<p>Seeing an Italian sprinter on top of the podium hasn&rsquo;t been an unfamiliar sight in recent years.</p>
<p>At the recent European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the Italian flag was once again raised during the medal ceremony for the men&rsquo;s 60m. But Marcell Jacobs &ndash; the Olympic, European and world indoor champion &ndash; was not the athlete standing atop the podium.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Before the Italian Championships, Jacobs was on another planet for me,&rdquo; says Samuele Ceccarelli, the 23-year-old who scorched to victory in the short sprint in the Turkish city in early March.</p>
<p>His 6.48 triumph in the final, following a 6.47 PB in the semifinals, was considered something of a surprise, but it shouldn&rsquo;t have been. Ceccarelli had beaten his esteemed compatriot by 0.01 at the Italian Championships just two weeks prior, clocking a then PB of 6.54.</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/644fea6db647321239ce0b73.jpg" alt="Samuele Ceccarelli celebrates his 60m victory at the European Indoor Championships" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Samuele Ceccarelli celebrates his 60m victory at the European Indoor Championships (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>&ldquo;Winning my first Italian title and beating the Olympic 100m champion is something that I cannot describe; I did not expect that,&rdquo; says Ceccarelli. &ldquo;There are no words to express my feeling.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I thank Marcell for giving me the chance to compete against him in such a great race,&rdquo; Ceccarelli adds. &ldquo;I knew that my physical form was good, as I demonstrated in the races before the Italian Championships, but the idea of competing with Marcell and beating a champion of this calibre is something that I cannot compare to anything else.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Beating him in Ancona, I felt the same joy I had when Marcell won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When Ceccarelli repeated that feat on a championship stage in Istanbul, it made the rest of the athletics world sit up and pay attention.</p>
<p>But when he woke up on the day of the 60m rounds &ndash; all three taking place on the same day &ndash; with a temperature of 37.5C, Ceccarelli feared he may not be at his best.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had a fever but the Italian team doctors gave me aspirin to keep my temperature under control, and my coach helped me remain calm,&rdquo; says Ceccarelli.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was a long day with three races (heats, semifinal and final) in just a few hours,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;When I received the blue bib as European seasonal leader before the final, I felt some expectations, but I tried to remain relaxed. It wasn&rsquo;t easy to control these emotions, but I tried to keep the energy and give my best.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He advanced through the first round with 6.62, then set a lifetime best of 6.47 in the semifinals before coming within 0.01 of that to take gold in the final.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It will take a month to sink in what happened,&rdquo; he said at the time. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the most beautiful medal that I have in my bedroom. It&rsquo;s a bit strange to share the podium with Jacobs. I cried on the podium because I couldn&rsquo;t hold back my emotions.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Ever since I started my athletics career, I have always dreamed of being on such a big stage. The biggest dream for any sportsman is to sing the national anthem. I couldn&rsquo;t be happier than this.&rdquo;</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/644febfebc5416f117cf26da.jpg" alt="Samuele Ceccarelli and Marcell Jacobs at the European Indoor Championships" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Samuele Ceccarelli and Marcell Jacobs at the European Indoor Championships (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Jacobs was the first to congratulate Ceccarelli.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I may not have won the medal that I wanted, but at least the European title remains in Italy,&rdquo; said the Olympic 100m and 4x100m champion. &ldquo;The 100m at the Italian Championships will be very competitive, and together we will achieve great results in the relay.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Frequent injuries a thing of the past</h2>
<p>Beyond the Italian sprinting world, few people in athletics had heard of Ceccarelli before 2023.</p>
<p>He had a 60m PB of 6.72, set while he was still an U20 athlete back in 2019, and his 100m best was &ndash; and still is &ndash; 10.45. He had represented Italy at the continental level as an U20 and as an U23, but had never reached a final.</p>
<p>Persistent injuries and frequent micro-fractures were the main barriers to Ceccarelli&rsquo;s progress in previous years. And before he turned his attention to athletics, karate was his main sporting focus up until the age of 15. But that, he says, helped with his discipline when he switched to athletics at age 16.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I credit karate with giving me a grounding of how to behave as a sportsperson because it taught me respect and fair play,&rdquo; says Ceccarelli, whose grandfather Gastone Giacinti played as goalkeeper for Foggia in the Italian Serie A Football league in the 1970s.</p>
<p>Ceccarelli won several medals at the national U20 level between 2018 and 2019, but injury curtailed the final two months of his career in that age group. He suffered a similar fate in 2021, when his participation at the European U23 Championships in Tallinn was hampered by a stress micro-fracture in his right fibula.</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/644fec20bc5416f117cf26dd.jpg" alt="Samuele Ceccarelli at the 2021 European U23 Championships" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Samuele Ceccarelli at the 2021 European U23 Championships (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>But just a few weeks after returning home from Tallinn, Ceccarelli watched with awe as Jacobs won Olympic gold in Tokyo.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was watching the race on TV with my parents,&rdquo; Ceccarelli recalls of the Olympic 100m final. &ldquo;Jacobs&rsquo; win gave me an incredible feeling and a lot of energy. He achieved a historic feat and inspired many people, contributing to making athletics popular in Italy.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Marcell is a good guy,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;We are rivals on the track but our relationship is very good. He is like a big brother to me. When he hugged me after my win in Ancona, it was like a moment of recognition.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was an incredible feeling to be part of a national team together with many great athletes who I&rsquo;d only previously known by watching them on television. They created a very relaxed and welcoming atmosphere, which helped me remain focused and made me feel like I had been part of the team for a long time.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I built this result (European indoor gold) with patience and sacrifice,&rdquo; adds Ceccarelli. &ldquo;I had so many injuries before. But for the first time this past winter, I could complete a training cycle with my coach and that was the key to achieving these great results this year.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Looking ahead to the future</h2>
<p>Ceccarelli credits his recent success to his coach Marco Del Medico, who was a guide runner for 2000 Paralympic T11 100m champion Lorenzo Ricci.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I owe my win in Istanbul to my coach,&rdquo; says Samuele, who trains five days a week in Pietrasanta. &ldquo;Without Marco, I would be a Ferrari car without petrol.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After his incredible indoor breakthrough, many are now keen to see what Ceccarelli can do outdoors.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My first goal is to improve my PB of 10.45, which has stood since 2021, but I don&rsquo;t want to think too far ahead,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The extra 40 metres between 60m and 100m means I have to work more on speed resistance to be competitive outdoors.&rdquo;</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/644feabc7c6a260967acc816.jpg" alt="Samuele Ceccarelli at the European Indoor Championships" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Samuele Ceccarelli at the European Indoor Championships (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>He has also been added to the Italian 4x100m squad. Following their surprise relay triumph in Tokyo, the Azzurri failed to reach the final at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, so Ceccarelli hopes to help turn their fortunes around.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It would be an honour to be part of the Italian relay,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I will be prepared, but I will respect whatever (selection) choice is taken.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Outside of athletics, Ceccarelli is a keen linguist and a fan of rap music. He is also currently combining his sports career with law studies at the University of Pisa.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy combining athletics and university,&rdquo; says the 23-year-old, who is now in his fifth year of studies. &ldquo;I study during the morning and I focus on training during the afternoon. The key to balancing all of this is to organise my time well.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In future, Ceccarelli would like to follow in the footsteps of his father by working as a lawyer, or in human resources, as he likes to get to know new people and cultures.</p>
<p>&ldquo;But for now,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;athletics is my priority.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And if he manages to stay ahead of Jacobs outdoors, Ceccarelli may well find himself on more major championship podiums in the near future.</p>
<p><strong>Diego Sampaolo for World Athletics</strong></p>

