Noah Lyles wins the 200m 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 begins with a review of the sprints and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of all the other event groups.
Women’s 100m
Season top list
| 10.65 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | Kingston | 7 July |
| 10.65 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | Budapest | 21 August |
| 10.75 | Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV) | Oslo | 15 June |
| 10.77 | Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) | Budapest | 21 August |
| 10.79 | Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM) | Eugene | 16 September |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | 1480 |
| 2 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | 1465 |
| 3 | Marie-Josee Ta Lou (CIV) | 1463 |
| 4 | Dina Asher-Smith (GBR) | 1372 |
| 5 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 1367 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | 10.65 CR |
| 🥈 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | 10.72 |
| 🥉 | Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) | 10.77 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Sha’Carri Richardson (USA) 10.65
Wanda Diamond League: Shericka Jackson (JAM) 10.70
Asian Championships: Veronica Shanti Pereira (SGP) 11.20
South American Championships: Vitoria Cristina Rosa (BRA) 11.17
Pan-American Games: Yunisleidy Garcia (CUB) 11.36
Asian Games: Ge Manqi (CHN) 11.23
Season at a glance
Given the volatile nature of her talent, it was only fitting that Sha’Carri Richardson should make her 100m breakthrough at world level in extraordinary circumstances.
The 23-year-old from Dallas, Texas – who had run 10.72 two years earlier but then missed out on making the Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 World Championships in Oregon – failed to secure one of the two automatic qualifying places in her semifinal and had to wait in the holding room before learning that she had progressed thanks to her time of 10.84.
After an extra place had been allotted following the dead heat of Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and Ewa Swoboda of Poland, Richardson ended up running the final out in lane nine.
All eyes were drawn to the central battle between the two Jamaican sprinting marvels Shericka Jackson and 36-year-old defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
But the US sprinter, after an average start, began to accelerate with such power in the outside lane that, over the final five metres, she had switched the focus of the race, pumping her fist as she crossed the line in a championship record of 10.65 and reacting to confirmation of the time and result with mad joy.
Jackson, who finished the season topping the world lists with the 10.65 she recorded in Kingston in July, repeated her silver medal-winning performance of the previous year, clocking 10.72, with Fraser-Pryce, five times a winner of this title, adding bronze to her collection in a season’s best of 10.77 after seeing her championship record of the year before beaten by 0.02.
Overall performances in the women’s 100m dipped slightly in 2023 as 26 athletes bettered 11.00 – 11 fewer than the previous season.
But with Richardson coming good as a major force, the sense of top-level competition was, if anything, even more intense.
"I'm here. I'm the champion," said Richardson. "I told you all. I'm not back, I'm better."
Such was the depth of the field that six of the nine finalists ran inside 11 seconds – one less than had achieved that feat in the previous year’s final. Double NCAA champion Julien Alfred, representing Saint Lucia, clocked 10.93 in fifth while Swoboda was timed at 10.97 in sixth position.
This was the first time the United States had won world 100m gold in both the men’s and women’s event since the 2017 edition in London, when Justin Gatlin and the late Tori Bowie had claimed the honours.
While Jackson’s main focus remained on the 200m, she remained potent enough in the shorter sprint to win the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene in 10.70 with Richardson finishing fourth.
Men’s 100m
Season top list
| 9.83 | Zharnel Hughes (GBR) | New York | 24 June |
| 9.83 | Noah Lyles (USA) | Budapest | 20 August |
| 9.83 | Christian Coleman (USA) | Xiamen | 2 September |
| 9.84 | Ferdinand Omanyala (KEN) | Nairobi | 13 May |
| 9.85 | Kishane Thompson (JAM) | Xiamen | 2 September |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 1458 |
| 2 | Christian Coleman (USA) | 1448 |
| 3 | Ferdinand Omanyala (KEN) | 1418 |
| 4 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 1404 |
| 5 | Fred Kerley (USA) | 1397 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 9.83 =WL |
| 🥈 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 9.88 NR |
| 🥉 | Zharnel Hughes (GBR) | 9.88 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Noah Lyles (USA) 9.83
Wanda Diamond League: Christian Coleman (USA) 9.83
Asian Championships: Hiroki Yanagita (JPN) 10.02
South American Championships: Issamade Asinga (SUR) 9.89
Pan-American Games: Jose Gonzalez (DOM) 10.30
Asian Games: Xie Zhenye (CHN) 9.97
Season at a glance
While the high point of men’s sprinting over 100m and 200m in 2023 is probably best summed up in two words – Noah Lyles – there was a greater depth to it than ever before as 40 athletes ran 10 seconds or faster, improving on last year’s best of 35.
