World Athletics
An exciting year of athletics may be drawing to a close, but another packed programme is on the horizon for 2020.
There will be four World Athletics Series events next year, starting with the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 2020 on 13-15 March, followed two weeks later by the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on 29 March.
The World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Minsk 2020 will be held on 2-3 May and the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 2020 will take place on 7-12 July.
The big focus of the year, though, will be the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
And of course, throughout the year the world’s leading athletes will compete in various annual series such as the Diamond League, the newly formed World Athletics Continental Tour, Label road races, the World Athletics Indoor Tour, the World Challenge Combined Events, the World Challenge Race Walking and Cross Country Permit meetings.
Factoring in various area championships across a range of age groups and surfaces, 2020 is set to be a busy and enthralling year for the sport.
Muhammad and Kipchoge named World Athletes of the Year
Eliud Kipchoge and Dalilah Muhammad have been named the male and female World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2019, held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 23 November.
Kipchoge, the winner of the award last year, added to his phenomenal marathon CV in 2019. In April he captured his fourth victory at the London Marathon with a 2:02:37 course record, the third-fastest performance of all time. The 35-year-old Kenyan followed up in October by blasting through the distance’s two-hour barrier with a 1:59:40.2 performance at the Ineos159 Challenge in Vienna.
Muhammad, 29, broke the world record in the 400m hurdles twice this year, first with a 52.20 performance at the US Championships in July to eclipse a mark which had stood since 2003. Muhammad broke it again at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, clocking 52.16 in one of the championships’ most eagerly-awaited finals to claim the world title for the first time. Muhammad also won world gold in the 4x400m relay and won five of her seven races.