Week in Review: Oklahoma State goes from heartbreak to jubilation
Cowboys snap Northern Arizona's title streak in NCAA Cross Country Championships a year after losing to Lumberjacks on tiebreaker
The wait was worth it for coach Dave Smith and his men’s cross country team at Oklahoma State University.
A year after finishing second — by the narrowest of margins — in the NCAA championships that were held on its home course, the Cowboys turned in what was arguably the best performance in the program’s history while defeating three-time defending champion Northern Arizona, 49-71, for the national title in the meet in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday.
Northern Arizona and Oklahoma State had each totaled 83 points in the 2022 meet that was held at the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater. But the Cowboys had finished second on the tiebreaker because the Lumberjacks’ Nos. 1, 2, and 4 runners had finished ahead of their counterparts from Oklahoma State, whose third and fifth runners placed higher than their counterparts from Northern Arizona.
Oklahoma State, which entered Saturday’s meet at Panorama Farms as the No. 2-ranked team in the nation behind NAU, made sure there was no need for a tiebreaker this time around by placing five runners among the top 15 finishers while producing a team score that was the lowest in the meet since the Wisconsin men’s squad totaled 37 points in 2005.
Northern Arizona, led by fifth-place Drew Bosley and sixth-place Nico Young, had five of the top 25 finishers. But the winners of six of the previous seven titles finished second due to the collective brilliance of Oklahoma State’s top five finishers.
“A lot of things went right. A lot of hard work by these guys,” Smith said when John Anderson of ESPNU asked him how the Cowboys won on Saturday after their heartbreaking loss last year. “I think just belief in themselves. Staying calm. Staying poised. As the season went on, we were just seeing great results.”
Oklahoma State, which won its fifth NCAA title in program history and the first since 2012, might have been extremely fresh as a team for the Cowboys had laid low for most of the regular season.
After placing third in the Cowboy Preview meet on Sept. 1 when none of its top runners competed, Oklahoma State won what was in essence a dual meet when it defeated then-No. 13-ranked Texas, 26-32, in the Cowboy Jamboree on Sept. 23.
There was a lot to report on from last week. Therefore, this notes column is on the long side. If this email appears clipped or truncated in your inbox, you should be able to click on “View entire message” to read it in its entirety.
The squad did not race again until the Big 12 Conference meet in Ames, Iowa, on Oct. 28. But Smith liked what he saw in that contest as the team — led by the 1-2 finish of freshman Brian Musau and senior Alex Maier — took five of the top nine places while rolling to a 25-55 victory over second-place and No. 3-ranked BYU. The Cowboys accomplished that even though freshman Denis Kipngetich and junior Victor Shitsama, the team’s No. 1 and 4 runners on Saturday, has sub-par races while finishing 14th and 45th, respectively.
“We went to the conference meet saying, Hey, Let’s get out there. Take the bull by the horns. Get out of our comfort zone and make everybody uncomfortable,” Smith said.
Oklahoma State continued its roll in the Midwest Regional on its home course on Nov. 10 when Kipngetich, fellow Kenyan Musau, and sophomore teammate Fouad Messaoudi placed 1-2-3 while pacing the team to a 19-56 victory over No. 21-ranked Iowa State.
Although the times of its top five runners were nearly 50 seconds slower on average than what the team’s No. 1-5 finishers had run over the same course in last year’s NCAA championships, the team ran within itself and Smith felt good about its title chances heading into Saturday’s meet.
"I think we are one of, if not, the best teams in the country," Smith said in a post on the okstate.com site. “There are always teams that could jump up and surprise you, but the way it's all looking right now is that it's narrowing down to a two-team race between OSU and Northern Arizona.
“It will be a grudge match, a sort of revenge tour from last year. I'm excited, I think our guys are ready. Since we stood here a year ago, bitterly disappointed, we have been preparing for this coming week and it's finally here. I'm excited, our guys are excited, can't wait to get out and get it on."
Arkansas jumped out to a 47-79 lead over Northern Arizona — with OSU at 179 points — after the flat first kilometer of the 10,000-meter race on Saturday. But Oklahoma State had narrowed its deficit to 85-103 to first-place NAU after three kilometers as it had five runners among the top 46 runners. It then took a 54-81 lead over Northern Arizona at the halfway point when it had five of the top 19.
