• The battle for top spots is a clash of two continents
• Jakub Szymański carries host nation’s best chance of gold
• In the absence of Grant Holloway, USA still has two strong contenders

Jakub Szymański, the Poland’s great hope, broke the national record in early March and became the joint leader on the world list. The European indoor champion now faces a battle against two US athletes for the title of the world’s best 60m hurdler.

Szymański has contested 11 races this year, heats and finals, and has won them all. In his last race before the World Indoors, he took 0.02 off his own Polish record, winning at the ISTAF Indoor meeting in Berlin with 7.37.

After winning the European indoor title last year, Szymański missed out on making the world indoor final in Nanjing so he will be keen to make amends on home soil.

“Even though there are three of us with a time of 7.37, I feel like the favourite for the World Indoor Championships,” said Szymański. “I believe I can win gold in Toruń.”

US athletes have won the men’s 60m hurdles title at 13 of the past 21 editions. World record-holder Grant Holloway, winner of the past three titles, won’t be present this time, but compatriots Dylan Beard and Trey Cunningham, both with a season’s best of 7.37, are contenders for the crown.

Beard came to prominence in 2024, when as an unsponsored athlete working at a deli, he won the 60m hurdles at the Millrose Games. He won again at that meeting last year in a PB of 7.38 and improved on that time last month to win the US title in 7.37 ahead of Cunningham, the 2022 world silver medallist.

France’s world indoor and European indoor silver medallist Wilhem Belocian and Spain’s European silver medallist Enrique Llopis, fourth at the 2024 Olympics and 2025 World Championships, both head to Toruń with a season’s best of 7.45.

Liu Junxi, the surprise bronze medallist on home soil last year in Nanjing, won the Asian indoor title last month and could be a factor this weekend.

Other contenders include Italy’s European champion Lorenzo Simonelli and Jamaican duo Demario Prince and Jerome Campbell – all of whom finished fourth, sixth and seventh respectively in Nanjing last year.

Piotrek Przyborowski for World Athletics

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