In an end-of-term report we revisit the best performances of a classic season of track and field athletics

Mens sprints and hurdles

Noah Lyles was world 100m champion but was not streets ahead over the distance as he shared the world lead of 9.83 with Zharnel Hughes and Christian Coleman and 13 different athletes clocked a time of 9.90 or faster. A total of 41 athletes broke 10 seconds for the distance this summer.

Lyles was outstanding at 200m, though, producing the world lead of 19.47 and four of the 10 fastest times as 20 athletes, eight of them American, bettered 20 seconds.

Over 400m, world champion Antonio Watson was clearly the best in Budapest with the two quickest times but he only ranks fifth-fastest across the summer with his 44.13 semi-final run.

The Olympic champion Steven Gardiner failed to finish his semi-final but his 43.74 world lead in an earlier meeting in Hungary shows he will be the favourite for Olympic gold in Paris. 17 different runners broke 44.50 during the season.

Grant Holloway is the world 110m hurdles champion but did look vulnerable after Budapest and Olympic champion Hansle Parchment, second in Hungary, set the world lead with a 12.93 PB in the Diamond League Final. No fewer than 26 athletes, 12 of them American, clocked 13.26 or faster.

Karsten Warholm easily won his third 400m hurdles world title in Budapest but Rai Benjamin then beat him in Eugene with a world lead of 46.39 and Kyron McMaster also beat the Norwegian earlier in the summer in Zurich. However, Warholm still had seven of the 12 top times of the year.

USA were clear 4x100m winners in Budapest with a world leading 37.38. They were also dominant over 4x400m with a 2:57.31 in Hungary and will start favourites in Paris for both, as well as the mixed 4x400m where they set a world record 3:08.81 despite effectively fielding a B team with the seventh and 21st ranked US men and the seventh and ninth ranked US women.

Mens middle and long distance

The 800m was one of the most open events of the summer and the top two from Budapest Marco Arop and Emmanuel Wanyonyi were also the fastest this summer. It was the latter who set the 1:42.80 world lead at Eugene. 13 runners broke 1:44 and the standard was high in Britain, with seven running inside 1:45 and 18 inside 1:46.50.

For the second year running, Jakob Ingebrigtsen dominated the 1500m and the mile, apart from the race that mattered most. He will start as the big favourite in Paris after European records at 1500m (3:27.73) and the mile (3:43.73).

The 1500m standard was exceptional, with 34 inside 3:33 compared to 15 in 2022, while the Oslo 1500m and Eugene mile were the best races in terms of depth at those distances in history. Five Britons running 3:31.30 or faster is also a record.

Ingebrigtsen also set world marks at 2000m and two miles plus a European record at 3000m and won the world 5000m title.

In terms of 5000m times, though, it was the Ethiopian athletes who dominated, with four running under 12:43. Berihu Aregawi (12:40.45) tops the lists. He also tops the 10,000m rankings (26:50.66). Though ranked only 66th on time, Joshua Cheptegei won his third 10,000m world title and remains the Olympic favourite.

At the steeplechase, Lamecha Girma set a world record 7:52.11 but he has trailed Soufiane El Bakkali in the last four global championships. Aged 22, Girma has time on his side in an event that, top two aside, was moderate in 2023.

Mens field

It wasnt a classic year for the high jump, with 2.36m topping the world lists. That was the height it took for Gianmarco Tamberi to win the world title from fellow world leaders JuVaughn Harrison and Mutaz Essa Barshim.

Mondo Duplantis set another pole vault world record in Eugene (6.23m) and, as usual, is in a class of his own. The nearest man to him on the lists is KC Lightfoot with 6.07m, but he failed to even make the American team this year.

In the long jump, Miltiadis Tentoglou is the reigning world and Olympic champion but isnt a dominant force outside of the major championships. Jamaicas Wayne Pinnock tops the world lists with 8.54m and, with 15 athletes having jumped 8.25m or better this season, there will be plenty in the medal hunt for Paris.

Another Jamaican, Jaydon Hibbert who will still be an under-20 for the Olympics heads the triple jump world lists (17.87m) but it was Hugues Fabrice Zango who won in Budapest. Andy Diaz may start as the marginal favourite for the Olympics, though, in an event which has been of a poor standard, with just five jumping beyond 17.40m in 2023.

There is no problem with standards in the shot, though. Apart from world champion Ryan Crousers 23.56m world record, a further 10 athletes broke 22m and an additional nine threw beyond 21.50m.

Five athletes bettered 70m in the discus as Kristjan Čeh topped the lists with 71.86m but it was Daniel Ståhls 71.46m that won a tremendous contest in Budapest.

