Kishane Thompson and Andre De Grasse (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
Kishane Thompson, Nia Ali and Chase Jackson are among the global gold medallists who will star in the opening World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2025 in Astana on Saturday (25).
Thompson was so close to Olympic 100m gold in Paris that even the grateful recipient Noah Lyles initially thought his Jamaican rival had clinched it. Just 0.005 seconds separated the male breakout sprint star of 2024 from Olympic glory.
His response was simply to pack up for the season and learn from any mistakes he might have made.
The bespectacled sprinter, who likes to call himself Clark Kent on Instagram because of his transformation into the Caribbean’s fastest man, looks the athlete most likely to topple Lyles five months on from Paris.
Thompson has clearly not allowed the adverse result in the French capital to slow him down, as he clocked a season-opening 6.48 over 60m outdoors in Spanish Town, Jamaica, on Saturday a few days before boarding a plane for Astana.
The Kazakh capital hosts the first of nine Gold level World Indoor Tour events in 2025, with the series also taking in the likes of Boston, New York, Madrid and Belgrade.
And Thompson is the undeniable star attraction after last year’s histrionics but also having clocked the fifth fastest time over the shorter sprint by a Jamaican on the all-time list just a few days ago, despite a headwind of -2.1m/s
Now the Stephen Francis-coached athlete takes his pace indoors. Already he is the frontrunner for gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on 21-23 March, the climax to the indoor calendar.
Speaking in the wake of his Olympic silver, Thompson said: “I have a mentality where I know it will hurt because I didn’t get the win. Naturally everyone wants to win when they line up. But I just got to take the loss as a win.
“It’s my first Olympics and first major moment like this. I wouldn’t change anything. I just got to learn from it. I’m not looking back. I’m looking forward. It’s done.”
His takeouts from the result of the blanket finish, which marked the fastest Olympic 100m final in history with a slowest time of 9.91 by its eight participants, included acquiring greater patience, being more aware in the latter stages of any given race and learning to dip better at the line. His final point of improvement was to aim “to separate myself from the field so that can’t happen”.
In Astana, he is one of four Jamaicans in contention, joined by Rohan Watson, winner of his country’s Olympic trials and a bronze medallist in the 4x100m along with Thompson, plus Nishion Ebanks, second to Thompson at the weekend, and Micheal Campbell.
The other male star attraction over 60m in Astana is Andre De Grasse. Having won the 200m title at the Tokyo Olympics, the Canadian came up short in Paris in the individual events by failing to make either final of the 100m or 200m. But he extended his haul of Olympic medals to seven when he spearheaded the Canadian quartet to a surprise gold in the men’s 4x100m.
Jamaican athletes also lead the field for the women’s 60m. Like Thompson, Tia and Tina Clayton started their year by racing over 60m in Spanish Town, respectively clocking 7.14 and 7.32. Now they return to indoor action and they will be joined in Astana by their compatriot Natasha Morrison.
In the women’s 400m, there's the chance for a rematch between two-time world bronze medallist Sada Williams and multiple global 4x400m medallist Janieve Russell.
While De Grasse contests the men’s 60m, his partner Ali – the 2019 world 100m hurdles champion – will race the 60m hurdles in Astana.
Ali was edged out of a place at the Olympics last year when she could only finish fourth at the US trials a year after having won her national championships for a third time. She is the stand-out athlete in that particular field.
Ali’s compatriot Jackson is another world gold medallist in action, the shot putter having won the first of her titles in Eugene in 2022 before a successful defence a year later in Budapest. Unlike Ali, she made it to Paris for the Olympics only to uncharacteristically miss out on a spot in the final after a best throw of 17.60m following two foul throws, nearly three metres shorter than her personal best.
Competition for the win in Astana is likely to come from Fanny Roos of Sweden and USA’s Jessica Ramsey, both of whom were ranked in the world’s top 20 last season.
Meanwhile, there is an impressive Ethiopian line-up in the women’s 3000m headed by 2022 world indoor 1500m medallist Hirut Meshesha, who last year won the African Games over 1500m. Also in the field is her highly rated 16-year-old compatriot Marta Alemayo, who won the world U20 cross country title last year, plus Axumawit Embaye and Shito Gumi.
Local favourite Nadezhda Dubovitskaya will be seeking a strong start to her season on home soil. The Asian high jump record-holder, who cleared 2.00m in 2021 and claimed world indoor bronze in 2022, finished second in Astana last year.
Matt Majendie for World Athletics
