Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

Okay, full disclosure. It was in December of 1945 that Jimmy Green first launched a magazine called Athletics, the latest iteration of which you now hold in your hands, so AW’s official 80th birthday is a few months away yet. However, with this summer about to reach its climax with the Tokyo World Championships and another chapter to be written in athletics’ major championships history, we thought it was the perfect time to journey back through the decades to pick out some of the moments and performances that have shaped the sport during AW’s lifetime so far. The results of that process can be found on p36 and putting it together really does highlight how much the sport, and the world, has moved on since emerging from the shadow of…

The World Athletics Championships are returning to Tokyo for the first time since 1991 and, with the spectacular Olympic stadium welcoming athletes and fans from across the globe from September 13-21, it will be an occasion not to be missed. There are a number of ways you can be part of it, too. Spectator tickets are on general sale, but the Official Hospitality Program is part of a new spectators’ initiative designed to make the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 a truly special experience. The range of products is designed to offer an added dimension from competition viewing, with opportunities to meet special guests, priority entry through a dedicated entrance gate and a lounge available before and after the sessions. BOX Each group of guests will have seats on the…

One fine Swiss morning midway through an altitude camp recently, three Australians and a Brit (me), packed their rucksacks full of electrolytes, spikes and protein shakes and set off for the small Italian town of Chiavenna. It’s a fairly well-trodden weekly pilgrimage for track runners who are training in St Moritz, but what happened next was a lot more than any of us bargained – or packed– for. The aim of the excursion was to take advantage of the more oxygenated air at the town’s local track, where we would be able to hit some faster splits than would be possible at altitude. It was to be a gruelling morning of work, but we were bolstered by the idea of refuelling with pizza and gelato afterwards. We anticipated a hot…

If an elite athlete is performing to their highest level, the likelihood is they will have focused on both their mental and physical wellbeing. The impact of a sound mind in a sound body cannot be overstated and it is the founding philosophy of ASICS. Dr Amit D Mistry, an award-winning Consultant Sports Psychiatrist, knows the significance of that correlation and provides mental health support for all of ASICS’ sponsored athletes when they’re in need, a service that is offered in their contracts. Based at the Nightingale Hospital in London, Mistry provides mental health advice within the elite sport space and stresses the importance of looking at the unique needs of each athlete. He also consults ASICS FrontRunner, a global running community with over 600 ambassadors from over 30 countries…

COACHING CONVERSATIONS A talented decathlete, Ashley Bryant demonstrated leadership qualities from an early age and captained the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Canada. Having retired from competition in 2020, the 34-year-old – who heads up the jumps and combined events programme at Welsh Athletics – is now coach to a group of athletes including Welsh heptathlon record-holder Abi Pawlett and European under-18 heptathlon silver medallist Thea Brown (who he is coaching remotely until she moves to Loughborough in September). The 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist is one of only nine British athletes to have achieved a points score in excess of 8000. He is currently ranked fourth on the British all-time list for decathlon with a best of 8163. How did you…

13:58.06 It is 83 years since Gunder ‘the wonder’ Hägg became the first man to break 14 minutes for 5000m with 13:58.2 in Gothenburg. On July 5 at the 50th Pre Classic in Eugene, there was an equally wondrous women’s performance when Beatrice Chebet became the first female to break the 14-minute barrier with 13:58.06. At this same Diamond League meeting 12 months earlier the 25-year-old from Kenya had become the first woman to break the 29-minute barrier for 10,000m with 28:54.14. Last August also saw her claim Olympic 5000m and 10,000m titles in Paris. Judging from her sprint finish at Hayward Field, she looks like she could go significantly faster, too. With Gundaf Tsegay of Ethiopia and Agnes Ngetich of Kenya still with her on the last lap, Chebet…

The Bellshill Bullet was sandwiched in between Seb Coe and Steve Cram on the European podium of 1986. Four years later, the Scot was hot favourite and on a quest for redemption following an injury-induced last place at the 1987 World Championships and an unjust disqualification at the 1988 Seoul Olympics The 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh were my first real major championship. Steve Cram kicked in the back straight and left me, and then I passed everybody else once I woke up. When it came to the Europeans later that summer, I didn’t really think about anything else other than: “Crammy is going to try and take me in the back straight again”. So I thought: “When Crammy kicks, kick!” Seb Coe was supposed to be coming back from…

“I think I timed my message perfectly,” says Adele Nicoll. Pretty much, Ashleigh Nelson signals in agreement. Twice a member of the women’s 4×100m relay squad at Olympic Games, the 34-year-old from Stoke admits she had thrown everything at making it a hat-trick at Paris 2024 despite surgery that had sidelined her for the entirety of the previous season. A few early summer outings were well shy of her best. Not making it out of the semi-finals of the UK Championships was below par for someone with world, European and Commonwealth medals in the bank. “Things just weren’t quite clicking, just weren’t going how I wanted them to,” Nelson recounts. “And then Adele messaged me in the July and was like: ‘Do you want to give bobsleigh a go?’” It…