The Cowboys never led by fewer than 22 points for the remaining kilometer checkpoints and they held five of the top 16 positions after 7,000 meters before improving to five of the top 15 after nine kilometers when they had a 52-78 lead over the Lumberjacks.
They managed to trim three points off their team total in the final kilometer of the race as Chepngetich crossed the finish line in fourth place with a time of 28 minutes 59.7 seconds, followed by Musau in eighth in 29:11.0, Messaoudi in 10th in 29:13.3, Shitsama in 12th in 29:16.1, and Maier in 15th in 29:20.2.
Although Maier finished 10 places lower than he did in last year’s meet, Moroccan Messaoudi improved his performance by two spots and Kenyan Shitsama bettered his by 19.
Smith who has now guided Oklahoma State to four NCAA titles during his 18 years as the head cross country coach at the school, was extremely proud of the Cowboys’ performance. But he also took time to praise a Northern Arizona program that had entered the race looking to become the first team on either the men’s or women’s side to win seven NCAA championships during an eight-year stretch.
“What NAU has done over the last seven years, to me is unbelievable,” he told ESPN’s Anderson. “I can’t imagine the pressure of reloading… Coming back year, after year, after year being in the hunt. And to beat a team like that, one of the legendary teams in NCAA history in any sport, is an incredible honor.”
Run of success: Although Northern Arizona saw its NCAA title streak snapped at three in the men’s race of the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday, it marked the eighth consecutive time that the Lumberjacks have finished among the top two teams in the national title meet.
NAU had won three consecutive titles from 2016-18 before finishing second to BYU in 2019. The Lumberjacks then won three more titles before finishing second to Oklahoma State, 49-71, in this year’s meet at Panorama Farms.
It’s interesting to note that Northern Arizona totaled fewer points on Saturday than it had in five of its six championship victories.
You can click here to read my daily report on the NCAA Cross Country Championships that were held in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday.
Spot on: When Graham Blanks of Harvard won the men’s race of the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday, he gave credence to the praise that Crimson coach Alex Gibby had bestowed upon him in a telephone interview five days earlier.
Gibby, who is in his seventh year at Harvard, said that “Graham’s super power is that when the moment gets big, he gets bigger. Some people overthink it. Some people fall into a trench… of over thought, or over analysis, particularly at Harvard. He gets up for it. He likes that energy, that challenge. He doesn’t shirk from it. And that’s his super power.”
Blanks, who placed sixth in the NCAA championships last year, had won all four of his previous races — including the prestigious Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 3 — this season heading into the national title meet.
He was never more than 1.2 seconds behind the leader when he passed through each of the one-kilometer check points during the first 7,000 meters of the 10-kilometer race. And he and fellow junior Ky Robinson of Stanford were basically co-leaders when they led freshmen Habtom Samuel of New Mexico and Denis Kipngetich of team-champion Oklahoma State through the eight-kilometer mark.
The battle for first place was down to two runners when Samuel led Blanks came through 9,000 meters, but Blanks opened up a small gap on the Eritrean with about 800 meters left in the race and his advantage had widened to about four seconds with 400 meters to go.
Although he lost some of his lead during the final 100 meters of the race when he twice pointed to the crowd while on his way to becoming the first Ivy League runner to win the men’s title in the NCAA championships, he still had a three-second margin of victory over Samuel when he crossed the finish line in a course record of 28:37.7.
Despite how cool, calm, and confident he looked during the race, Blanks gave a refreshingly candid answer when he was asked by Kyle Merber of the ESPNU broadcast team if there was any time during the race when he started to doubt himself.
“On the line and then for the next 9k,” he said. “It’s always a battle against those voices on the inside. Just telling them to shut up, believe in yourself.
“That move from 1k [to go]. You can ask any of my teammates. I’ve been planning that out since I saw the course map a couple of weeks ago.”
Different point of view: After winning NCAA titles in 2021 and 2022 while favored, North Carolina State was an underdog when the Wolfpack won its third consecutive women’s championship in the national title meet in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday.
NC State was the No. 2-ranked team in the country entering the meet, but the Wolfpack’s chances at winning had appeared to drop appreciably when it was announced that senior Kelsey Chmiel, the squad’s No. 2 runner and third-place finisher in last year’s NCAA meet, would not be running because she had an injury in her lower left leg that was causing severe swelling.