Seeing an Italian sprinter on top of the podium hasn’t been an unfamiliar sight in recent years.

Indoor surprise package Ceccarelli adds to Italy’s growing sprint prowess

<p>Aleia Hobbs has an instant response when asked for the message she would give her younger self: &ldquo;Keep going&rdquo;.</p>
<p>The 27-year-old has been sprinting for almost two decades and despite being hit with some setbacks between her many successes, she refused to give up. The signs have always been there, and now &ndash; happy and healthy &ndash; she&rsquo;s in the form of her life.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Ever since I went pro, I had some kind of injury. I couldn&rsquo;t have a complete fall (off-season),&rdquo; says Hobbs, who sprinted for Louisiana State University (LSU) &ndash; her home state &ndash; before turning professional in 2018. &ldquo;Before last year I had a first full fall, which gave me a PR, and before this year I had a good fall and another PR, so that was the main thing &ndash; staying healthy.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I came to the point where I was like, &lsquo;am I ever going to run as fast as I ran in college?&rsquo; Because it had been so long. Then again, you&rsquo;ve got to keep on doing it. I kept telling myself: &lsquo;if I can get healthy, I can run fast&rsquo;. I had moments where I was really doubting it, which is frustrating because I knew I could, but I kept getting hurt.&rdquo;</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/643feaea8238a421a3f58c40.jpg" alt="Aleia Hobbs wins the US 100m title in 2018" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Aleia Hobbs wins the US 100m title in 2018 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Hobbs started running at the age of eight, after she demonstrated her speed while sprinting &ndash; terrified &ndash; from a dog near her home in New Orleans.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I was running for my life!&rdquo; she laughs now. &ldquo;I was running as fast as I could run. People kept saying: &lsquo;you need to run track&rsquo;. I went to the playground in my neighbourhood and started running, and I&rsquo;ve been running literally ever since.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Her early career included a second-place finish at the US U20 Championships in 2015 and she claimed silver at the Pan American Junior Championships in Edmonton, during a season that featured a 100m PB of 11.13 for the teenager. But then, in the August, she required surgery on her left knee. Hobbs made a comeback the following year and in 2017 she stormed under 11 seconds for the first time, clocking 10.85 for a 100m PB that would remain her best until 2022.</p>
<p>In 2018 she went sub-11 in 10 of her 12 races, including heats and semifinals, and she won at the US Championships and NCAA Championships, where she added 100m gold to the 60m crown she had claimed indoors three months prior to close her collegiate career in style. But then injury struck again and Hobbs needed the same surgery as in 2015, this time on her right knee.</p>
<p>Again, she worked her way back, and major senior team places were just around the corner.</p>
<p>Hobbs competed at her first senior international event in 2019, anchoring the victorious US 4x100m quartet at the World Athletics Relays in Yokohama, and she made her Olympic debut in Tokyo, again running the final leg in the heats of the 4x100m. She then finished sixth in the 100m final at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, having improved her five-year-old PB to 10.83 in New York and then 10.81 during the semifinals of the US Championships where she claimed silver to secure her World Championships team place.</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/643febe88238a421a3f58c43.jpg" alt="Aleia Hobbs at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Aleia Hobbs at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)</p>
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<p>Then came that second consecutive healthy off-season.</p>
<p>Hobbs opened her 2023 campaign at the LSU Purple Tiger meeting on 13 January and two weeks later she blazed to a 6.98 win at the Razorback Invitational, dipping under seven seconds for the first time to move to equal ninth on the world indoor 60m all-time list.</p>
<p>&ldquo;A couple of days before we left, my coach said: &lsquo;you&rsquo;re going to run fast&rsquo;,&rdquo; she explained after the race. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;okay, he&rsquo;s probably just telling me that!&rsquo; I felt good, healthy. I literally just went out there and ran. It was the easiest race I&rsquo;ve ever ran and my coach always says: &lsquo;when the race feels easiest, that&rsquo;s when you know you&rsquo;re fastest&rsquo;. And that&rsquo;s exactly what it felt like.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It felt similar in Boston and New York. And Albuquerque.</p>
<p>Hobbs clocked 7.02 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, and 7.04 at the Millrose Games in New York one week later. Those performances helped her to win the 2023 World Athletics Indoor Tour, the prizes for which include the offer of a wild card place at next year&rsquo;s World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f5d7a63e1a70d20aa9c67c.jpg" alt="Aleia Hobbs wins the 60m at the Millrose Games" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Aleia Hobbs wins the 60m at the Millrose Games (&copy; Kirby Lee)</p>
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<p>But the best was yet to come. At the US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, Hobbs ran 6.94 &ndash; a national indoor record and a time that moved her up to second on the world all-time list, just 0.02 shy of the world record.<br /><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p>
<div style="padding: 0px 20px 5px 20px; border: 2px solid #69d5e0;">
<h2>Women's world indoor 60m all-time list<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><br /></strong></span></h2>
<p>6.92 Irina Privalova (RUS) Madrid 11 Feb 1993<br />6.94 Aleia Hobbs (USA) Albuquerque 18 Feb 2023<br />6.94 Julien Alfred (LCA) Albuquerque 11 Mar 2023<br />6.95 Gail Devers (USA) Toronto 12 Mar 1993<br />6.95 Marion Jones (USA) Maebashi 7 Mar 1998<br />6.96 Merlene Ottey (JAM) Madrid 14 Feb 1992<br />6.96 Katerina Thanou (GRE)&nbsp;Maebashi 7 Mar 1999<br />6.96 Mujinga Kambundji (SUI) Belgrade 18 Mar 2022<br />6.97 LaVerne Jones-Ferrette (ISV) Stuttgart 6 Feb 2010<br />6.97 Murielle Ahoure (CIV) Birmingham 2 Mar 2018<br />6.98 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM) Sopot 9 Mar 2014<br />6.98 Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM) Birmingham 18 Feb 2017<br />6.99 Ewa Swoboda (POL) Torun 5 Mar 2022<br />6.99 Mikiah Brisco (USA) Belgrade 18 Mar 2022</p>
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<p><br />Hobbs puts part of her development down to being able to do more weight training, including squats - something she had to avoid previously because of the problems with her knees. As it was, she was again unable to do a full weight programme, nor block starts, in between her 2023 indoor and outdoor seasons, as she broke a bone in her hand in a fall after her sensational 60m in Albuquerque.</p>
<p>But with the hard work already banked, Hobbs wasn&rsquo;t going to let it stop her. She did what she could and prepared for her outdoor campaign, making her season debut at the Lloyd Wills Invitational on her home track in Baton Rouge.</p>
<p>She won the 100m in 10.87 &ndash; her joint fourth-fastest ever time.</p>
<p>&ldquo;From breaking the American record to breaking a bone my hand. From not being able to do all my weights or block starts in over a month. So thankful for my fastest 100m opener and meet record,&rdquo; she later wrote in a social media post.</p>
<p>It wasn&rsquo;t just the weight programme and training consistency that led to that remarkable breakthrough, however. Life had changed for Hobbs off the track, too, as <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://worldathletics.org/spikes/news/aleia-hobbs-my-son" target="_blank" rel="noopener">she and her partner adopted their son, Amir, last year</a></strong></span>. He&rsquo;s now 10 months old.</p>
<p>A smile fills Hobbs&rsquo; face.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Me going to training and knowing I&rsquo;m not just doing this for myself, but for my family at home. &lsquo;This is for you, too. I&rsquo;m 110% every day,&rdquo; she beams.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy to balance life. For one, the sleep schedule. Amir was sick, he got RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) when he was about five months, so that was bad. I didn&rsquo;t know what sleep was.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t sleeping but I knew I still had to go out and do this &ndash; I&rsquo;m not doing it just for me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Amir has already been trackside to watch Hobbs race.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He came to LSU,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;As soon as I finished, I cooled down and then I went up and got him and brought him down to everybody and coach Shaver - his pawpaw.&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/CnYRd_pOsAu/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14">
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<p>Family is hugely important to Hobbs, at home and on the track. She has been guided by LSU coach Dennis Shaver since she joined the university in 2014 and her training group currently includes world indoor 60m silver medallist Mikiah Brisco, who Hobbs has been running with since the age of 10 or 11, plus two-time world indoor 60m hurdles champion Lolo Jones and 2016 world U20 100m gold medallist Candace Hill.</p>
<p>The support from both families and fans &ndash; it&rsquo;s key.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the support system I have and the fans, they really keep me going,&rdquo; Hobbs says. &ldquo;People DM (direct message) me and say: &lsquo;hey, just wanted to let you know you&rsquo;re inspiring my daughter so much&rsquo;, or people are like: &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve got hurt so many times, but I know your story, you keep me going&rsquo;. And that keeps me going, knowing that people are really looking up to me.&rdquo;</p>
<p>So, what to do, other than keep on going? Especially when there&rsquo;s another World Athletics Championships and Olympic Games taking place within the next 16 months. Hobbs also shared a short message written on a shoe in a photo posted to social media before the outdoor season: &lsquo;10.7 or bust&rsquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The focus is 100% there because I have still not reached my full potential,&rdquo; says Hobbs, the smile still there but behind it, a look of steely determination. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve not got an individual medal at the World Championships or anything yet, so I&rsquo;ve got to keep it going.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>

