{"id":58695,"date":"2020-11-10T17:47:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T01:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/?post_type=article&p=58695"},"modified":"2020-11-10T17:47:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T01:47:11","slug":"from-the-editor-who-makes-this-years-mens-podium","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-who-makes-this-years-mens-podium\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM THE EDITOR \u2014 Who Makes This Year\u2019s Men\u2019s Podium?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"NEXT MONTH\u2019S ISSUE, our popular Annual Edition, will as always ID the world\u2019s top athletes in various categories. In many places, the choosing will be tougher than ever, what with the pandemic shutting off so many avenues of competition, leaving us with a dearth of data with which to work.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the toughest problem will come in sorting out the top end of the men\u2019s MVP debate. But in this case it\u2019s not because we have too little data; rather, it\u2019s because we have so many candidates who are worthy of challenging for, let\u2019s say, a podium\u2019s worth of choices. The way I see it, there are 5 men who can make a case for being in the top 3. Each of them moved into at least No. 2 on an all-time list.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at their pros & cons, alphabetically:<\/p>\n

\n

Joshua Cheptegei<\/strong>
\nPros\u2014There are 2 big ones for the 24-year-old Ugandan: World Records in both the 5000<\/a> (12:35.36) and 10,000<\/a> (26:11.00), knocking off a pair of longstanding Kenenisa Bekele standards. Those were his only track races of the year.<\/p>\n

Cons\u2014The bigness of the possible negatives depends on your view of technology, a subject I weighed in on in this space last month<\/a>. I speak, of course, of both races featuring new Wavelight pacing technology (not to mention a phalanx of high-end rabbits) and new high-tech shoes.<\/p>\n

Not a factor\u2014Cheptegei\u2019s disappointing 4th in the World Half-Marathon Champs<\/a> won\u2019t be held against him, but then again, in the T&FN<\/em> scheme of things he also won\u2019t get any extra credit for his road 5K WR. Our AOY protocol doesn\u2019t consider any off-track racing other than the full marathon.<\/p>\n

\n

Ryan Crouser<\/strong>
\nPros\u2014No other shot putter has ever had a season, marks-wise, to compare with the 27-year-old American, who made 74-foot throwing commonplace<\/a>\u2026 Overall, he had 13 such marks, compared to the previous high of just 4 by anybody else. The best of his 74-footers, 75-2 (22.91) moved him to =No. 2 on the all-time list\u2026 Furthering his domination, he had\u2014counting all throws in a series\u2014the year\u2019s 36 longest throws\u2026 Undefeated in 10 meets bettering 22m (72-2\u00bc) in 9 of them.<\/p>\n

Cons\u2014Didn\u2019t break the WR?<\/p>\n

\n

Mondo Duplantis<\/strong>
\nPros\u2014The 20-year-old Swede twice raised the absolute WR with indoor vaults<\/a> of 20-2\u00be (6.17) and 20-3\u00bc (6.18)\u2026 Also claimed the outdoor best<\/a> with his 20-2 (6.15), taking down Sergey Bubka\u2019s 26-year-old mark\u2026 In a long and busy season, won all 16 of his meets, 10 of them over the 6m (19-8\u00bc) barrier\u2026 Went 8-for-8 against arch-rival Sam Kendricks.<\/p>\n

Cons\u2014In U.S. terms, the Louisiana native couldn\u2019t celebrate his records by buying himself a beer until November 10 (coincidentally, the day this column was written).<\/p>\n

\n

Johannes Vetter<\/strong>
\nPros\u2014The 27-year-old German javelin thrower moved to No. 2 on the all-time world list<\/a> with his 320-9 (97.76)\u2026 He also threw 311-2 (94.84) in that meet for the No. 6 performance ever\u2026 He became only the second man\u2014behind WR holder Jan \u017delezn\u00fd\u2014to break the 310-foot, 320-foot and 95-meter barriers\u2026 Had the year\u2019s 3 farthest meets, plus 5 of 6, 6 of 8 and 7 of 10.<\/p>\n

Cons\u2014He blotched what would have been an undefeated season by fouling out in his first meet of the year before winning 9 straight.<\/p>\n

\n

Karsten Warholm<\/strong>
\nPros\u2014His 46.87 in the 400H gave Kevin Young\u2019s venerable WR of 46.78 its biggest scare yet<\/a> and ended up with all-time performances 2, 8, 9 & =10\u2026 Undefeated in 6 meets, had the best sequence of marks ever: 47.10, 46.87, 47.62, 47.08, 47.07, 48.23\u2026 Became the first man ever to break 47.10 more than once in a season and did it three times\u2026 The 24-year-old Norwegian also ended up as No. 3 on the yearly flat 400 list at 45.05.<\/p>\n

Cons\u2014Not his fault, but didn\u2019t meet the other 2 WR chasers, Rai Benjamin and Abderrahmane Samba (neither of whom ran the event).<\/p>\n

Not a factor\u2014His \u201cWR\u201d for the rarely run 300H<\/a>, which isn\u2019t part of our selection criteria.<\/p>\n

So in a nutshell, there\u2019s a Fab 5 for you. Which ones would win the 3 spots on your podium for the year?<\/p>\n

The envelope please\u2026 \u25fb\ufe0e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEXT MONTH\u2019S ISSUE, our popular Annual Edition, will as always ID the world\u2019s top athletes in various categories. In many… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":13524,"menu_order":2381,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"issuem_issue":[853],"issuem_issue_categories":[52,31],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"class_list":["post-58695","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-november-december-2020","issuem_issue_categories-departments","issuem_issue_categories-from-the-editor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFROM THE EDITOR \u2014 Who Makes This Year\u2019s Men\u2019s Podium? - Track & Field News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/trackandfieldnews.com\/article\/from-the-editor-who-makes-this-years-mens-podium\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FROM THE EDITOR \u2014 Who Makes This Year\u2019s Men\u2019s Podium? - Track & Field News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NEXT MONTH\u2019S ISSUE, our popular Annual Edition, will as always ID the world\u2019s top athletes in various categories. 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