Mondo Duplantis in Budapest (© 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 jumping events and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of all the other event groups.
Women’s high jump
Season top list
| 2.03m | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | Eugene | 17 September |
| 2.03m | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | Eugene | 17 September |
| 2.00i | Vashti Cunningham (USA) | Albuquerque | 17 February |
| 2.00m | Iryna Gerashchenko (UKR) | Lausanne | 29 June |
| 1.99i | Morgan Lake (GBR) | Hustopece | 4 February |
| 1.99m | Eleanor Patterson (AUS) | Budapest | 27 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | 1476 |
| 2 | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | 1447 |
| 3 | Iryna Gerashchenko (UKR) | 1370 |
| 4 | Angelina Topic (SRB) | 1350 |
| 5 | Eleanor Patterson (AUS) | 1339 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) | 2.01m |
| 🥈 | Eleanor Patterson (AUS) | 1.99m SB |
| 🥉 | Nicola Olyslagers (AUS) | 1.99m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) 2.01m
Wanda Diamond League: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR) 2.03m
Asian Championships: Kristina Ovchinnikova (KAZ) 1.86m
South American Championships: Valdileia Martins (BRA) 1.84m
Pan-American Games: Rachel McCoy (USA) 1.87m
Asian Games: Safina Sadullayeva (UZB) 1.86m
Season at a glance
Yaroslava Mahuchikh’s world title win felt like it had been a long time coming. But the Ukraine athlete’s gold, after silvers in 2019 and 2022, arrived shortly before her 22nd birthday, such is the measure of her precocious ability.
In March 2022 Mahuchikh fled the Russian bombardment of her native city and, after a six-day car journey, arrived in Belgrade where she added a world indoor title to the world outdoor silver and Olympic bronze she had already collected.
At the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, she won her second silver.
Mahuchikh’s form in 2023 maintained its high level. Indoors, she headed the world list with 2.02m and won the European title.
She followed victory at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat with victory at the third European Games in Poland, the ideal preparation for the World Championships later in the season.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers was also offering clear evidence of her form, winning Diamond League meetings in Paris and Lausanne – where she equalled the 2.02m she had cleared at the Olympics – plus in Monaco.
Australia’s 2022 world champion Eleanor Patterson broke her foot at a meeting in February, but had recovered in good time for Budapest, as she demonstrated in becoming the only athlete other than Mahuchikh to clear 1.99m first time.
Olyslagers made sure of a medal by going over that height at her second attempt as Britain’s Morgan Lake, who had begun the year by setting a national record of 1.99m at the indoor meeting in Hustopece, finished with a best clearance of 1.97m.
Mahuchikh, ahead on countback, clinched gold with a second-time clearance of 2.01m – a height that proved too much on this occasion for Patterson and Olyslagers, who finished as respective silver and bronze medallists.
“I am so proud to win this gold for my country,” said Mahuchikh. “It was the first outdoor world gold for my country for 10 years, and in this difficult time is it extra important.”
The world champion remained in winning mode for the rest of the season, earning victories at the Xiamen and Brussels Diamond League meetings with respective clearances of 2.00m and 2.02m – the latter equalling the world lead.
Better still was to come in a hugely competitive Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene, where the Budapest gold and silver medallists played it again.
Olyslagers responded to Mahuchikh’s first-time clearance of 1.98m by clearing exuberantly at the third attempt and then put the pressure on her rival with a first-time clearance of 2.01m. Suddenly the Ukrainian, defending her title, was on the back foot. She responded with a first-time clearance that restored her leading position on countback.
When the bar went up to 2.03m, the Ukrainian went over at the second attempt to set the 2023 world lead.
But the indefatigable Olyslagers once again cleared at her third attempt to move the competition on to the height of 2.05m which proved too much for both. The season had finished on a high.
Three athletes – two fewer than in 2022 – jumped 2.00m or higher during the 2023 outdoor season. Mahuchikh’s compatriot Iryna Gerashchenko was the third, clearing 2.00m exactly in Lausanne and going on to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Silesia with 1.98m.
