Amusan’s world record among World Athletics 22 standout moments in 2022

It has been an unprecedented year in terms of outdoor major championships.

Along with the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the season also featured the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, the European Championships, the NACAC Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and various other regional and U20 area championships – and this, of course, was on top of the Wanda Diamond League and the Continental Tour circuits.

22 memorable moments standout and one is Nigeria Tobi Amusan’s shock world record at the World Championships in Oregon.

At first many questioned the timing system. Could someone really break the world record by that much in a semifinal? But it soon became apparent that Tobi Amusan’s 12.12 clocking in the 100m hurdles at the World Championships was legitimate, as she went even quicker in the final with a wind-assisted 12.06.

Another memorable moment that will surely go down as one of the greatest athletics performances in history, Sydney McLaughlin smashed her own already sensational world record to win the 400m hurdles on home soil in Oregon. Her winning time of 50.68 would be competitive in most international 400m flat races.

The men’s shot put was one of the enduring moments from the 2019 World Championships, and the rematch between defending champion Joe Kovacs and Olympic champion Ryan Crouser was almost as thrilling. Crouser emerged as the champion, throwing a championship record of 22.94m to win by just five centimetres from his arch rival.

She has smashed world records on the track and roads over the past two years, but Letesenbet Gidey was still chasing a senior global title. The Ethiopian gritted her teeth in the closing stages of the 10,000m at the World Championships and held off a host of opponents in a nail-biting finish.

That he won the world title was no big surprise; Mondo Duplantis has dominated the pole vault for some time now. But the Swedish vaulter kept his cool at the World Championships and broke his own world record with a stunning 6.21m clearance, with clear daylight between him and the bar.

Few would have predicted that Peruvian race walker Kimberly Garcia would win a world title in Oregon. And even fewer would have had her down to complete the race walks double. But the 28-year-old did exactly that, winning gold over 20km and 35km and earning her country’s first ever world titles in the process.

Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos enjoyed a dream season in 2022, winning all of his 400m hurdles races and cementing his status as the world No.1 in his event. 

The expected duel with Olympic champion Damian Warner may not have materialised (the Canadian exited the competition with injury), but Kevin Mayer still had 10 disciplines with which to contend – plus the demons from the 2019 World Championships – on his way to winning his second world decathlon title in Oregon.

Grenada’s Anderson Peters won many more javelin duels throughout the year, including at the World Championships where he retained his title.

There were several highlights in Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s season, not least her fifth world 100m title in Oregon, but the first big ‘wow’ moment of 2022 for the Jamaican sprinter came at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Nairobi, where she won in 10.67 – what became the first of a record seven sub-10.70 clockings this year.