Azu's return home keys undefeated season
Sprinter wins men's 60 meters in World Indoor Champs after move back to Wales
Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain completed an undefeated undercover campaign near the end of an eventful month when he won the men’s 60-meter dash in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Friday.
The 23-year-old Welshman tied his personal best with a time of 6.49 seconds while finishing a hundredth of a second ahead of silver medalist Lachlan Kennedy of Australia, who ran 6.50.
Akani Simbine of South Africa, who has placed fourth or fifth in the 100 in six of the last seven global outdoor championships, finished third in 6.54. He was followed by Zhenye Xie of China in 6.58, Rohan Watson of Jamaica in 6.59, and Ronnie Baker of the U.S., also in 6.59.
Baker had looked smooth and under control in winning his first-round heat in 6.56 and his semifinal in 6.51 earlier in the day, but he appeared to have strained his left hamstring during the final 10 meters of the final while battling Simbine for the bronze medal.
Eloy Benitez of Puerto Rico had set a national record of 6.49 in a first-round heat, but he pulled up during the first 20 meters of the final with an apparent injury.
Azu’s victory was his fourth of the season without a loss and came 13 days after he had run 6.49 in winning the European title in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.
“I knew I could win it,” he said in a bbc.com/sport post. “I said at the Europeans I want to take over the world. This is just the start of our journey.”
Kennedy had run 6.43 for 60 meters in an outdoor meet earlier this year when he had an aiding breeze of 1.6 meters per second. He and Azu had the best reaction times of anyone in the final and it was a two-man race for the gold medal when they raced past 40 meters.
It initially appeared that Kennedy might have edged Azu by the smallest of margins when they flashed across the finish line, but Azu was awarded the victory.
“The plan is to keep winning,” Azu said. “The sky isn’t the limit - there is way, way more than that. Let’s see what the summer brings – I’m excited for that.”
Azu, who became a father for the first time shortly before the European championships, won the 100 meters in the European U23 championships in 2023, but he had been disqualified in his heat of the event in the Olympic Games in Paris last summer.
That disappointing performance factored into a decision to leave his training group in Italy and return to Wales and he said the change has played a major role in his success this year.
“It’s been huge,” he said. Family is everything for me… Being back with my family, that support team around me, is huge. They allow me to believe in myself and that’s something you can’t teach. It’s so important to success.”
While Azu’s victory capped the first day of the three-day meet, Andy Diaz Hernandez of Italy won the first of five finals when he bounded 17.80 meters (58 feet 4¾ inches) on his first attempt in the men’s triple jump.
After fouling on his second attempt, he passed his jumps in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds before running through the board on his sixth attempt after he had already clinched the gold medal.
Yaming Zhu of China won the silver medal with a best of 17.33 (56-10¼), and he was followed by defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso at 17.15 (56-3¼).
Almir dos Santos of Brazil appeared to have finished third in the competition with a best of 17.22 (56-6), but he was later disqualified for not complying with rules concerning the spikes in which he competed.
The 17.80 jump by Diaz Hernandez bettered his previous indoor best of 17.71 (58-1¼) that he had set in winning the European indoor title.
“My plan was never to jump only once,” he said in a World Athletics post. “There was a very long wait in between jumps, so I was quite inactive for too long and this led to the decision of skipping the following attempts. But, I feel strong, and this is indicative that good jumps could happen this summer.”
In other finals, Sarah Mitton of Canada won her second consecutive title in the women’s shot put, Saga Vanninen of Finland took the pentathlon, and Sanghyeok Woo of Korea placed first in the men’s high jump.
Mitton dominated a shot put competition that featured the top three competitors in the world this year as her best of 20.48 (67-2¼) gave her a substantial margin of victory over silver medalist Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, who had a best of 20.07 (65-10¼). Chase Jackson of the U.S. had a top mark of 20.06 (65-9¾) while winning her second consecutive bronze medal in the World indoor championships after winning a silver medal in the 2002 meet in Belgrade, Serbia.
Mitton unleashed her 20.48 effort in the sixth round after she had previously hit 20.36 (66-9¾) in the second round and 20.15 (66-1½) in the fifth.
Schilder won the European title with a yearly world-leading mark of 20.69 (67-10¾), but she struggled with her consistency on Friday. She fouled on two of her six efforts and her second-best mark was 19.67 (64-6½).
“I'm really happy with how it turned out today,” Mitton said in a World Athletics post. “There’s really nothing I can do to stop them from throwing far. And honestly, today was really fun, because everybody threw well. We had three girls over 20 metres, multiple 20-metre throws. So that makes it better – when you win when everyone's on top of their game.”
Like Azu in the men’s 60 and Diaz Hernandez in the men’s triple jump, Vanninen won the pentathlon after winning a gold medal in the European championships.
Although her total of 4,821 points was her third-highest score of the season, it gave her a comfortable margin of victory over silver medalist Kate O’Connor of Ireland, who had 4,742, and bronze medalist Taliyah Brooks of the U.S., who scored 4,669.