Men’s high jump
Season top list
| 2.38m | Danil Lysenko (RUS) | Moscow | 29 January |
| 2.36m | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | Chorzow | 16 July |
| 2.36m | Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) | Budapest | 22 August |
| 2.36m | JuVaughn Harrison (USA) | Budapest | 22 August |
| 2.35m | Woo Sanghyeok (KOR) | Eugene | 16 September |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | JuVaughn Harrison (USA) | 1434 |
| 2 | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | 1420 |
| 3 | Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) | 1382 |
| 4 | Woo Sanghyeok (KOR) | 1376 |
| 5 | Hamish Kerr (NZL) | 1331 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) | 2.36m =WL |
| 🥈 | JuVaughn Harrison (USA) | 2.36m =WL |
| 🥉 | Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) | 2.33m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Gianmarco Tamberi (ITA) 2.36m
Wanda Diamond League: Woo Sanghyeok (KOR) 2.35m
Asian Championships: Woo Sanghyeok (KOR) 2.28m
South American Championships: Carlos Layoy (ARG) 2.23m
Pan-American Games: Luis Zayas (CUB) 2.27m
Asian Games: Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT) 2.35m
Season at a glance
Like a cut branch growing back stronger, Gianmarco Tamberi has renewed and reinvigorated his career to reach the heights.
After wrecking his ankle shortly before the Rio 2016 Olympics, an injury that kept him out for the best – or rather worst – part of two years, he has adorned his CV with honours, including a share of the Tokyo Olympic title with his friend and rival Mutaz Barshim.
And in 2023, finally, his first outdoor world medal at the fifth attempt – a golden one.
It was a close-run thing in Budapest – achieved on countback over 24-year-old US athlete JuVaughn Harrison after both had cleared 2.36m, equalling the world lead set by Barshim the previous month.
But once more, when it had come to the highest challenge, the 31-year-old Italian – sporting a half-shaven beard for the final as in Tokyo – had risen to it.
Harrison, a rising talent who placed seventh at the Tokyo Olympics in the high jump with 2.33m and fifth in the long jump with 8.15m – had laid a strong base for his Hungarian challenge. He won the Wanda Diamond League meetings in Doha and Florence with efforts of 2.32m before earning victory in London with a season’s best of 2.35m.
Barshim, targeting a fourth consecutive world title at the age of 32, also indicated strong form in setting the world lead of 2.36m in Silesia a month before the World Championships.
Tamberi’s season was lower key, but finishing second to his Qatari rival in Poland with 2.34m indicated he too was ready to improve upon his frustrating experience at the previous year’s World Championships, where he had missed out on bronze on countback.
Inevitably, Tamberi’s triumph involved drama. He scraped through qualifying with a last-gasp clearance of 2.28m. He began the final with a first-time failure at 2.25m. However, he – and his vibrant supporters – still liked his chances.
Tamberi cleared 2.25m on his next attempt before making 2.29m and 2.33m first time. But as Harrison reached the same point without flaw, it looked as if the Italian might pay for his opening lapse. Everything tipped at 2.36m, though, as Harrison incurred his first failure of the day – and indeed of the whole competition.
Could Tamberi take over the lead with a first-time clearance? High stakes. Huge support. Just the way he liked it.
Of course he could. Of course he did.
Neither man could clear 2.38m, and as the US athlete knocked the bar off with his heels at the third attempt the Italian celebrations erupted.
Tamberi thus completed a full set of major medals: Olympic, world outdoor and indoor, and European outdoor and indoor.
Barshim, unbeaten in a global outdoor championship since the Rio 2016 Olympics, claimed a consolation bronze on countback as one of three men to clear 2.33m.
He would add another gold to his collection at the delayed Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, where he equalled the Games record of 2.35m.
Cuba’s 2016 world U20 champion Luis Enrique Zayas missed a world medal by one place after clearing what was a personal best. But he had a golden moment later in the year as he won the Pan American Games title in Santiago.
Finishing fifth in Budapest was Germany’s Tobias Potye, European silver medallist behind Tamberi in in his home town of Munich the previous year.
Korea’s Woo Sanghyeok, world silver medallist and world indoor champion in 2022, finished sixth on 2.29m. But he finished the season with two big wins – the first at the Asian Championships, where he cleared 2.28m.
The second triumph came at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene, where he equalled his national record of 2.35m, with Harrison taking third place on countback on 2.33m and Poland’s Norbert Kobielski claiming silver with a personal best.
A total of five athletes cleared 2.30m or higher during the indoor season - five fewer than in 2022.
Overall, seven athletes managed 2.34m or more during the outdoor season, and 15 made it over 2.30m, compared to seven and 17, respectively, in 2022.
