Andy Diaz Hernandez became an Olympic medallist in Paris last year, leaping 17.64m to claim triple jump bronze behind Spain’s Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun and Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo.

His upward trajectory continued post Paris as he hopped, skipped and jumped his way to 17.71m to win European Indoor Championships gold in Apeldoorn earlier this month.

That performance by Diaz Hernandez comfortably set the benchmark for the rest of the world at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25, his closest rival this year some 28cm further back in the sandpit.

Only once has Diaz Hernandez ever jumped farther – in Florence with 17.75m in 2023.

He will be intending to show similar form in Nanjing, but hoping to breathe down his neck is Germany’s Max Hess, a 17.43m athlete this season who already has 16 national titles to his name.

His breakthrough year came in the senior ranks back in 2016 when he won silver at the World Indoors in Portland and he followed that with European gold the ensuing summer.

His consistency was back to its best last year when he was a contender in the finals of the Olympics, World Indoors and Europeans, finishing in the top 10 of each before clinching silver behind Diaz Hernandez at the European Indoors earlier this month.

A line-up of 16 athletes rich in experience includes the defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango. No man has ever jumped farther in the history of the sport indoors than his 18.07m and the Burkina Faso athlete is also the world champion outdoors as well as an Olympic medallist.

The one major caveat is that he has been well short of some of his bigger distances so far this season, a best of 16.55m putting him 13th of the 16 entrants for Nanjing.

USA’s Will Claye has been a centimetre shy of that mark in 2025 but he has eight global medals in the triple jump to his name and relishes the big occasion.

Cuba’s Lazaro Martinez won the world indoor title in 2022 and went on to secure world silver outdoors in Budapest.

Other potential protagonists in Nanjing are Italian Andrea Dallavalle, a 17.36m athlete this season, as well as China’s Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Zhu Yaming who has jumped 17.31m this year and will be hoping to impress on home soil.

Following a competition rule change approved by the World Athletics Council at its meeting in December, all 16 athletes will feature in the first three rounds of the final. The top 10 will then advance to compete in round four, which is two more athletes than the previous rules allowed, and the top eight then advance to round five. The top six, rather than the previous top eight, will compete in the sixth and final round.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics

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Win probability: 1 Andy Diaz Hernandez (ITA) 50.15%, 2 Hugues Fabrice Zango (BUR) 23.82%, 3 Lazaro Martinez (CUB) 10.27%
(This win probability is powered entirely by data and driven by AI technology. More information)

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