• Freweyni Hailu hoping to retain title and claim a third world indoor gold
• Nadia Battocletti targeting her first major indoor medal
• Jessica Hull bids for the first of two possible medals at the championships

Ethiopia has enjoyed impressive dominance in the women’s 3000m at the World Indoor Championships, winning 10 of the past 12 titles. The nation looks to have a great chance of extending that with Freweyni Hailu returning to defend her title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26.

Hailu added the world indoor 3000m title in Nanjing last year to the 1500m title she won in Glasgow the year before and the 25-year-old holds the fastest time in the world this year – 8:24.59 from the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Liévin last month. She will be joined by her compatriot Aleshign Baweke, who wasn’t far behind in Liévin when setting a big PB of 8:26.29 after finishing fifth at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in January. 

Italy’s Nadia Battocletti has long been able to produce her best performances when medals are on the line and after winning 5000m bronze and 10,000m silver at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo, she will feel capable of claiming the first major indoor medal of her career. Italy’s last world indoor medal in this event came at the first edition in 1985 via Agnese Possamai. Battocletti set an Italian indoor 3000m record of 8:26.44 when finishing behind Hailu and Baweke in Liévin, but the 25-year-old tends to be a far more formidable force in championship settings. 

Australia will have strong representation in Jessica Hull and Linden Hall. Hull will have Friday’s first round of the 1500m in her legs when she toes the line for this final on Saturday but the Olympic 1500m silver medallist looks capable of improving on her bronze medal in last year’s world indoor 3000m final. 

Hall, meanwhile, was sixth in the world indoor 1500m final in 2022 and the 34-year-old produced an outright PB of 8:27.03 for 3000m in Boston in January, having joined Hall on Australia’s victorious mixed relay team at the World Cross Country Championships a fortnight prior.

The US charge will be led by Emily MacKay, who won bronze in the 2024 world indoor 1500m final. She recorded an impressive win over 2024 world indoor 3000m champion Elle St. Pierre at the recent US Indoor Championships, clocking 8:30.01, and with St. Pierre recently withdrawing from this event, Mackay will be backed up by Margot Appleton. 

Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka and Kazakhstan’s Norah Jeruto – the 2022 world champion in the 3000m steeplechase – are among the other entrants who look capable of contending, along with British duo Hannah Nuttall and Katie Snowden.   

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

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