Armand “Mondo” Duplantis was the headline act as a trio of modern-day track and field greats starred on an electrifying night of action at the World Athletic Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Saturday.
Duplantis was pushed all the way by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in a battle royale before bagging a third world indoor pole vault gold with a best of 6.15m.
“We put on a good show for everybody,” said Duplantis. “It’s great to be pushed and I’m happy for Manolo [Karalis]. I had to grind for it tonight.”
Photo: AFP
“It’s good for me especially, and it’s just great competition. It’s just such a higher level than what pole vault’s ever been, so it’s good. You just have to want it,” he said.
It was a truly pulsating competition, echoed in the men’s 3,000m won by a hair’s breadth by Norway’s multi-medaled Jakob Ingebrigtsen, incredibly for his first world indoor title.
“My competitors study me, but you have to race many times to be able to respond in all scenarios,” said Ingebrigtsen, who pipped Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi at the line in a dramatic, fast-finishing race.
“I’ve done a lot of racing, but I’m not perfect. It’s all about learning. The more you race, the more you learn, so you can make the right decisions at the right point to increase the possibility of winning,” he said. “I don’t enjoy the 1,500m warm-up, but the racing is a lot of fun, and that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow — have a lot of fun.”
The third of the stellar trio on show was Grant Holloway, the US athlete claiming an unprecedented third successive 60m hurdles victory that extended his indoor win streak to 94 races dating back a remarkable 11 years to when he was 16 years old.
“This one was a little bit different,” Holloway said. “I didn’t have two great rounds and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final, but I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was missing.”
Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji produced a savage dip to regain the 60m crown she last won in Belgrade in 2022, clocking 7.04 seconds to see off Italy’s European champion Zaynab Dosso by two-hundredths of a second.
“Every win is always good for the confidence,” the Swiss racer said. “It shows me that we’re doing a lot of things right, because not every year is the same. You can’t just take one recipe and do it every year.”
“You always have to adapt on how you feel, so I’m really happy to see that my coach can feel what I need, and we can do what’s optimal for me,” she said.
Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu won the women’s 3,000m in 8:37.21, the US’ Shelby Houlihan — just two months after returning from a four-year doping ban — edging Austrian Jessica Hull for silver by two-hundredths.
There was a Cuban one-two in the women’s triple jump, Leyanis Perez Hernandez taking gold with a first-effort 14.93m ahead of Liadagmis Povea and Spain’s Ana Peleteiro-Compaore.
Amber Anning ensured a first British gold in the women’s 400m by edging the US’ Alexis Holmes by three-hundredths for the win in 50.60sec, Norway’s Henriette Jaeger taking bronze.
The US men made up for Holmes’ silver by sweeping the men’s 400m, Christopher Bailey winning in 45.08sec ahead of Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson.
Japanese badminton star Chiharu Shida on Tuesday told Chinese fans to “stop stalking” her, adding that she was “very scared” by the unwanted attention. Shida, who won women’s doubles bronze at the Paris Olympics last year, has a strong following in China partly because of her engagement with the local culture. The 27-year-old, currently competing at the Badminton Asia Championships in Ningbo, China, has been dubbed the “Badminton Goddess” by fans and media. She hit out at some supporters on Tuesday, accusing them in an Instagram post of taking their fandom too far. “Every time we compete in China we always experience the harm
Two people died on Thursday after fans and police clashed outside the Estadio Monumental in Santiago ahead of a game in South America’s Copa Libertadores, Chilean authorities said. The fatalities happened shortly before the match between Chile’s Colo-Colo and Brazilian club Fortaleza, when police blocked about 100 fans when they attempted to enter the stadium. There were conflicting accounts of how the fatalities occurred, with local media reporting that one of the dead was a 13-year-old boy. The other victim was an 18-year-old woman, according to a relative at the hospital where she was treated. The fans died after being caught underneath a
A potential European league could be a gold mine for the NBA as the top-flight North American league looks to muscle its way into a deep pool of talent across the Atlantic Ocean. The NBA is exploring the launch of a European league with world basketball governing body FIBA as a partner, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last week, with an eye toward a 16-team format made up of 12 permanent clubs and four qualifiers. The continent’s longstanding Euroleague quickly signaled its readiness to enter into talks with the NBA, even as it has balked at the idea of another league in
Hans Niemann, the chess grand master at the heart of an alleged cheating scandal, has yet to provide an explanation on his late withdrawal from the Freestyle Grand Slam in Paris. Niemann, who was accused of cheating by world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in 2023 before the matter was settled outside court, received a wild card for the event, but informed organizers he was pulling out for “personal reasons” less than 48 hours before the start of the 12-player tournament. “I texted him on Friday at 7pm. I said: ‘Hans, we’re already here. Are you here as well?’ And he read the
RSS