Catriona Bisset, Habitam Alemu, Elliot Crestan and Mariano Garcia at the World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)
Women’s 800m
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia has come close to a world indoor 800m medal on three occasions. Barring upset, that ambition will surely be achieved at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24. But Scotland’s Jemma Reekie will be determined to beat her to gold.
Still only 26, Alemu has reached the past three World Indoor Championship finals, finishing sixth in 2016, fourth in 2018 and seventh two years ago in Belgrade.
This year she has taken her performance to another level in recording a personal best of 1:57.86 to win at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Torun. She will thus take to the new track at the Glasgow Arena as the world’s fastest this year.
But there will be no certainty of gold following the winning flourish given the presence of home contender Reekie, who clocked a season’s best of 1:58.24, the second-fastest time in the world this year, to win the British indoor title in Birmingham on 18 February.
The 25-year-old has a 2020 indoor personal best of 1:57.91, set on the Glasgow Arena track, and fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 attests to her management of the big occasion.
Reekie is the only European runner in a leading cohort of African runners. The third fastest contending athlete this season is the 2019 world champion Halimah Nakaayi of Uganda, who won bronze at the last World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Two of Alemu’s compatriots, Tsige Dugama and Worknesh Mesele, are next in terms of time with 2024 personal bests of 1:59.66 and 1:59.93 respectively, followed by Benin’s Noelie Yarigo, who ran 2:00.23 in Torun.
Natoya Goule-Toppin hasn’t raced so far this year, but it was only five months ago that she set her lifetime best of 1:55.96 – the fastest of all the Glasgow entrants. The Jamaican finished fourth in Belgrade two years ago, so will be keen to make the podium this time around.
Others to look out for are Australia’s Catronia Bisset, Reekie’s British team-mate Isabelle Boffey, whose time of 2:00.27 to take second place at the British Championships was just 0.02 off her personal best, and the US pair of Allie Wilson, who won the national indoor title this year, and second-placed Addison Wiley, who qualified for the first international championship of her professional career.
Men’s 800m
Timetable | 2024 world list | world all-time list | world rankings
Mariano Garcia, he of the pre-race motorbike mime, is revving up in convincing fashion ahead of the defence of his 800m title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24.
The 26-year-old Spaniard, who went on to add the European outdoor title after winning gold at the 2022 Championships in Belgrade, showed evidence of form in finishing second at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin in February.
His 1:45.50 was beaten on the night by Belgium’s 25-year-old Eliott Crestan, The European indoor bronze medallist, who established his own claims for Glasgow with victory in 1:45.10.
But last Friday, a hot new pair of wheels took over the running as Italy’s 24-year-old Catalin Tecuceanu recorded the fastest time of the year, 1:45.00, in winning at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid.
Chased to the line by four home runners, the Romanian-born athlete, who finished seventh at last year’s European Indoors in Istanbul, took almost half a second off the Italian indoor record that had stood since 1993.
The Spaniard who followed him home in Madrid, Mohamed Attaoui, will also be in Glasgow, having set a PB of 1:45.49 this year.
The two men who followed Garcia home at the 2022 World Indoors – silver medallist Noah Kibet of Kenya and bronze medallist Bryce Hoppel of the United States – both have podium prospects this time around.
Hoppel clocked a season’s best of 1:45.54 when winning at the Millrose Games in New York. Kibet, who has a best of 1:44.98, was one place behind him in 1:46.09.
Botswana’s Tshepiso Masalela is undefeated this year, having notched up wins in Ostrava, Metz and Torun. His winning time in Metz, 1:45.56, is a national record.
Other contenders to look out for include Morocco’s Abdelati El Guesse, third on the world list with the 1:45.28 he recorded when winning in Lyon in February, and Algeria’s Mohamed Ali Gouaned, who clocked a personal best of 1:45.35 in winning the B race in Lievin.
Another runner likely to be in the mix – rumbustiously so if necessary – is Benjamin Robert of France, who was third in the main Lievin final behind Crestan and Garcia in 1:45.70 and who won a fourth national title on 18 February.
Two others to watch out for are Mateusz Borkowski of Poland, the 2021 European indoor silver medallist, and Sweden’s hugely consistent 2018 European outdoor silver medallist Andreas Kramer.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
