One year on from taking gold over 1500m in Glasgow, Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu has her sights set on taking the title over twice the distance in Nanjing.

The 24-year-old enjoyed an undefeated indoor season last year, which culminated with her world indoor 1500m triumph. So far, her 2025 campaign is shaping up in similar fashion, albeit over 3000m, a relatively new distance for her.

She won that event in Ostrava at the start of February with a world-leading PB of 8:24.17, then went even faster nine days later in Lievin with 8:19.98, beating three-time global champion Gudaf Tsegay and moving to third on the world indoor all-time list.

With Tsegay focusing on the 1500m in Nanjing, Hailu will be joined in the 3000m by compatriot Birke Haylom, who finished third in Lievin in a world U20 record of 8:25.37.

But while Ethiopia has dominated this event at the World Indoors, winning nine of the past 11 titles on offer, last year’s edition showed that nothing is a certainty.

USA’s Elle St Pierre, the surprise winner on that occasion, won’t defend her title in Nanjing, but the US still has strong representation in the form of Whittni Morgan and Shelby Houlihan.

Ireland’s Sarah Healy, meanwhile, is fresh from winning the European indoor title in Apeldoorn. Olympic 1500m silver medallist Jessica Hull also has no fear on the global stage and will likely be in the medal hunt. Australian teammate Linden Hall should also be in the mix, and the same is always true for Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka.

Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics

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