Aleia Hobbs has an instant response when asked for the message she would give her younger self: “Keep going”.

"Keep going": Hobbs leads by example

<p>Aleia Hobbs and Anna Hall stormed up to second on the respective world all-time lists for their events at the <strong>US Indoor Championships</strong>&nbsp;in Albuquerque, Hobbs blazing a&nbsp;6.94 60m and Hall scoring a 5004-point pentathlon as they both set North American indoor records.</p>
<p>Hobbs was already the joint ninth-fastest women's 60m sprinter in history thanks to the 6.98 PB she ran in Fayetteville at the end of last month. But on Saturday (18) at the Convention Center in Albuquerque the 26-year-old launched herself up to No.2 all time with a performance just 0.02 shy of the 30-year-old world record.</p>
<p>Her&nbsp;6.94 takes 0.01 off the&nbsp;North American indoor record set by&nbsp;Gail Devers, also in 1993, and saw her win the final by 0.15 ahead of world indoor bronze medallist Marybeth Sant-Price. Hobbs, who finished sixth in the world 100m final in Oregon, also ran 7.02 to win her heat.</p>
<p>This latest performance extends an impressive win streak for Hobbs this season, following her victories at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meetings in Boston and New York earlier this month.</p>
<p>The men's 60m final was also held on Saturday and that was won by JT Smith in 6.53 after a 6.55 semifinal victory. Two-time world 200m champion Noah Lyles won his semifinal in 6.56 but decided not to contest the final due to a tight hip flexor.</p>
<p>Freddie Crittenden took the men's 60m hurdles title ahead of Robert Dunning as both athletes ran PBs of 7.49 and were separated by just four-thousandths of a second. The women's race was won by Alaysha Johnson in 7.83. Nikki Hiltz kicked to the 1500m title, holding off Sage Hurta-Klecker, 4:17.10 to 4:17.26.</p>
<p>Two-time world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks claimed his fourth US indoor title with a 5.91m clearance, while Olympic and world champion Katie Moon won her third US indoor gold with a best of 4.80m.</p>
<p>World shot put gold medallist Chase Ealey threw 19.87m to win the women's national title ahead of Maggie Ewen with 19.41m, while Joe Kovacs won his first US indoor shot put title with a 21.55m throw in the men's event. Jumps titles went to Keturah Orji in the women's triple jump (14.31m) and Will Williams in the men's long jump (8.20m PB).</p>
<h2>Hall hits pentathlon heights</h2>
<p>For Hall, her North American indoor record-breaking performance came on Thursday (16), and she returned to the track on Saturday to also take the 400m title in a PB of 51.03 after a 53.66 heat win on Friday.</p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63ef78d22c2119c457c4a7e2.jpg" alt="Anna Hall crosses the 800m finish line to break the area indoor pentathlon record at the US Indoor Championships" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Anna Hall crosses the 800m finish line to break the area indoor pentathlon record at the US Indoor Championships (&copy; Kevin Morris)</p>
</div>
<p>With her 5004 points in the pentathlon, Hall achieved the second-best women's pentathlon score in history, just nine points shy of the world indoor record.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The 21-year-old, who claimed world heptathlon bronze in Oregon last year, opened her pentathlon campaign with a PB of 8.04 in the 60m hurdles and went on to record outright lifetime bests of 1.91m in the high jump and 13.80m in the shot put, before an indoor PB of 6.34m in the long jump.</p>
<p>She rounded out her series with a 2:05.70 800m, becoming the third athlete in history to achieve 5000 points or more.</p>
<p>The performance puts her second on the world all-time list behind world record-holder Nataliya Dobrynska of Ukraine, who recorded 5013 points in 2012, and ahead of Britain&rsquo;s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who scored 5000 points in 2015.</p>
<p>Hall&rsquo;s previous pentathlon best had been the 4618-point performance she achieved at the SEC Indoor Championships last year, and she improved the previous area record held by Canada&rsquo;s Brianne Theisen-Eaton since 2016 by 123 points.</p>
<p>Finishing second to Hall in Albuquerque was Hope Bender on 4445 points.</p>
<p>Also on Thursday, the men&rsquo;s 3000m race walk was won by Nick Christie in 11:56.67, while Miranda Melville claimed the women&rsquo;s title in 13:37.69.</p>
<h2>Price gets world indoor weight throw best</h2>
<p>More history was made on Friday (17) when DeAnna Price broke the world indoor weight throw best, becoming the first woman to ever surpass 26 metres in the event and adding 42cm to the previous world best.</p>
<p>First recording 25.77m in the third round, she then improved to 26.02m in the fifth round to twice improve the world indoor weight throw best of 25.60m that had been set by Gwen Berry in 2017 and then equalled by Janeah Stewart last month.</p>
<p>Two world hammer gold medallists led the competition, 2019 champion Price winning ahead of 2022 world title winner Brooke Andersen with a 24.97m throw. Daniel Haugh won the men's contest with 25.44m.</p>
<p>Friday's action also saw Tara Davis Woodhall soar to success in the women's long jump as she leapt a world lead of 6.99m to add 6cm to her previous indoor best and win by 36cm. That jump came in the fifth round and the 23-year-old also recorded 6.94m in the second round.</p>
<p>Vashti Cunningham, the 2016 world indoor champion, matched her indoor PB with a 2.00m clearance to win the women's high jump, while Donald Scott took the men's triple jump title with a best of 16.96m.</p>
<p>Valerie Constien won an exciting battle with Whittni Morgan in the women's 3000m, Constien kicking past to win in 8:48.29 to Morgan's 8:48.42. Sam Prakel judged his race to perfection to win the men's 3000m, surging to victory in 8:12.46 ahead of Eduardo Herrera with 8:13.11.</p>
<p>Steven Bastien claimed the heptathlon title with 6012 points after a series that included a 7.55m long jump, 2.06m high jump and 4.95m pole vault. Will Daniels finished second with 5946 points.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://results.usatf.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Results</a></strong></span></p>

Aleia Hobbs runs 6.94 for 60m and Anna Hall scores a 5004-point pentathlon to set North American indoor records

Hobbs and Hall go No.2 all time at US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque

<p>Olympic and world indoor champion Marcell Jacobs will seek his third consecutive 60m victory at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais when he returns to the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting in Lievin on 15 February.</p>
<p>The Italian claimed his first win in the French town in 2021, when he clocked 6.54 before going on to win the European indoor title in Torun and Olympic 100m and 4x100m gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old returned to Lievin 12 months later to triumph in 6.50, during a season that would be capped by him winning the world indoor title in Belgrade in a European indoor record of 6.41.</p>
<p>That time places Jacobs joint fourth on the world indoor all-time list.</p>
<p>The Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais is the second confirmed meeting of the season for Jacobs, who will first race at the ORLEN Cup Lodz, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting, in Poland on 4 February.</p>
<p>Jacobs is the fifth global gold medallist announced for the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, joining pole vault stars Mondo Duplantis and Katie Moon (nee Nageotte), Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and sprint hurdles ace Grant Holloway, as well as Olympic and world 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson.</p>
<p>For further information on the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, visit the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://meetinglievin.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">event website</a></strong></span>.</p>

Olympic and world indoor champion Marcell Jacobs will seek his third consecutive 60m victory at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais

Jacobs joins line-up for Lievin

<p>Two-time world 200m champion Noah Lyles will star in the men&rsquo;s 60m at the Millrose Games when the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting takes place on 11 February.</p>
<p>The US 200m record-holder will take on world indoor record-holder Christian Coleman and 2018 world indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker, among others in a high-quality field.</p>
<p>Although Lyles is more of a 200m specialist, he will be keen to triumph in the shorter event at the Millrose Games, having finished second in 2018, third in 2017 and fourth last year. The 25-year-old won the 60m at the World Indoor Tour Gold meetings on Staten Island and in Birmingham last year.</p>
<p>Coleman, the defending Millrose Games champion, set the world record of 6.34 in 2018 and took silver at the 2022 World Indoor Championships.</p>
<p>Baker&rsquo;s PB of 6.40 makes him the third-fastest 60m runner in history. Winner of the 60m at the Millrose Games in 2018 and 2020, Baker is making a comeback in 2023 after injury forced him to miss almost the entire 2022 outdoor season.</p>
<p>Other athletes in the field include Josephus Lyles, Noah&rsquo;s younger brother, NACAC 100m champion Ackeem Blake of Jamaica, and Puerto Rican 60m record-holder Miles Lewis.</p>
<p>These are the latest stars announced for the Millrose Games, joining the showdowns in the pole vault between Katie Nageotte, Sandi Morris, and Katerina Stefanidi, and in the shot put, featuring Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs. The women's 300m will feature Abby Steiner, Jenna Prandini and Brittany Brown, and the women&rsquo;s 3000m will star Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Alicia Monson.</p>
<p>&bull; <a href="https://www.millrosegames.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>More information</strong></span></a></p>

