World pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis (© Getty Images)
World pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis, two-time world indoor 60m hurdles champion Nia Ali, world mile champion Diribe Welteji and Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse are among the global gold medallists who will start their seasons at the Astana Indoor Meet for Amin Tuyakov Prizes – the first ever World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event in Asia – on Saturday (27).
As this year’s opening World Indoor Tour Gold meeting, many athletes will begin their 2024 campaigns in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. A total of seven Gold meetings feature on the World Indoor Tour calendar, with wild card entries for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Glasgow 24 on offer.
It all starts in Astana, where Duplantis will compete for the first time since improving his world record to 6.23m at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene in September.
That was a second world record of the year for the Swedish 24-year-old, who also cleared 6.22m in Clermont-Ferrand in February.
He went on to retain his world title in Budapest in August and now has his sights on another two global gold medals in 2024 – at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and at the Olympic Games in Paris.
He’ll be looking for a strong start in Astana, where he will compete in a field also featuring Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen, who cleared a national record of 6.00m last year, plus USA’s Cole Walsh, Belgium’s Ben Broeders, Germany’s Oleg Zernikel and China's Zhong Tao.
The women’s high jump stars Kazakhstan’s Nadezhda Dubovitskaya, who set the Asian record of 2.00m in 2021 and claimed bronze at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, while the men’s shot put features USA’s NACAC champion Roger Steen.
In the women's long jump, Romania's world bronze medallist Alina Rotaru-Kottmann goes up against Serbia's Milica Gardasevic and China's Asian Games winner Xiong Shiqi.
From the road to track for Welteji
After breaking the world record to win the mile title at the World Athletics Road Running Championships Riga 23 in October, Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji will race the distance on the track for the first time in Astana.
The 21-year-old, who also claimed 1500m silver at the World Championships in Budapest last year, clocked 4:20.98 to win in Riga and improve on the inaugural road mile record.
During the last World Indoor Tour season, she ran a PB of 8:33.44 to win the 3000m in Lievin.
Taking on the world champion in Astana will be her Ethiopian compatriot Axumawit Embaye, the two-time world indoor 1500m silver medallist, plus Kazakhstan’s national 3000m steeplechase champion Daisy Jepkemei.
Fast times are also on the cards in the men’s 3000m as Ethiopia’s two-time world indoor 1500m champion and former world record-holder Samuel Tefera goes up against his compatriot Getnet Wale, the Olympic 3000m steeplechase fourth-place finisher who clocked 7:24.98 for 3000m in Lievin in 2021.
Sprint showdowns
Athletes in the women’s and men’s 60m hurdles will need to navigate heats before making it to the finals, which close Saturday’s programme.
USA’s Ali is a two-time world indoor 60m hurdles champion, having gained gold in Sopot in 2014 and Portland in 2016 before winning her world 100m hurdles title in Doha in 2019.
In Astana she will line up alongside athletes including Jamaica’s Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper and USA’s Evonne Britton, while heat two features Nigeria’s 2022 world 100m hurdles champion Tobi Amusan, Ireland’s Sarah Lavin and USA’s Alaysha Johnson.
In the men’s event, Britain’s 2018 world indoor champion Andrew Pozzi makes his comeback after injury. Now guided by two-time world 110m hurdles champion Colin Jackson, Pozzi will compete for the first time since last February as he features on an entry list also starring Cuba’s Roger Iribarne, Milan Trajkovic of Cyprus and Yaqoub Al-Youha of Kuwait.
There are also heats for the 60m and in the men’s event, Canada's De Grasse will run his first indoor race since 2021 in a discipline for which he holds a PB of 6.60, set in 2015.
As well as winning 200m gold, De Grasse claimed 4x100m silver and 100m bronze at the Olympics in Tokyo and the 29-year-old will have the opportunity to defend his title in Paris in August.
Jamaican 100m champion Rohan Watson, Japan’s two-time world relay medallist Shuhei Tada, 2019 European indoor gold medallist Jan Volko of Slovak Republic, USA’s Demek Kemp and Britain’s 2014 world indoor champion Richard Kilty are also among the entries.
The women’s event features Jamaica’s world and Olympic 4x100m gold medallist Natasha Morrison against her compatriot Christania Williams and Asian indoor champion Farzaneh Fasihi in the first heat, while the second heat has Jamaica’s world U20 100m champion Tina Clayton, who clocked 7.02 for the distance in Kingston last year. Her rivals include Anthonique Strachan of The Bahamas, USA’s Destiny Smith-Barnett and Germany’s Alexandra Burghardt.
Three-time world indoor champion Pavel Maslak of Czechia faces Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald in the men’s 400m, while Jamaica’s world indoor bronze medallist Stephenie Ann McPherson heads the entries for the women’s race.
