics Championships in Budapest to regain a title she had won four years earlier in Doha.
The gap between those two triumphs had contained more than a fair share of disaster – even in an event offering seven different ways of getting injured.
She ruptured her achilles tendon at the end of 2020, but managed to recover in time to contest the following year’s Olympics. In Tokyo, however, she came to grief during the 200m, waving aside medical attention and jogging painfully to the finish line with what turned out to be a torn calf muscle that required surgery.
In 2022 she had managed eighth place at the World Championships with 6022, and then retained her Commonwealth title in Birmingham with 6377.
In the early part of 2023 she had concentrated on preparing for the outdoor season rather than seeking a third European indoor title.
In her absence, Belgium’s double Olympic and world champion Nafissatou Thiam added another gold to her collection with a pentathlon world record of 5055 at the European Indoor Championships, with Adriana Sulek second in a Polish record of 5014 – a score that was higher than the previous world record.
But despite her indoor flourish, Thiam was unable to defend her world title due to achilles tendon problems.
However, Johnson-Thompson still faced the dynamic rising force of 22-year-old Anna Hall, who had earned bronze at the previous year’s World Championships with a personal best of 6755 and was intent on improving on that colour in Budapest.
She arrived in Budapest as many people’s favourite having won the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis with a personal best of 6988 to go fifth on the world all-time list, with Johnson-Thompson finishing second on 6556.
But by the time she got to the Hungarian capital, Hall was carrying a knee injury. Part of the heptathlon territory…
For all that, Hall did enough on day one to lead overnight on 3998 points, 93 ahead of her British rival.
The US all-rounder had produced the second fastest 100m hurdles time, 12.97, with Johnson-Thompson 10th fastest in 13.50, before taking the lead after clearing 1.83m in the high jump, where the Briton, who has a best of 1.98m, moved up to fourth place with 1.86m.
If that had been less than hoped for from an athlete who had a best of 1.98m, Johnson-Thompson responded solidly in the shot put with 13.64m, not too far off the personal best of 13.98m she had set at Gotzis, dropping one place overall.
But Hall extended her lead with a personal best of 14.54m.
The Briton reduced the gap by winning the 200m at the end of day one in 23.48, but Hall was second fastest in 23.56. This was some battle.
Johnson-Thompson resumed with victory in day two’s opening event of the long jump, reaching 6.54m to take over a lead that she would not relinquish, with Hall – now competing with strapping on her leg – dropping to second overall after a best of 6.19m, 19 points behind, as her compatriot Chari Hawkins moved up to third.
The penultimate javelin event proved riveting as the fortunes of the two leading contenders fluctuated wildly.
An effort of 41.83m from the Briton was followed by a hugely significant response as she produced a personal best of 46.14m. With Hall fouling her first effort and managing only 37.92m, there were giddy gold visions for British supporters.
But Hall showed her true grit with her third and final attempt as she managed a season’s best of 44.88m to keep her chance of victory alive.
The Dutch world and Olympic silver medallist Anouk Vetter, who excels in the javelin, had produced a championship best of 59.57m to move up to second place overall on 5684, 26 points behind Johnson-Thompson and 17 ahead of Hall.
But Vetter’s outdoor personal best for the concluding event of the 800m, a time of 2:17.71 set at the Rio 2016 Olympics, indicated her challenge would end in minor key on the track.
The gap of 43 points between Johnson-Thompson and Hall translated to about 2.8 seconds in terms of the 800m.
Hall had established herself as the third fastest heptathlete of all time over 800m thanks to her 2:02.97 clocking in Gotzis – but she was clearly not ready to run to her best.
That said, Johnson-Thompson was facing a likely need to better her own personal best of 2:07.26.
It was a finely balanced contest for gold between two solid gold performers on the day.
Hall went out audaciously hard on the first lap, passing through 200m in 27.73 and 400m in 58.59. Johnson-Thompson was already two seconds adrift at this point; she couldn’t afford to lose much more ground.
But the Briton kept Hall in her sights and ensured she didn’t lose any ground, even regaining some. Hall, run off her feet, crossed the line in a championship best of 2:04.09.
It was not enough. Johnson-Thompson followed her home in a huge personal best of 2:05.63 to earn the title by a margin of 20 points – 6740 to 6720.
Vetter, who clocked 2:20.49, claimed the bronze with 6501, just 22 points ahead of home athlete Xenia Krizsan on 6479.
Vetter’s compatriot Emma Oosterwegel was fifth with 6464 and world indoor champion Noor Vidts was sixth with 6450.
“This has been one of the most gruelling heptathlons I’ve ever done – the delayed start yesterday, the long day, then I got about three hours sleep last night,” said Johnson-Thompson. “I just knew I could prove to myself – and to all everyone else – that I could still do it.
“This is the culmination of so much hard work. I'm so happy, I'm crying. I can't help it. Today I knew that if I believed in myself, I could do it. But it wasn't easy.
“In the 800m I wasn't thinking anything at all; I was just staring at the back of her (Anna Hall’s) legs, thinking 'Don't let her get away'. I was completely calm on the start line. I wasn't nervous at all. I knew if I believed I could do it, I would.
“I can't take it in – it's making me emotional,” she added. “The past few years have been so hard, but now it seems like it was all worth it. I've won medals before but this means so much.”
The fifth place achieved in Budapest by Oosterwegel enabled her to become winner of the 2023 World Athletics Combined Events Tour, with her three best results across the series being calculated into a score of 3454 points (based on world ranking performance points).
The Olympic bronze medallist successfully defended her title at the Decastar meeting in Talence and, with a season’s best of 6495, finished fourth on the 2023 world list behind the three Budapest medallists.
Second place went to Germany’s Sophie Weissenberg on 3433, with Finland’s Saga Vanninen third on 3399.