It was a true act of faith for Jimmy Green to launch a monthly magazine called Athletics in December 1945. In truth, there was very little athletics to report at the time. World War II had not long ended and hundreds of thousands of men and women in the various allied armed forces were in the process of returning to civilian life. Their priorities centred around reuniting with their families and finding work. Resuming leisure-time activities would have to wait. The word “leisure” is not lightly used. There was no money to be made in athletics – or, at least, there was not supposed to be. Everyone was expected to be strictly amateur and the leading athletes were allowed only strictly approved expenses. Yet the sport had not stopped entirely…

KEEP ON RUNNING Q: “Can I continue to run after surgery for a complex medial meniscal tear? I am 62, have run all my life and I am otherwise fit and healthy. The surgeon has told me there is an increased risk of osteoarthritis and has advised me to avoid prolonged weight-bearing exercise such as long distance running.” John Robinson Absolutely, this is a hugely important question and one I hear often, especially from lifelong runners like yourself. Firstly, you’re not alone. A complex medial meniscal tear is a common challenge for active individuals and, while your surgeon is rightly being cautious, the picture isn’t as black and white as “never run again”. Let’s unpack it. WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS The meniscus acts as a shock absorber and, yes, its…

SAUCONY Saucony.com ENDORPHIN SPEED 5 £180 This is a gentle update to the popular, versatile racer-trainer shoe from Saucony. The Speed 5 has a dual-layer PWRRUN PB foam midsole which sandwiches a semi-rigid nylon plate. A little less aggressive than a carbon-plated shoe, the Speed is a versatile option that suits faster-paced training as well as race day. A revised geometry keeps the snappy ride and feel but brings a little more stability, again adding to its versatile nature and appeal. The low-profile outsole has increased coverage for added traction and durability, while the lightweight upper is in-keeping with the shoe’s nature and provides a breathable and comfortably snug fit. SPEED ASICS Asics.com The pinnacle of ASICS’ competition products, the Metaspeed models (both the Sky and Edge) can easily lay…

In so many ways, July was an excellent month for the world of athletics. It began with a fitting 50th anniversary edition of the Prefontaine Classic that served up a healthy portion of world record-breaking, as well as a large serving of top-level competition. There were more positives to feast on at the London Diamond League meeting, too, as the star names put on a show– Charlie Dobson’s 400m win was brilliant, wasn’t it? – to send the sell-out 60,000 crowd home more than happy. That same day had also delivered the very welcome news that the UK government is backing the bid to bring the World Championships back to London in 2029 and, although few fans will have noticed, UK Athletics attracted a new headline sponsor – Novuna– meaning…

The job isn’t done when the race is over, the final jump has been taken or the last throw has been sent out into the arena. “You’ve got to see what’s going to happen, predict a lot, be ready and keep shooting,” says Dan Vernon. “Because a lot of what happens happens after the obvious moment.” He is trying to distil the sort of alchemy that goes into the art of sports photography. In the age when artificial intelligence is threatening to eat anything creative in its path, and when camera equipment has never been of a higher quality or easier to use, it’s reassuring to hear that the process can still be hard to define and not easily packaged. The 42-year-old Englishman, whose brother Steve competed internationally for Great…

Rudolph’s Roman treble Aged just 20, in 1960 Wilma Rudolph became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympics when she strode to victory in the 100m, 200m and 4×100m relay in Rome. She had become an Olympian as a 16-year-old in Melbourne, anchoring the relay team to gold, but it was in the Italian capital four years later that her star shone brightest. She was the first woman to break 23 seconds, with her run of 22.9 at the AAU Championships, and continued to stand out when it came to the Games themselves. In the 100m, her winning margin was 0.25 as she clocked 11.0, well inside the world record but with an illegal 2.8m/sec tailwind. For the 200m, Rudolph broke the Olympic record…

“And Straub can’t wait any longer,” called BBC commentator David Coleman. “He knows the Britons have got the finish, so he’s got to go.” Back in the UK, all eyes were focused on those aforementioned Britons – the multiple world record-holders Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. In the lead-up to the final of the men’s 1500m at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, all of the attention was placed upon that duo. The only question in most people’s minds centred around which of them would get gold and which would get silver. Nobody was thinking about Jürgen Straub. Coe and Ovett had been avoiding each other for the previous two years, with sights set firmly on their inevitable denouement in the Russian capital. Six days earlier the former had run a…

AUGUST 7-10 • European Athletics U20 Championships Tampere european-athletics.com AUGUST 9 • British Milers Club Grand Prix Trafford britishmilersclub.com AUGUST 16 • National Athletics League – Promotion Match & Cup Final Oxford nationalathleticsleague.org.uk • National Athletics League – Premiership Birmingham nationalathleticsleague.org.uk AUGUST 17 • Newham & Essex Beagles Stratford Speed GP London newhamandessexbeagles.co.uk • England Athletics National Relay Championship Birmingham englandathletics.org AUGUST 20 • BMC Record Breaker Tooting Bec britishmilersclub.com • Watford Open Graded Meeting watfordharriers.org.uk AUGUST 22 • Memorial van Damme Brussels diamondleague.com AUGUST 23 • Tonypandy Track Classic welshathletics.org AUGUST 23-24 • 4J Studios scottishathletics National Senior & Under 17 Championships Grangemouth scottishathletics.org.uk AUGUST 24 • Condor Executive Antrim Coast Half Marathon Larne athleticsni.org AUGUST 25-31 • Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc Chamonix montblanc.utmb.world AUGUST 27-28 • Weltklasse…