Julien Alfred and Noah Lyles (© Getty Images)
Women’s 60m
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
History beckons St Lucia’s Julien Alfred this year as she seeks to become the first athlete from her country to win an Olympic medal – and, before that, a world indoor medal.
The 22-year-old, in her first year as a professional after sweeping the board indoors and out in the US college scene last season, is the only woman in the world this year to have bettered 7.00 for the 60m.
Her time of 6.99 on 11 February at the Millrose Games in New York – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – came despite a relatively slow start. Her potential looks heady given that she set a national record of 6.94 in March last year.
Alfred’s performance in Albuquerque saw her move to joint second on the all-time list along with Aleia Hobbs of the United States, who had earned that distinction the previous month in the same arena.
Both are just 0.02 off the world record of 6.92 set in 1993 by Irina Privalova of Russia. And both are entered for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24, with Hobbs having a season’s best of 7.02 to her credit after another fine showing in Albuquerque on 17 February.
Not that they will have things remotely their own way given the presence of Poland’s 26-year-old Ewa Swoboda, second on this year’s top list after clocking 7.01 – 0.02 off her personal best – to win the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting on her home track of Torun.
Ewa Swoboda at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (© Getty Images)
Swoboda finished sixth in the women’s 100m at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, clocking 10.97. But it is indoors that she has made her main impression on the sport so far.
She was fourth over 60m at the last World Indoor Championships two years ago in Belgrade, missing a bronze by just 0.002.
Her chances of bettering that performance two years on look strong, especially as she has fond memories of the Glasgow Arena, where she won European indoor gold in 2019 – adding to a silver in 2017 which she replicated in Istanbul last year.
Swoboda can also count on some guaranteed home support as her brother lives in Edinburgh.
“It’s a big event for me,” she says. “I want to win a medal and a PB.”
Other strong medal contenders include Italy’s 24-year-old Zaynab Dosso, who currently stands joint third on the world list with Hobbs after finishing 0.1 behind Swoboda in Torun, and Mikiah Brisco of the United States, who has run 7.06 this season and who clocked a personal best of 6.99 to win silver at the last World Indoor Championships as an unsponsored runner.
Others to watch out for include Jamaica’s Shashalee Forbes, who has run a personal best of 7.03 this season, and 21-year-old Briana Williams, the 2018 world U20 100m and 200m champion who earned an Olympic 4x100m gold in Tokyo three years ago.
Men’s 60m
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
This is the year when Noah Lyles, world 100m and 200m champion, plans to complete his title collection. And while his overarching ambition is an Olympic upgrade from bronze to gold later this year, his immediate challenge lies in Glasgow, where he will seek his first world indoor medal.
Guess which one he has in mind.
The 26-year-old from Gainesville, Florida – 2023 World Athlete of the Year in men’s track – is in the ideal position to further adorn his CV with a 60m victory at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 as he tops this year’s world list with a personal best of 6.43.
Also in the lists, thrillingly, is the fellow US sprinter who he beat by 0.01 in setting that time at the US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, Christian Coleman, who had run the world record of 6.34 in the same arena six years earlier.
The re-match between the current world 100m champion and the 2019 world champion will be one of the highlights of these championships, with hopes of further fast times soaring given the recent completion of a new track at the Glasgow Arena, which was built for the city’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Lyles had already made clear the winter work he had done on his start – supposedly the weakest part of his racing – by reducing his personal best to 6.44 in winning at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on 4 February, where those in his wake included the 2022 world 100m champion Fred Kerley.
“My confidence has now skyrocketed," Lyles said after that race. “Let’s go get a world indoor medal.”
His confidence is now in orbit following his Albuquerque exploits. “This is my weakest event,” he said. “So come outdoor, whew, fireworks."
But it would not do to rule out the prospects for Coleman, a classic bullet from a gun over 60m, who went on to win the world indoor title in Birmingham soon after setting his world record.
And neither man will be able to rest easy given the presence in the field of the 22-year-old Jamaican Ackeem Blake, who has a best of 6.42 and who clocked 6.45 in finishing just 0.01 behind Lyles in Boston to place himself third in this year’s world list.
Jamaica's Ackeem Blake (© Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the runaway train that is Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala is gathering speed. The 28-year-old Commonwealth Games 100m champion took 0.03 off his own national 60m record in clocking 6.51 to win in Bercy on 11 February.
Look out too for Japan’s Shuhei Tada, who has clocked a personal best of 6.53 this season, plus Liberia’s Emmanuel Matadi and Britain’s Jeremiah Azu, winner of the fourth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Torun in 6.57 which helped him to earn a wild card entry to Glasgow.
And do not ignore Italy’s European indoor champion Samuele Ceccarelli, who has only run 6.65 this season but has a best of 6.47; and Ireland’s 21-year-old Israel Olatunde, whose best this year is 6.71 but who ran a national record of 6.57 last season.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
