2023 IN REVIEW: AUGUST

World Athletics Championships, Budapest, Hungary

Great Britain opened their World Championships medal account in dramatic fashion, taking silver in the mixed 4x400m relay and breaking the British record for the second time in the same day, to set the tone for the rest of the Championships for the GB & NI squad.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Aston Moore, Liverpool) reclaimed her world heptathlon title and Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet) took a brilliant 100m bronze as the British team added to their World Athletics Championships medal tally in Budapest.

Johnson-Thompson capped an excellent weekend with her second personal best of the day, chasing home Anna Hall (USA) over 800m in 2:05.63 to reclaim the title she won in Doha in 2019.

Her final score of 6740 added 184 points onto her season’s best as she became only the second British woman in history to claim two world championship heptathlon titles.

Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr (Danny Mackey, Edinburgh) delivered another performance of a lifetime to claim the World Championship title in the men’s 1500m, keeping the crown firmly in British hands as he repeated the feat of a teammate from a year ago in leaving pre-race favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen trailing in his wake.

Just over a year on from Jake Wightman’s sensational global gold ahead of Ingebrigtsen in Eugene, Kerr went for the Norwegian with 200m to go in an exhilarating world men’s 1500m final and had a far superior kick in the final few metres as he won in a season’s best time of 3:29.38 minutes, 0.27 seconds ahead of the favourite.

Reigning European champion Matthew Hudson-Smith (coach: Gary Evans, club: Birchfield) added a silver medal to his rapidly growing individual global medal collection after a blistering run in the men’s 400m final.

More medal success came in the shape of Ben Pattison (Dave Ragan, Basingstoke and Mid Hants) who became the first man in 36 years to take a World Athletics Championship 800m medal while the women’s 4x100m quartet claimed bronze on a stellar night in Budapest.

Keely Hodgkinson (coach: Trevor Painter, club: Leigh) added another superb silver medal to her major medal collection on the final night in Budapest as brilliant bronze medals for both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay quartets powered the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team to their best World Athletics Championships to match the record medal haul from 1993.

European U20 Championships, Jerusalem, Israel

Joy Eze (Gateshead/Harrow) and Renee Regis produced a blistering European Under-20 Championships one-two in an enthralling women’s 100m final on the second night in Jerusalem as Sean Anyaogu’s (Ossai, BFT Track Academy) bronze ensured the British team got off the mark in fine style with three medals.

Charlie Carvell (Stewart Marshall, Telford) delivered a captain’s performance to claim 400m silver at the European U20 Championships as the British team won four medals on the penultimate night in Jerusalem with Bradley Giblin (Joe Pienta, Trafford), Success Eduan (Anita Richardson, Sale Harriers Manchester) and Michael Allison (Tom Dobbing, WSEH) all contributing bronzes to take the team tally to seven.

Captain Charlie Carvell, Jake Minshull, David Race and Sam Lunt ensured the European Under 20 Championships had a golden ending in Jerusalem as they combined to claim the men’s 4x400m title while Abigail Ives and the women’s 4x100m quartet added silvers as Great Britain & Northern Ireland ended with ten medals in total.

Challenge Stellina, Italy

Joe Steward (Salford) claimed his first major victory in mountain running as he won the men’s race for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the Challenge Stellina mountain race in Italy.