Women’s pole vault
Season top list
| 4.91i | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | Zurich | 30 August |
| 4.90m | Katie Moon (USA) | Eugene | 9 July |
| 4.85m | Eliza McCartney (NZL) | Schifflange | 30 July |
| 4.82i | Tina Sutej (SLO) | Ostrava | 2 February |
| 4.80i | Wilma Murto (FIN) | Istanbul | 4 March |
| 4.80m | Sandi Morris (USA) | Locarno | 3 September |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Katie Moon (USA) | 1457 |
| 2 | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | 1414 |
| 3 | Wilma Murto (FIN) | 1405 |
| 4 | Tina Sutej (SLO) | 1388 |
| 5 | Sandi Morris (USA) | 1344 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Nina Kennedy (AUS) | 4.90m =WL |
| 🥇 | Katie Moon (USA) | 4.90m =WL |
| 🥉 | Wilma Murto (FIN) | 4.80m =SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Katie Moon (USA)/Nina Kennedy (AUS) 4.90m
Wanda Diamond League: Katie Moon (USA) 4.86m
Asian Championships: Li Ling (CHN) 4.66m
South American Championships: Juliana Campos (BRA) 4.60m
Pan-American Games: Bridget Williams (USA) 4.60m
Asian Games: Li Ling (CHN) 4.63m
Season at a glance
The women’s pole vault at the World Championships created a moment of history as defending champion Katie Moon of the United States and Australia’s Nina Kennedy, equal on countback after clearing a world lead of 4.90m and unsuccessful at 4.95m, decided to share the gold.
As the two athletes hugged each other there were clear parallels with the decision taken in similar circumstances at the end of the men’s high jump final at the Tokyo Olympics, where friends and rivals Mutaz Barshim of Qatar and Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy chose the same option.
By the time the two vaulters reached 4.90m the gold medal was between them as Finland’s European champion Wilma Murto and Tina Sutej of Slovenia failed at 4.85m after clearing 4.80m first time.
Murto claimed bronze, her first senior global medal, on countback.
So it was down to the 26-year-old Commonwealth champion and world bronze medallist Kennedy and the 32-year-old Olympic and defending champion Moon, each of whom had registered just one failure up to that point. With her 4.90m clearance, Kennedy added eight centimetres to her own Australian record, set in 2021.
En route to that moment of golden accord there were moments of individual achievement from others.
For Murto, 4.80m equalled her season’s best. For Sutej it was a Slovenian outdoor record, although she had cleared 4.82m indoors in February.
Britain’s 23-year-old Commonwealth silver medallist Molly Caudery improved her personal best by four centimetres as she cleared 4.75m to share fifth place with Switzerland’s Angelica Moser, for whom the result equalled her personal best.
Of the five contests in the Wanda Diamond League before the World Championships, Moon won three. But it was Kennedy who was inspired immediately afterwards as she won the Zurich meeting, adding a further centimetre to her national record.
Moon, however, ended with a last victory on the home soil of Eugene as she won the Wanda Diamond League Final with an effort of 4.86m.
Six women cleared 4.80m or higher throughout the year and 57 went over at 4.50m or more.
Men’s pole vault
Season top list
| 6.23m | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | Eugene | 17 September |
| 6.07m | KC Lightfoot (USA) | Nashville | 2 June |
| 6.00i | Sondre Guttormsen (NOR) | Albuquerque | 10 March |
| 6.00m | Ernest John Obiena (PHI) | Bergen | 10 June |
| 5.95m | Kurtis Marschall (AUS) | Sotteville-les-Rouen | 7 July |
| 5.95m | Christopher Nilsen (USA) | Budapest | 26 August |
| 5.95m | Sam Kendricks (USA) | Zurich | 31 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | 1576 |
| 2 | Ernest John Obiena (PHI) | 1443 |
| 3 | Christopher Nilsen (USA) | 1431 |
| 4 | Kurtis Marschall (AUS) | 1398 |
| 5 | Sam Kendricks (USA) | 1397 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Mondo Duplantis (SWE) | 6.10m |
| 🥈 | Ernest John Obiena (PHI) | 6.00m =AR |
| 🥉 | Kurtis Marschall (AUS) | 5.95m =PB |
| 🥉 | Christopher Nilsen (USA) | 5.95m SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.10m
Wanda Diamond League: Mondo Duplantis (SWE) 6.23m
Asian Championships: Ernest John Obiena (PHI) 5.91m
South American Championships: German Chiaraviglio (ARG) 5.55m
Pan-American Games: Matt Ludwig (USA) 5.55m
Asian Games: Ernest John Obiena (PHI) 5.90m
Season at a glance
The men’s pole vault at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco, less than a month before the World Athletics Championships, produced a highly unusual result – that is, Mondo Duplantis failed to win. Failed, in fact, to finish in the top three.
