Through the lens of the non-championship year, 2018 seemed fast. There were the exploits in the 400m hurdles from Abderrahman Samba and Rai Benjamin, Shaunae Miller cracking 49 seconds in the 400m, Beatrice Chepkoech smashing the world record in the steeplechase, Caster Semenya’s 1:54 in the 800m and the parade of personal bests in the men’s 5000m at the Brussels Diamond League.

But how quick was this season? Did the above performances represent a larger trend of a fast “dead” year, or is par for the course? 

Since the season is all but wrapped up (Continental Cup coming this weekend) we can look back at how this off-year compared to the other years when there was no global championship. To do this, I compared the world leads in the running events in the seven non-champion years since the World Championships were moved to a biennial schedule.

Men

Women

A few takeaways:

-2018 was fast, but not extraordinarily so. There were two men’s events (400m/400m hurdles) and four women’s events (800m, 100m hurdles, 3000m steeplechase, 5000m) that were quicker than the other non-championship years. Some of those were obvious (Chepkoech in the steeple, Semenya in the 800m, Samba in the 400m hurdles), others were more surprising (men’s 400m, women’s 5000m). Some of the big 2018 performances didn't make the cut. Namely, the men's 5000m. As quick as the race was in Brussels with Selemon Barega running 12:43.02, it was outdone by Haile Gebrselassie’s run in 1998. 

-It’s common knowledge that the women’s steeplechase continues to take monumental leaps forward as an event. Still, it’s revealing to look at the numbers. Entering the year, the fastest “off-year” time was 9:10.64. There have been 26 performances faster than that in 2018.

-This was the slowest “off-year” for the men’s 10,000m. The women fared a bit better, but were far off the marks turned in during the 2002 and 2006 seasons. It turns out not having a major 10,000m during the summer really puts a damper on the prospect of fast times. 

-An all-time off-year 400m between Michael Norman, Jeremy Wariner and Michael Johnson would be fun. Norman ran 43.61 this year, Warnier posted a 43.62 in 2006 and Johnson put up a 43.68 in 1998. 

-1998 was quite the year for the men’s distance. Hicham El-Guerrouj broke the world record in 1500m (3:26.00) and Haile Gebrselassie set the world record in the 5000m (12:39.36) and 10,000m (26:22.76).