Even with a heathy Chmiel, many had regarded NC State as an underdog to top-ranked Northern Arizona as the Lumberjacks had defeated the Wolfpack by a healthy 52-95 margin in winning the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 13 before rolling to runaway victories in the Big Sky Conference meet on Oct. 27 and the Mountain Regional on Nov. 10.
North Carolina State was in fifth place in the team standings after the first kilometer of the 6,000-meter race and the Wolfpack was in fourth at 2,000 meters. But it had taken a 117-122 lead over second-place Northern Arizona at the three-kilometer post before having a 114-126 advantage at four kilometers and a 116-124 lead at 5,000 meters.
The gap got oh so close during the final kilometer of the race, but in the end the Wolfpack emerged with a narrow 123-124 victory to mark only the second time in the 43-year history of the women’s meet that the championship had been decided by a point.
Although defending champion Katelyn Tuohy did not have a great race — her coach later said she was ill — the Wolfpack junior moved from 11th place to fifth in the final two kilometers of the race to drop her team scoring total by an all-important four points and cross the finish line with a time of 19:23.0 over the Panorama Farms course.
Teammate Amaris Tyynismaa finished 25th in 19:55.3 and fellow senior Samantha Bush placed 28th in 20:00.7 for NC State, whose No. 4 and 5 runners were freshmen Leah Stephens in 43rd (20:08.2) and Grace Hartman in 63rd (20:24.4).
Tyynismaa had finished ninth in last year’s championships while running for Alabama, but the transfer had dropped out of the Atlantic Coast Conference meet and the Southeast Regional in her two previous races for NC State this season.
Northern Arizona had three of the top 20 finishers in seniors Gracelyn Larkin (13th in 19:35.6) and Annika Reiss (15th in 19:36.8), and junior Elise Stearns (20th in 19:52.2). But the Lumberjacks just missed winning their first national title while North Carolina State became the first team to win three consecutive women’s championships since Stanford from 2005-07.
“I don’t think they ever thought they were out,” NC State coach Laurie Henes said when John Anderson of ESPNU asked her about how the team dealt with the loss of Chmiel. “I think at the coaches press conference last year, they asked everyone would you rather be the favorite or the underdog? And every coach said underdog.
“So we kind of felt like we just had a different role coming in. But they stepped up and just executed, each one of them, amazingly for each other.”
What might have been: Based on her performances earlier this season, there is a good chance that Kelsey Chmiel of North Carolina State would have placed among the top 10 finishers in the women’s race of the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Earlysville, Virginia, on Saturday if she had been healthy enough to run.
Had she done that, she would have been only the second runner in the 43-year history of the women’s meet to have placed among the top 10 finishers four times during their career.
The first — and still only — woman to have accomplished that feat was Amy Skieresz of Arizona, who placed second, first, second, and second in the NCAA championships from 1995-98.
Chmiel had placed ninth in the 2020 championships that had been delayed until March of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sixth in the 2021 meet, and third last year. But she withdrew from this year’s meet because she had an injury in her lower left leg that was causing severe swelling.
Same tactic, different result: For the second year in a row, Parker Valby of Florida raced to a big lead at the midway point of the women’s race of the NCAA Cross Country Championships.
However, unlike last year, no one came close to reeling in the Gator junior on Saturday when she won the women’s title in the meet at Panorama Farms in Earlysville, Virginia.
Valby, who became the first runner from the University of Florida to win an NCAA cross country title, got boxed in for the first 500 meters of the race. But she had a small lead over second-place Juliet Cherubet of Texas Tech after the first kilometer and she was nearly nine seconds ahead of defending champion Katelyn Touhy of North Carolina State a third of the way into the 6,000-meter race.
Touhy had trailed Valby by 11.8 seconds at the four-kilometer mark last year before reeling her in and passing her with 500 meters to go. But there would be no repeat of that on Saturday as Touhy finished fifth.
Valby had a 13.3-second lead over second-place Hilda Olemomoi of Alabama at the midway point, and her advantage had ballooned to 20.5 seconds over second-place Doris Lemngole of Alabama when she came through four kilometers in 12:22.9.
