Gaborone or London? Three finishes in the running for Moment of the Year
By AthRecs Editorial · 2 min read
Botswana had one lap left in front of a home crowd. Josh Kerr had a 27-year-old mile record to beat. Sabastian Sawe had just gone through halfway outside the hour.
Which finish line would you have picked a seat beside? World Athletics has put three races on its first Moment of the Year shortlist. A fan vote narrowed the field. The winner will be announced in Monaco on 29 November. Here are the moments worth rewinding.
Gaborone, 3 May. The last baton change
Lee Bhekempilo Eppie took the opening lap of the men’s 4×400m in 44.26. Letsile Tebogo followed in 43.50 and Bayapo Ndori ran 43.62. That left one job for Busang Collen Kebinatshipi. He had to bring the baton home in the last event of a World Relays held in his own country.
His 43.09 anchor brought Botswana in at 2:54.47. South Africa finished six tenths later. Four men share the winning time, but watch the third change if you want to understand what a relay asks of them. Ndori has already spent his lap by the time he has to put the baton safely into the hand of a man accelerating away from him.
London, 18 July. Less than half a second
The men’s mile record had survived since 1999. At London Stadium, Josh Kerr went through 400m in about 55.3 seconds. That sounds impossibly quick until you do the arithmetic. He still had more than three quarters of a mile to run.
Kerr finished in 3:42.66, taking 0.47 seconds off the old mark. A child born the summer that 3:43.13 was set could have been 27 years old by the time it fell.
London, 26 April. The second half in 59:01
Sabastian Sawe reached halfway in 1:00:29. Double it and you get 2:00:58. He ran the second half in 59:01 instead, finishing in 1:59:30 for the first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race.
If you have ever reached halfway, looked down at your watch and had to think again, that is the part to replay. Even on the morning the two-hour barrier went, halfway told only half the story.
Quick answers
When is the 2026 World Athletics Moment of the Year announced?
World Athletics will announce the winner in Monaco on 29 November 2026.
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