But when the big event in Budapest arrived, the defending champion earned a second world title for Sweden pretty much as he pleased.
Starting, unusually, at the relatively low height of 5.55m, the 24-year-old made six first-time clearances up to and including 6.10m to secure gold. After which he had three unsuccessful attempts to raise his world record of 6.22m by a centimetre.
Duplantis’s closest rivals did themselves proud in their efforts to remain competitive. Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines extended the contest, notionally, to 6.10m, although he was unable push on after equalling his area record with a second-time clearance of 6.00m, failing twice at 6.05m before electing for one final go at the next height up.
The 28-year-old from Manila thus added silver to the world bronze he had won a year earlier in Oregon.
The 2022 world silver medallist Chris Nilsen of the United States made the podium again after producing a season’s best of 5.95m, sharing bronze with Australia’s double Commonwealth champion Kurtis Marschall, for whom the height was a personal best.
Fifth- and sixth-place finishers Thibaut Collet of France and China’s Huang Bokai also rose to the big occasion with respective efforts of 5.90m, a personal best, and 5.75m, equalling a personal best.
The centrepiece of the 2023 season for Duplantis had been preceded by another sequence of supremacy. He began his year at the meeting named after him in Uppsala, the Mondo Classic, producing a classic victory in 6.10m – the best season-opener ever in pole vault. He also broke the record set by Olympic and six-time world champion Sergey Bubka of 11 clearances of 6.10m or higher.
On 25 February, at the All Star Perche meeting put on in Clermont-Ferrand by his predecessor as world record-holder, London 2012 Olympic gold medallist Renaud Lavillenie, Duplantis cleared 6.22m, adding a centimetre to the world record he set in winning his first world title the previous year.
That Monaco result apart, the Wanda Diamond League was something of a glory tour for Duplantis, who won in Oslo, Stockholm, Silesia, Zurich and Brussels, always with 6.00m or above, before arriving at the scene of his 2022 world record, Eugene, for the final.
There he rounded off the season in the perfect fashion as, after seeing off all opposition, he composed himself for another crack at 6.23m – with success.
It was his seventh world record.
Four men managed 6.00m or better in 2023 – Duplantis, Obiena, KC Lightfoot of the US and Sondre Guttormsen of Norway.
Lightfoot cleared 6.07m in Nashville on 2 June, improving the US record held by Sam Kendricks by one centimetre, while Guttormsen soared over 6.00m indoors in Albuquerque in March.
Lightfoot’s performance moved him to fourth on the world all-time list behind Duplantis, Lavillenie and Bubka.
Kendricks re-established himself in the top flight with a clearance of 5.95m at the post-World Championships Zurich Diamond League meeting, finishing joint fifth in the 2023 world list.
Women’s long jump
Season top list
| 7.14m | Ivana Vuleta (SRB) | Budapest | 20 August |
| 7.08m | Ackelia Smith (JAM) | Norman | 13 May |
| 7.07m | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | Fayetteville | 5 May |
| 7.03i | Jasmine Moore (USA) | Albuquerque | 10 March |
| 7.03m | Agate De Sousa (STP) | Weinheim | 27 May |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Ivana Vuleta (SRB) | 1436 |
| 2 | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | 1377 |
| 3 | Larissa Iapichino (ITA) | 1377 |
| 4 | Ese Brume (NGR) | 1347 |
| 5 | Quanesha Burks (USA) | 1337 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Ivana Vuleta (SRB) | 7.14m WL |
| 🥈 | Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA) | 6.91m |
| 🥉 | Alina Rotaru-Kottmann (ROU) | 6.88m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Ivana Vuleta (SRB) 7.14m
Wanda Diamond League: Ivana Vuleta (SRB) 6.85m
Asian Championships: Sumire Hata (JPN) 6.97m
South American Championships: Eliane Martins (BRA) 6.62m
Pan-American Games: Natalia Linares (COL) 6.66m
Asian Games: Xiong Shiqi (CHN) 6.73m
Season at a glance
Even before the last round of the World Athletics Championships final got under way, Serbia’s 33-year-old Ivana Vuleta dropped to her knees, overcome with emotion. She knew, just knew, that world gold was coming her way – at the fifth time of asking.