Two-time world 200m champion takes on Christian Coleman and Ronnie Baker

Lyles leads loaded 60m field for Millrose Games

<p>Two former winners, Dina Asher-Smith and Ewa Swoboda, return to the Init Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe on the hunt for more success on 27 January.</p>
<p>Asher-Smith ran 7.08 to win the 60m at the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting in 2021, while Swoboda was triumphant in a time of 7.10 in 2019, and in 2023 they will line up alongside the already-announced Malaika Mihambo as well as Alexandra Burghardt.</p>
<p>Britain&rsquo;s Asher-Smith set her 60m PB of 7.08 in Prague in 2015, a mark that she equalled in Glasgow in 2018 and then Karlsruhe in 2021. The 2019 world 200m champion claimed bronze in that event at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 and she also has multiple Olympic and world relay medals to her name.</p>
<p>Swoboda, meanwhile, improved her 60m PB to a national record of 6.99 at this year&rsquo;s Polish Indoor Championships and dipped under 7.10 a total of eight times throughout the season. She won the 2019 European indoor title and finished fourth at this year&rsquo;s World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.<br /><br /></p>
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/63a339a7b73fa58d29aa2946.jpg" alt="Ewa Swoboda races the 60m at the Init Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe" />
<p style="font-size: 0.9em; color: #b2b2b2; text-align: right; margin: -15px 0 0px;">Ewa Swoboda races the 60m at the Init Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe (&copy; Andreas Arndt)</p>
</div>
<p>Germany&rsquo;s Mihambo, the Olympic, world and European long jump champion, joins them in the 60m field, as does her compatriot Burghardt, part of Germany's world bronze medal-winning 4x100m team in Oregon.</p>
<p>Two athletes have also been announced for the men&rsquo;s pole vault - Germany&rsquo;s Bo Kanda Lita Baehre and Oleg Zernikel both cleared 5.71m at this year&rsquo;s Init Indoor Meeting and return to Karlsruhe next month.</p>
<p>The Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe is the first of seven World Indoor Tour Gold meetings in 2023. In early February the tour heads to Boston, then Torun, New York, Lievin and Madrid before the series final in Birmingham.</p>
<p>For further information on the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe, visit the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://meeting-karlsruhe.de/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">event website</a></strong></span>.</p>

The two former winners return to the Init Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe on the hunt for more success on 27 January

