Olympic champions Karsten Warholm of Norway and Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica have been named the World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021.
Thompson-Herah retained the 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo she had won at the previous Olympics. Her season bests of 10.54 and 21.53 over 100m and 200m respectively, moved her to second on the world all-time lists and coming within touching distance of the long-standing world records that have stood for some time. “I just take it year by year,” said Thompson-Herah. “I went very close to the world record so you know, anything is possible. No spikes hanging up any time soon!" The 29 year old now targets the 2022 World Championships in Oregon “It is close to home, I hope friends and family can come out and watch. I hope I get some crowd as well. That couldn’t happen in Tokyo but hopefully in Eugene I can get my friends and family to come and cheer me on.”
Warholm produced one of the most remarkable performances in athletics history when he stormed to gold in the 400m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics. Breaking his own world record with a staggering run of 45.94 seconds. Most world class 400m flat runners would be happy with that time. “I’m so happy for this,” said Warholm. “First when I saw the time, I was like, ‘This must be a mistake!’ Because I didn’t see that one coming." The top three athletes finished inside the pre-2021 world record with Rai Benjamin clocking 46.17 and Alison dos Santos running 46.72.
2021 has been a year of many world records and blistering performances and no doubt this will carry on into the 2022 World Champs. If you want to get yourself ready for next year be sure to check out our line of spikes here.