Although he ran out of gas at the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene, where he failed to add to his total of five Diamond Trophies, the exuberant 26-year-old from Gainesville, Florida enjoyed his finest season so far as he won a first world 100m title and a third consecutive world 200m title before anchoring the United States to 4x100m gold.
The hardest part of that triple triumph in Budapest’s newly-built National Stadium was the first one. While Lyles has been getting consistently faster over the shorter distance, he was far from being the favourite, having finished third at the US Trials after recovering from Covid.
The field included his US teammates Fred Kerley, the defending champion who had opened his season over 100m in Yokohama in May with a timing of 9.88, and a resurgent Christian Coleman, the 2019 world 100m champion, as well as the potent but injury-disrupted talent of Italy’s Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs.
But on a day of surprises, both Kerley and Jacobs failed to reach the final, with the former missing out by 0.01.
The first part of the double suddenly looked more do-able for Lyles, who had boldly predicted a time of 9.65. But Coleman remained a serious rival, and after making the kind of start one would expect of a sprinter who has run the 60m in 6.34 – 0.05 faster than any other – it seemed as if this small, powerful figure would regain the title he had won in Doha four years earlier.
But Coleman faded over the final 25 metres, finishing an agonised fifth in 9.92 after Lyles, as always, had made big gains over the final metres.
Lyles’ first world 100m title was won in a personal best of 9.83 that equalled the world lead set a couple of months earlier by Zharnel Hughes in what was a British record.
Hughes earned tangible reward in his breakthrough year with bronze, one place behind Botswana’s prodigious 20-year-old Letsile Tebogo – earning a first men’s 100m medal for Africa – and one ahead of Jamaica’s 22-year-old Oblique Seville, with all three timed at 9.88.
Tebogo, a double world U20 champion, earned silver by one thousandth of a second, clocking a national record of 9.873 to the Briton’s 9.874, with Seville, fourth for a second successive year, timed at 9.877.
In April, Tebogo had ensured that the Botswana Golden Grand Prix – the first World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting to be held in southern Africa – ended on a high for home fans in Gaborone as he won the 200m in 19.87, taking 0.09 off his personal best.
Coleman may not have finished strongly in Budapest but he did so in Eugene as he won the Wanda Diamond League title by equalling the world-leading mark of 9.83 set by Hughes and Lyles.
The latter was second in 9.85, with Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala third in the same time, just 0.01 shy of his season’s best.
China’s Xie Zhenye added his name to the list of sub-10 performers in 2023 by clocking 9.97 to win the Asian Games title on his home soil of Hangzhou.
Women’s 200m
Season top list
| 21.41 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | Budapest | 25 August |
| 21.60 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | Eugene | 9 July |
| 21.91 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | Gainesville | 14 April |
| 21.92 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | Budapest | 25 August |
| 22.01 | Kayla White (USA) | Eugene | 9 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | 1521 |
| 2 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | 1412 |
| 3 | Daryll Neita (GBR) | 1391 |
| 4 | Anthonique Strachan (BAH) | 1391 |
| 5 | Julien Alfred (LCA) | 1389 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Shericka Jackson (JAM) | 21.41 CR |
| 🥈 | Gabby Thomas (USA) | 21.81 |
| 🥉 | Sha'Carri Richardson (USA) | 21.92 PB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Shericka Jackson (JAM) 21.41
Wanda Diamond League: Shericka Jackson (JAM) 21.57
Asian Championships: Veronica Shanti Pereira (SGP) 22.70
South American Championships: Nicole Caicedo (ECU) 22.81
Pan-American Games: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 22.74
Asian Games: Veronica Shanti Pereira (SGP) 23.03
Season at a glance
Shericka Jackson, already a double world 100m medallist, duly became a back-to-back champion over 200m at the World Championships in Budapest.
But the real story of her season, given her pre-eminence at the event, was all about times – and how close she could come to the world record of 21.34 set by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Regarded for so long as being out of reach, the mark had already begun to look at least approachable following Jackson’s 2022 world title win in 21.45, a championship record that put her second on the world all-time list.
The measure of her ambition for this year’s World Championships became clear when, after winning superbly in 21.41, she had looked just a little cast down.