Asher-Smith and Swoboda set for Karlsruhe 60m

<p>There was perhaps no better indication of Marybeth Sant-Price&rsquo;s inexperience on the global stage than when she took to the podium at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.</p>
<p>The US sprinter&rsquo;s name was announced, but she hesitated before stepping on to the platform, looking around for some sort of confirmation that that&rsquo;s what she was supposed to do. After a brief nod and smile from her fellow medallists, Sant-Price took her place on the podium and received her bronze medal.</p>
<p>Those hesitant and uncertain few steps on to the podium were somewhat symbolic of the journey she had been on to reach that point.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a51192cf24aa77910d1.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />Sant-Price&rsquo;s speed was initially discovered on the soccer pitch when she was 10 years old. Raised in the town of Parker, Colorado, she attended Valor Christian High School where she made a name for herself on the school&rsquo;s athletics team.</p>
<p>Before turning 18, and while in her final year of high school, Sant-Price reached the 60m final at the 2013 senior US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, clocking a PB of 7.36. Outdoors, she went on to clock a 100m PB of 11.25 &ndash; the fastest time in the world by an U20 athlete that year.</p>
<p>She also earned an invitation to compete in the high school girls&rsquo; race at the Diamond League meeting in New York, where she placed second, just 0.03 behind Ky Westbrook, who went on to win the world U18 title that year. In a highly competitive field, Sant-Price beat several athletes who went on to achieve great things in the years that followed, including 2021 Olympic 4x100m silver medallist Javianne Oliver, 2014 world U20 200m champion Kaylin Whitney, 2017 world 4x100m champion Aaliyah Brown, and world indoor 60m silver medallist Mikiah Brisco.</p>
<p>But instead of thriving after that season like her fellow competitors, Sant-Price started to struggle.</p>
<p>She was recruited by the University of Oregon at the end of 2013 and she competed on the collegiate circuit throughout 2014. She became the university&rsquo;s lead leg runner in the 4x100m, teaming up with Phyllis Francis, Jenna Prandini and Jasmine Todd. But towards the end of that season, Sant-Price was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right foot.</p>
<p>The 2015 season played out in similar fashion. Oregon reached the 4x100m final at the NCAA Championships on home soil in Eugene, and Sant-Price ran a strong lead leg for the hosts, but a botched second exchange ended in a disqualification for the team.</p>
<p>Further disappointment came when Sant-Price was diagnosed with another stress fracture, this time in her left shin. A follow-up bone density scan confirmed she had osteopenia (weak bones).</p>
<p>&ldquo;That&rsquo;s when the doctor said to me, &lsquo;for your health further down the road, I think you should consider medically retiring&rsquo;,&rdquo; recalls Sant-Price. &ldquo;So I did; I listened, and I took two years off.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She was put on a &lsquo;medical&rsquo; break, which allowed her to retain her scholarship while continuing to receive treatment for her injuries.</p>
<p>During her time away from competition, she called Karim Abdel Wahab, the sprints coach at Colorado State University (CSU), who had shown interest in Sant-Price when she was a high school athlete. Her sisters, Kristen and Emily, had also studied at CSU, so Sant-Price was familiar with the institution. But Brian Bedard, the head coach at CSU, was somewhat reluctant because of Sant-Price&rsquo;s unproven collegiate seasons to date.</p>
<p>Bedard asked Sant-Price to do a time trial in the summer of 2017 and told her that if she broke 12 seconds then she could join the squad. After Sant-Price clocked just 12.4, Wahab asked Bedard to reconsider and Sant-Price was eventually welcomed on to the team.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556abf192cf24aa77910d7.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;My time at Oregon was a really tough period of my life,&rdquo; says Sant-Price. &ldquo;There was definitely a point in time where I thought I&rsquo;d never be where I am now. In about 2016, when I was told to medically retire, I thought that I was done. And once I thought I was done, I thought I was never going to reach my goals and dreams and the things I knew I was capable of.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Once I started at Colorado State University and decided to return to track, I feel like that&rsquo;s where my comeback started.&rdquo;</p>
<p>A bone density scan in late 2017 showed clear progress and Sant-Price was given the all-clear to resume training and competing. Although she didn&rsquo;t set any PBs in 2018, her first full season at CSU, she was simply pleased and relieved to be back competing, doing what she loves most.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d say 2019 was the turning point for me and things started moving in a positive direction,&rdquo; says Sant-Price, who is married to Hunter Price, a decathlete with a PB of 8035 and a fourth-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships.</p>
<p>When Wahab got a coaching job at South Carolina and left CSU, Sant-Price started training with Ryan Baily, the combined events coach at CSU (not to be confused with the former international sprinter with a similar name), and they clicked almost immediately.</p>
<p>Sant-Price set 60m PBs in her early season races, reducing her best to 7.31, then 7.26 and 7.18. For the first time in her career, she earned an individual spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships, where she competed in the 60m.</p>
<p>Her collegiate career concluded at the outdoor NCAA Championships later that year, where she competed in the 4x100m. CSU may not have reached the finals, but their relay team safely got the baton around in their heat, which went some way towards banishing the demons of Sant-Price&rsquo;s NCAAs experience from four years prior.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a95192cf24aa77910d4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<h2><br />World stage</h2>