Six competitors achieved 80m in the hammer in 2023 but though Wojciech Nowicki (81.92m) topped the rankings, it was Ethan Katzberg who sprang a shock in Budapest with a PB of 81.25m. Its worth noting that while major throw events rarely see athletes at their best due to the pressure, five of the first six in Budapest set their seasons bests there and dominate the lists.

The javelin was a slight disappointment in 2023 with no one throwing beyond 90m as Jakub Vadlejchs 89.51m headed the rankings. It was Neerah Chopra who won in Budapest and will be expected to defend his Olympic title in Paris.

The decathlon was dominated by the Budapest result, with the much improved Pierce LePage out in front in 2023 with his Budapest score of 8909 and five of the top 10 set their best marks in Hungary.

Womens sprints

Shericka Jackson and world champion ShaCarri Richardson shared the 100m world lead of 10.65 as 26 athletes broke 11 seconds. That group included 11 Americans, seven Jamaicans and three Brits.

Jackson dominated at 200m with a world lead of 21.41 and had six of the best nine times this season, with the other three owned by Gabby Thomas. Only four athletes broke 22 seconds.

The lesser spotted Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone set the 400m world lead of 48.74 but the overall season belonged to Budapest winner Marileidy Paulino (48.76) with the next three best times. A total of 13 athletes ran quicker than 50 seconds.

In the 100m hurdles, Keni Harrison set the world lead of 12.24 in the Budapest heats. With world champion Danielle Williams only ranked ninth equal at 12.43 just the 28th best performance of 2023 this could be one of the more open events in Paris.

With world record-holder McLaughlin-Levrone absent from the event, the 400m hurdles was all Femke Bol as she ran the eight best performances of 2023, the best of which was her European record 51.45. Only three athletes broke 53 seconds and 11 bettered 54.

USAs 41.03 World Championships victory tops the 4x100m lists but, courtesy of Bols searing last leg, its the Netherlands who sit on top of the 4x400m rankings following their 3:20.72 win in Hungary.

Womens middle and long distances

Athing Mu was only third in Budapest but a run of 1:54.97 in Eugene to go eighth all-time tops the 800m rankings, with world champion Mary Moraa only fourth-fastest as 61 athletes broke two minutes.

Yet again Faith Kipyegon dominated the 1500m with the world record of 3:49.11, running the three fastest times and winning the world title. A record 71 athletes ran quicker than four minutes a barrier Laura Muir broke six times this year and Melissa Courtney-Bryant five after achieving the landmark for the first time in July.

Kipyegon also won the world title and set a world record at 5000m but she was eventually replaced as the world record-holder by Gudaf Tsegay (14:00.21 in Eugene), who was only 13th in Budapest. Nine of the top 19 performers on the world lists set their best ever times this year.

Tsegay is also on top when it comes to times for the 10,000m (29:29.73), an event in which she also won world gold after a memorable finish with Sifan Hassan.

With five of the top 15 times, Budapest winner Winfred Yavi dominated the steeplechase as her 8:50.66 world lead in Eugene put her second all-time.

Womens field

Yaroslava Mahuchikh won her first global outdoor high jump title and shares the world lead with bronze medallist Nicola Olyslagers as both cleared 2.03m in Eugene. The Ukrainian jumped beyond two metres in seven of her 12 competitions this year.

Katie Moon and Nina Kennedy shared the pole vault world title and 4.90m world lead as 15 athletes bettered 4.70m.

Ivana Vuleta won the long jump in Budapest with a world lead of 7.14m as 13 different athletes went further than 6.90m.

Yulimar Rojas only just scraped her World Championships win but otherwise dominated the triple jump with a world lead of 15.35m and had the five best marks of the year. Only nine athletes bettered 14.60m.

Chase Ealey won the shot in Budapest and set a world lead of 20.76m in Eugene which was the longest throw for eight years, but that still doesnt rank in the top 500 performances of all time. She had five of the best eight throws of 2023.

Valarie Allman set a discus world lead of 70.47m in Berlin and had eight of the nine best throws of 2023 but it was Laulauga Tausaga-Collins who won the world title as 11 threw further than 65m.

In the hammer, 2022 world champion Brooke Andersen leads the way on the rankings lists with a world lead of 80.17m and had the five longest throws of 2023 but failed to negotiate the qualifying round in Budapest where Camryn Rogers, who had eight of the top 20 throws of the year, dominated.

READ MORE: AW readers choice athletes of 2023 results

Haruka Kitaguchi was a clear no.1 in the javelin. She won in Budapest, set a world lead of 67.38m in Brussels and had the three best marks.

Anna Hall set an impressive world heptathlon lead of 6988 in Götzis and had three of the best four marks of the year but lost out narrowly to Katraina Johnson-Thompson in Budapest. Only eight athletes scored more than 6400 points.