Record setters Armand Duplantis, Keely Hodgkinson headline Torun athletics world indoors

TORUN – Olympic gold medallists Armand Duplantis and Keely Hodgkinson headline a stellar cast of athletes for the World Athletics Indoor Championships, which kick off in Torun on March 20.

Both Sweden’s Duplantis and Briton Hodgkinson arrive in the Polish city fresh from new world records.

Duplantis sailed over 6.31m on home soil last week, his 15th world record in the pole vault. Hodgkinson, meanwhile, smashed the 24-year-old record for the indoor 800m in February.

“I’ve had my healthiest winter for years,” Hodgkinson said.

“It was so frustrating being on the sidelines for such a long time. I’m just happy to be able to do an indoor season and have nothing holding me back.”

For Duplantis, it is a veritable trip down memory lane, the US-born Swede having set his first world record, of 6.17m, in Torun back in February 2020. “I’ve been fortunate enough to break a few since then, but the first one’s always a very life-changing moment,” said Duplantis, who will be seeking a fourth world indoor title.

In the men’s 60m, defending champion Jeremiah Azu of Britain will face stiff competition from world and Paris Olympic 100m silver medallist, Jamaican Kishane Thompson.

Jamaica’s men are yet to win a world indoor 60m title, but Thompson will have able allies in teammates Ackeem Blake, the 2024 world indoor 60m bronze medallist, and world 200m bronze medallist Bryan Levell.

“People try and make out like it’s pressure going in defending it,” said Azu, who clocked 6.47sec in Berlin in 2026 to go third in the all-time British list. “But I think I’ve got the advantage over most of the competitors there that I’ve actually gone and done it.”

US champion Jordan Anthony boasts a season-leading 6.43, while Thompson has run 6.46.

American Trayvon Bromell, the 2016 world 60m champion and twice a world 100m bronze medallist, has clocked a season’s best to match Azu, along with Levell.

Singapore’s Marc Louis is in the start list.

Britain’s Josh Kerr will be seeking a second 3,000m world indoor title. The 2023 world outdoor 1,500m champion and 2024 Olympic silver medallist is bouncing back from a calf tear sustained in the 1,500m final at the 2025 world outdoor championships in Tokyo. He insisted that triumphing in Torun would be a “really big stepping stone” into the season.

“I believe I am the best athlete in the world at these distances,” said Kerr. “There’s no one in the world who can convince me otherwise.”

His rivals might argue differently, however, and the Scotsman will line up against the two other 1,500m medallists from the Paris Games, Americans Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse, in what is expected to be one of the stand-out races of the March 20-22 meet.

Aside from Duplantis and Azu, there are 10 other reigning champions from Nanjing in 2025 who will defend their titles.

They are Woo Sang-hyeok (high jump), Mattia Furlani (long jump), Andy Diaz Hernandez (triple jump) and Tom Walsh (shot put) in the men’s events, and Freweyni Hailu (3000m), Devynne Charlton (60m hurdles), Nicola Olyslagers (high jump), Marie-Julie Bonnin (pole vault), Leyanis Perez Hernandez (triple jump) and Sarah Mitton (shot put) in the women’s.

In total, 11 individual gold medallists from the last world outdoors are set to compete.

The entries also include nine individual gold medallists from Paris 2024, including Duplantis, Hocker, Hodgkinson and fellow world record-holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the Ukrainian high jumper. AFP