You can now watch our weekly news show! Or read below…
World Athletics Awards 2023
The World Athletics awards this year were slightly different to previous years with an unexpected 6 awards being given out as opposed to the previous 2. With this meant there was different categories rather than just male and female athlete of the year. Whilst many people would view this as a positive potentially it is clear that even the nominated athletes were not aware of this decision.
USA sprinter and 3 time World Champion Noah Lyles has arguably been the most vocal.
Winners:
World Athlete of the year track events- Faith Kipyegon and Noah Lyles
World Athlete of the year field events- Yulimar Rojas and Mondo Duplantis
World Athlete of the year out of stadia events- Tigist Assefa and Kelvin Kiptum Cheruiyot
Rising star- Faith Cherotitch and Emmanuel Wanyonyi
European Cross champs
Biggest GB success
Gold - Senior women’s team, u23 women’s team, u23 men’s team, u20 women’s team. Will Barnicoat, Innes Fitzgerald, Megan Keith
Silver- u20 men’s team
Bronze- Senior mixed relay team, Matt Stonier and Abbie Donnelly
Performance of the day - Megan Keith with a record breaking wining margin of 1 minute 23 seconds.
No Jakob Ingebrigtsen saw Yann Schrub from France take the win in the senior men’s race.
Lynsey Sharp Retirement
Lynsey announced retirement from athletics on the 13th December. During her career the middle distance runner became European Champion and a Commonwealth medallist whilst also attending two Olympic games, London 2012 and Rio 2016.
On a post on Instagram announcing her decision she claims her priorities have changed after the birth of her son Max in October 2021. “Now I do feel like I’m making sacrifices in other aspects of my life in order to continue pursuing my athletics career. And that’s why I know now is the right time to hang up my spikes”
In her post Lynsey gives advice to younger athletes with the main take away being to have fun and enjoy it. She also goes on to congratulate other athlete mums as it is “something you can’t do half heartedly”.
New UKA President
Olympic Gold medallist Denise Lewis has been announced as the new president of UKA. With Hannah England elected as the new Vice President.
The change came about due to previous members completing their terms of service. UKA chair Ian Beattie said “I look forward to working with them in the coming years, and UKA will benefit from the huge range of skills they will bring to the table”.