Road to the Final 2023: Jumps

Reigning Diamond League champion Miltiadis Tentoglou eventually came out on top of the qualification standings in the men's long jump, but it wasn't an easy ride for the Greek superstar. After opening his campaign with a win in Paris, Tentoglou suffered defeats to Simon Ehammer and LaQuan Nairn in Oslo and Lausanne, before ultimately battling back to finish on a win in Zurich. The current world and Olympic champion goes into Eugene as the favourite, but a favourite who will be very much looking over his shoulder as he bids to win a second successive title. 

It was also a challenging year for fellow Diamond League champion Ivana Vuleta, who had to wait almost the whole season to get the first win of her title defence in the women's event. In the early summer, Vuleta was very much in the shadow of an in-form Larissa Iapichino, who rampaged to three successive wins in Florence, Stockholm and Monaco. Iapichino's star faded in the latter half of the season, as Quanesha Burks took eight points in London and Vuleta finally got her victory with a meeting record in Zurich. 

Yulimar Rojas started her title defence relatively late this year, with the Venezuelan missing the opening competition in Rabat and only hitting the circuit in Oslo in mid-June. The world record holder wasted no time getting points on the board, however. A solid win in Norway was followed by a meeting record and world lead of 15.18m in Silesia and a brilliant 15.15m in Zurich. In Brussels last week, Jamaican rival Shanieka Ricketts joined in on the 15-metre fun with a personal best of 15.01m. But it is Rojas who rides into Eugene as the favourite, and the Venezuelan will be confident she can claim a third successive title at Hayward Field. 

Andy Diaz had a disappointing year from the point of view of the World Championships. The Italian was unable to compete in Budapest after only just completing an allegiance switch from Cuba earlier in the year. Yet what he missed out on in Hungary, Diaz more than made up for in the Diamond League, leaping to victories in Florence and Xiamen to become the only man with more than one win on the circuit this year. Burkina Faso's world champion Hugues Fabrice Zango, however, will also fancy his chances in Eugene after he topped the standings thanks to a win in Monaco and second-place finishes in all the three other competitions. 

After narrowly missing out on glory at last year's Diamond League Final in Zurich, US high jumper Juvaughn Harrison looked like a man on a mission as he notched up early wins in Doha and Florence. Yet the high jump remains one of the most fiercely contested disciplines in 2023, and while Harrison grabbed another win in London, Hamish Kerr's victory in Stockholm and a mid-season surge from Mutaz Barshim ensured the American did not manage to dominate entirely. Barshim's world lead and meeting record of 2.36m in Silesia was the standout performance in a year full of twists and turns. 

It was equally competitive in the women's high jump, where reigning champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh faced a fierce challenge from her compatriot Iryna Gerashchenko and Australian rival Nicola Olyslagers. Mahuchikh opened with a win in Rabat, but had to wait until Xiamen in September to claim her second victory as Olyslagers dominated the mid-season with three wins in Paris, Lausanne and Monaco, equalling the Oceania record of 2.02m as she did so. Gerashchenko also picked up a win in Silesia, but with Mahuchikh hitting the two-metre mark comfortably in Xiamen and Brussels, there is still a clear favourite in the final. 

The story of the season in the pole vault came in the women's final in Budapest, where Olympic champion Katie Moon and Diamond League champion Nina Kennedy shared the gold medal after tying at 4.90m. Moon and Kennedy also dominated the Diamond League circuit, picking up five wins between them in six competitions over the season. The most thrilling battle came just after the world championships at Weltklasse Zurich, where title holder Kennedy set a new personal best of 4.91m to just edge her fellow world champion and head into the final on a high. 

By his own absurdly high standards, it was not a vintage year results-wise for world record holder and Diamond League champion Mondo Duplantis.The Swede sailed over six metres in five of six competitins and set a new meeting record of 6.10m in Brussels last week, but also slumped to a surprise defeat in Monaco and failed to improve on any others of his myriad records. Yet the results don't tell the full story, with Duplantis coming agonisngly close to a new world record of 6.23m in both Zurich and Brussels in the last few weeks. He is in fine form going into Eugene, and will be determined to take one more shot at a new historic high.