© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated

World records seem to be dropping at an accelerated rate over the past few years. As benchmarks and world bests are improved, it inspires and compels athletes to further challenge accepted standards and points of reference. Who would ever expect women to run as fast as 2:11:53 in the marathon or potentially sub-14 in the 5000-metre event?

Likewise, the men’s pole vault at 6.26m is stratospheric.

While improved footwear is receiving most of the credit for the running events, the pole vault is a technical field event that is unique and run speed is only a portion of what goes into successfully vaulting over imaginary castle walls.

Meanwhile, some records are just very old and it may be time for them to fall.

The women’s 800m

Recently, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson declared that she will chase the 800-metre world record. The current world record is old. It was set some 41 years ago on July 26, 1983. Czechoslovakian athlete Jarmila Kratochvílová ran 1:53.28 on that day in München, Germany and the record has stood since.

Hodgkinson holds the current British record at 1:54.61, which she set on July 20, 2024. It is likely that she would attempt the record in the summer of 2024, however, she shut down her season after winning gold in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The 22-year-old is carrying a small injury and will now prepare for the 2025 season.

The men’s 800m

Canada’s Marco Aarop and Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi have been trading wins, with the latter taking two recent races, the Paris Olympic Games and the Lausanne Diamond League. What is fascinating is how fast they are running. On August 10, at the Paris Games Aarop broke his own Canadian and the North American 800m record clocking 1:41.20 to take the silver medal. Wanyonyi did one better going 1:41.11. Kenyan David Rudisha holds the current world record at 1:40.91 from the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Wanyonyi holds the road pending mile world record at 3:54.6 from Adi-Dassler-Straße 1, Herzogenaurach, Germany.

Arop first plans to attack the 1000m world record at the Memorial Borisa Hanžekovića on September 8.

“I am going to do 1km in Zagreb and I want to try to break the world record and will be back in Brussels for the Diamond League final. The world record, it is definitely going to go. I think in Brussels. Honestly, all three of us (Sedjati and Wanyonyi) could win the race. It is very possible. So it is very exciting to be a part of the 800m,” said Arop.

The men’s 3000m

Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 23-year-old phenom, may be beatable in the 1500m event, however, in the 2000m to 5,000m distances he seems almost infallible. The 3000m may be his best distance and he proved that on Saturday, Aug. 24 in Silesia, Poland when he crushed Daniel Komen’s world record clocking 7:17.55.

The Kenyan set the world record on Sept. 1, 1996, at 7:20.67 in Rieti, Italy. It once seemed impossible to beat. Three seconds faster is massive.

The 7:17.55 is of the same performance value as running 12:29 in the 5000m event. The current world record is 12:35.36 by Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda. Currently, Ingebrigtsen holds the 3000m pending world record as well as 2000m WR at 4:43.13, the two-mile record at 7:54.10, which is not considered a “record,” but a “world best known time.”

The men’s pole vault

Speaking of infallible, Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis is flying high in the air to be sure. He won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in a new world record height of 6.25m. The 24-year-old went one better in Śląski, Chorzów, Poland moving the pending record to 6.26m. He is the two-time defending Olympic champion and two-time defending world champion.

During the past two years, Duplantis has toyed with the world record at every single meet he has competed in. He has improved the world record six times in 25 months with his first world record at 6.21m, taking over the for Renaud Lavillenie of France who held the record at 6.20m.

Duplantis followed up with 6.22m in Feb. 2023, 6.23m in Sept. 2023, 6.24m in April 2024, 6.25m in Paris at the Olympic Games and now 6.26m. He is as dominant in his event as Usain Bolt was in the 100m.

Men’s discus

Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania threw the discus 74.35m in April to set the new world record. The 21-year-old was throwing at the Millican Field at Throw Town, Ramona, OK on Apr. 14, 2024. Considering his age, expect him to improve the world record a few more times.

He is the Eugene World Athletics Championships silver medallist and the Budapest world’s bronze medallist. In Paris, he took the silver too. Perpetually hovering around the 68m and 69m distances, Alekna broke into the 70-plus range only in 2024.