Brooks was in the lead after running 8.09 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles to start the competition. But American teammate Timara Chapman had taken a four-point lead over her in the standings when she cleared 1.81 (5-11¼) in the high jump.
Vanninen was only 16 points behind Chapman after the high jump as she had run 8.30 in the hurdles and cleared 1.81 in the high jump. And she took the lead for good when she put the shot 15.81 (51-10½).
She then extended her advantage over second-place Brooks to 91 points after spanning 6.37 (20-10¾) in the long jump.
The Finn capped her victory with a time of 2:15.28 in the 800, while O’Connor overtook Brooks for the silver medal when she ran 2:14.19 to the Americans’ 2:19.67.
Chapman placed fifth with 4,476 points.
Vanninen’s victory followed a silver medal in last year’s World indoor championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and she had previously won a pair of global U20 titles in the heptathlon in 2021 and ’22.
“This has been a big dream for me and now it's come true,” she said in a World Athletics post. “My training had been going really well, so I knew that I was in good shape, but I had a little problem with my knee which made me a bit nervous. This will help with my confidence, and of course with the World Championships in Tokyo, which is my biggest goal.”
Woo tied his season best of 2.31 (7-7) in winning the men’s high jump for the second time in the last three World indoor championships.
The next four finishers each cleared 2.28 (7-5¾), with defending World indoor and Olympic champion Hamish Kerr of New Zealand placing second because he cleared that height on his first attempt.
Raymond Richards of Jamaica and Elijah Kosiba of the U.S. each cleared 2.28 on their second attempts, but Richards finished third because he had fewer total misses than Kosiba.
Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine placed fifth because he needed three attempts to make 2.28. He had cleared a yearly-world leading height of 2.34 (7-8) in winning the European championships.
Woo cleared 2.14 (7-0½) and 2.20 (7-2½) on his first attempts on Friday, but he fell into a three-way tie for third place when he needed two tries to make 2.24 (7-4¼).
However, he moved into a tie for first with Kerr when he cleared 2.28 (7-5¾ ) and he took the lead when he made 2.31 (7-7) on his first jump. Kerr missed all three of his attempts at that height.
Woo said in a World Athletics post that his disappointing seventh-place finish in the Olympic Games last summer served as motivation for this year’s World indoor championships.
“It was because of my experience at the Paris Olympics last year that I was able to win this gold medal,” he said. “After the Olympics, it was a bit tough. But looking back, I think it was just a temporary phase. My coach and I decided that we’d prepare hard for the World Indoor Championships, so we worked together with that mindset. And now that I've been able to do well again, it's truly a wonderful night for me.”
In addition to the five finals contested on Friday, qualifying races were held in the men’s and women’s 400, 800, and 1,500 meters.
The men’s 400 consisted of first-round races, as well as two semifinals, and Americans Brian Faust, Jacory Patterson, and Christopher Bailey posted the three fastest times in the semifinals with marks of 45.89, 45.89, and 45.91, respectively.
Bailey ran 45.91 while easily finishing first in the first semifinal, while Faust nipped Patterson at the line in the second semifinal.
There were only 13 entrants in the women’s 400, so the top two finishers in the three first-round heats advanced to the final.
Henriette Jaeger of Norway took the first heat in 51.42 and Alexis Holmes of the U.S. placed first in the second in 51.67. But neither of them looked as smooth and under control as Amber Anning of Great Britain, who clocked 50.79 in the third heat.
Yanis Meziane of France posted the fastest time in the first round of the men’s 800 at 1:46.07, while Josh Hoey of the U.S. and Eliott Crestan of Belgium placed first in two of the other heats with times of 1:48.14 and 1:48.94, respectively.
Hoey’s 1:43.24 clocking in the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships last month was the second-fastest time in history and Crestan was the bronze medalist in last year’s World championships.
In the women’s 800, defending champion Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia won one of four heats with a time of 2:04.52 and Nia Akins of the U.S. had the quickest qualifying time at 2:03.29.
In the men’s 1,500, the top two finishers in each of four heats, plus the fastest third-place time advanced to the final.
While world record-holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway took his heat in 3:39.80, Neil Gourley of Great Britain placed first in his at 3:36.60 and Luje Houser of the U.S. won his in 3:41.16.
Mariano Garcia of Spain took the fourth heat in 4:02.68 after Festus Lagat of Kenya led the field through the first 200 in 36.75 seconds, the first 400 in 76.57, and the opening 800 in 2:29.23.
The three heat winners in the women’s 1,500 were Olympic bronze medalist Georgia Hunter Bell of Great Britain in 4:09.21, world record-holder Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia in 4:11.87, and 2023 World championship silver medalist Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia in 4:12.25.
The nine finals to be contested on Saturday will be the men’s and women’s 400, 3,000, and pole vault, as well as the men’s 60 high hurdles, the women’s 60, and the women’s triple jump.
You can click here for an event schedule for the meet, as well as results.