Ivana Vuleta during training ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (© Getty Images)
As if we hadn’t already been treated to enough drama at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, get ready to see some more packed into the final day of action in the Stark Arena on Sunday (20)…
Can home hope Ivana trump the rest of the world?
It is just as well that they built a sturdy roof on the Stark Arena in Serbia’s capital city. Otherwise, the clamour at the home of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 might have threatened to lift it clean off at the final session.
Serbia’s track and field queen struck European indoor gold on home ground back in 2017. That was when she was known to the continent, and the world, as Ivana Spanovic.
Five years on, at the age of 31, Ivana Vuelta is looking to repeat the feat at a global level. She tops the women's long jump entry list with 6.88m and that form, together with some partisan Belgrade support, could fuel the multi major championship medal-winner’s bid to retain the title she claimed in Birmingham in 2018.
Mondo looks to plant a landmark vaulting flag
Less than a fortnight after raising the pole vault world record to 6.19m in the World Indoor Tour Silver meeting in the Stark Arena, Mondo Duplantis will be looking to nudge it to a landmark 6.20m in the men's pole vault at the closing session of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.
First things first, though. Due to the cruel ravages of Covid-19, the 22-year-old Swede still hasn’t added a world championship title to his upwardly mobile CV.
Runner up to Sam Kendricks at the outdoor World Championships in Doha in 2019, the future Olympic champion and three-time world record-breaker was still an U20 athlete when he made his world indoor debut in Birmingham four long years ago.
He cleared 5.70m to finish joint seventh. Greater heights beckon in Belgrade.
Golden boy Gimbo lines up another slam dunk
Last seen in public putting on some razzle-dazzle on a basketball court in Cleveland, Ohio, Gianmarco Tamberi returns to his day job in the men’s high jump final.
The joint Olympic champion stole the show at the NBA All Star Celebrity match, producing a stunning put-back slam dunk.
On the final day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, a gold medal performance from the Italian showman would be the equivalent of a clean slam dunk, Tamberi having made a last-minute decision to take a shot at retaining the title he won in Portland in 2016 after a spell of encouraging warm weather training in Mauritius.
Rojas avoids potential Ingebrigtsen clash
One of the trackside highlights of the 2021 outdoor season was watching the look of horror on the face of Yulimar Rojas as the newly-crowned Olympic triple jump champion and world record-holder leapt out of the pit and on to the track at the Diamond League fixture in Lausanne, coming perilously close to taking out Jakob Ingebrigtsen on the backstraight in the 3000m.
It was an instinctive reaction to the livewire Venezualan thinking she might have bettered her 15.67m world record. Mistakenly, as it transpired.
Thanks to the schedulers of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, there will be no danger of a potential clash on the final day of action in the Stark Arena. Rojas will be going for an unprecedented hat-trick of titles in the women's triple jump during the morning session while Ingebrigtsen starts as the man to beat in the 1500m in the evening.
Holloway taking nothing for granted
Grant Holloway was a slip of a 16-year-old when he last tasted defeat in a 60m hurdles race. That was eight long years ago.
The 24-year-old world indoor record-holder (with 7.29) and world outdoor 110m hurdles champion has been a class apart on the boards this season but will be taking nothing for granted in the men's 60m hurdles after missing out on Olympic gold to Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment in Tokyo seven months ago.
