2023 World Athletics Championships: Top 10 Stars With A Point To Prove
The 2023 World Athletics Championships has kicked off and will last till August 27 in Hungary.
There will be global stars at every turn – and the possibility of several world records falling in Budapest.
Ghanaian athletes will be among the over 2000 athletes competing for the over 250 medals that will be handed out at the event.
Team Ghana’s preparations for this year’s World Athletics Championships have been less than ideal, with a one-week pre-competition camp in France meant to provide much-needed sharpness, and yet, off-field issues, such as the denial of visas to talented high jumper Rose Yeboah, and sprinter Sarfo Ansah.
However, a group of talented athletes are ready to make their mark on the world,
Some already have World Championships, experience, and even winning medals at last year’s Worlds in Eugene, Oregon.
Here is the top 10 list to watch out for.
- Noah Lyles – men’s 200m
American Noah Lyles, who will target three world titles, believes he will break Usain Bolt’s long-standing 200m record in Budapest.
The world champion shared his prediction on social media that he will run 19.10 seconds to shatter the Jamaican sprinting legend’s 14-year mark. He also thinks he’ll get within 0.07secs of Bolt’s 100m best by running 9.65.
Eight-time Olympic champion Bolt’s time of 19.19 has stood since the 2009 World Championships, as has his famous 100m mark of 9.58.
- Birke Haylom (Ethiopia) – Women’s 1500m
The latest in a long line of distance-running specialists from Ethiopia, Haylom has a best 1500m time of 3:54.93 set at last month’s Silesia Diamond League.
She has already had an incredible season, setting a new world under-20 record in the women’s mile at the Oslo Diamond League meeting back in June.
- Rhasidat Adeleke (Ireland) – Women’s 200m, 400m
With world leader Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone a late withdrawal through injury, a repeat of that performance could see Adeleke in the mix for the medals. The Irishwoman of Nigerian extraction is one to watch in the one-lap event.
- Femke Bol – women’s 400m hurdles
Olympic and world champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the world record holder in the women’s 400m hurdles – an event in which she boasts six of the eight fastest times in history and has looked unstoppable.
The 24-year-old American improved her mark to 50.68 seconds in clinching world gold last year but had been set to target the 400m flat in Budapest before withdrawing because of a knee injury.
- Tamari Davis (USA) – Women’s 100m, 4x100m relay
Davis has been a pro track runner since she was 16, having been spotted early by sponsors. In Budapest, the American is set to compete in the women’s 100m, in which she holds a personal best of 10.89.
- Jaydon Hibbert (Jamaica) – Men’s triple jump
While Jamaica is known for producing some of the world’s best sprinters, Hibbert is the current world under-20 record holder in the men’s triple jump, having set marks of both 17.54m indoors in March followed by 17.87m outdoors (pending ratification) in May. Speaking of under-20 record holders, Hibbert has bucked a trend.
- Karsten Warholm – men’s 400m hurdles
Following an injury-disrupted 2022, Karsten Warholm appears back to his frightening best.
The Norwegian has held the men’s 400m hurdles world record since running 45.94 seconds to win Olympic gold in Tokyo two years ago.
This season, he proved beyond any doubt that he had completed a full recovery from his hamstring injury by producing two of the five fastest performances of all time, improving to 46.51 in Monaco in July after clocking 46.52 in Oslo.
- Letsile Tebogo, (Botswana) – Men’s 100m, 200m
The youngster from Botswana has run 9.93 this season in the straight sprint, but it may be in the half-lap where he makes his mark. He ran Lyles close at last month’s London Diamond League, clocking a personal best of 19.50 to America’s world lead of 19.47, and could prevent an American sweep in the event.
Tebogo, the fastest teenager over 100m, turned 20 barely two months ago and is looking to make his mark at the senior international level.
- Angelina Topić (Serbia) – Women’s high jump
At 18, Topić has already set tongues wagging in Serbian athletics. In June, she cleared 1.97m in the women’s high jump at the Paris Diamond League meeting, ranking her joint-sixth on the year.
- Emmanuel Wanyonyi (Kenya) – Men’s 800m
Having reached the final of last year’s World Championships aged just 18 and finished an agonising fourth, the Kenyan is strongly fancied to make the podium this year. If Burgin is the young European hope over two laps, Wanyonyi leads the teenage African charge. He has lowered his personal best to 1:43.27, making him the fastest man in the line-up in 2023, and he will be tough to beat.
