On Saturday, August 19th the best athletes in the world descended on Budapest, Hungry for the World Athletics Championships. Over the next 9 days, we saw incredible performances across all distances and disciplines. We saw upsets and we saw title defences. This got me thinking, just how quick do you have to be to win a world title?

Let’s find out!

 For this research, I focused on the 800m – 10,000m (not including steeplechase) on both the men's and women's sides. I initially started out by calculating the final 200m splits for all the athletes however as you will see further in this article, I also include other splits that are of notable interest.

Men’s 800m (32c, 46% Humidity)

Marco Arop is the newly crowned 800m world champion. A 1:43 man at best, Arop upgraded his bronze medal from Eugene to gold in Budapest to become Canada’s first-ever world champion in the event.

 It took a 25.03 last 200 from Arop to take the win ahead of Wanyonyi of Kenya (25.08) and Ben Pattison of Great Britain (25.08). However, it was an aggressive move by Arop with 300 to go that truly sealed the title for the Canadian. From 500-600, Arop split 12.26! This meant he closed the final 300 metres in 37.29!

However, the fastest finisher of them all was 4th place, Adrian Ben of Spain, splitting 12.28 for the final 100m.

 The harsh reality of the 800 truly sets in when you realise that just 0.71 seconds separate winning gold and coming 5th. 

 This 800m was run with negative splits, a tactic not often associated with 800m running. However, it is a point of interest to note as coaches we are seeing more of it. Will Sumner is the perfect example of this as he went 53.12 and 51.15 to take home the NCAA title earlier this season. Are we seeing a shift in tactics during championship 800 races?

Women’s 800m (30c 49% Humidity)

 

Mary Moraa is the new queen of the 800m as the Kenyan took down the reigning champion Athing Mu of the USA, whilst Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson split the two to earn her second world championships silver medal.   

Mu took the race out hard splitting 26.51 and 56.01 at the 200m and 400m mark. This is 1:52 pace! However, it was Moora who was able to close the quickest off this pace. The Kenyan covered her final 200m in 29.71. Hodgkinson battled her way to a silver medal with a final 200 of 29.89 whilst the 30.4 second final 200 from Mu was enough to hold on to a medal.

 It will be interesting to see how this event develops over the next couple of years, especially with Paris right around the corner. We have three women who are all gold medal standard but there’s only one gold medal!

Mens 1500m (25c, 60% Humidity)

Josh Kerr of Great Britain struck gold in Budapest as he defeated the overwhelming favourite, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, to ensure Great Britain (in particular Edinburgh AC) retained the title.

 Kerr won the deepest men's 1500m final ever assembled. Before the race began there were 7 men who had gone under 3:30. Just a couple of years ago only a handful of people in history had gone under the illusive barrier. Now more than half the field has.

 With this in mind, it was no surprise that Kerr (The Olympic Bronze Medalist) had to go under 3:30 to win the title. He ran a season-best time of 3:29.38, leading 4 men under the 3:30 barrier.

 The race itself played out how we would expect, coming down to the final 200. Kerr clocked 26.55 for the final 200 whilst Ingebrigtsen could only respond with a 26.8 second final 200.

(I say only like running a 26.8 second 200 isn’t insanely quick!). Jakob’s fellow countryman Narve Nordas was the quickest to finish, closing his final 200m in 26.10, to claim bronze. Even more impressive considering Nordas is relatively new to the 1500m.

Women’s 1500m 28c 53% Humidity

 Faith Kipyegon created history by becoming the first woman to win the 1500m at a World Championship 3 times. This came as little surprise due to the season Kipyegon has been having, in which we saw her break the world record for the event back in June.

Kipyegon led from gun to tape, closing the last 200m in 28.84 seconds. This was not to be Kipyegon's fastest 200m split of the race. The real damage was done from 1200-1400m Kipyegon split 26.91.

Welteji of Ethiopia was able to hold off Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands with a final 200 of 29.95 seconds whilst Hassan closed in 29.25. Considering the Hassan was attempting the triple at these world championhsips and having won the London Marathon in April, being able to still produce a 29.25 last 200 is might impressive. But it does make you think, what could Hassan do if she solely focused on one event? How much faster would she be able to close?

Ciara Mageen had the race of her life running a new Irish national record for 4th with a last 200m of 29.82

Men’s 5,000m (31c 44% Humidity)

After heartbreak in the 1500m Jakob Ingebrigtsen did what all good champions do, bounce back. History repeated itself as the Norwegian retained his 5,000m title he won just a year prior. Contrary to what you may think, it wasn’t plain sailing for the new anti-villain of men’s distance running. He had to battle hard with Spaniard Mo Katir, who looked to have sealed victory 20m from the finish line.

Jakob covered his final 200m in 26.2 seconds whilst Katir closed in 26.73. This split of 26.2 seconds from Jakob is over half a second faster than what he was able to manage just a few days before in the 1500m. 

This is where things get interesting. With 300m to go, Katir made his bid for glory, splitting 12.89 seconds down the back straight. This caused the field to instantly spread out and caught many by surprise, except one man, Mr. Ingebrigtsen. In his pursuit of Katir, from 300m – 100m to go, Jakob split 25.84 seconds! This means he closed the final 300 in 39.09 to seal victory and ensure the title was staying in Sandnes.

