Athletics Worlds 2015: Kenya ascendant and other key facts

While Usain Bolt’s dramatic sprint victories were among the individual performances’ highlights, the continued ascendance of Kenya on the world’s athletics stage was the most remarkable fact in terms of national performance.

The East African country actually came top in the medals table ahead of the USA (see below) and, while they could only claim second place behind the USA in the GSN ranking, the manner of their performance clearly throws down the gauntlet for overall Athletics leadership.

 

Compared to Moscow 2013, Kenya were much closer to the US in terms of

- % share of the points: 12.7% (Kenya) vs 14.3% (USA) in Beijing, as opposed to     10.9% (Kenya) vs 18.3% (USA)

- number of point-scoring performances: 30 (Kenya) vs 47 (USA) in Beijing, as opposed to 26 (Kenya) to 58 (USA)

 

Kenya has won medals in non-running sports for the first time (Julius Yego’s gold in the Javelin) and have actually won the overall Men’s ranking, with 16.8% of the points, ahead of the USA with 14.4%.

If the Kenyan ladies (‘only’ fourth in the gender ranking, beaten by the USA, Jamaica and Ethiopia) will begin to show the same form as the men, Kenya will be hard to beat in the future.

 

Other key facts about the Athletics World Championships in Beijing:

- 3^rd placed Jamaica recorded their best performance of their last three         editions, with a 10.6% points share

- In comparing the medals’ table and the GSN ranking, the only       difference among countries is the presence of China (GSN) vs Cuba (medals), while there are only minor changes in position, save for Kenya and Jamaica finishing ahead of the USA in medals, among the other countries

 

 

- Two other countries were noticeable for their improvement: Great Britain in 4^th had their best result of the last four editions, and so did China in 6^th – with them in contention besides the USA, Russia and Germany, the fight for the three top spots at Rio 2016 promises to be tight

- 13 countries (in bold in the table below) have ranked consistently in the top 20 GSN places in the last four editions of the Athletics Worlds, Cuba and Trinidad & Tobago among them; the Ukraine and South Africa are the only other countries which appear in the top 20 in at least three out of the last four editions.