Athletics: The 5 best women performances in 2024

The year 2024 ended with loads of incredible performances that set new benchmarks for some events and won Olympic gold medals for others.

Some athletes have been shortlisted in the athletes of the year award on the strength of their performances while some others have become subjects of discussions in athletics circuit due to the incredulity of these performances

Today, Sportsnow.com.ng takes a look at the five greatest performances by the women in the 2024 calendar year using the World Athletics Scoring Tables of Athletics.

1. Ruth Chepngetich (Marathon,2:09:58)

When Chepngetich smashed the women’s marathon record at the Chicago Marathon in October 2024 with an incredible 2:09:56 to become the first woman to run inside 2:10 in the 42.195km race, the while world got talking, especially those who recognized the significance of such a performance.

Some, especially those from the western world, always quick to cast doubt on any eye-catching performances by African athletes, say the Kenyan could not have achieved the feat without the help of some prohibited substances or methods.

Chepngetich’s time is officially the greatest performance by a woman in 2024 and the third best of all time with 1339 points. This means it is a better performance when compared to the 10.49 (1314 points) Florence Griffith-Joyner (Flo Jo) ran to win Olympic gold in the 100m at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Galina CHISTYAKOVA’s 7.52m in the long jump (1333 points) or even Jackie Joyner-Kersee’s 7291 points garnered in the Heptathlon.

It is only bettered by Gabriele Reinsch’s 76.80m effort in the Discuss throw (1383 points) and Natalya Lisovskaya’s 22.63m effort in the Shot Put (1372 points)

2. Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone (400m Hurdles, 50.37)

Sydney has been in the news since 2021 when she broke 52 seconds to win the Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles in Tokyo, Japan with a 51.46 performance. The American took running over the hurdles in a full lap race to another level the following year when she made history as the first woman to break 51 seconds in the event, running an incredible 50.68 to sweep to gold at the Worlds in Oregon. The performance proved decisive in the race for World Athletics Athletes of the Year award.

A repeat performance was thought unthinkable, but the 25-year-old made it look easy with an incredulous 50.37 run..one of the top 10 performances ever in track and field history.

3. Yaroslava Mahuchikh (High Jump, 2.10m)
Mahuchikh’s performance on the eve of the Paris 2024 Olympics was the greatest performance by a woman in the world before the Paris 2024 Olympics as she broke a long-standing record of 2.09m set by Stefka Kostadinova at the Olympic stadium in Rome, Italy in 1987. The 2.10m height she cleared ended up as the third performance by a woman in 2024.

4. Yaimé Perez (Discus throw, 73.09m)
Perez, the Cuban, threw 73.09 in April 2024 but never got to repeat it again. A repeat would have fetched her the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics if she had competed. The performance was however enough to make the top five best performances in 2024.

5.Agnes Jebet Ngetich (10km, 28:46)
Ngetich started 2024 with a bang with the 10km world record she set in January in Valencia, Spain. The time, 28:46, instantly made her the top performer, as it were, of the year. It remained the greatest performance of 2024 until May when Yaime Perez threw 73.09m in the Discus throw.

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