Lemngole, a freshman from Kenya, trimmed Valby’s lead to 18.1 seconds after five kilometers before making a more significant dent in it after that. But Valby still ended up with a 10.5-second margin of victory while lowering the course record to 18:55.1 and winning her fourth race of the season without a defeat.
Valby, who won the 5,000 meters in the NCAA track championships in June, might have run faster, but she got a side ache with about a kilometer left in the race and it appeared to cause her to slow down for a little bit.
“I’ve never gotten a side stitch in a race before,” she said in an interview with John Anderson of ESPNU. “But I guess maybe I didn’t hydrate enough or not enough electrolytes.”
Save the date: Next year’s NCAA Cross Country Championships will be contested on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin, on Nov. 23.
The Zimmer Course hosts the annual Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational every October so it will be interesting to see if more top-notch teams than usual compete in that meet that is regarded as the best collegiate competition of the regular season.
Strong finish: The San Clemente High boys’ cross country team closed strong over the final mile in winning its second consecutive Division 1 title in the California Interscholastic Federation Championships (CIF) Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday.
San Clemente entered the race as the No. 3-ranked team in California by dyestat.com, but the Titans defeated No. 2 Great Oak of Temecula, 60-84, for the title. Trabuco Hills of Mission Veijo placed third with 101 points, followed by No. 5-ranked Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach with 132.
San Clemente held a slim 82-88 lead over defending state champion Great Oak with a mile left in the three-mile race. But the Titans’ top five runners improved a combined 26 places during the final third of the race while Great Oak moved up a combined 10 spots.
Senior Brett Ephraim paced San Clemente’s victory with a third-place time of 14:10.7 over the three-mile “rain” course that was put into use due to wet conditions that could have made traversing the three steep hills on Mt. SAC’s traditional course quite treacherous.
San Clemente had three top 10 finishers in the race as Taj Clark placed ninth in 14:28.6 and fellow senior Kai Olsen was 10th in 14:29.8.
Great Oak was paced by senior Gabriel Rodriguez, who finished 14th in 14:33.2.
Senior Jason Parra of Millikan High in Long Beach won the individual title by nearly 11 seconds as he ran 13:57.4 after coming through the first mile in 4:33.6 and two miles in 9:12.4.
Impressive performance: Powered by a 1-2 finish from junior Evan Noonan and senior Jayden Hernandez, Dana Hills High School in Dana Point rolled to a 29-108 victory over runner-up West Ranch of Stevenson Ranch in the Division 3 boys’ race of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday.
Dana Hills entered the meet as the top-ranked team in California by dyestat.com and they proceeded to take five of the top 14 places.
Noonan produced the fastest boys’ time of the five-division meet with a 13:56.0 clocking over the three-mile “rain” course that was put into use due to wet conditions that could have made traversing the three steep hills on Mt. SAC’s traditional course quite treacherous.
Hernandez, who finished second in 14:12.4, was a tenth of a second in front of Noonan when he came through the first mile in 4:35.7 and the two-mile mark in 9:21.2. But Noonan took the lead shortly after that while on his way to a commanding victory.
Dana Hills’ Nos. 3-5 runners finished fifth in 14:34.7, ninth in 14:43.5, and 14th in 14:54.0.
Dueling performances: Santiago High School of Corona and Serra of San Juan Capistrano turned in the top two team performances by girls’ teams in the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Cross Country Championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday.
Santiago, the No. 4-ranked team in California by dyestat.com, got a 1-3 finish from junior Rylee Blade and sophomore Braelyn Combe while posting a 49-65 victory over second-place Trabuco Hills of Mission Viejo in the Division 1 race.
Blade and Combe clocked 15:32.8 and 16:32.4 over the three-mile “rain” course that was put into use due to wet conditions that could have made traversing the three steep hills on Mt. SAC’s traditional course quite treacherous.
Blade’s time was the second-fastest of the five-division meet. She took the lead early in the race and was never seriously challenged as she came through through the mile in 5:09.5 and two miles in 10:21.4.
Santiago’s Nos. 3-5 runners finished 14th, 16th, and 27th while crossing the finish line with times of 17:10.5, 17:14.1, and 17:42.8.
Serra, the top-ranked team in the state, had four of the top seven finishers and six of the top 13 while rolling to an 31-79 victory over second-place Oaks Christian of Westlake Village in the Division 4 race.
