By David Melly
August 28, 2023
What a meet.
The 2023 World Athletics Championships delivered everything that fans of the sport could want: Drama, triumph, loss, and redemption. There were historic performances and massive upsets, building of tension and moments of vindication. From the first evening, where Dutch superstars Femke Bol and Sifan Hassan hit the track in the final strides of their respective races, to the last few finals, where both Bol and Hassan picked up the medals they’d missed out on in other events.
New stars emerged and old favorites delivered. Highlights included the long-awaited arrival of Sha’Carri Richardson as the international superstar she was destined to be, the unprecedented brilliance of Faith Kipyegon in achieving a double gold that had never been done before, and shocking upsets from fan favorites like Lagi Tausaga-Collins in the discus and Josh Kerr in the 1500m.
Beyond Femke Bol’s epic redemption (which we’ve termed the “Redemke”), anchoring the Dutch women’s 4×400m to gold in the last event of the evening on Day 9, the theme of the final day of competition was narratives coming full circle: Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway picking up another gold in the 5000m after finishing to win his first in the 1500m, Winfred Yavi of Bahrain winning her first medal - a gold one - in the women’s steeplechase after finishing fourth in the last two World championships, and Marhu Teferi of Israel winning a silver medal in the marathon after falling midway through the race.
In the end, Team USA dominated the medal table as expected with 29 (12 of them gold). One of the most meaningful medals that hasn’t gotten much attention yet has been Daniel Roberts picking up a bronze in the men’s 110m hurdles. Roberts has been to a global championship three times, and until this year, he’d been DQed in 2019, failed to make the final in 2021, and DQed again in 2022. So it must’ve been especially sweet for the three-time U.S. champion to finally stand on the podium and represent his country at long last.
Stories like Daniel’s are why we love track and field. Telling stories with, and about, the athletes from around the world across all disciplines in a way that’s engaging, empathetic, and exciting is what gets us out of bed and keeps us up too late, both this week and yearround. So we hope you came out of this championship loving track and field and its stories a little more, because we sure did.
What a sport.
You can catch up with our final Live from Worlds featuring two of the best personalities in the World Championships Marathon: Keira D’Amato and Rory Linkletter. And you can catch up on the final CHAMPS CHATS below with the CITIUS team to hear our recaps and reflections on last night’s action and the full week of track and field.
Every mixed-zone interview, live show, marathon watch-along, and podcast recording is available on our YouTube channel. If liked our written, audio, and video coverage of the championships and want to keep getting the best of track and field on a regular (but not daily) basis, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube, podcast, and newsletter!
A huge thank you to our entire team for making these last 9 days so fantastic: Chris Chavez, Kyle Merber, Jasmine Todd, David McCarthy, and Katelyn Hutchison interviewing athletes and offering analysis, Mac Fleet producing and supporting hours of live content, David Melly running our social media and writing our newsletters, Jasmine Fehr ensuring our website content is top-notch, and our fantastic photographers Johnny Zhang and Justin Britton for producing the fantastic visual storytelling that brings the sport alive. It takes a village!
And the last huge thank you goes to our sponsor ASICS for making all the CITIUS MAG content coming out of Worlds possible and for supporting our vision to share track and field with the world in a unique and exciting way. Without further ado, here are the final takeaways from the 2023 World Athletics Championships!
Justin Britton/@Justin Britton
Race of the Day: Women’s 800m
How you view the outcome of the women’s 800m depends on your perspective. Do you want to see an overturning of expectations or a triumph of Team USA?
After getting tripped up in the semifinals, U.S. Olympic champion Athing Mu did not want to make the same mistake twice. Rather than get tangled up in the pack, she shot to the front with purpose and power, towing the field through a blazing 56-second first 400m and leading until the home straightaway. With 200 meters to go, it looked like the best 800m runner of the last two years would continue her unparalleled run of dominance over the event, but Mary Moraa decided to make her mark. The Kenyan was no underdog - she, like Mu, was undefeated on the season with many more races under her belt - but she’d never defeated Mu head-to-head until last night.
Whether it was fatigue from the semifinal, tactical messiness, or just the crushing weight of sky-high expectations, something in the final got to Mu and she had to settle for bronze behind Moraa and Keely Hodgkinson, who picked up her third silver in a row. All the finalists ran fast - 5 of the 8 athletes ran either a personal or season’s best behind Moraa’s 1:56.03 victory. And having Moraa, Hodgkinson, and Mu all very much evenly-matched raises the profile of this event even higher headed into an Olympic year and gave Mu a hand-crafted redemption arc.
This already exciting event just got more intriguing.
Justin Britton/@Justin Britton
Athlete of the Day: Neeraj Chopra
Olympic, and now World, javelin champion Neeraj Chopra has as much power, if not more, as anyone in Budapest to fundamentally change the sport.
That’s because he’s the hero of the largest nation on Earth, a pioneer in a lesser-known and under-appreciated event, and a generational talent to boot. With an 88.17m throw in the second round of the final, he upgraded his silver medal from 2022 to gold and solidified his status as the Olympic favorite headed into 2024.
And that’s not to mention his 928,000 Twitter followers or 6.3 million Instagram followers and the visibility he can bring - both in introducing track and field to India, and introducing India to track and field. His influence within his event is already clear: after becoming the first Olympic champ and first World medalist from India in the men’s javelin, he’s inspired a rising crop of throwers who are quickly rising to international prominence. His teammates got 5th and 6th in the javelin final, the only nation to send multiple athletes to the final.
Chopra handles the outsize expectations with poise and composure for someone whose mere presence at a meet can bring millions of eyeballs. He’s undefeated in 2023 but has only competed three times so far this year - if we have anything more to ask of him, it would be great to see him more regularly on the international pro circuit. The sport would owe him greatly.
Johnny Zhang/@jzsnapz
Photo of the Day
An ecstatic and relieved Femke Bol celebrates her second gold medal of the week in the women’s 4×400m relay.
Report from the Mixed Zone
The always-thoughtful Athing Mu reflects on a disappointing Worlds and her 2023 season at large.
CITIUS MAG's coverage of the 2023 World Athletics Championships is powered by ASICS. You can follow the action on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube and check out ASICS on Instagram or their website.
David Melly
David began contributing to CITIUS in 2018, and quickly cemented himself as an integral part of the team thanks to his quick wit, hot takes, undying love for the sport and willingness to get yelled at online.
