Amazing world championships can't disperse the doping cloud

LONDON, Dec 17 : The perennial battle between adulation and scepticism summed up the year in athletics as fans were treated to some mind-blowing performances against the usual depressing backdrop of doping that leaves everyone unsure whether to clap or cry.

On the positive side, the blip caused by COVID meant the sport held a third world championships in four years and the 20th edition in Tokyo delivered an almost constant stream of brilliant performances and incredible finishes and delivered medals to 53 nations.

Sweden's Mondo Duplantis shone on the biggest stage again, setting his 14th pole vault world record in front of a spellbound 57,000 crowd and was duly crowned Male Athlete of the Year.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, having done all she could in the 400 metres hurdles, seamlessly switched to the flat and erased Jarmila Kratochvilova's 42-year-old championship record, earning the Female Athlete of the Year award as a result.

The U.S. also ruled the short sprints through the irrepressible Noah Lyles and calmly devastating triple champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden.

A succession of incredible finishes in longer races meant the combined winning margin of the men's 1,500m, 3,000m steeplechase, 10,000m and marathon was an astonishing 0.18 seconds.

While super-shoes and "energy-return" tracks make it ever-harder to judge many of these performances against history, in theory the infield presents a fairer barometer.

In Tokyo it delivered nightly drama, not least in the men's shot where American Ryan Crouser took an astonishing third world title having not thrown for a year due to an elbow injury.

Going one better, with a fourth 1,500m world title, was Kenyan Faith Kipyegon, who, with three Olympic golds and a world record in the