Sydney McLaughlin, Mondo Duplantis underline athletics super stars status

The US woman hurdler and the Swedish pole-vaulter, both regarded as a generational talent, were announced by World Athletics as the 'World Athlete of the Year'

Sydney McLaughlin and Armand Duplantis have made it a habit to better their own world records. American McLaughlin raced to an awe-inspiring 50.68secs in the 400m hurdles at the World Championships in Eugene while US-born Swedish pole-vaulter Duplantis vaulted to newer heights this season. It was thus no surprise that they were named the 'World Athlete of the Year'.

Gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin, of the United States, poses by a sign after winning the final of the women's 400-meter hurdles (AP)

Olympic champion McLaughlin has been on a record-breaking spree since last year. She capped another brilliant season with her first individual senior world title. She followed it up by anchoring the US team to another 4x400m victory at the Worlds. McLaughlin first shattered her own world record at the US Championships, improving to 51.41secs and further lowered it to 50.68 at Eugene.

McLaughlin has been on fire since last year's Tokyo Olympics, where she beat compatriot and world champion Delilah Mohamed by 0.44 secs in a historic race, clocking 51.46secs to set a world record. At the start of this season, the 23-year-old timed 51.61secs in Nashville in early June in a warning to her rivals that they had some catching up to do. They never managed. At that point it was the third-fastest time ever, though the all-time list soon underwent further revisions.

Lining up at the US Championships at Hayward Field, McLaughlin stormed to victory in the 400m hurdles, taking 0.05 off the mark she set at the Tokyo Olympics.

"All of my goals were accomplished this year," McLaughlin said. "We were able to accomplish everything we set out to do. It couldn’t have been any better, and I was so grateful that I was able to produce that performance in front of a home crowd," she said.

Her performance in Eugene was the fourth time in 13 months that McLaughlin had reset her world record in a discipline where shaving off fractions of a second takes years. McLaughlin has made it look relatively easy.

So has Duplantis in the pole vault, the pair having stepped into the vacuum left by the retirement of Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt and the injury that hit the season of Swedish 400m hurdles world record holder and Olympic champion Karsten Warholm.

Duplantis has dominated the event and had a terrific 2022 season. He set three world records, won two global titles, claimed 18 of his 19 competitions and vaulted 6m or higher 23 times.

Despite having only turned 23, Duplantis now has more six-metre clearances than any other pole-vaulter.

His record-breaking 2022 campaign began with an undefeated indoor season, during which he set a world record of 6.19m in Belgrade. He returned to the Serbia capital two weeks later for the World Athletics Indoor Championships, striking gold with 6.20m to better his world record.

He then won the Diamond League circuit, which included a 6.16m vault in Stockholm. The highest ever outdoor vault was the perfect warm-up for the World Championships three weeks later.

At Eugene, Duplantis soared over a world record of 6.21m. A month later, he retained his European title with a championship record of 6.06m before wrapping up his season with victory at the Diamond League Final in Zurich.

"Going into the year, I had really high expectations of myself and had some really big goals," he said in a WA statement. "I wanted to win the world indoors, the world outdoors, the Europeans, the Diamond League final, and wanted to break the world record a few times."

"I was able to do that and it was a bonus, the cherry on top, to be able to do it (break the world record) at the right times, to do it at world indoors and do it at world outdoors. I can’t complain."

Rising stars

Serbian javelin thrower Adriana Vilagos and US sprinter Erriyon Knighton were given the Rising Stars award.

Vilagos successfully defended her world U20 javelin title with a championship record of 63.52m, breaking the European U20 record in the process.

Knighton has been named the Rising Star for the second year in a row. He clocked a best of 19.49secs in April which wasn’t ratified as a world U20 record, but went on to break the mark officially at the US Championships, where he ran 19.69secs. He then claimed bronze at the World Championships, going on to achieve victories on the Continental Tour and Diamond League circuits.