Senior Payton Godsey of Oaks Christian won the race in 16:12.7, the fourth-fastest girls’ time of the meet. But Serra countered with a 3-4-5 finish from junior Sophie Polay (16:35.4), sophomore Kaylah Tasser (16:38.7), and sophomore Summer Wilson (16:50.1).
Serra’s Nos. 4-5 runners placed seventh in 17:12.6 and 12th in 17:44.9.
Rolling along: Junior Sadie Engelhardt’s runaway victory led Ventura High to a 61-94 victory over second-place Claremont in the Division 2 girls’ race of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Cross Country Championships at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut on Saturday.
Engelhardt’s time of 15:26.8 over the three-mile “rain” course was the fastest of the day in any of the five divisions. The defending state Division II champion posted it after motoring through the first mile in 5:00.8 and two miles in 10:10.1.
Ventura, the No. 2-ranked team in the state by dyestat.com, had three of the top 13 finishers as sophomore Melanie True placed ninth in 17:03.6 and junior Tiffany Sax was 13th in 17:19.4.
The Cougars’ Nos. 4 and 5 runners placed 17th in 17:37.8 and 30th in 18:04.9.
Looking forward: The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Cross Country Championships will be contested on Nov. 25 (Saturday) at Woodward Park in Fresno.
The Division V boys’ race will kick off the proceedings at 11:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time, and the Division IV girls’ contest will be the final race of the meet, starting at 4 p.m.
Down to the wire: Rodrigue Kwizera of Burundi and Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia won their respective men’s and women’s race in the Cross Internacional de Soria in Soria, Spain, on Sunday.
It was the fifth gold level meet of the 2023-24 season on the World Athletics Cross Country Tour.
Kwizera, Hillary Chepkwony of Kenya, Ouassim Oumaiz of Spain, and Martin Kiprotich of Uganda comprised the lead pack with 1,000 meters left in the 8.8-kilometer men’s race. But it eventually came down to a two-man battle between Kwizera and Chepkwony before Kwizera emerged with a narrow victory as both men were credited with times of 25:34.
Oumaiz held off Kiprotich in the race for third as both men ran 25:40.
The victory was the first of the season for the 24-year-old Kwizera as he had previously placed third in gold level races in the Spanish cities of Atapuerca on Oct. 29 and Seville on Nov. 12.
“I’m so happy as this is my first win this season,” Kwizera said in a World Athletics post. “I decided to take a risk on the last bend but that was the key as I managed some valuable metres on Chepkwony and could resist his late attack.”
Amebaw, 25, was one of seven runners in the lead pack with 2.5 kilometers left in the women’s race. But the front group had been reduced to a trio of Amebaw, countrywoman Asayech Ayichew, and Valentina Gemetto of Italy with a kilometer remaining.
Gemetto soon fell back as Ayichew forced the pace, but she was unable to drop Amebaw, who clocked 29:44 over the 8.8-kilometer course to finish a second ahead of Ayichew and win her second gold level race of the season. Gemetto finished third in 30:06, followed by Marta Garcia of Spain in 30:11.
“Before the start, I didn't feel at my 100 percent so I decided to see how the race would develop and not push too hard at any time,” Amebaw said in a World Athletics post. “Luckily my tactics paid off.”
Bouncing back strong: Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda tied the world best for a 15-kilometer road race when he ran 41:05 in the NN Zevenheuvelenloop in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, on Sunday.
The time tied the previous world best set by Joshua Cheptegai of Uganda while running over the same course in 2018 and it also gave Kiplimo a large margin of victory over countryman Rogers Kibet, who placed second in 42:44.
Kiplimo, 23, had withdrawn from the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, with an injured hamstring, but he had returned to competition on Oct. 29 when he won the men’s race of the Cross Internacional de Atapuerca in Atapuerca, Spain.
The winner of the men’ race in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, in February, Kiplimo came through the first five kilometers in a modest 14:24 before passing through 10 kilometers in 27:49 after running the second five-kilometer segment of the race in 13:25.
He then added a 13:16 split over final 5,000 meters as he covered his last kilometer in 2:31 and the final 10,000 meters of the race in a scintillating 26:41.
While his time of 41:05 tied the official world best for the infrequently-run 15-kilometer distance, Kiplimo was credited with a 15-kilometer split of 40:27 when he set his world record of 57:31 in the half marathon in 2021. However, 15-kilometer splits produced in longer races are not eligible for recognition as a world best.
Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya won the women’s race in 47:12, followed by Lonah Salpeter of Israel in 47:55.
Chepkoech, 32, won the silver medal in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in the World Championships and Salpeter placed fourth in the marathon in the World title meet after finishing third in the Boston Marathon in April.
And the winners are . . . : USA Track & Field has selected Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson as the winners of this year’s Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year Award and the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Female Athlete of the Year Award, respectively.
It is the second year in a row that Lyles has won the Owens Award while this is the first time Richardson has been honored with the Joyner-Kersee Award.
Lyles, 26, had the best year of his career as he won the 100 and 200 meters, and anchored the victorious 400 relay team in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August.
Although he was beaten in four of the seven 100-meter finals in which he ran this season, he performed brilliantly in the event in the World Championships, winning his first-round heat in 9.95, his semifinal in 9.87, and the final in a personal best of 9.83 to finish five hundredths of a second in front of silver medalist Letsile Tebogo of Botswana and bronze medalist Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain.
The 9.83 clocking also tied him for first on the yearly world list and moved him into a tie for 15th on the all-time performer list.
In the 200, he won all six of the finals in which he ran to extend his winning streak in that event to 15 consecutive meets.
His 19.52 clocking in the World Championships gave him a .23-second margin of victory over U.S. teammate Erriyon Knighton, as well as his third consecutive title in that event.
His season best of 19.47 topped the yearly world list and was the 10th fastest ever run and the third-fastest of his career.
For good measure, he teamed up with Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley, and Brandon Carnes on a U.S. 400 relay team that clocked 37.38 — the ninth-fastest time in history — in winning the World title.
He was the first sprinter since Usain Bolt of Jamaica in 2015 to win gold medals in the men’s 100 and 200 meters, and 400 relay in the same World Championships competition.
Richardson, 23, won the women’s 100 and placed third in the 200 in the World Championships before anchoring the U.S. 400 relay team to victory.
She won seven of nine finals in the 100 and her 10.65 clocking in the World Championships lowered her personal best by six hundredths of a second and left her .07 seconds ahead of silver medalist Shericka Jackson of Jamaica.
The 10.65 effort also moved her into a three-way tie for fifth — with Marion Jones of the U.S. and Jackson — on the all-time performer list.
She twice lowered her personal best in the 200 as she ran 21.94 to finish second behind Gabby Thomas in the USA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 9, before running 21.92 to place third behind Jackson and Thomas in the World Championships.
She then teamed up with Tamari Davis, TeeTee Terry, and Thomas on a 400 relay team in Budapest that recorded the fourth-fastest time in history with their 41.03 clocking.
And the nominees are. . . : Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, and Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela are the five finalists for World Athletics’ Women’s World Athlete of the Year Award.
In her only race of the year, the 26-year-old Assefa crushed the previous world record of 2 hours 14 minutes 4 seconds in the women’s marathon when she ran 2:11:53 in the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 24.
Bol, 23, won 17 of the 18 individual finals in which she competed during the indoor and outdoor seasons.
Her indoor season was topped by a world indoor record of 49.26 seconds in the 400 in the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn and it also included a world best of 1:05.63 in the 500 in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.
She won her first title in the 400 hurdles in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, and she was undefeated in nine finals.
She broke 52 seconds three times and her clockings of 51.45, 51.70 and 51.98 were the third-, eighth-, and 10th-fastest times ever run. She also had the eight fastest times in the world for the year.
For good measure, she ran a 48.79-second anchor leg in the 1,600 relay in the World Championships to bring the Netherlands from third to first in the final 20 meters of the race as the Dutch team of Eveline Saalberg, Lieke Klaver, Cathelijn Peeters, and Bol set a national record of 3:20.72.
Jackson, 29, won her second consecutive title in the 200 meters in the World Championships, as well as her second consecutive silver medal in the 100. She also anchored Jamaica to a second-place finish in the 400 relay, where the island nation’s 41.18 clocking was the eighth fastest in history.
She was undefeated in eight finals in the 200 and her 21.41 clocking in the World Championships was the second fastest in history behind the world record of 21.34 set by Florence Griffith Joyner of the U.S. in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
She also ran 21.48, the fourth-fastest time ever, and 21.57, the eighth fastest. She had the three fastest times of the year and six of the top nine.
