Noah Lyles in training in Glasgow (© Dan Vernon)
Get set, as the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 kicks off on Friday (1) with an action-packed programme.
World record-breakers and global champions are among those taking to the track and field. Here are five expected highlights.
The first final
The first final of the championships – the women’s shot put – takes place during Friday’s morning session.
Chase Jackson (nee Ealey) of the United States has won successive world outdoor titles and has every reason to believe she can upgrade the world indoor silver she won two years ago in Belgrade. But Canada’s world silver medallist Sarah Mitton is unbeaten this year. And Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands leads this year’s world list with a personal best of 20.31m.
Let battle commence…
Mahuchikh aims high
Since Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh earned her first global title in the women’s high jump at the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, she has gone on to secure a first world outdoor gold, and she leads this year’s world list with her opening effort of 2.04m.
The 22-year-old’s defence of her title will be far from certain, however, given the presence of Australia’s Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers, who began her own season with a personal best of 2.03m.
High drama ahead.
Can Crouser capture indoor crown?
Ryan Crouser has pretty much done it all in the men’s shot put. Olympic champion at the Rio 2016 Games, retaining his title in Tokyo five years later. World champion – eventually – in 2022, after losing out by one centimetre to his buddy Joe Kovacs in the all-time epic contest at the Doha 2019 Championships. Retaining his title in 2023.
World records? He’s done that too. But a world indoor title? Not yet. Silver last time in Belgrade is the closest the 31-year-old from Portland, Oregon, has managed so far. Will we see an upgrade in the Glasgow Arena?
Another victory for Vidts?
Belgium’s Noor Vidts has the chance to become the first woman to win two global pentathlon titles.
In the absence of Olympic champion and world indoor record-holder Nafissatou Thiam, world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson and 2023 world leader Anna Hall, Vidts starts as strong favourite to get gold.
But her defence of the title she won in Belgrade two years ago could be upset by the 22-year-old rising force of Maria Vicente, who earlier this year broke her own Spanish record with 4728 and is now set on winning a first senior global title.
Lyles vs Coleman
Noah Lyles vs Christian Coleman. A classic rivalry in the men’s 60m. Coleman won this title in 2018 shortly after setting the 60m world record of 6.34. In Belgrade two years ago, he was edged out by Italy’s Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs after both ran 6.41.
He wants his title back.
Lyles, the outdoor 100m and 200m champion, is hungry for more in the form of a first world indoor medal. And he beat Coleman by 0.01 at the US Indoor Championships as he set a personal best of 6.43.
Don’t blink.