Vuleta had arrived in Budapest without having made too many waves in the Wanda Diamond League, where she had finished third in Stockholm and Lausanne, the winner on both occasions being Italy’s rising talent Larissa Iapichino – 21 in July – who had also won in Florence.
Iapichino, whose English-born mother Fiona May won two world titles and two Olympic silvers in the long jump, had earned a breakthrough silver earlier in the year at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, recording 6.97m behind Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers, who set a British record of 7.00m.
She arrived in Hungary full of confidence. But Vuleta, the oldest athlete in the final, was freighted with invaluable experience after a long career in which she had already earned one Olympic and two world bronze medals, two world indoor titles, two European titles and three European indoor titles.
After an opening foul, Vuleta laid down a big marker with a second round effort of 7.05m, moving into the lead ahead of the 6.91m opener recorded by Tara Davis-Woodhall of the United States.
Nigeria’s Ese Brume moved into bronze position with her second-round 6.84m.
So it stayed until the fifth round – when Vuleta produced a national outdoor record of 7.14m to widen the gap between herself and the rest of the field in what did indeed turn out to be a decisive fashion.
As she gathered her thoughts, perhaps her mind turned to the world title she felt she should have won six years earlier in London. On that occasion her last attempt appeared to have bettered the leading mark of 7.02m by Brittney Reese of the United States. But she was awarded 6.91m. The Serbian team appealed after slow motion replays showed that the indentation in the sand nearest to the board had been made by the flapping bib number on her back.
It was the worst of bad luck – but the effort was ruled correctly and she missed a medal by six centimetres.
Earlier that year Vuleta – then Spanovic – had won the European indoor title in front of an arena full of jubilant fans in Belgrade with a lifetime best of 7.24m – the third best indoor jump of all time.
Both Vuleta and Woodhall-Davis jumped 6.78m with their last efforts in Budapest, confirming their respective gold and silver positions. But a final leap of 6.88m earned Alina Rotaru-Kottmann of Romania bronze ahead of Brume.
Iapichino finished fifth after a final round effort of 6.82m.
The world champion went on to earn a first Wanda Diamond League victory of the year in Xiamen before securing a fifth overall Diamond League win in Eugene.
Her 7.14m stood as the outdoor best in 2023, with three others bettering 7.00m – all in May. They were Ackelia Smith of Jamaica, who reached 7.08m, Davis-Woodhall on 7.07m, and Agate De Sousa of Sao Tome & Principe, who jumped 7.03m.
Nine women jumped 6.80m or farther indoors – two more than had done so in 2022, with Sawyers second on 7.00m and Jasmine Moore of the United States topping the list with 7.03m.
Men’s long jump
Season top list
| 8.54m | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | Budapest | 23 August |
| 8.52m | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | Budapest | 24 August |
| 8.42m | Jeswin Aldrin (IND) | Bellary | 2 March |
| 8.41m | Murali Sreeshankar (IND) | Bhubaneshwar | 18 June |
| 8.40i | Carey McLeod (JAM) | Albuquerque | 10 March |
| 8.40m | Lin Yu-tang (TPE) | Bangkok | 15 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | 1433 |
| 2 | Tajay Gayle (JAM) | 1360 |
| 3 | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | 1348 |
| 4 | Simon Ehammer (SUI) | 1341 |
| 5 | Wang Jianan (CHN) | 1328 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) | 8.52m SB |
| 🥈 | Wayne Pinnock (JAM) | 8.50m |
| 🥉 | Tajay Gayle (JAM) | 8.27m =SB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE) 8.52m
Wanda Diamond League: Simon Ehammer (SUI) 8.22m
Asian Championships: Lin Yu-tang (TPE) 8.40m
South American Championships: Arnovis Dalmero (COL) 8.29m
Pan-American Games: Arnovis Dalmero (COL) 8.08m
Asian Games: Wang Jianan (CHN) 8.22m
Season at a glance
Just as he had done in the Tokyo Olympic final, Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece claimed gold at the World Athletics Championships with his final effort.
He thus earned the world outdoor title that completed his set of long jump honours – a champion at the Olympics and the indoor and outdoor versions of the World and European Championships. In continental terms, he had three indoor titles and two outdoors. So eight major championship golds. And all by the age of 25.