Women’s short track 400m

The Netherlands’ Femke Bol took the indoors or short track 400m event in the time of 49.17 at the Glasgow Arena, Glasgow, Scotland in March this year. The hurdles specialist ran the outdoor event in the time of 49.26 in 2023. Her best in the hurdles event is 50.95, which makes her the second fastest active 400m hurdler in the world to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the US.

Bol took bronze in the 400mh at the Paris Olympic Games in a disappointing 52.15. She has since rebounded with a wins in Silesia and Lausanne Diamond League meets. Between the two athletes, they hold the eight fastest times in history. They also collectively hold 25 of the 30 fastest performances.

Women’s 1500m and mile

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon continues to dominate the track like Ingebrigtsen as well as Duplantis in the field. Her 1500m world record of 3:49.04 was set during the Paris Diamond League meeting in Stade Charléty in July this year. In January in Monaco, she clocked a new world record in the mile (1609m) at 4:07.64.

The 30-year-old also holds the national 5000m record at 14:05.20, which is the second-fastest time in the world to Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay who has clocked 14:00.21 set in Sept. 2023. Expect both athletes to attempt sub-14 minutes, both will want to be known as the first woman to run in the 13-minute zone for the 12.5-lap race.

Kipyegon is the three-time defending Olympic champion and three-time world champion in the 1500m event. She also earned a silver at the Worlds in the 5000m event and a 5000m silver in Paris.

Expect a heated battle with the top 5000m runners seeking that 13-minute benchmark.

Women’s 2000m

Although a rarely-run race distance, the 2000m world record by Jessica Hull represents a strong performance jump in the middle-distance events in 2024 for the Australian. She clocked 5:19.70 in July this year in the Monaco Diamond League meet. While she will be pressed to take a world record in the 1500m or mile distances, she is performing at the top level now after hovering around the edges for several years.

The 27-year-old clocked 3:50.83 in taking the silver medal at the Paris Olympic Games. In terms of points performance level, according to World Athletics, her 1500m best garners 1280 points, while her 2000m best collects 1253. She may hang onto the rarely run 2000m record for awhile, but expect more medals from Hull.

Women’s 10,000m

Beatrice Chebet of Kenya holds the pending 10,000m world record at 28:54.14, which she set during the Eugene Diamond League meet earlier this summer. She is the first to run sub-29 minutes.

Ever since winning the 2023 Bathurst World Cross Country Championships, she has been on fire. In Sept. 2023, she put herself in the mix to compete for the sub-14 list in the 5000m event with Tsegay and Kipyegon clocking 14:05.92. In Dec. 2023 she took the world road 5K record running 14:13 in Barcelona.

The 24-year-old took double Olympic gold at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in the 5000m and 10,000m events. During the Eugene World Athletics Championships and the 2023 Budapest edition, Chebet earned silver and bronze medals in the 5000m, respectively. At the 2023 World Road Running Championships she took gold in the 5K. Chebet is the two-time defending World Cross Country champion.

Women’s 400m hurdles

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is the Florence Griffith-Joyner of the 400m hurdles event. She set the current (pending) world record at 50.37 this year and won Olympic gold in Paris. Her 400m flat event is a world-class 48.74 (PB). McLaughlin-Levrone is a four-time Olympic gold medallist from Tokyo and Paris doubling each time in the 4 x 400m event. The 25-year-old is a three-time World champion.

Currently, no one is in her league.

Women’s marathons

It is still difficult to wrap one’s mind around the women’s marathon world record in a mixed-gender race at 2:11:53 but that is the current record by Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia. She set it during the 2023 Berlin Marathon. She won silver during the Paris Olympic Games, defeated in a spectacular sprint finish against The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan.

The two ran faster than the Olympic record in that race in warm conditions with an unprecedented set of hills in the middle.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir clocked 2:16:16 in a women’s-only race for the world record run without the benefit of men.

Chebet and perhaps if Kipyegon, if they move to the marathon, one of them may challenge either record.

The records and world bests will continue to fall. Next up for the athletes is the marathon and cross-country seasons. Berlin, where many records have been set is just a few weeks away.