From Eilish McColgan being trolled to Andrew Osagie’s London 2012 memories, here are the articles that got the most clicks on our website during the past 12 months
During 2022 athletics fans from all over the world clicked into the articles on our website. From Australia to Azerbaijan, Malaysia to Mozambique, Zambia to Zimbabwe, you viewed our news stories, interviews, blogs, previews, events coverage and training articles.
But which were the most popular articles according to views? Here is the top 12…
1 Eilish McColgan – I will get trolled but I don’t care, as I’m here to run
In an exclusive interview with AW, McColgan bit back at the critics on social media, saying: “Mo Farah weighs less than me as a grown man but nobody says anything about that because it’s a man and often men are just celebrated for their achievements. For women, it’s about the way we look or my form is seen as being horrific or I need to get that checked and I need to get this fixed and look like this.
“It’s always to do with appearance rather than going ‘Congratulations. That was a great run’. I’m not the only woman that has to deal with that. I think that that’s just pretty much females in sport. It’s always deemed to be about what we look like, rather than what we’re actually doing.”
2 Jacob Fincham-Dukes denied long jump silver
The British athlete appeared to have leapt 8.06m at the European Championships with his opening effort – a distance which was the same as Swede Thobias Montler and Frenchman Jules Pommery – but was awarded second spot on countback. He even went through his lap of honour, draped in the Union flag, only to be told of a French protest due to his foot being marginally over the line – and that his best jump had been ruled a foul and that he had been moved down to fifth.
Jacob-Fincham-Dukes (Getty)
3 Ato Boldon on super spikes, Flo-Jo’s world record and the first time he saw Usain Bolt
As part of our ‘Ask the Athlete’ series, you got the opportunity to ask questions to the former world and Commonwealth sprint champion who is still a close observer of athletics as a broadcaster.
4 Melissa Courtney-Bryant sets parkrun ‘world record’
Not only did this end-of-year news story garner a huge number of clicks but it generated lots of debate on social media with people criticising the use of the phrase ‘world record’ in the headline and others being more relaxed and simply applauding the athlete’s superb 15:31 run in Poole. (Stop press: the record fell on New Year’s Eve too!).
5 Ellis Cross takes down Mo Farah
In one of the upsets of the year, Ellis Cross out-kicked Mo Farah to win the Vitality London 10,000. As a mere ‘club runner’ he even had to pay his own entry fee of £37 before defeating the multiple world and Olympic track champion.
Ellis Cross (Mark Shearman)
6 Fastest and slowest parkruns in 2022
A perennial favourite, this story – which is assisted from stats from Tim Grose at Power of 10 – showed Victoria Dock to be the ‘fastest’ parkrun event in the country with Great Yarmouth North Beach being the toughest.
7 Shericka Jackson destroys stellar 200m field in Rome
A number of event previews or reports relating to the leading female sprinters on the planet placed prominently in our list of leading stories. But the No.1 was the coverage of Shericka Jackson clocking 21.91 for 200m in Rome to beat Elaine Thompson-Herah, Dina Asher-Smith and Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
Shericka Jackson wins in Rome (Getty)
8 The art of middle-distance running
Every athlete wants to know how to improve, so our training articles are often popular. This one featured Andy Young, the coach of Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie among others, passing on his advice on how to run 800m to 3000m.
9 Andrew Osagie on the greatest 800m in history
Ten years after the London Olympics, the British middle-distance man looked back on his proud moment of running a 1:43.77 PB in an Olympic final that saw a 1:40.91 world record from David Rudisha. “I was on the crest of a really positive wave,” Osagie remembered. “I was happy, content and confident.”
Andrew Osagie and David Rudisha (Getty)
10 Lashmanova stripped of Olympic and world titles
Doping stories often rank high on the list of most popular stories and this one focused on Elena Lashmanova, the Russian race walker who won the women’s 20km walk at the London 2012 Olympics and the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, who was banned for two years and had those global titles from 2012 and 2013 taken away.
11 Ben Gregory in coma after road accident
The news that the three-time Commonwealth Games decathlon competitor had been involved in a life-threatening road accident sent shockwaves through the sport. We ran this original story in August but as 2022 draws to a close we’re happy to say there has been a positive update this month.
Ben Gregory (Mark Shearman)
12 World Champs women’s previews
Our comprehensive look ahead to the action in Eugene, with leading contenders in each event plus our medal predictions, proved popular. Generally in 2022 our previews for women’s events gained more clicks than those for men’s disciplines too.
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