The proof of this Greek athlete’s extraordinary competitiveness was made plain again in Budapest by his sixth and last jump.
It had looked as if he might have done enough with his first, as he registered 8.50m. But within a round he was in second place as Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock – whose qualifying mark of 8.54m was a world lead – jumped the same distance and moved ahead through a better second jump, a first-round effort of 8.40m as against Tentoglou’s second-round foul.
Meanwhile Pinnock’s compatriot Carey McLeod moved into bronze medal position on 8.27m.
Tentoglou came within a centimetre of matching the leader with a third-round effort of 8.39m, but the order remained the same until a riveting final round.
First Jamaica’s 2019 world champion Tajay Gayle, his left knee taped, displaced McLeod from third place, registering 8.27m and having a better second effort.
McLeod was unable to respond with his last attempt. Next came a do-or-die effort from the Greek in second place. And when it registered as 8.52m all the pressure was on the displaced leader. Pinnock’s final effort was a courageous 8.38m but it was silver rather than gold for him.
Meanwhile China’s former decathlete Wang Jianan, who had beaten Tentoglou to the world title a year earlier with his final effort, had to settle this time for fifth place and a best of 8.05m.
“The only gold medal I was missing is now mine,” said Tentoglou. “I stayed calm after my first attempt of 8.50m. I was sure that Pinnock had a lot to add. He is very strong and will give much more next year.”
Pinnock’s 8.54m remained the best recorded outdoors in 2023.
The last word at the Wanda Diamond League Final went to Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, who a year earlier had become the first active decathlete to win a senior individual global medal in another discipline as he took bronze behind Wang and Tentoglou in Eugene.
In the same setting he won the title with a best of 8.22m.
Women’s triple jump
Season top list
| 15.35m | Yulimar Rojas (VEN) | Eugene | 16 September |
| 15.12i | Jasmine Moore (USA) | Albuquerque | 11 March |
| 15.03m | Shanieka Ricketts (JAM) | Eugene | 16 September |
| 15.00m | Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (UKR) | Budapest | 25 August |
| 14.98m | Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) | San Salvador | 5 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Yulimar Rojas (VEN) | 1476 |
| 2 | Shanieka Ricketts (JAM) | 1405 |
| 3 | Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (UKR) | 1400 |
| 4 | Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) | 1393 |
| 5 | Liadagmis Povea (CUB) | 1353 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Yulimar Rojas (VEN) | 15.08m |
| 🥈 | Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (UKR) | 15.00m SB |
| 🥉 | Leyanis Perez Hernandez (CUB) | 14.96m |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Yulimar Rojas (VEN) 15.08m
Wanda Diamond League: Yulimar Rojas (VEN) 15.35m
Asian Championships: Mariko Morimoto (JPN) 14.06m
South American Championships: Gabriele Santos (BRA) 13.92m
Pan-American Games: Leyanis Perez (CUB) 14.75m
Asian Games: Sharifa Davronova (UZB) 14.09m
Season at a glance
What would have been the biggest shock result of the World Athletics Championships looked about to take place in the women’s triple jump as the Venezuelan athlete who had ruled the event since winning the first of her three world titles in 2017, Yulimar Rojas, stood eighth of the eight remaining contenders as she prepared for her final effort.
The exuberant Olympic champion and world record-holder had barely earned the right to make more than three jumps, her best up to that point, 14.33m, having also been reached by Keturah Orji of the United States.
But the latter’s failure to record another legal jump meant the woman who had won the Tokyo Olympic Games title with a world outdoor record of 15.67m, and who soared 15.74m indoors the following year, remained – theoretically at least – in contention for a record fifth title.
However, as the increasingly bemused defending champion failed to record a legal mark on jumps four and five, gold seemed destined for the Ukrainian who had won the European title with 15.02m the previous year, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, whose first-round effort of 15.00m was looking increasingly unassailable.
Until, that is, Rojas took off with a final jump that erred so far on the side of caution that her toes barely touched the leading edge of the board, giving up almost 20cm – and still landed at 15.08m.
As the eighth-placed jumper, Rojas had taken the first jump of the final round. But not even the hugely competitive Ukrainian was able to threaten the new lead, as she finished with a foul.
A final effort of 14.83m from Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts lifted her into fourth place, but Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez remained safe in third place on 14.96m.
