2013 was a remarkable year for performances in the athletics world, so remarkable that breaking a world record or being undefeated with an area record wasn’t enough to be a finalist in the athlete of the year awards.
IAAF athletes of the year were Jamaican; Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who both got three sprint gold medals from the Moscow World Championships. Medals seemed to count more than performances, as neither of the Jamaicans went undefeated, nor broke any records.
Multiple women went undefeated this season. Valerie Adams from New Zealand, who was an athlete of the year finalist, won all 13 shot put competitions she entered. Czech Zuzana Hejnova, also an athlete of the year finalist, won as many 400 meters hurdles races
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The most dominant and the best hurdle season ever, was put together by a new American star in Brianna Rollins.
By: Annimari Korte
Rollins won all 34 races she ran in, no matter if it were the sprint hurdles, 200 meters, or even the 400 meters. She also broke the 100 meters hurdles American record, area record, NCAA 100 meters hurdles, and 60 meters hurdles records.
No men were undefeated, but athlete of the year finalist Bodhan Bondarenko, was close. He placed second only once, and jumped an incredible 2.41 meters twice. The third athlete of the year finalist, Britain’s Mo Farah, wasn’t undefeated either and not even close to world leading times in his events, but he won both 10,000 meters and 5,000 meters in Moscow.
Best African performance of 2013, and only world record of the year, came from Kenyan Wilson Kipsang who broke the marathon world record with a time of 2.03.23, which he set at the Berlin Marathon.
In the sprinting events, Amantle Monthso from Botswana was the world leader with a national record of 49.33 seconds but however
Athletics