<p>With her collegiate career &ndash; and her injuries &ndash; finally behind her, Sant-Price embarked on a professional career in 2020.</p>
<p>She competed outside the US for the first time, earning top-five finishes at races in Karlsruhe, Paris and Dusseldorf, and then finished sixth at the US Indoor Championships in Albuquerque &ndash; her highest placing at a national championships.</p>
<p>The Covid-19 pandemic effectively put an end to her 2020 competitive campaign, but she re-emerged in 2021, gradually chipping away at her times before clocking a 100m PB of 11.09. It was an ideal launch pad for the 2022 season.</p>
<p>Sant-Price&rsquo;s early season outings were encouraging to say the least. In mid-December last year, she set 60m PBs of 7.15 and 7.12. In January she set world-leading times of 7.11 and 7.08, then went even quicker in Fayetteville in February, running 7.06 and 7.04 to move into the top 30 on the world indoor all-time list.</p>
<p>Because she was still something of an unknown name internationally, she wasn&rsquo;t invited to compete on the international circuit, so all of her races were at collegiate invitational meetings. But Sant-Price was undeterred.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The race in Arkansas really showed me and taught me more about where I&rsquo;m at, the confidence I have in myself, and how fun this whole journey has been,&rdquo; she said at the time.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />She finished second at the US Indoor Championships in 7.08, earning a spot on the US team for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. And her good form continued in the Serbian capital, winning her heat (7.07), placing second in her semifinal (7.05) and finishing third in a highly competitive and high quality final in an equal PB of 7.04, just behind Mujinga Kambundji and Mikiah Brisco.</p>
<p>In an extremely close finish, four women clocked 7.04 and had to be separated by a photofinish. Sant-Price was two thousandths of a second ahead of pre-event favourite Ewa Swoboda. She also beat the likes of Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson and double world U20 champion Briana Williams.</p>
<p>All the pent-up determination and frustration from her years on the sidelines could well have been what gave Sant-Price the edge over her competitors in that close finish.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It has taken a lot of determination and confidence to mentally and physically get back to the point where I&rsquo;m at now,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m really proud of myself and how I went out and competed. It&rsquo;s my first senior team and my first World Championships, so I&rsquo;m happy to be on the podium.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel very proud of myself for how I handled the whole situation. We had three rounds and it was a long day, but I came out and competed really well &ndash; even though, physically, my hip didn&rsquo;t feel 100%. I still showed up and performed and that really gave me a lot of confidence.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel so vindicated and excited for outdoors and ready for what is next,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;And I know there&rsquo;s more, so that&rsquo;s even more exciting.&rdquo;</p>
<h2>Surprise package</h2>
<p>Usually when Sant-Price tells people she does athletics, they assume she competes in middle or long distances.</p>
<p>Standing at just 1.55m tall (5ft 1in), Sant-Price doesn&rsquo;t look like a typical sprinter. But she enjoys challenging people&rsquo;s perceptions of what a power-based athlete should be.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6255697d192cf24aa77910cb.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t look the part for a sprinter, but that drives me and makes me excited,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I like to go out and prove to people that you don&rsquo;t have to look a certain way; if you have a talent, you have a talent. I&rsquo;m tiny, but I like to go out there and compete and use my talent.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But with a global medal now in her possession, it won&rsquo;t be long before the wider athletics world starts to take note of the deceptively strong and speedy Sant-Price.</p>
<p>The World Athletics Championships Oregon22 is a huge goal for her. Not just because it&rsquo;s a global event on home soil; but because it is also where, back in 2015, her career as a promising collegiate sprinter started to unravel. To say Sant-Price has unfinished business at Hayward Field is an understatement.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Never let anyone define your path,&rdquo; says Sant-Price, who is still unsponsored but currently exploring her options. &ldquo;I feel like I&rsquo;m just touching my potential, and I could have been done a long time ago.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62556a31192cf24aa77910ce.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />&ldquo;The possibilities are endless and I&rsquo;m just going to take it meet by meet. I think my form from the indoor season is going to translate really well. I feel like I&rsquo;m running confidently now, I&rsquo;m running healthy now, and I&rsquo;m really excited to see what I can do outdoors.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I feel vindicated now, but I want to feel vindicated in Oregon this year. I want to go back and be on US soil, especially in Eugene where I originally started, and prove to myself and to everybody else that I belong, I&rsquo;m ready and I&rsquo;m here.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jon Mulkeen for World Athletics</strong></p>

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

With years of injuries now behind her, the US sprinter hopes to keep surprising people

Following global medal in Belgrade, Sant-Price ready to prove she belongs on world stage

