Biggest shock of World Champs

Who thought sml was going to win gold in a different event and break a long standing AR? Nobody. East Africans are now spectators in 5 an 10k?

And Hassan was 31 last year. But it's different when an athlete like Kipyegon has been at the highest level for their entire career. They understand how to refine their training and peak for big competitions so they don't need to make drastic changes to continue to perform.

When someone comes out of obscurity at an older age with performances at the highest level it inevitably raises questions. If that talent was there all along why did they never capitalize on it? What changed?

Beamish wasn't even in the prediction contest but especially after the semi, him winning a super slow race was a huge possibility. Everyone was talking about it.

Coming into the meet his odd were low.

I think Georgia has explained why she stopped running. It’s an interesting story to read. I think she had lots of injuries early in her career. She was very talented though if you go back and look at her stats. She was also a world champion at the Duathlon.

Versus Odira who really didn’t post any fast time as a junior. She was running 2.11 at 20..Came back in 2024 and ran some 2.04s, 2.02 then finally under 2.

Her times this year have been wildly erratic. 2.16, 2.04, 1.58, 2.08, 2.02, 2.13 then inexplicably a 1.56 in August. Then in Tokyo, bam, a 1.57, 1.56 and 1.54!

So did he, apparently.

The whole Mens 4x400

From the US first not making it into the final and then having to requalify

To a 3 way super intense finish in the rain

To WvN running by far the fastest split of the Relay after not even competing in 400ms over the last period and not having any great performances in a long time.

So definately overall race which shocked me the most compared to how the race is normally a foregone conclusion

Faith has been a step ahead of her class ever since she was junior.

worldathletics.org

World Junior memories – Faith Kipyegon | SERIES | World Athletics

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon looks back four years to recall her memories of striking gold in the women’s 1500m at the IAAF World Junior Championships Barcelona 2012.

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Ok does that mean age is irrelevant if you have been a talented junior and trained ever since? It’s an interesting discussion. Because you could argue for some with natural talent that years of training and injuries may take their toll. If someone was hugely talented as a junior - went in to a different sport - then came back. Wouldn’t they be ‘fresher’ . (Not versus Kipyegon obviously just in general ). Georgia was hugely talented as a junior also - she just took a different path.

Paternain for sure in the distance races. Yes some surprise winners like Odira and Gressier but at least they were in high profile races before. Never heard of Paternain till this champs

No way Simbu has unbelievable championship pedigree. 2017 Bronze medal at worlds, 2022 commonwealth Silver

Just like the track, championship racing cuts differently, with no pacers

I'm not saying i picked him but in hindsight this was the least shocking of the shocks

Ryan Crouser and Yulimar Rojas.

Kipyegon also gave birth - I’d view her “training age” as 29-30.

This is a great question.

I think you have to weigh up anticipation, circumstances and outcome to get the best answer.

For example the 3000SC I personally don't think was a huge shock. When it was clear that Beamish was on a "health" break (instead of his regular injury status), which we knew after he fell in the heat and still zipped up the home straight to easily make the final, I think it was obvious that if the final was slow he was a real chance to win. When it was 6min+ at 2000m and when Michalski failed to maintain his drive for home, it was really on and in that back straight when he was moving up I eerily had little doubt he was going to do enough to win that race. Exhilarating but in the circumstances not shocking.

These would be my top 5.

Nader 1500

Gressier 10000

Kambundji 100H

Odira 800m

McPhillips/GHB non-winning PR's

It's tough to just rate PR performances even though they might be surprising. I had never even heard of Cian McPhillips before these championships and I follow the 800m pretty closely. Had he scooped up a medal and broken that trio of 1.41 guys he might be higher. GHB we know is a good athlete and with her 1500m PR should have been about a 1.55 runner anyway - lifting for a world final happens.

Odira winning the 800m was a shock even though she looked good in the rounds. Another runner I'd never even heard of coming into these champs. The shock factor is increased because it involved KH - who has been so flawless in her race execution/craft this season, getting totally flustered by the quite frankly spastic tactics of Moraa and getting in on the action. Starting way too fast, getting into a weird elbow/shouldering battle for the first 500m trying to get the front of the race she didn't need because Moraa was always going backwards in the final 250 anyway. She still ran within what, 3 tenths of her PR so that opening lap of wasted energy, even if small, mattered.

Kambundji. This was shocking but the thing with the hurdles is that there are so many variables that can even a playing field and also elevate someone to a great performance. Not detracting from her performance one bit, just giving it context. So when someone emerges in the hurdles and other maybe falter it's not quite the same as it happening in say an 800 or a 5000. But this deserves to be on the Rushmore of shocks at these worlds.

In hindsight Gressier shouldn't be as surprising because he did win the DL final over 3000m and not sure if this is a classic "27.20" WC final he wins it. But this was pretty crazy to see him bust through those guys a-la Dieter Baumann in the '92 final. At the time we didn't know the weather was going to weak havoc on the was the distance running finals went, especially earlier in the week.

I still think that the 1500m results gets this. Firstly, I (completely incorrectly) thought that Nader was maybe 5-6th in line to win with his unique pathway which was a sustained strength finish off a fast pace. Similar to guys like Kerr and Nuguse - just not at their level. But then you throw in all the other elements to this one. Jakob not being fit (race fit) was expected but there was always this wonder if he could do something. Hocker gets himself DQ'd in the semi and then the final is absolutely wild - like a Shakespearian drama. Kerr goes down mid-race. All of a sudden Wightman, whose career looked to have reached it's apex 3 years ago is in the front with the situation looking ominously familiar. We get to the final straightaway and Laros who has dominated the final 100m of races this season at the highest level looks poised to fulfill the prophecy except the harder he tries to push, the more his form deteriorates and he starts fading and then Nader comes like a bullet in the final 50 especially to win by 0.02 - the slimmest winning margin in a championships where the greatest winning margin for the mens track events was 0.48 seconds in the mens 5000m. For all of the elements that came together here, even with Nader having won a DL earlier in the season (but he then also did finish 10th in the DL final just before these champs), I think this was the most shocking result.

All the surprising results made for an unpredictable but very interesting Worlds.

But what does that say about elite athletics? I can't think of another sport where someone could take time out from age 22 to 30 and then come back to be one of the best in the world. Is elite athletics really that easy? I remember Martina Hingis taking years out from tennis after being the very best in the world and when she came back she was solid but nowhere near making Grand Slam finals. And she was legitimately one of the most talented teenagers the sport had ever seen. Or do we ask just how good GHB could have been in those intervening years if she'd stuck with Trevor Painter instead of going to the US?

Not really an upset, or Let's-run typical since its a team effort, but Wayde van Niekerk running the fastest split in the 4x400 men's finals (43.2) was pretty unexpected. Making up almost 10 meters behind the leaders to join the US and Botswana on the third leg, despite splashing conditions and moving out to lane 2/3 during the final 100. None of the US or Botswana runners broke 44 in any leg. If this was the greatest 4 x 4 as some called it (commentator, coach Rob, Total running productions), his contribution to make it so was inspiring. If by some miracle he can run 42.9 next year I'll die happy.

Sorry, you beat me to it. Didn't see your post. I second it then.

See above, forgot to quote you.

Define ‘taking time out’. She away and trained a hell of a lot in cycling and running. And won her age group in the World Championships. So she wasn’t lying around on the sofa. Or even having a baby… she must have been very fit to achieve that level and then throw in the genetics..

In her earlier running career she suffered quite a lot of injuries. Training in the duathlon clearly solved this and allowed her to build up a huge engine.