Women’s 5,000m 30c 52% Humidity

 Just like in the 1500m, Faith Kipyegon made history again. She became the first-ever female athlete to complete the 1500/5,000m double at a single championship. This begs the question, is Kipyegon one of the greatest track athletes of all time?

 Siffan Hassan was a lot better placed with 200m to go compared to the 1500m, right on the shoulder of Kipyegon. However, Kipyegon pulled away for victory with a final 200m of 27.12. Hassan picked up her second medal of the championships closing in 27.24. Whilst the 23-year-old Beatrice Chebet picked up the bronze medal with a final 200 of 27.31. The top 3 athletes were separated by 0.4 tenths of a second. Talk about tight margins!

Men’s 10,000m (32c 49% Humidity)

This race followed the form books as we saw Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda claim his 3rd straight 10,000m world title, to equal Mo Farah with 3 consecutive wins and sit one behind the legendary pair of Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie, who both won the title 4 times in a row.  

Cheptegei won the race in a season-best time 27:51. Which has to be taken with a grain of salt given it was only his first 10,000m race of the season and is a whole 1 minute and 40 seconds slower than his personal best (which is also the world record)

 To win the race Cheptegei closed his final 200m in 26.84, whilst second-placed Ebenyo and third-place Barega clocked 27.49 and 27.94 respectively. Similar to the 800m and the 5000m we saw an aggressive move being made early, except this time it was from 500m out and not 300.

From 500-400 to go Cheptegei surged into the lead, thanks to a 12.77 100 metre split. From this moment on Cheptegei was relentless, covering the last 400 in 52.77. This split of 52.77 was the exact same as Josh Kerrs' final lap in the 1500m.

Of course, we can not compare splits across distances at face value, we have to take into consideration the various metabolic stresses that each event carries (more on this later). But it is truly incredible what these top-level athletes are capable of doing at the end of 9,6000m of running.

Women’s 10,000m 26c 73% Humidity

In a dramatic finish, we saw Gudaf Tsegay, the former 1500m specialist, take home the gold. This was the start of an Ethiopian sweep as fellow countrywomen Letsenbet Gidey and Ejgayehu Taye rounded out the podium.

Tsegay was able to hold off the women's world record holder for the 10,000m (Gidey) closing her final 200 in 27.95. Gidey was able to produce 28.97 for her final 200m whilst Taye mustered up the only other sub-30-second final 200 clocking of the whole field with 28.71 seconds. 

A notable mention must go to Sifan Hassan who was attempting an ambitious triple (10,000m, 5,000m, 1500m) after claiming victory in the London Marathon back in April. Hassan fell with 30m to go after battling with Tsegay. It was looking highly likely she was going to secure another medal, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

Limitations of the Research

Here I have noted some thoughts and ideas as to why we need to be cautious of using the final 200m splits at face value.

It must be noted that whilst the final 200m split times give an indication of just how fast the best athletes in the world are able to close, it often doesn’t paint the full picture of the race itself. For instance, the men’s 10,000m saw an aggressive effort from 500m out or the fact the women's 800m went off at 1:52 pace.

Throughout the whole championship, conditions were far from ideal for distance running however the women's 10,000m experiencing humidity of 73% may just take the crown for the most miserable conditions. How much did this affect performances? If conditions were more favourable would we have seen faster finishes? Or were the finishes we saw faster than usual because athletes weren’t prepared to commit too much too soon in a faster, overall race?

Whilst direct comparison between events is fun to do, you must remember to account for the different energy systems and metabolic pathways being used for each of the events. For example, Moraa closed the women's 800 with a final 200 of 29.71 whilst in the 10,000m Tsegay posted a time of 27.95. At face value, Tsegay produced a time 1.76 seconds quicker than Moora, but does that mean she is faster? No.

The races were run in different manners and require far different percentages of VO2 Max and lactate threshold to complete.

Conclusions

The World Championships in Budapest were one for the history books and was one of my favourite championships in recent memory. When I set out to write this article, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This was the first time I had done something like this with athletes at the very top of the sport. Quite frankly I was blown away. The times these men and women are able to produce are staggering and show just how great the athletes and this sport, are.

My main motivation for this article was related to recent research and discussions with my mentor Willie Moore of Colgate University and listening to other coaches such as Jeff Wilson and Zev Cayiem discuss at length the importance of sprinting for distance runners. Our discussions piqued my interest and led me to do my own research on the area. I think the results speak for themselves and being able to “sprint” as a distance runner is not only crucial for the biomechanical and training load benefits but evidently play a role in deciding medals.  

 Looking forward there are a few ways I would like to personally build off of this. I primarily would like to experiment with athletes who are amateurs and see just how much of an effect sprint training interventions can have on their running performance. In terms of further research, I will be looking to expand my knowledge on areas such as ground contact time and the influence that has on sprint speed. Finally, I would also like to see a comparison across previous world championships to see the trends in finishing times to help better prepare athletes for what is needed of them and tailor their training accordingly.