<p>It has been a long jump in every respect for Marcell Jacobs since he last competed in a major championship on the boards in Belgrade.</p>
<p>Back then, in the mists of 2017, the Texas-born Italian was an also-jumped in his first love in track and field, failing to qualify for the long jump final at the European Indoor Championships.</p>
<p>Five years on, at the climax of the evening programme on day two of the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22, Jacobs was celebrating a place in the history books as the first reigning Olympic 100m champion to claim the world indoor 60m crown.</p>
<p>The 27-year-old did it in dramatic style, drawing on all of the strength, speed endurance, and killer long jumper&rsquo;s stride that took him to surprise Olympic gold in Tokyo in 9.80 to catch the US pair Christian Coleman and Marvin Bracy and snatch victory on the dip by the slenderest of margins in a European record of 6.41.</p>
<p>Coleman, the defending champion and world record-holder, must have thought that title he had won in Birmingham four years ago was still in his possession until he saw Jacobs flash up on his outside with the line in sight.</p>
<p>Both men were timed at 6.41, a world lead, and the margin was a mere 0.003 &ndash; 6.407 to 6.410, with Bracy taking bronze in 6.44, a lifetime best.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is fantastic: to be Olympic champion and now world indoor champion,&rdquo; said Jacobs, whose sprint breakthrough came with 60m victory at the European Indoor Championships in Torun 12 months ago.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s amazing to have the European record. I can&rsquo;t wait to go to the outdoors with the Americans.</p>
<p>&ldquo;They are great athletes. We will try to compete fast again outdoors.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the disappointment of such a narrow defeat &ndash; his first at 60m for six years &ndash; Coleman was consoled by projecting forward to the defence of his 100m title on home ground at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You want to come out and win,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but we put on a good show. We&rsquo;ll be head-to-head outdoors as well.</p>
<p>&ldquo;He [Jacobs] is a great athlete. I think it&rsquo;ll be neck and neck, just like today.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was a season&rsquo;s best. I executed a good race. I&rsquo;m just excited about carrying this momentum to the outdoor season.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It was the 26-year-old&rsquo;s first loss at 60m indoors since 12 March 2016, when he finished third behind Ronnie Baker and Cameron Burrell in the NCAA final in Birmingham, Alabama.</p>
<p>For Bracy, it was a second podium finish, the former American football wide receiver having taken silver in 2014.</p>
<p>The 28-year-old had been quickest in the morning heats, clocking a PB of 6.46, but in the semifinals Jacobs was the fastest qualifier, equalling the 6.45 world lead held jointly by Coleman and Bahamian Terrence Jones and improving his own national record.</p>
<p>Behind the clear medal winners in the final, Estonian Karl Erik Bazarov took fourth place in 6.58, with Briton Adam Thomas fifth in 6.60, Trinidad&rsquo;s Jerod Elcock sixth (6.63), Bolade Ajomale of Canada seventh (6.63) and Ivorian Arthur Cisse eighth (6.69).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Simon Turnbull for World Athletics<br /><br /></p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid; height: 110px;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
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<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center; height: 22px;" colspan="3"><strong>MEN'S 60m MEDALLISTS</strong></td>
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<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center; height: 22px;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968; height: 22px;">Marcell Jacobs 🇮🇹 ITA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968; height: 22px;">6.41 AR WL</td>
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<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center; height: 22px;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9; height: 22px;">Christian Coleman 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9; height: 22px;">6.41 SB</td>
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<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center; height: 22px;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e; height: 22px;">Marvin Bracy 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e; height: 22px;">6.44 PB</td>
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<tr style="height: 22px;">
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left; height: 22px;" colspan="3"><a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-championships/belgrade22/results/men/60-metres/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #ffffff;"><strong>Full results</strong></span></a></td>
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<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

World Athletics Indoor Championships

Olympic champion scoops world indoor 60m title by narrow margin

Jacobs leaps into history books with golden dip to take 60m in Belgrade

<p>Ewa Swoboda has stormed into the 60m spotlight in 2022, taking her PB down to a world-leading 6.99 during an unbeaten season she aims to cap with victory at the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22</strong>.</p>
<p>The Polish 24-year-old is among three athletes on the entry list to have run 7.05 or faster this year and with another two having dipped under 7.10, all signs point to a thrilling clash for the medals.</p>
<p>Swoboda looks a powerful force, however. European indoor champion in 2019, she now leads the world and has the four fastest times so far this year to her name. Her 6.99 moved her into the top 10 on the world all-time list, it being the first sub-seven-second women&rsquo;s 60m since the 6.97 that Murielle Ahoure ran to win the world indoor title in Birmingham in 2018.</p>
<p>Four years on from that competition in Birmingham, where Swoboda reached the semifinals, she had a record-breaking start to her season. Improving her own Polish record at the Orlen Cup in Lodz on 11 February, she ran 7.00 in what was her first competition in almost eight months following injury. She went on to narrowly beat Jamaica&rsquo;s five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Torun, 7.03 to 7.04, and returning to Torun 11 days later she broke seven seconds for the first time to win the Polish title.</p>
<p>While Thompson-Herah won&rsquo;t be racing in Belgrade, the entry list does feature another of this season&rsquo;s 7.04 sprinters in USA&rsquo;s Marybeth Sant-Price. Told by a doctor to consider retirement after suffering a series of injuries, the 26-year-old did step away from the sport but made a comeback and this season has improved her PB from 7.18 to the 7.04 she ran to win in Fayetteville last month.</p>
<p>Two weeks later she lined up at the US Indoor Championships and finished second to Mikiah Brisco to gain her first major championships place.</p>
<p>Before her US title win, 2017 NCAA 100m champion Brisco also triumphed at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in 7.07 and was second at the Millrose Games. She is edging closer to the 7.04 PB she set in 2020 and will also be well in the mix in Belgrade.</p>
<p>As will Switzerland&rsquo;s Mujinga Kambundji, the 2018 world indoor bronze medallist who claimed a 200m medal of the same colour at the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Her PB stands at 7.03, run in 2018, and this year she is just 0.02 off that.</p>
<p>Jamaican sprinters have won three of the past five women&rsquo;s world indoor 60m finals, while&nbsp;Thompson-Herah claimed bronze in 2016, and Briana Williams and Shericka Jackson will be looking to challenge to add to that medal tally.</p>
<p>Williams, who won world U18 100m and 200m titles in 2018, is still aged just 19 but improved her 60m PB to 7.09 in the heats at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix and then finished second in the final.</p>
<p>Jackson, meanwhile, might be a multiple world and Olympic 400m medallist but her impressive range means she also has a 60m best of 7.12 to her name.</p>
<p>The list of medal contenders also includes Britain&rsquo;s Daryll Neita, who improved her PB to 7.11 when finishing second behind Thompson-Herah at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Birmingham.</p>
<p>Swoboda&rsquo;s teammate Pia Skrzyszowska, a hurdles specialist, has also improved to 7.12 this season, while Switzerland&rsquo;s Geraldine Frey and Spain&rsquo;s Maria Isabel Perez are others in PB form.</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>

A look at the contenders in the women's 60m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.