“It was very difficult,” said Rojas. “The fact that I won the competition with my last attempt makes it very special and memorable. This is my seventh world championship gold in a row (outdoors and indoors), but this is the most special of all of them.”
Rojas had dominated the Wanda Diamond League before the World Championships, winning in Oslo and Silesia – where she recorded a world lead of 15.18m. She dominated it afterwards also, winning at Zurich with 15.15m and finishing her season by earning a third consecutive Diamond Trophy by recording 15.35m in the Eugene Final – naturally enough, the best effort of the season.
Second on the final outdoor world list was Ricketts, who recorded 15.03m in finishing second to Rojas in Eugene.
Men’s triple jump
Season top list
| 17.87m | Jaydon Hibbert (JAM) | Baton Rouge | 13 May |
| 17.81m | Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) | Doha | 5 May |
| 17.75m | Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) | Florence | 2 June |
| 17.60i | Pedro Pichardo (POR) | Istanbul | 3 March |
| 17.59i | Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun (ESP) | Madrid | 19 February |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) | 1456 |
| 2 | Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) | 1397 |
| 3 | Lazaro Martinez (CUB) | 1374 |
| 4 | Jaydon Hibbert (JAM) | 1337 |
| 5 | Pedro Pichardo (POR) | 1334 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) | 17.64m |
| 🥈 | Lazaro Martinez (CUB) | 17.41m |
| 🥉 | Cristian Napoles (CUB) | 17.40m PB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) 17.64m
Wanda Diamond League: Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) 17.43m
Asian Championships: Abdulla Aboobacker (IND) 16.92m
South American Championships: Almir dos Santos (BRA) 17.24m
Pan-American Games: Lazaro Martinez (CUB) 17.19m
Asian Games: Zhu Yaming (CHN) 17.13m
Season at a glance
Hugues Fabrice Zango earned his – and Burkina Faso’s – first global title at the World Athletics Championships after a dramatically fluctuating men’s triple jump final that ended with two Cubans sharing the podium with him, separated by a single centimetre.
The 30-year-old France-based Zango, who already had an Olympic bronze and world silver and bronze, completed his collection with the best of all colours after taking an early lead, losing it, and regaining it with his penultimate effort of 17.64m.
Silver went to 25-year-old Lazaro Martinez, the 2022 world indoor champion, on 17.41m, with his 24-year-old teammate Cristian Napoles earning bronze thanks to a personal best of 17.40m.
There was disappointment, however, for Jamaica’s 18-year-old rising talent Jaydon Hibbert, who had to scratch from the competition after the first round.
Having invited and received big support before his opening jump, the world U20 champion, whose 17.87m in May finished as the best performance of the year, aborted the effort immediately after his hop, stuttering to halt and appearing to be troubled by the hamstring in his take-off leg.
To add to his frustration, the mark of 17.70m he set to top qualifying would have been enough for gold.
Despite the relatively late announcement of the withdrawal of Portugal’s world and Olympic champion Pedro Pichardo, who had won the opening Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha with 17.91m, this final lacked for nothing in terms of quality or competitiveness.
Zango, second on the 2023 world list with 17.81m, took an early grip on the contest with an opening effort of 17.37m that put him 41 centimetres clear of his nearest first-round challenger, Algeria’s Yasser Triki.
But in the second round it was as if a switch had been thrown, and Burkino Faso’s Olympic bronze medallist was pushed down to second place by the 17.41m recorded by Martinez, with China’s Zhu Yaming moving into third position on 17.12m and Napoles taking over fourth place on 17.02m, one centimetre ahead of Zhu’s compatriot Fang Yaoqing.
It was Napoles’s turn to celebrate in the fourth round. He thumped the side-boarding and roared into the cameras after a big effort that turned out to be a personal best of 17.40m – enough to move him into silver-medal position.
Zango’s response was good – 17.36m – but not good enough to raise him from the bronze medal position.
But fifth time round it all came together for him as he moved back into the lead for good with 17.64m.
"I promised to make history and I did it tonight,” Zango said. “That is the first gold medal in the men's triple jump not only for my country, but for Africa as well. I cannot imagine the level of celebration in my country when I go back home, but I'm going to start the celebrations in Budapest."
The season ended with a final flourish by Italy’s Andy Diaz Hernandez. Having won the 2022 Wanda Diamond League title for Cuba he retained the title for Italy in Eugene with a best of 17.43m.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