Jackson was beaten in five of nine finals in the 100, but her 10.65 clocking to win the Jamaican Championships was tied for the fastest in the world this year and moved her into a tie for fifth on the all-time performer list.
Kipyegon, 29, set world records in the 1,500 (3:49.11), mile (4:07.64), and 5,000 (14:05.20) during an unbeaten outdoor track season that also included World titles in the 1,500 and 5,000.
In addition to her world record in the 1,500, she also ran the fifth-fastest time ever when she clocked 3:50.72 to win the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in September.
Rojas, 28, won an unprecedented fourth consecutive World title in the women’s triple jump with a sixth-round leap that moved her from eighth place to first.
She was unbeaten in seven meets and bettered 15 meters (49 feet 2½ inches) in five of them. She had the five best winning marks of the year and her best jump of 15.35 (50-4½) was the 10th longest meet in history and the eighth farthest of her career.
And the nominees are. . . II: Neeraj Chopra of India, Ryan Crouser of the U.S., Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, Noah Lyles of the U.S., and Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya are the five finalists for World Athletics’ Men’s World Athlete of the Year Award.
Chopra, 25, won the javelin in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August and in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in October.
He won four out of six meets and his season best of 88.88 (291-7) ranked second on the yearly performer list.
Crouser, 30, won his second consecutive World title in the shot put while competing with a pair of blood clots in his lower left leg and raised his world record to 23.56 (77-3¾) in the Los Angeles Grand Prix at UCLA in May.
His top effort of 23.51 (77-1¾) in the World Championships was the second-longest put in history. He also had puts of 23.31 (76-5¾), 23.23 (76-2¾), and 23.07 (75-8¼) that rank as the third-, sixth-, and 12th-best efforts in history.
For the year, he won 12 of 13 meets indoors and outdoors, with his only loss coming in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, in September when his best of 22.91 (75-2) was tied for tied for 24th on the all-time performance list.
Duplantis, 24, won his second consecutive World title in the pole vault, set two world records during the year, and won 15 of the 16 meets in which he competed indoors and outdoors.
His first world record came in the All-Star Perche meet in Clermont-Ferrand, France, on February 25 when he cleared 6.22 (20-5).
His second came in his final meet of the season when he cleared 6.23 (20-5¼) in the Prefontaine Classic on Sept. 17.
Kiptum, 23, lowered the world record in the marathon to 2 hours 35 seconds in the Chicago Marathon in October after running 2:01:25, then the second-fastest time in history, in winning the London Marathon in April.
Lyles, 26, became the first man since Usain Bolt of Jamaica in 2015 to win gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters, and the 400 relay in the same World Championships.
Although he was beaten in four of the seven 100-meter finals in which he competed, he lowered his personal best to 9.83 in the World Championships with a time that was tied for the fastest in the world this year and put him in a four-way tie for 15th on the all-time performer list.
He was unbeaten in six 200-meter finals and his 19.52 clocking in the World Championships gave him a .23-second margin of victory over U.S. teammate Erriyon Knighton, as well as his third consecutive title in the event.
His season best of 19.47 topped the yearly world list and was the 10th fastest ever run and the third-fastest of his career.
He also ran the anchor leg on a U.S. 400 relay team that won the World title in 37.38, the ninth-fastest time in history. Christian Coleman ran the opening leg for the quartet and he was followed by Fred Kerley, Brandon Carnes, and Lyles.
On the performance enhancing drug front: Chris Taylor of Jamaica, a finalist in the men’s 400 meters in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 and in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in 2022, has been issued a 30-month suspension by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for avoiding a doping test in November of last year.
The 24-year-old Taylor, who has a personal best of 44.63 seconds, was banned for “evading, refusing or failing to submit to a sample collection” in Kingston, Jamaica, on Nov. 16 of 2022.
The AIU provisionally suspended Taylor on January 19 of this year while it investigated his case and that suspension prevented him from competing this season.
The start of his 30-month ban has been made retroactive to November 16 of last year, meaning he will not be eligible to compete again until May 16, 2025.
Taylor ran 44.79 to place sixth in the 400 in the Olympics and he clocked 45.30 when he finished seventh in the World Championships in Eugene.