Swoboda seeks more 60m success in Belgrade sprint showdown

<p>Having shot from international sprint novice to Olympic champion in 2021, Marcell Jacobs stands to make track and field history if he can follow up his surprise 100m victory in Tokyo with 60m gold at the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22</strong>.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it is a rather large if, given the presence in the field of Christian Coleman, the US sprinter who arrives in Serbia as the defending champion, world indoor 60m record-holder, 2022 world leader and reigning 100m world champion outdoors.</p>
<p>Still, Jacobs showed in Tokyo seven months ago that he is capable of rising to a challenge, and snatching the hand of opportunity. And, should the Italian manage to do so again at global level, he would become the first reigning Olympic 100m champion to claim the world indoor 60m crown. (Maurice Greene and Justin Gatlin both struck world indoor gold the year before their Olympic successes).</p>
<p>It was victory in the 60m final at the European Indoor Championships in Torun in March last year that launched Jacobs on the breakthrough path that took him through the 10-second barrier and onwards to Olympic glory in a European record 9.80 on the upward trajectory of his 2021 outdoor season.</p>
<p>The Texas-born former long jumper maintained that form with four meeting victories in the 2022 indoor season (6.51 in Berlin, 6.49 in Lodz, 6.50 in Lievin and 6.55 at the Italian Championships in Ancona), before suffering the first false start disqualification of his career in the Belgrade Indoor Meeting at the Stark Arena on 7 March.</p>
<p>Barring that setback, having won his heat on the world indoor track in 6.56, including preliminaries and finals Jacobs has won nine out of nine 60m races that he has started and finished this year &ndash; making it 14 in a row since he was pipped by Mike Rodgers in Lodz in February last year.</p>
<p>In the squat figure of Coleman, however, the Olympic 100m champ faces a rival who has won his last 20 races at the distance (heats included).</p>
<p>Coleman won the 2018 world indoor title in Birmingham, England, in 6.37, a championship record. That season he set a world record 6.34 at altitude in Albuquerque and now sits jointly on top of the 2022 world list with the 6.45 that took him to the US title in Spokane last month. Bahamian Terrence Jones clocked 6.45 in Lubbock, Texas, in January but is not on the entry list for Belgrade.</p>
<p>Should Coleman prevail, he would be only the second back-to-back winner of the title. Canada&rsquo;s Bruny Surin triumphed in Toronto in 1993 and in Barcelona in 1995.</p>
<p>Apart from Coleman, Jones and Jacobs, 2014 runner-up Marvin Bracy is the only other man to have ducked under 6.50 in 2022. He equalled his PB with 6.48 as runner-up to Coleman at the US Championships and is likely to be contending for another podium placing.</p>
<p>Also look out for Emmanuel Matadi. The 30-year-old, an African 200m bronze medallist six years ago, has rattled off Liberian records of 6.58, 6.56, 6.55 and 6.52 in the past two months but has raced heavily on the US circuit.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The African challenge will be further bolstered by Arthur Cisse, who equalled his Ivorian record of 6.53 in Metz last month. He missed the cut for the final in Birmingham four years ago by a tantalising 0.001.</p>
<p>The field also includes Rikkoi Brathwaite of the British Virgin Isles, runner up in the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, last weekend in a lifetime best 6.52.</p>
<p><strong>Simon Turnbull for World Athletics</strong></p>

A look at the contenders in the men's 60m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.

Jacobs targets world 60m title in Belgrade to go with Olympic gold

<p>Jamaica's five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah is the latest star announced for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup &ndash; a <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting &ndash; in Torun, Poland, on 22 February.</p>
<p>She will be joined at the Arena Torun by two athletes with world records in their sights: Ethiopia&rsquo;s Gudaf Tsegay, who set a world indoor 1500m record of 3:53.09 in Lievin last year, and her compatriot Selemon Barega, who moved to third on the world indoor 3000m all-time list with his 7:26.10 performance at the same French meeting.</p>
<p>Thompson-Herah claimed three gold medals in Tokyo &ndash; in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m &ndash; and will be testing her speed this indoor season as she races at the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham on 19 February before travelling to Torun.</p>
<p>Second on the world all-time list for 100m (10.54) and 200m (21.53), Thompson-Herah has a 60m PB of 6.98, run in 2017. The world record stands at 6.92, set by Irina Privalova in 1993.</p>
<p>Lining up alongside her in Torun will be Poland's 2019 European indoor 60m champion Ewa Swoboda and Switzerland's Ajla Del Ponte, who won the European indoor title last year.</p>
<p>Before Torun, both Tsegay and Barega will return to Lievin on 17 February, with Tsegay contesting the mile and Barega the 3000m.</p>
<p>Also announced for the meeting in Torun are Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist Femke Bol and home star Anna Kielbasinska, who earlier this month set a Polish indoor 400m record of 51.10 in Ostrava.</p>
<p>Other athletes already named for Torun include Olympic 100m hurdles bronze medallist Megan Tapper, Olympic pole vault bronze medallist Thiago Braz and Olympic relay medallists Roniesha McGregor, Iga Baumgart-Witan and Natalia Kaczmarek.</p>
<p>The ORLEN Copernicus Cup is the sixth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2022. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series, starting with Karlsruhe on 28 January and culminating in Madrid on 2 March.&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong>Organisers for World Athletics</strong></p>

Jamaica's five-time Olympic gold medallist is the latest star announced for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup.

Thompson-Herah takes to the track in Torun

<p>Double world champion Noah Lyles headlines the men&rsquo;s 60m at the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham &ndash; a <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting &ndash; at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on 19 February.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The 24-year-old, who was the fastest man in the world over 200m in 2021 (19.52), is ranked fourth on the global all-time list (19.50). He ran a 60m personal best of 6.56 for victory in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on 6 February and will line up in Birmingham alongside his fellow US sprinter Ronnie Baker, the bronze medallist in the 60m at the 2018 World Indoor Championships. Baker, who has a PB of 6.40 from 2018, opened his season with third place at the Millrose Games on 29 January.</p>
<p>"I&rsquo;ve run on the US indoor circuit this year, and this meet will be the final one for me," said Olympic 200m bronze medallist Lyles, who&nbsp;will compete at the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix for the first time. "I have seen a lot of fast times come from the Birmingham track, and I&rsquo;m looking forward to running there.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"My main focus this year is on defending my titles at the World Athletics Championships this summer and continuing to get better. Every training session and every race is working towards achieving that goal, and this race fits right into that."&nbsp;</p>
<p>The British contingent in Birmingham will be led by reigning national indoor champion Andy Robertson.</p>
<p>The M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix is the fifth meeting of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series, which started with Karlsruhe on 28 January and concludes in Madrid on 2 March.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Other athletes set to compete in Birmingham include five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah, Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis, world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder Grant Holloway, Olympic 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir and Olympic 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson.</p>
<p><strong>Organisers for World Athletics</strong></p>

Noah Lyles and Ronnie Baker have been announced for the men’s 60m.