The 15th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics will be held between 7–9 March 2014 in Sopot, Poland.
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Host city: Sopot, Poland
Date(s): 7–9 March
Main stadium:Ergo Arena
Participation: 587 athletes from
141 nations
Events: 26
With just two days to go to the start of the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the Polish city of Sopot which
will be held between 7-9 March, the IAAF website editorial team have
put the spotlight on some of the top athletes in action this weekend in
the men's events at the ERGO Arena.
Please note that this preview is based on entry information received by the IAAF but before the official start lists have been decided.
60m
In
the absence of the injured James Dasaolu and Jimmy Vicaut, the emerging
young US sprinter Marvin Bracy heads to Sopot bearing the mantle of
favourite. The 20-year-old won the US title at high altitude in
Albuquerque in 6.48 and boasts a 6.50 best at sea level, courtesy of his
Millrose Games victory.
Other likely contenders
include Trell Kimmons, who finished just 0.01 down on Bracy in the US
Championships final, St Kitts and Nevis’ Jason Rogers, Qatar’s Femi
Ogunode, Jamaican Nesta Carter and Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers, the
latter pair respectively second and third in Istanbul two years ago.
400m
Lalonde
Gordon, the Olympic bronze medallist from Trinidad and Tobago, is by
far the fastest man among the entrants having run 45.17 this winter.
Dominican
Republic’s Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos and Costa Rica’s
2012 World Indoor Championships winner Nery Brenes are also in the field
but next quickest on season’s bests are the one-two from the US
Championships, Kyle Clemons and David Verburg.
Czech
Republic’s reigning European champion, indoors and outdoors, Pavel
Maslek and Great Britain’s Nigel Levine should also feature.
800m
A
re-run of last year’s 2013 IAAF World Championships is a possibility,
with four of the top five finishers from the Moscow final having been
entered.
On that occasion, the USA’s Nick Symmonds got
closest to Mohammed Aman, the prodigious Ethiopian who will be
defending the crown he won as a junior in Istanbul in 2012.
Aman
will start as clear favourite in Sopot after running an African record
of 1:44.52 in Birmingham. The in-form South African Andre Olivier, the
Polish pair of two-time European indoor champion Adam Kszczot and Marcin
Lewandowski, Spain’s Kevin Lopez and Britain’s Andrew Osagie have all
also been running well and so it will be a battle just to make the
final.
1500m
This
promises to be one of the most open of the men’s events. All three medal
winners from Istanbul two years ago are back again: Morocco’s Abdalaati
Iguider, Turkey’s Ilham Tanui Ozbilen and Ethiopia’s Mekonnen
Gebremedhin.
The field also includes Djibouti's world
800m bronze medallist Ayanleh Souleiman who, despite his Moscow
accolade, prefers the longer distance.
Others likely
to be in the mix are Mohamed Moustaoui, the Moroccan who heads the 2014
world list with a hand-timed 3:35.0, the Kenyan pair of Bethwell Birgin
and Silas Kiplagat and USA's Will Leer, the bearded winner of last
month’s Wanamaker Mile in a world-leading 3:52.47 for the imperial
distance.
3000m
A
place in the record books beckons Bernard Lagat. A fourth gold medal in
the event would put the Peter Pan of the track one victory ahead of
Haile Gebrselassie in the all-time annals of the World Indoor
Championships.
The trouble for the 39-year-old US
champion is that he faces a formidable rival who just happens to be his
junior by 20 years. Hagos Gebrhiwet, the world 5000m silver medallist,
has been untouchable on the boards this winter. Fellow Ethiopian Dejen
Gebremeskel and USA’s Galen Rupp also have major championship medal
pedigree and so there should be an enthralling battle for the medals.
60m hurdles
With
a trio of sub-7.50 times to his name in 2014, and a best of 7.45,
Pascal Martinot-Lagarde starts as favourite. The young Frenchman sneaked
on to the podium alongside Aries Merritt and Liu Xiang in Istanbul two
years ago and promises to become his country’s first fully-fledged
golden boy in the event, although Stephane Caristan prevailed in Paris
in 1985 in the forerunner of the World Indoor Championships, the World
Indoor Games.
Martinot-Lagarde’s team-mate Garfield
Darien is the second quickest on the 2014 season’s list of the men who
will be in Sopot, boasting a 2014 best of 7.53 but European outdoor
champion Sergey Shubenkov is likely to be a big threat. US champion Omo
Osaghae will be at his first major international championship and will
be looking to make a big impression as well.