Afterwards the 28-year-old former – and perhaps future – 400m specialist revealed why: “Honestly, when I crossed the line and saw the time, I said aaahhh, I’m close, I’m close. I wrote down two times on my bib today. The slowest I wrote was 21.40 and I got 21.41. I just wanted to see the race before I celebrated because I didn’t know if it was wind-legal.”
Jackson refused to say if the second target was a world record – but one could only assume so.
The impact of her performance was evident on her closest rival’s face as runner-up Gabby Thomas of the United States crossed the line fully 0.40 behind, her mouth agape – as it was again when the silver medallist, fourth on the world all-time list, embraced the victor and looked up at the giant screen to see Jackson’s time.
With Thomas second in 21.81 and her teammate, 100m winner Sha’Carri Richardson, taking bronze in a lifetime best 21.92, it was not quite the biggest winning margin in a women’s 200m final at the outdoor World Championships.
The gap between Allyson Felix and Veronica Campbell in Osaka in 2007 was 0.47 – and between another US athlete, Inger Miller, and another Jamaican, Beverly McDonald, 0.45 in Seville in 1999.
But celebrations were in order for an athlete who had become the first Jamaican woman to make a successful defence of the world 200m title since Merlene Ottey, a winner in Stuttgart in 1993 and again in Gothenburg two years later.
“I will continue to work and I hope I can maintain at least this level and we will see if the world record will come,” Jackson said.
Thomas, who had set a personal best of 21.60 at the previous month’s US Championships, confessed: “I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the screen afterwards.”
Richardson earned her second World Championship medal ahead of the US-based St Lucia athlete Julien Alfred, fourth in 22.05, with Briton Daryll Neita fifth in a personal best of 22.16.
“Being able to win the 100m and get a medal in the 200m, that's a dream come true,” Richardson said.
“After not qualifying for the team at all last year, to get the podium in both of my races here is amazing.”
Jackson saw out the season still in search of the world record – but as a winner.
At the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels – where, 12 years earlier, Jamaica’s Yohan Blake had run 19.26 to go second on the all-time men’s list – Jackson set a Diamond League record of 21.48.
And at the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene she triumphed once more, claiming the Trophy with a meeting record of 21.57.
By then, Jackson had achieved more sub-22-second clockings (seven) in one season than anyone else in history. And her career tally of sub-22-second runs now stands at 17, breaking the record set by Ottey.
Men’s 200m
Season top list
| 19.47 | Noah Lyles (USA) | London | 23 July |
| 19.50 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | London | 23 July |
| 19.72 | Erriyon Knighton (USA) | Eugene | 9 July |
| 19.73 | Zharnel Hughes (GBR) | London | 23 July |
| 19.76 | Udodi Onwuzurike (NGR) | Austin | 7 June |
| 19.76 | Andre De Grasse (CAN) | Eugene | 17 September |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 1483 |
| 2 | Erriyon Knighton (USA) | 1461 |
| 3 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 1438 |
| 4 | Kenny Bednarek (USA) | 1418 |
| 5 | Zharnel Hughes (GBR) | 1416 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Noah Lyles (USA) | 19.52 |
| 🥈 | Erriyon Knighton (USA) | 19.75 |
| 🥉 | Letsile Tebogo (BOT) | 19.81 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Noah Lyles (USA) 19.52
Wanda Diamond League: Andre De Grasse (CAN) 19.76
Asian Championships: Towa Uzawa (JPN) 20.23
South American Championships: Issamade Assinga (SUR) 20.19
Pan-American Games: Renan Correa (BRA) 20.37
Asian Games: Koki Ueyama (JPN) 20.60
Season at a glance
Winning a third consecutive world 200m title was the main thing for Noah Lyles at the World Championships – but it wasn’t the only thing.
The sprint double, and a 200m world record of 19.10, were among the goals announced ahead of the competition by the ebullient 26-year-old showman from Gainesville, Florida.
Having completed the trickiest part of that double, the 100m, the longer sprint appeared to be Lyles’s for the taking and he took it in style – although the world record of 19.19 set by Jamaican legend Usain Bolt in winning the 2009 world title was never remotely threatened.
Having broken Michael Johnson’s US record with 19.31 to win the 2022 world title, this time round a third world 200m title was achieved without undue strain in 19.52. After talking the talk, an athlete who wants to take athletics above and beyond the track had walked the walk.
