Budapest 2023: 5 heartbreaking moments at the World Championships so far

The 2023 World Championships in Budapest has lived up to the hype of being one of the best sporting events in the world this year.

From Day 1 of the championship to its sixth day, Budapest has delivered thrilling, record-breaking, and heartbreaking moments that served athletics enthusiasts around the world with evergreen memories in the championship history.

Here are 5 heartbreaking moments at the World Championships in Budapest so far.

The mixed 4x400m final had a dramatic finish witnessing Team USA snatch the win in a new World Record of 3:08.80m.

Alexis Holmes of the USA ran a fantastic anchor leg, and her pressure on Netherlands track star Femke Bol in the last 50m paid off, as the Dutch speedster lost her footing and fell to the ground, handing USA the historic win.

It was a double heartbreak for the Netherlands on Day 1 after Sifan Hassan, who was poised for the gold medal, took a hard fall in the last 50m, allowing Gudaf Tsegay to become the World 10000m Champion.

The Ethiopian won in 31:27.18, leading a 1-2-3 for her country ahead of Letesenbet Gidey in 31:28.16 and Ejgayehu Taye in 31:28.31.

South Africa's Akani Simbine's heartbreaks at the World Championships continued after a false start in his 100m semis disqualified him from competing further in the event.

Simbine has a series of letdowns at major championships as he always finished outside the medal zone but within the top five, which made him not have an Olympics or World Championships medal in his name.

Budapest was even more heartbreaking for the African sprint legend as pundits predicted he was in good form to win a medal.

More painful was Botswana's youngster Letsile Tebogo saying he would have offered his medal to Simbine, after becoming Africa's first world medallist in the men's 100m with a silver medal in the final.

In his post-race interview, Tebogo said: "I will trade my position for Akani to be here. He deserves it."

The Ivorian track legend was on an unbeaten run heading to Budapest with some of the top fastest times this season.

Unfortunately, in the final, Ta Lou settled for fourth-place position behind world champion Sha'Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson with silver, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking the bronze medal.

Since winning silver at the 2017 London Championships, which she lost via photo finish to late Tori Bowie, Ta Lou has placed 5th (Doha 2019), fourth (Oregon 2019), and now fourth in Budapest.

Jamaica's young triple jump record holder Jaydon Hibbert, broke the hearts of Jamaicans and athletics lovers when he sustained a hamstring injury on his first attempt in the triple jump final.

Hibbert was the favourite to win the title as he was in Budapest with a world-leading distance of 17.87m. To phantom how heartbreaking his injury in the final was, the 18-year-old's mark of 17.70m in his qualifying round surpassed Fabrice Zango's gold medal-winning performance of 16.67m.

The injury definitely stopped athletics fans from perhaps witnessing jaw-dropping, historic performance in the final.

These painful moments have been some of the highlights in Budapest so far. Hopefully, there won't be more at the end of the championship.