8/30/23: The Kicking For Home Budapest Recap

As you might know the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary wrapped up on Sunday. There were lots of great performances and many surprises. Today, I’m going to be talking about the top five moments in the whole competition, and one surprise performance that shocked us all.

Noah Lyles wins the 100m-200m Double

At this World Championships, the American Noah Lyles, won his third straight 200m world title, but he did not stop there. Before winning his 200m title, Lyles won another title in the men’s 100m, he won it over second and third place by .5 seconds beating Letsile Tebogo from Botswana and Zharnel Hughes from Great Britain. That brings us back to the 200m final, Lyles once again won in dominant fashion. Lyles, beat fellow American, Erriyon Knighton and Letsile Tebogo, who placed second in the 100m. But, Lyles didn’t stop there, on the second to last day of competition he anchored the USA 4x100m relay team to victory. Lyles had a championships for the ages and in the Paris Olympics next year, he will be the favorite to win titles in all three events.

Faith Kipyegon wins 1500m-5000m Double

In Budapest, the greatest of all time, Faith Kipyegon, did what has only done by a few people. Kipyegon won the women’s 1500m and the 5000m, Kipyegon, who is the World Record holder in both events, was obviously one of the favorites to win both titles. But, in the final it wasn’t easy for her to win, Sifan Hassan, was to some another favorite to win, and Kipyegon had to beat Hassan in both events to win both titles, and in both instances Kipyegon did. The second of the two races was the 5000m and it had the smallest time gap between the two with a gap of .23 seconds. The second of the two, in the 1500m Kipyegon won by a much wider margin, with a 1.13 second gap in between Kipyegon and Hassan (she placed third in this race). In 2024, at the Paris Olympics, Kipyegon will be a tough one to beat.

Grant Holloway wins 3rd straight title

Like Noah Lyles, the American Grant Holloway had won two straight World titles, except for Holloway, his two titles were in the 110m hurdles. Holloway was the favorite to repay for good reasons. One of them being that he has run the second fastest time ever with a time of 12.81 which is only .01 off the World Record that is held by fellow American, Aries Merritt. Through all of the rounds Holloway had the fastest qualifying times, and in the final he won in dominant fashion winning by .11 seconds over second place, Hansle Parchment of Jamaica. Daniel Roberts of America also podiumed by placing third. A very common theme amongst the members on this list, is that they all will have a very high chance of winning at the Olympics next year, and Grant Holloway is no exception.

Shericka Jackson runs second fastest time ever

In the women’s 200m final, a historic time was run. That time was run by Shericka Jackson, the Jamaican, and reigning World champion in the 200m and runner up in the 100m. Like last year, in this year’s 100m final , Jackson placed second, losing to the American, Sha’Carri Richardson this year, who placed third in this year’s 200m final. Coming off of that lost, Jackson obviously wanted to win her main event, and she didn’t just win The ran the second fastest time ever recorded, and was within .08 of the World Record. She also beat Gabby Thomas, of American by four tenths of a second. The Paris Olympics will be one to watch as Jackson attempts to win the Gold.

Jakob Ingebrigsten wins back-to-back 5k titles

Going into these championships there as one name highlighted as the one to watch for, and that name was Jakob Ingebrigsten. Coming into this Ingebrigsten had been having a fantastic season and it seemed almost guaranteed that he would win the title. But, it was obviously not guaranteed because like last year a Great Britain athlete beat him, and that athlete this year was Josh Kerr. Even though, Ingebrigsten didn’t what is most likely his best event, he still had one more title to defend, the 5000m. Last year, Ingebrigsten won the 5000m title which was a little bit of a surprise. This year, however it was no surprise, Ingebrigsten won the race over the Spanish runner, Mohammed Katir. Until the next Olympics in 2024, Ingebristen will have great chances at setting new World Records and in Paris, he will have a good chance to bring home the gold.

Biggest Surprise: Josh Kerr upsets Ingebrigsten

Like I said above, Jakob Ingebristen was upset in the men’s 1500m final. The person to upset him was no other than Great British runner, Josh Kerr. The same storyline happened last year when another Great British runner, Jake Wightman won the title. Kerr, has experience running in the biggest races and has performed well in them, for example his bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the 1500m. In this race, Ingebrigsten was runnning his normal race at the front up until 200m to go, when Kerr made his move and tried to pass Ingebrigsten on the outside. But, Ingebrigsten was not letting that happend, and he didn’t let Kerr pass until Kerr didn’t let him choose. Kerr passed him and ran home to victory. In the upcoming Olympics and the years to come this matchup will be one you need to watch for.