Lyles thus surpassed the achievement of two successive world 200m titles he had shared with fellow US sprinters Johnson and Calvin Smith, and now stands one victory away from matching the record Bolt set between 2009 and 2015.
He was followed home by two rising talents who will continue to make his career competitive in coming years.
His 19-year-old compatriot Erriyon Knighton, a bronze medallist in Oregon the previous summer, earned silver in 19.75, with bronze going to Botswana’s 20-year-old Letsile Tebogo, the 100m silver medallist, in 19.81.
Tebogo thus became only the second African man to earn a World Championships 200m medal following Namibia’s Frank Fredericks, who won one gold and three silvers.
At the previous month’s London Diamond League meeting, Tebogo had broken Fredericks’s African record in clocking 19.50 behind Lyles’s season-leading effort.
Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, who had high hopes of further success after earning bronze in the 100m, missed out by one place as he clocked 20.02, with Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek fifth in 20.07, one place ahead of Canada’s Olympic champion Andre De Grasse, who clocked 20.14.
Lyles’ intent and confidence was obvious from the gun as he reached 100m in 10.26, with Knighton on 10.28 and Tebogo on 10.32 – and that was how it stayed.
“It is a great feeling to know I did something not a lot of people have done,” Lyles said. “I wanted to show I am different. Today I came out and showed it. I am double champion.
“Usain Bolt has done it, and him saying to me that he sees what I am doing and he respects it, it is amazing.”
Lyles had come in like a lion, venting his pent-up feeling with a huge, theatrical roar as he entered the arena; he went out like a lion too.
After winning the next Wanda Diamond League meeting after Budapest in 19.80 – with the world silver and bronze medallists replicating their placings – he ended his involvement with 200m racing for the rest of the season.
At the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene, the title went, somewhat surprisingly, to De Grasse in a season’s best of 19.76 that left him joint fifth on the season’s world list along with Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike.
A total of eight athletes ran under 19.80 – two more than in 2022, which was the highest total since 2010. And a total of 20 sub-20-second runners was two more than last year’s record number.
Women’s 400m
Season top list
| 48.74 | Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) | Eugene | 8 July |
| 48.76 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | Budapest | 23 August |
| 49.13 | Britton Wilson (USA) | Baton Rouge | 13 May |
| 49.20 | Rhasidat Adeleke (IRL) | Austin | 10 June |
| 49.26i | Femke Bol (NED) | Apeldoorn | 19 February |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | 1470 |
| 2 | Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) | 1437 |
| 3 | Sada Williams (BAR) | 1381 |
| 4 | Lieke Klaver (NED) | 1380 |
| 5 | Femke Bol (NED) | 1372 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Marileidy Paulino (DOM) | 48.76 NR |
| 🥈 | Natalia Kaczmarek (POL) | 49.57 |
| 🥉 | Sada Williams (BAR) | 49.60 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 48.76
Wanda Diamond League: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 49.58
Asian Championships: Nadeesha Ramanayaka (SRI) 52.61
South American Championships: Martina Weil (CHI) 51.11
Pan-American Games: Marileidy Paulino (DOM) 51.48
Asian Games: Kemi Adekoya (BRN) 50.66
Season at a glance
For the Dominican Republic’s Marileidy Paulino, 2023 was the year when the stars aligned.
After taking silver at the Olympics in 2021 and at the following year’s World Championships in Oregon – both times behind Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas – Paulino finally earned global gold in a national record of 48.76.
The 26-year-old from Nizao, Peravia, finished well clear of her nearest opposition after overtaking Commonwealth champion Sada Williams of Barbados on the final turn.
Miller-Uibo was in Budapest to defend her title just four months after giving birth to her first child but failed to qualify from the heats after clocking 52.65. She was very far from being cast down about that.
One strong contender not present was world 400m hurdles champion and record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who had demonstrated the breadth of her athletic talent as she turned her attention to the 400m flat in 2023, clocking three sub-50-second times culminating at the previous month’s US Championships in 48.74 – which was and remained the fastest recorded throughout the year.
McLaughlin-Levrone withdrew from the championships because of a knee injury.
The 2019 world champion from Bahrain, Salwa Eid Nasser, was another late withdrawal.
Paulino still faced some serious opposition in the form of Williams, Ireland’s emerging star Rhasidat Adeleke, who had run 49.20 in Austin, Texas on 10 June, Poland’s European silver medallist Natalia Kaczmarek and Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands.
Paulino moved through to the top of the podium in Budapest with calm efficiency to becomes her country’s second individual world champion after two-time 400m hurdles winner Felix Sanchez.
