The women's 400m semifinals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (© AFP / Getty Images)
The World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 is off and running. And jumping. And throwing...
Here are five expected highlights on the second day of action in the Stark Arena.
Hey – it’s Shaunae against Femke
Two of the world’s finest athletics talents are due to converge today in the women’s 400m. Two-time Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo, despite having had no indoor practice this year, has turned up looking in serious shape as she seeks another world indoor medal to add to her bronze from the 2014 edition. Ideally golden.
The main force acting against that outcome is in the form of the 21-year-old Dutch athlete Femke Bol, the Tokyo Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist, whose 400m flat form has been increasingly awesome in the space of the last year. Her indoor best of 50.30, set on the home track of Apeldoorn last month, puts her 12th on the all-time list, just three places behind Miller-Uibo’s 50.21.
That said. Bol’s fall over the line to qualify for the final behind Jamaica’s Stephenie Ann McPherson, straining to win, cast an interesting sidelight on the forthcoming race.
“My legs just went,” she said. “I’m just not used to being pushed at the end.”
Crouser’s latest global challenge
Asked about the last World Championships he was involved in, three years ago in Doha, the Olympic shot put champion and world record-holder Ryan Crouser sportingly acclaimed the fact that he was part of the greatest contest yet witnessed in his event – a contest where he raised his personal best to 22.90m, beating defending champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand on countback. And losing gold by a centimetre to his buddy Joe Kovacs.
The latter is absent from the men's shot put in Belgrade, but all the other major players are present. In the meantime, however, Crouser has retained his Olympic title in Tokyo and improved his world outdoor record to 23.37m and his world indoor record to 22.82m. What will Crouser produce next?
A global gold for Mahuchikh?
At the age of 20, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh – one of a team of six athletes selected by her beleaguered country – has Olympic bronze, world silver and European indoor gold. Now a global gold in the women's high jump in Belgrade beckons.
In the circumstances, it would be a highly emotive victory. But don’t think it will be a formality. Not with the presence of Australia’s Eleanor Patterson, who won the Commonwealth Games in 2014 aged 18, failed to make the home Commonwealth Games in 2018, dropped out of the sport for a year, dropped back in again and heads this season’s world list with a 1.99m clearance in Banka Bystrika last month. There, Mahuchikh was second on 1.96m.
Jacobs and Coleman on sprint collision course
Italy’s surprise Olympic 100m champion, Marcell Jacobs, shuts up shop straight after Tokyo, then reappears in the 2022 indoor season talking about his ambitions to win the men’s 60m title at the World Indoors (and the 100m at the European Championships and World Athletics Championships Oregon22).
Watching his progress in today's heats, semifinals and final – assuming it all goes to plan – will be a must. Particularly as, at some point, he is due to come up against the defending champion and world record-holder with 6.34, Christian Coleman of the United States.
Jacobs says he wants to try and hang on to Coleman’s start and maybe dip his head over the line first. How will it turn out?
The ever-changin’ men’s 800m…
The men's 800m final was all set up to be another battle between the second fastest man indoors ever, Britain’s Elliot Giles, and the Kenyan with whom he has been jousting throughout the season so far, Collins Kipruto. But day one in Belgrade saw the Briton failing to take up his lane in the heats after pulling an intercostal muscle in warm-up, and the Kenyan then unravelled over the final 30 metres of his heat, failing to qualify.
When the dust settled after four heats where only the top two progressed, some familiar figures remained in contention – including Spain’s Mariano Garcia, who tops this season’s list with 1:45.12, and Bryce Hoppel of the United States, third on the world list. And there is a less familiar figure – 17-year-old Kenyan Noah Kibet, who whizzed clear of Hoppel to win his heat in the fastest time of the day, albeit 1:48.31. Interesting…