Men’s decathlon
Season top list
| 8909 | Pierce LePage (CAN) | Budapest | 26 August |
| 8836 | Leo Neugebauer (GER) | Austin | 8 June |
| 8804 | Damian Warner (CAN) | Budapest | 26 August |
| 8756 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | Budapest | 26 August |
| 8681 | Karel Tilga (EST) | Budapest | 26 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Pierce LePage (CAN) | 1446 |
| 2 | Damian Warner (CAN) | 1406 |
| 3 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | 1395 |
| 4 | Leo Neugebaurer (GER) | 1363 |
| 5 | Karel Tilga (EST) | 1359 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Pierce LePage (CAN) | 8909 WL |
| 🥈 | Damian Warner (CAN) | 8804 SB |
| 🥉 | Lindon Victor (GRN) | 8756 NR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Pierce LePage (CAN) 8909
World Athletics Combined Events Tour: Karel Tilga (EST) 3622
Asian Championships: Yuma Maruyama (JPN) 7745
South American Championships: Jose Fernando Santana (BRA) 8058
Pan-American Games: Santiago Ford (CHI) 7834
Asian Games: Sun Qihao (CHN) 7816
Season at a glance
Canada’s Pierce LePage turned 2022 world silver into 2023 world gold in Budapest after taking over the lead at the start of day two and keeping it to finish with the best score of the season, 8909, 105 points clear of his compatriot, Olympic champion Damian Warner.
Grenada’s 30-year-old Lindon Victor, who had won a second Commonwealth title the previous summer, earned his first global medal with a national record of 8756 in third.
After breaking through to international level in 2016, LePage earned Commonwealth silver in 2018 and Pan-American Games bronze in 2019.
He finished fifth at the 2019 World Championships, his first global event, and repeated that position at the Tokyo Olympic Games before going on to earn his world silver in Oregon last year behind France’s world record-holder and 2017 world champion Kevin Mayer after Warner had pulled out injured during day one’s closing 400m.
In the Hungarian capital, however, the 27-year-old from Ontario earned his first global title with a huge display of consistency. He did not win any of the 10 disciplines, but he was consistently good across the board, placing in the top five in seven of the disciplines.
LePage produced just one personal best – a 110m hurdles time of 13.77 that earned him 1004 points and enabled him to move into the gold medal position in place of the German whose inspired opening day had enabled him to hold an overnight lead, Leo Neugebauer.
Competing in the NCAA Championships for the University of Texas in June, two months before the World Championships started, 23-year-old Neugebauer set a collegiate and German record of 8836 that put him 10th on the world all-time list and left him second in the 2023 world list behind LePage.
Neugebauer looked in with a good chance of a medal in Budapest after the first five events, having long-jumped a lifetime best of 8.00m to move from 10th to second place overall before taking the lead after a personal best of 17.04m, the best mark, in the shot put.
The positions at the top of the leaderboard closed up slightly after the high jump with Neugebauer clearing 2.02m to Warner’s 2.05m and LePage’s 2.08m. The Canadian duo were then level second on points, but LePage moved into second place on his own after the 400m, clocking 47.21 to Warner’s 47.86m, with Neugebauer recording 47.99.
That was enough to allow the German to end up with a 30-point lead after an attritional opening day that saw his teammate Niklas Kaul, the 2019 world champion and European titleholder, drop out after the high jump.
By then the competition had also lost Mayer, who had been a doubtful starter because of injury, and Australia’s Olympic bronze medallist Ashley Moloney. Also making a premature departure was 2022 world bronze medallist Zachary Ziemek of the United States.
For Neugebauer, day two started with a near disaster as he clattered the first barrier in the 110m hurdles, and then clipped the next two. Somehow, he managed to stay on his feet and finish in a respectable 14.75.
But LePage became the new overall leader with Warner also moving above Neugebauer thanks to his 13.67 run – the fastest of the day.
LePage extended his lead in the discus, throwing 50.98m to Warner’s 45.82m. Victor excelled, though, throwing a decathlon championship best of 54.97m and moving from fifth to third.
Neugebauer threw a solid 47.63m, but it was some eight metres down on the mark he produced at the NCAA Championships and so nowhere near the points he’d been hoping to bank in this discipline.
LePage cleared 5.20m in the pole vault and, with two events to go, led by almost 200 points. Producing the second-best javelin throw of his life, 60.90m, he remained in command of the competition, although his gap closed slightly as Warner threw 63.09m and Victor 68.05m.
Going into the concluding 1500m, LePage had a 154-point lead over Victor and a 184-point lead over Warner, who was the strongest 1500m runner of the top trio.
And while Warner made up ground, clocking 4:27.73, a time of 4:39.88 was more than enough to give his teammate the title as he earned the second-best winning score at the World Championships behind the then world record of 9045 set by Ashton Eaton of the United States at the 2015 edition in Beijing.
Victor, who had failed to finish the 2017 and 2019 World Championships decathlons before placing fifth in Oregon, produced a lifetime best of 4:39.67 to secure his precious bronze, achieving the best mark for third place in any decathlon.
Record depth was achieved throughout the field, with the 8681 personal best set by Estonia’s Karel Tilga and Neugebauer’s 8645 being the best ever scores for fourth and fifth places.
It was the first time that seven men had broken 8500 and nine men scored in excess of 8400 in the same competition.
Tilga’s showing in Budapest helped him become the winner of the World Athletics Combined Events Tour with 3622 points calculated on his three best results across the series.
He won in Desenzano del Garda and then finished fourth at the Hypo Meeting in Gotzis, improving in seven of the 10 decathlon disciplines in 2023.
Norway’s Sander Skotheim was second on 3572, with Victor, winner of this title last year, third on 3539.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
