Letter from Budapest: Rarely if ever has there been so much talk of potential track doubles

There is a long and short history of taking on too much at the World Athletics Championships. Or at least too much too soon.

The danger of hitting the ground running and then running on empty by the end (think Seville, 1999). The risk of all interest being over even with several pricey hotel-room nights to go (think Osaka 2007). That chance of getting swept away in the excitement and hardly being able to function whatsoever by the end (think Berlin 2009).

Someone clearly hasn’t warned the athletes. Because rarely if ever in the now 19 editions of these Championships has there been so much talk of potential track doubles as here in Budapest. Or indeed that crazy track treble.

There’s a good chance some of them might well come off over the coming nine days. Indeed, no one around here is betting against Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Faith Kipyegon both winning a 1,500m-5,000m double, arguably the most difficult of the lot. Although it would be a first for both.

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Part of the blame lies with Carl Lewis and Mary Decker and definitely Jarmila Kratochvílova. At the first World Championships in Helsinki, 40 years ago already, Lewis set the trend by winning a 100m-long jump double, before adding the 4x100m relay gold with the US, a then world record of 37.86 seconds to boot (breaking the 38.03 mark which had stood since 1977).

Decker’s middle-distance double was just as impressive, the then 3,000m first, followed four days later by a breathtaking win in the 1,500m (who could forget that desperate duck and dive for the finish line with Zamira Zaitseva from the old USSR).

Somewhere in between that came Kratochvílova, from the former Czechoslovakia, who won a women’s 400m-800m double which looks insanely more impossible now than it did back in 1983.

She faced the fearsome seven-race schedule in four days. On the Sunday, she eased through her heats (2:12.35 and 52.42), then on the Monday ran a 52.40 quarter-final and a 1:59.58 semi-final. Crunch day was the Tuesday, when she won her 400m semi-final in 51.08, then the World 800m title in 1:54.68 – all within the space of 35 minutes.

Could she possibly recover for the 400m final on the Wednesday? Oh yes, winning in a then world record of 47.99 seconds, the first sub-48 win in women’s history. Kratochvílova, not just judging by her physical presence, was clearly up for that task.

Still no man or woman has ever completed the World Championship treble which Sifan Hassan is attempting in Budapest over the coming nine days; the 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m.

The first question she was asked is why on earth three, and not just two?

[ Taking on the world: The 24 Irish athletes competing at the World Championships in Budapest ]

“The last time I competed in all three distances was at the Olympics in Tokyo,” she said. “I want to see if I can do it again, because the challenge of running three distances fuels me.”

In Tokyo, two years ago, Hasson won 5,000m and 10,000m gold, and 1,500m bronze. Trying that again, less than four months after winning the London Marathon in outlandish fashion and on her debut, wouldn’t enter the head of too many athletes; then again the Dutch runner has often been politely referred to as Sifan-Insane.

That means running the 1,500m heats at lunchtime on Saturday, followed by the 10,000m final later in the evening. Her six races in Tokyo, including heats and finals, spanned nine days at the Olympics; here in Budapest they span only eight days.

Not that winning only two gold medals in Tokyo was in any way a failure. She became only the second woman to earn a medal in three individual track races at one Olympics, the other was also a Dutchwoman, Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won the 100m, 200m and 80m hurdles at the 1948 London Games.

There’s the usual loud talk about sprint doubles in Budapest, Noah Lyles from the US making it clear to anyone still willing to listen that no one is going to beat him in the 100m or the 200m, and he might well be right.

As for Ingebrigtsen and Kipyegon, there’s nothing to suggest they won’t leave Budapest with two gold medals, both starting on Saturday too with their 1,500m heats.

Ingebrigtsen’s average winning time in his last three 1,500m races is 3:27.94, a time only five other men have ever eclipsed.

Still, twice in the course of 2022, the 22-year-old Norwegian was undone in his pursuit of a first world 1,500m title. At the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, he was beaten by the finishing speed of Samuel Tefera from Ethiopian (and the lingering effects of Covid). Then, at the outdoor World Championships in Oregon, he was derailed by Jake Wightman’s magnificent finishing kick.

“With the 1,500m being my main event, I wasn’t satisfied with the two silver medals in 2022,” Ingebrigtsen famously said. “I would love to become a world champion in my event.”

Indeed defending his 5,000m title may prove a little trickier: assuming he makes the final, that will be his fifth race of the nine days. Ethiopia’s 22-year-old Berihu Aregawi has run 12:40.45, the fastest performance in the world this year, and I wouldn’t fancy him breathing down my shoulder after 12 laps.

For Kipyegon, who smashed both the 1,500m and 5,000m world records on consecutive Fridays in June (her first 5,000m since 2015) that sort of double is also a lot easier said than done. If she does pull it off she’ll become the first woman in athletics history to complete it, at either World or Olympic level.

Which is something she may or may not have already been warned about.