2024 World Indoor Championships: All you need to know

This past weekend in Glasgow, Scotland the World Indoor Championships were held. Across the weekend there were many great performances and fast times were run. Today I will walk you through the top four races of the competition. 

But before I begin I would like to tell you about Track Talk by Kicking For Home, the Kicking For Home podcast for all things running. Below is a link to the newest episode where I talked about NCAA Indoors.

Now let’s get into the breakdown of the weekend. 

The first event I will be talking about is the Men’s 60m Dash. This race was very hyped up because of the two Americans in this field. Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman are both great American sprinters and as I said in last week’s newsletter, they would be threats to the title. In the lead-up to this race Noah Lyles, who as you may know is a very confident athlete was sure he would win. Coleman who is the world record holder in this event was the same way, and then a storyline was born. As you could have guessed these two individuals finished one and two, unfortunately for Lyles, Coleman won in a time of 6.41, compared to Lyles’s 6.44. This summer the U.S Olympic sprint team will be filled to the brim with talent, and these two will surely be wearing the red, white, and blue in Paris. 

The next race I will discuss is the Women’s 3000m, this race was the venue for a huge upset by an American. Once again if you have read my newsletters as of late you may know about Elle St. Pierre. She was coming off winning the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games and winning the national title in this event. As I said this was an upset, St. Pierre was able to beat the Ethiopian, two-time world champion, and world record holder in 5000m, Gudaf Tsegay. In a field of 16 women, St. Pierre, Tsegay and three other women were able to dip under 8:30. At the front however, St. Pierre was able to beat Tsegay by under a second, finishing in 8:20.87 to Tsegay’s 8:21.13. Along with winning the title St. Pierre was able to leave with a new American record. This summer it will be interesting to see what event St. Pierre runs and if she can represent the USA in Paris. 

Next, I would like to talk about the women’s 400m. This race was a great one because there was a World Record run. Femke Bol from the Netherlands who you may know already has been very dominant in the 400m indoors and outdoors and has been second-best behind Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the world in the 400m Hurdles. In this particular event, Bol already held this record along with the second-fastest time of all time, running a PR and a world record at a time of 49.24, which she ran just a month ago. In this championship final, Bol was able to make it through all of the rounds, winning all of them. In the final, it was the same theme, and this time she won by more. She was able to win by almost exactly one second, in a time of 49.17, a new World Record. Behind Bol was fellow Dutch runner Lieke Klaver who finished in 50.16. Looking ahead, this summer in Paris it will be awesome to see the showdown between Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol. 

The final event I will talk about today is the Men’s 3000m which was also a race surrounded with anticipation. It was anticipated because it had the newly crowned world record in the indoor 2 mile in Josh Kerr from Great Britain, and the fourth fastest miler of all time and American 3000m champion, Yared Nuguse. It was rightfully highly anticipated because this race came down to the closing stages. Josh Kerr was able to pull through with the win on his home turf after he made a move late, to push for the win. He didn’t just run away with it, however, as Yared Nuguse made a move late as well to place second. Kerr finished in a time of 7:42.98, to Nuguse’s 7:43.59. These two will be an incredible matchup come the Olympics, and their matchup will be even better when they race against Jakob Ingebrigsten, the reigning Olympic champion in the 1500m.

All four of these races were great ones to watch, and all of the athletes I discussed will be title contenders this summer in Paris for the Olympics.