A thread to discuss all things athletics related such as events, debates and news and anything to with the world of athletics in 2026.

Athletics Calendar:

https://worldathletics.org/competition/calendar-

We're in the 'down' year this year where there isn't a World Championships or an Olympic Games. So I guess the biggest action will be seeing how many more times Armand Duplantis can break the Pole Vault world record by a centimetre!

Eilish McColgan set a women's European 10km record in Valencia - seven days after her previous record was broken.

The 35-year-old Briton knocked three seconds off Jana van Lent's time as she finished eighth in the women's race at the Valencia Ibercaja in 30 minutes seven seconds.

McColgan held the record for more than three years after setting a time of 30:19 in Manchester in 2022, but that was lowered to 30:10 by Belgian Van Lent in Nice on 4 January.

Before that, GB's Paula Radcliffe held the record for almost 20 years after running 30:21 in Puerto Rico in 2003.

Benard Kibet Koech has been banned and disqualified by the Athletics Integrity Unit.

The Kenyan's ban lasts four years from June 10 2025 after the AIU found abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport (ABP).

His result from the Paris 2024 Olympic 10,000m final, where he finished 5th, has been disqualified.

Three athletes who were led off course when leading the US half marathon championship will receive compensation after ultimately finishing well outside the top three.

Organisers of the event in Atlanta said that police assigned to mark out the route had to respond to an emergency call, which led to confusion from the lead vehicle.

Jess McClain, who was comfortably leading the women's race, was taken off the main course, along with her closest challengers Ednah Kurgat and Emma Hurley.

The race was won by Molly Born, who had been more than a minute behind, while McClain finished ninth, with Hurley coming 12th and Kurgat in 13th.

Great to see Great Britain win three gold medals in half an hour today at the World Indoor Championships. Georgia Hunter Bell, Molly Caudery and Keely Hodgkinson have added to Josh Kerr's gold medal from yesterday.

Olympic champion Sifan Hassan has withdrawn from April's London Marathon because of an Achilles injury.

The Dutch athlete, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics in a Games record time, sustained the injury when training on a treadmill six weeks ago.

She hoped to recover in time to race in London but has accepted defeat.

"To compete at that level, you need to be in perfect condition," said Hassan, who won the women's race at the 2023 London Marathon.

"After the incident, I hoped the injury would settle, but as training progressed it became clear that I wasn't able to prepare at the level I expect from myself.

"I have to listen to my body and focus on recovering properly."

Hassan, 33, is one of the most decorated long-distance runners in history, having also won gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

With her subsequent success in 2024, the Ethiopia-born athlete became the first woman to win Olympic golds over 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon.

The 2026 edition of the London Marathon takes place on Sunday, 26 April.

The Diamond League series is underway! Just started watching the most recent one in Milan - great result for Molly Caudery in the Pole Vault getting the win there! And Emma Zapaletalova seems to be going from strength to strength in the hurdles after her medal in the World Championships last year.

And in other news which I missed earlier in the year - World Athletics have seen sense and decided to reject Turkey's attempt to 'recruit' 11 elite athletes from other countries: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/articles/c3ex2717742o

Lawrence Okoye throws 68.81m in the men's discus at the UK Champs in Birmingham to break the championship record.

Okoye beat the 65.93m that he set at these championships 12 months ago.

Kibiwott Kandie has received a seven-year ban by the Athletics Integrity Unit after admitting to refusing a sample collection and tampering with the doping control process

The former half-marathon world record-holder ran 57:32 in 2020 and sits No.3 on the world all-time rankings behind Jacob Kiplimo and Yomif Kejelcha.

Kandie faced an eight year sanction but cooperated with officials and received a one year reduction.

The Kenyan is a three-time Valencia Half Marathon champion in 2020, 2022 and 2023 and Commonwealth Games (10,000m) bronze medallist in 2022.