World Indoor Championships: Workforce Canada distance preview

We’re sooner or later away from the beginning of the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Fourteen athletes will symbolize Workforce Canada throughout six action-packed periods over three days of intense competitors, with most of the greatest athletes on this planet competing for the title of world champion.

Here’s a temporary occasion preview of the gap occasions: 800m, 1,500m and three,000m races on the 2024 World Indoor Championships.

Ladies’s 800m

The ladies’s 800m is one among three middle-distance occasions, with two Canadian athletes. Madeleine Kelly has gotten sooner in every of her races this yr, her most up-to-date being 2:00.93. Her indoor PB of two:00.11 dates to 2022, which noticed her qualify for her first World Indoor Championships, held in Belgrade, Serbia. Kelly shall be joined by Jazz Shukla, who has raced twice over the gap thus far this season. Her quickest time, 2:01.34, got here on the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston earlier this month. That observe can also be dwelling to her indoor PB of two:01.00, set final yr.

It is going to be a World Indoor Championship debut for Shukla, who, like Kelly, competed on the World Championships in Budapest final summer time. It was a contest to recollect for Shukla, who improved her PB within the heats (2:00.30) and once more within the semi-final (2:00.23). 

5 athletes entered have run inside two minutes this season, whereas eight have indoor PBs below that mark. The 2 quickest athletes this season, Ethiopian Habitam Alemu and Nice Britain’s Jemma Reekie, will compete right here; the previous is making her World Indoor debut and the Scot shall be in search of success in her dwelling nation. Halimah Nakaayi, the 2019 World Champion from Uganda, can also be entered.

Heats: Friday, March 1–6:40 a.m. ET

Semi-finals: Saturday, March 2–7:10 a.m. ET

Remaining: Sunday, March 3–4:20 p.m. ET

Ladies’s 1,500m

Lucia Stafford returns for her second World Indoor Championships and shall be joined by Simone Plourde within the 1,500m. Stafford has raced just a few occasions thus far this yr, together with on the NB Indoor Grand Prix and Millrose Video games. Her quickest time of the season (4:06.80) got here on the latter, a mid-race cut up in the course of the mile race. She completed eighth within the 1,500m closing in Belgrade two years in the past. 

Like Stafford, Plourde’s just one,500m time for the yr got here within the mile on the Millrose Video games; her 4:06.98 was an indoor PB. Plourde joined Stafford in Budapest final yr, and this shall be her first World Indoor Championships. 

With Freweyni Hailu having a wild card because the winner of the World Indoor Tour, there shall be three Ethiopian athletes competing in Glasgow, and there’s a honest probability they could full the rostrum. They’re the one athletes to have run inside 4 minutes this yr, and are nearly 5 seconds sooner than anybody else within the subject. All three have improved their PBs this yr; Hailu to three:55.28, Diribe Welteji to three:55.47 and Birke Haylom to three:58.43.

Heats: Friday, March 1–2:05 p.m. ET

Remaining: Sunday, March 3–4:45 p.m. ET

Ladies’s 3,000m 

There aren’t any Canadians within the ladies’s 3,000m, however an thrilling race is near-guaranteed. Nice Britain’s Laura Muir shall be in search of success on her dwelling observe, the place she received the three,000m and 1,500m on the European Indoor Championships in 2019. She received the two-mile on the Millrose Video games and cut up 8:31.45 for 3,000m in that race.

The favorite is probably going Gudaf Tsegay. The Ethiopian clocked 8:17.11 to simply miss the world document on the NB Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, though this was not as shut as her 8:16.69 mark from Birmingham final yr–only a tenth of a second shy of the WR. 

Jessica Hull of Australia and American Elle St. Pierre have raced one another at each the NB Indoor Grand Prix and Millrose Video games, the previous successful in Boston and the latter in New York. Hull’s 8:24.93 in Boston was an Oceanic document, with St. Pierre simply behind in 8:25.25. Younger Ethiopian Melknat Wudu (8:32.02) may additionally be one to observe. 

Remaining: Saturday, March 2–3:15 p.m. ET

Males’s 800m

The lads’s 800m is probably probably the most open of the middle-distance occasions in Glasgow, with world champion Marco Arop sitting out. Reigning world indoor champion Mariano Garcia of Spain returns to defend his title, as do the silver and bronze medallists Noah Kibet of Kenya and American Bryce Hoppel.

The world lead is held by Catalin Tecuceanu at 1:45.00, which the Italian set on the World Indoor Tour closing in Madrid final Friday (a brand new Italian document.) Different notable performances this season have come from Belgian Elliot Crestan (1:45.10), Abdelati El Guesse (1:45.28) and Mohamed Ali Gouaned (1:45.35). No Canadians will compete over 4 laps indoors with Arop selecting to sit down out until the out of doors season after his record-setting efficiency on the New Stability Indoor Grand Prix. 

Heats: Friday March 1–7:22 a.m. ET

Semi-Finals: Saturday, March 2–7:30 a.m. ET

Remaining: Sunday, March 3–4:10 p.m. ET 

Males’s 1,500m

Each Charles Philibert-Thiboutot and Kieran Lumb will line up for the boys’s 1,500m. Philibert-Thiboutot has improved his indoor PB to three:36.53 this yr, whereas Lumb–holder of the Canadian indoor 3,000m document–ran 3:37.75 on the NB Indoor Grand Prix at the beginning of the month. That’s lower than a second shy of his indoor PB. 

Main the entries are former World Indoor File holder Samuel Tefera of Ethiopia (who has run 3:34.61 this yr), Hobbs Kessler (who beat Jake Wightman on the NB Indoor Grand Prix with 3:33.66), and Portugal’s Isaac Nader (3:34.23). 

Narve Gilje Nordås of Norway, who received bronze ultimately yr’s World Championships in Budapest, is probably going to enhance on his just one,500m of the yr (3:37.45). He raced a 3,000m in Madrid final week and was not removed from Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s nationwide document. 

The hosts are represented by Adam Fogg, who ran 3:49 on the Millrose Video games Wanamaker Mile, and World Highway Working Championship silver medallist within the street mile, Callum Elson.

Heats: Friday, March 1–3:10 p.m. ET

Remaining: Sunday, March 3–4:30 p.m. ET

Males’s 3,000m

Very similar to the ladies’s race of the identical distance, there shall be no Canadian illustration, however the race presents an thrilling prospect. The world 1,500m champion, Josh Kerr, who set the world indoor greatest for 2 miles on the 2024 Millrose Video games in mid-February, shall be within the subject. His 7:30.14 3,000m cut up in New York was a British nationwide document. 

Like Kerr, American Yared Nuguse is stepping up from his normal distance (1,500m); he has run 7:55.76 this yr, however he has a PB of seven:28.24. World indoor document holder Lamecha Girma is a notable absence. As an alternative, Ethiopia shall be represented by Olympic 10,000m champion Selemon Barega (7:25.82 PB set this yr), Getnet Wale (7:24.98 PB, 7:26.73 this yr) and Telahun Haile Bekele (7:37.96 PB).

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is absent from the 2024 World Indoor Championships as he’s recovering from an Achilles harm.

Remaining: Saturday, March 2–3:40 p.m. ET

You possibly can stream the 2024 World Indoor Championships from Canada stay on CBCSports and CBC, and the CBC Gem app. Canadian Working shall be reporting stay from Glasgow and that includes interviews with athletes as every part unfolds. You possibly can observe our protection on Instagram or Twitter.