High jump
Ivan
Ukhov has been a man on a mission in the wake of his failure to make
the podium on home ground at the World Championships in Moscow last
August.
The Olympic champion heads to Sopot unbeaten
this winter and on the back of a European record-equalling 2.42m
clearance in Prague last week and his sights are on Javier Sotomayor’s
global indoor mark of 2.43m as well as the gold medal.
Fellow
2012 Olympic medallist Mutaz Essa Barshim, from Qatar, has been in fine
form recently and won the Asian indoor title with 2.36m while USA’s
2012 Olympic silver medallist Erik Kynard has won five of his six
outings this winter and set a personal best of 2.34m when winning in
Birmingham. Italy’s Marco Fassinotti has also been showing potential
podium form with an Italian record of 2.34m last month.
Pole vault
An
ill-timed injury after his world indoor record of 6.16m in Donetsk
means that France’s Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie is not able to
defend his title won in Istanbul. Raphael Holzdeppe and Bjorn Otto, the
Germans who joined the French star on the podium at the World
Championships last year as well as at the Olympic Games and European
Championships in 2012, will also be missing from Sopot.
So who can grasp the hand of opportunity?
Malte
Mohr is the most likely candidate. The German cleared 5.84m to win his
national title in Leipzig just over a week ago and then improved to an
indoor PB of 5.90m in Berlin on Saturday.
Home hope Pawel
Wojciechowski, the 2011 world outdoor champion, is finally regaining
form following injury. Look out also for Luke Cutts, the new British
record-holder with a mark of 5.83m, and Brazil’s rapidly improving 2012
world junior champion Thiago Braz.
Long jump
A
winner at the Russian Winter meeting with 8.30m and in Birmingham with
8.14m, 2013 world champion Aleksandr Menkov heads to Sopot as the man to
beat.
The Russian faces the two men who finished
behind him in the medal frame in Moscow last August, the Netherlands’
Ignisious Gaisah and Mexico’s Luis Rivera, as well as the two men
directly behind him on the 2014 world list, Greece’s Louis Tsatoumas and
US champion Tyron Stewart.
China’s Jinzhe Li – guided
by Mike Powell’s old coach, Randy Huntington – could be a threat, while
Panama's 2008 Olympic champion Irving Saladino and Brazil’s 2012 world
indoor champion Mauro Vinicius da Silva are also in the field.
Triple jump
Pedro
Pablo Pichardo heads the world lists indoors and outdoors, having
followed his outdoor effort of 17.76m in Havana early last month with
17.32m on his indoor debut in Prague last week.
The 20-year-old took the silver medal behind Teddy Tamgho in Moscow last summer and starts as the strong favourite.
Fellow
Cuban Ernesto Reve jumped 17.05m in Prague and looks a likely medal
contender, together with Romania’s Marian Oprea, US champion Chris
Carter and Russia’s Lyukman Adams.
Shot
Defending
champion Ryan Whiting uncorked a stunning 22.23m to win the US title
and will have high hopes of matching the gold he won in Istanbul two
years ago. His US team-mate Kurt Roberts, with 21.50m, and Germany’s
two-time world outdoor champion David Storl are next on the 2014 world
list.
However, home advantage could help Tomasz
Majewski. The two-time Olympic champion has already been in winning form
in the ERGO Arena, having thrown a season’s best of 20.70m to win the
Polish title.
Heptathlon
There
is only one favourite in the heptathlon. Ashton Eaton’s last three
outings in this event have ended in a world record and although there
might not be a fourth straight superlative, it is difficult to believe
that someone could beat him.
The 26-year-old comes to
Sopot as the reigning Olympic, world and world indoor champion in
combined events competitions and the world indoor-record holder with
6645 from Istanbul two years ago.
Other medal
contenders should be the Netherlands’ 2014 world indoor leader and
reigning European indoor champion Eelco Sintnicolaas and 2011 European
indoor champion Andrei Krauchanka from Belarus.
Canada’s
Damian Warner will be starting his first career heptathlon and is
surely looking for a top-three finish as well. The world decathlon
bronze medallist has already set a 7.69 personal best in the 60m hurdles
this season.
4x400m relay
Two months before the inaugural IAAF World Relays go to Nassau, The Bahamas will be looking to strike global gold in Sopot.
They
have three members of the quartet that upset the USA to win the London
2012 Olympic Games gold – Chris Brown, Michael Mathieu and Ramon Miller –
in their squad.
The USA, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia, Great Britain and Jamaica are the other likely contenders in the race for the medals.
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