Nanjing's Cube (© Sonya Maleterova)
Almost 600 athletes from more than 120 nations will head to east China this week for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25.
Here are a few statistical titbits to carry into the championships as the competition unfolds over the next three days.
Youngest and oldest
The youngest and oldest athletes entered for individual disciplines in Nanjing will both appear in the same event, the women’s 60m. There’s a 24-year age gap between the pair, but just 0.18 separates their PBs.
They are:
Chen Yujie (CHN) 16 years old – 2024 Chinese indoor champion (7.26)
Valentina Meredova (TKM) 40 years old – Turkmen record holder at 60m (7.44)
Duplantis closing in on 100
Heading into Nanjing, world and Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis has a total of 98 clearances at six metres or higher. He could potentially achieve a historic 100th six-metre clearance this weekend.
Double golds
Five athletes have earned two gold medals at the same World Indoor Championships. They are:
1987 - 200m/long jump: Heike Drechsler (GDR)
1999 - 1500m/3000m: Haile Gebrselassie (ETH)
1999 - 1500m/3000m: Gabriela Szabo (ROU)
2004 - long jump/triple jump: Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS)
2018 - 1500m/3000m: Genzebe Dibaba (ETH)
Holloway’s winning streak
Two-time world indoor champion Grant Holloway has been undefeated in indoor hurdle races since 2014, including all preliminaries and in combined events. Counting just 60 hurdles races during that time, he has won 75 consecutive races. Including six outings in the 55m hurdles, he has won 91 consecutive indoor races.
On the edge of glory
There are 94 nations that have participated at the World Indoor Championships without yet producing a top-eight finisher. Could history be made in Nanjing for any of these nations?
They are:
Afghanistan, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Aruba, Bangladesh, Belize, Bhutan, Bolivia, Brunei, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Comoros, Cook Islands, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, The Gambia, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Gibraltar, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Kirghizstan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Macao China, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Niger, Norfolk Island, North Macedonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Republic of the Congo, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Yemen
