by Deji Ogeyingbo
We have been looking for Deji Ogeyingbo’s Top 10 Male stand out performances, and here you go!
Top 10 male stand-out performances from the outdoor season in 2022 (10-6)
Over the course of the last two weeks, we started a series in which we ranked some of the top performances by female athletes in the outgoing Track and field season, taking into account varying degrees of factors like the competition ranking, ranking points of the athletes in the race/event and how much influence it had on the athletics world.
Having done that of the female, we would start our two-series countdown on the top men’s performance in the 2022 season.
10. Devon Allen (Beat Grant Holloway in the men’s 110mH at the New York Grand Prix)
How do you beat a supremely talented sprint hurdler like Grant Holloway? Prior to the New York Grand Prix in May, the World Champion had cantered to all his races in the indoor track season, and it would take a huge fall for him to get usurped. Maybe Olympic Champion Hansle Parchment could have posed a threat, but he was still trying to find his rhythm at that point.
Enter Devon Allen. The 27-year-old had missed out on an Olympic podium in Tokyo and was in to prove a point before he switched to a National Football League career with the Philadelphia Eagles.
However, Allen’s performance at the Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island gave a lot of track followers reasons to make him stick to the sport. Making the most of a helpful tailwind of 1.6 m/s, Allen finished well clear of the Holloway, moving up to third place on the all-time 110m hurdles list as he clocked 12.84s.
Holloway, second on the all-time list with 12.81, just 0.01 off the world record set by Aries Merritt of the United States in 2012, could only clock 13.06, with Daniel Roberts third on 13.17. Allen’s performance was made all the more remarkable given that he has been juggling track-and-field commitments with off-season training with his Philadelphia Eagles teammates.
Allen said he had thought a fast time was on the cards after recent results in training. Only two men; Holloway (12.81) and world record holder Aries Merritt (12.80) — have finished faster over the distance.
9. Ferdinand Omanyala (Beat Akani Simbine by three thousand of a second at the African Championships in Mauritius)
When Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala broke the African Record over the 100m at the Kip Keino classic in Nairobi in 2021, it ushered a new dawn for the African sprinter. The man whom he snagged the record from, Simbine, surely would not have seen it coming, but the South African would have made it his mandate to usurp the rising Kenyan in 2022.
It made their impending duel at the African Championships in Mauritius in June all the more tantalizing. The outcome was that one viewers who witnessed it would savor it for a lifetime. Simbine put his title on the line after he won it in Asaba in 2018, while Omanyala needed to establish his credentials on the African Scene as the best sprinter.
After going through the rounds with minimal fuss, the final race was keenly contested between both sprinters, with very little to separate them. It went down to the wire, literally.
They waited with bated breath. Eyes fixed on the screen, hugging and smiling, knowing they had given their all. The fans in the stadium could feel it. It took almost seven minutes, and it eventually popped up. Both sprinters ran an identical 9.93s, with Omanyala taking it by three-thousandths of a second (0.003s) in a windy 4.5 m/s.
This was a pointer to how much rivalry in the sport is good for pure spectacle and the sporting prowess of both sprinters.
8. Soufiane El Bakkali (Beat Lamecha Girma in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase at the Rabat Diamond League)
In all of Soufiane El Bakkali’s dominance of the men’s 3000m Steeple Chase in the last two years, only one man has come close to usurping him anytime they lock horns. Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma had been lurking for a while and hoping to take a tilt at the throne occupied by the Moroccan for a while, and their meeting in Rabat in June took that duel a notch higher.
Their meeting in Rabat at the Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah was the second time they were going to lock horns against each other after their meeting in Doha a few days back. It was nip and tuck between both runners, but El Bakkali tracked Girma all the way in the race before choosing his moment, always appearing in control of his fortunes to win in a meeting record and world lead of 7:58.28.
Girma also dipped under eight minutes, clocking 7:59.24, with his compatriot Hailemariyam Tegegn, who had kept in touch with the two leaders until the final lap, third in a personal best of 8:06.29. It remained the fastest steeplechase race in 2022.
7. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Men’s 5000m final at the World Championships)
Of all the major victories for running prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen, his 5000m triumph at this year’s World Championships surely stands tall amongst them. After being upset in the 1500m by Jake Wightman and still yet to snag an outdoor world title, the Norwegian went hammer and tongs in the men’s 5000m final.
In what was a star-studded cast, Ingebrigtsen had to overcome the might of so many established stars, including world record-holder Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei.
But buoyed by the Hayward Field crowd, the Norwegian made his way to the front of the leading pack at the bell. As the pack strung out and the finalists started to unleash their finishing kick, Ingebrigtsen held off all of them, kicking for home from a dominant position to win gold in 13:09.24.
What made the win all the more special was that the Norwegian could even afford to take a couple of last looks behind him before flashing a ‘No.1’ gesture to the fans on the home stretch. It was a beauty to watch.
6. Anderson Peters (Stockholm Diamond League battle with Neeraj Chopra in the Javelin)
If there was any big takeaway from this year’s Javelin competitions, it indeed has to be the rivalry between Granada’s Anderson Peters and India’s Neeraj Chopra. The latter had the better of Peters in their first two match-ups of the season in Finland, but Peters was on a mission to lay down the gauntlet ahead of the world championships.
It made their match-up at the Stockholm Diamond League tastier. In the end, Peters threw 90.31m, breaking the previous mark of 89.78m set by Norway’s Andreas Thorkildsen in 2006.
In winning, the Grenadian had to overcome a national record and personal best mark by India’s Chopra, 89.94m, which was his opening throw. Julian Weber was third with his fifth-round mark of 89.08m.
What did you make of our list so far? Watch out for the concluding part of the list (5-1) next week.
