10 iconic moments from the World Indoor Championships

 

As part of the countdown to the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25, we look back at some of the stand-out performances from past editions.

 

Sotomayor soars to new heights – Budapest, 1989

Cuban high jump legend Javier Sotomayor won seven global titles throughout his illustrious career, and the first of those came at the 1989 World Indoor Championships in Budapest. Not only did he win gold, he also set a world indoor record of 2.43m – a mark that still stands to this day.

 

Dragila becomes pole vault pioneer – Paris, 1997

When the women’s pole vault was added to the schedule in 1997, the World Indoors became the first global championships to achieve parity with the number of men’s and women’s disciplines. USA’s Stacy Dragila duly made history by winning that inaugural title and she cemented her status as a pioneer of the event by winning Olympic gold in 2001 and earning world titles outdoors in 1999 and 2001.

 

Gebrselassie does the distance double – Maebashi, 1999

Haile Gebrselassie made history in 1999 by becoming the first athlete to accomplish the distance double at the World Indoor Championships, taking gold over 1500m and 3000m. He had to contest both rounds of the 1500m on the same day, but still managed to set a championship record in the final. He returned 24 hours later to add the 3000m gold to his collection.

 

Pedroso wins his fifth successive gold – Lisbon, 2001

Between 1993 and 2001, Ivan Pedroso won every world indoor long jump title on offer. He set a championship record of 8.51m with his second win in 1995, equalled that in 1997 with gold No.3, and then extended it to 8.62m to earn his fourth title. He jumped 8.43m at the 2001 edition in Lisbon to win with a 27-centimetre margin.

 

Hansen’s hometown heroics – Birmingham, 2003

When the World Indoors landed in Birmingham in 2003, British triple jumper Ashia Hansen – who lived and trained in the city – had immense pressure on her shoulders, not helped by the giant poster adorning the entire side of Birmingham’s Town Hall in the lead-up to the event. So when she took the lead in the penultimate round with a 15.01m leap, the entire arena erupted.

 

Devers defies the odds – Budapest, 2004

USA’s Gail Devers may have been a two-time Olympic 100m champion in the 1990s, but in 2004, at the age of 37, few would have expected her to be as competitive as she was 11 years prior when she won her first world indoor 60m title. In the Hungarian capital, however, she produced a season’s best of 7.08 to take 60m gold, then returned two days later to take silver in the 60m hurdles.

 

Mutola’s seventh heaven – Moscow, 2006

Mozambique’s Maria Mutola dominated the 800m for much of the 1990s and 2000s, but that was especially the case on the boards. She won her first world indoor title in 1993 at the age of 20, then racked up six more golds over the following 13 years. She earned a record seventh title in 2006, then went on the take bronze in 2008 at the age of 35.

 

Eaton makes heptathlon history – Istanbul, 2012

Ashton Eaton’s first world indoor heptathlon record came in 2010 at the NCAA Indoor Championships, somewhat upstaging the World Indoor Championships that happened on the same weekend. But two years later, he represented USA at the 2012 World Indoors in Istanbul and earned gold – his first of seven global titles – with a world indoor record of 6645.

 

Three giant leaps for Rojas – Belgrade, 2022

Few were surprised that Yulimar Rojas won world indoor gold – her third such title – in Belgrade in 2022. It wasn’t even too surprising that she broke her own world indoor record. The real shock came because she set an outright world record – surpassing her own outdoor mark of 15.67m – to win gold with an incredible 15.74m.

 

Crouser completes his collection – Glasgow, 2024

In the two Olympic cycles leading into 2024, US shot putter Ryan Crouser had pretty much done and won it all: two Olympic golds, two world titles, plus world records indoors and out. The one thing missing from his incredible collection was world indoor gold. In Glasgow, however, he finally achieved that, taking gold with 22.77m, one of the longest indoor throws in history.