Paulino, who had earned world gold the previous year in the mixed relay, took 0.22 off her best, moving to 11th on the world all-time list.
Kaczmarek, who had run a personal best of 49.48 a month beforehand, took silver in 49.57, becoming the first Polish woman to win a world 400m medal in the process.
Williams clocked 49.60 to dash the rising Irish hopes for Adeleke, fourth in 50.13.
Paulino rounded off her year by winning the Wanda Diamond League Trophy in 49.58, with Kaczmarek finishing second in 50.38 and Klaver third in 50.47.
Thirteen athletes went sub-50 during the season, four more than the previous year.
Men’s 400m
Season top list
| 43.73 | Steven Gardiner (BAH) | Szekesfehervar | 18 July |
| 43.91 | Muzala Samukonga (ZAM) | Gaborone | 29 April |
| 44.03 | Rusheen McDonald (JAM) | Szekesfehervar | 18 July |
| 44.08 | Wayde van Niekerk (RSA) | Chorzow | 16 July |
| 44.13 | Antonio Watson (JAM) | Budapest | 22 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Wayde van Niekerk (RSA) | 1404 |
| 2 | Quincy Hall (USA) | 1399 |
| 3 | Vernon Norwood (USA) | 1397 |
| 4 | Matthew Hudson-Smith (GBR) | 1393 |
| 5 | Kirani James (GRN) | 1378 |
World medallists
| 🥇 | Antonio Watson (JAM) | 44.22 |
| 🥈 | Matthew Hudson-Smith | 44.31 |
| 🥉 | Quincy Hall (USA) | 44.37 PB |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
World Championships: Antonio Watson (JAM) 44.22
Wanda Diamond League: Kirani James (GRN) 44.30
Asian Championships: Kentaro Sato (JPN) 45.00
South American Championships: Anthony Zambrano (COL) 45.52
Pan-American Games: Lucas Conceicao (BRA) 45.77
Asian Games: Yousef Masrahi (KSA) 45.55
Season at a glance
The men’s 400m at the World Championships in Budapest was one of the most open of the events – and 21-year-old Antonio Watson seized his golden opportunity, becoming the first Jamaican gold medallist in the event since Bert Cameron had won the inaugural world title In Helsinki 40 years earlier.
Michael Norman of the United States had elected not to defend the title he had won the previous year in Oregon, and an untimely hamstring injury had prevented Zambia’s Commonwealth and African champion Muzala Samukonga, who finished the season second on the world lists with 43.93, from taking part.
The contest became even more unpredictable when Olympic champion Steven Gardiner, who had been unable to defend his world title in Oregon due to injury, fell to the ground clutching his leg with 100m remaining of his semifinal.
It was a hugely distressing turn of events for the man whose clocking of 43.74 in Hungary the month before remained the fastest time recorded in 2023.
The final included two illustrious champions in 30-year-old Kirani James of Grenada, who had a complete set of world and Olympic medals, and South Africa’s 31-year-old world record-holder Wayde Van Niekerk, world champion in 2015 and 2017 and Olympic champion in 2016, who had made a long, slow return from a catastrophic knee injury incurred when he was at the height of his powers in October 2017.
Also in the field was Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, who had earned European gold, Commonwealth silver and world bronze the previous year.
In winning his semifinal in Budapest, Hudson-Smith added further lustre to his CV by running 44.26 to break the European record of 44.33 set by East Germany’s Thomas Schoenlebe in winning the 1987 world title.
But the 28-year-old Briton was not the fastest into the final as the preceding semifinal had been won by Watson in a personal best of 44.13, with Vernon Norwood of the United States finishing second in 44.26 – also a personal best.
As the field entered the final straight, it seemed that Hudson-Smith might be about to add another gold medal to his collection, but he could find no answer to the finishing power of his young rival who took gold in 44.22.
Hudson-Smith was second in 44.31, with Quincy Hall overtaking his US compatriot Norwood in the closing stages to claim bronze in a personal best of 44.37.
Van Niekerk was seventh in 45.11, and James, for all his experience, was disqualified for a lane violation.
It was a fine coming of age for the young champion who had shown his competitive mettle by taking the 2017 world U18 title and adding 200m silver at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.
James made up for his disappointment at the Wanda Diamond League Final, however, winning in 44.30 from Hall, who clocked 44.44 in a race that Hudson-Smith failed to finish.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
