By Yavuz YAVUZ
Belgrade 2022 World Indoor Championships did not fail to deliver when it came to expectations and excelling performances. With two world records broken in field events, Grant Holloway equalling his own world record at the 60m hurdles final and numerous more historic moments, the World Indoors that returned after a four-year pandemic hiatus went down in the history books as one of the most memorable displays of composure and perseverance on the part of the athletes. With the World Championships just around the corner this year, here is an immediate look back at the World Indoors.
ETHIOPIAN MAGIC
Ethiopia had the most successful World Indoors of their history by winning nine medals in total, four of them being gold. World-record holder Gudaf Tsegay won the gold at women’s 1500 meters by clocking the championship record of 3:57.19. The meeting was a podium sweep on the part of the Ethiopians, with Axumawit Embaye and Hirut Meshehsha taking silver and bronze, respectively.
The 3000m races were also dominated by the Ethiopians. Lemlem Hailu, who set a U20 world record in 2020 improving the mark set by her compatriot, Gudaf Tsegay, took the top of the podium at the women’s race, in what was a first for her senior career in global major events. In the men’s event, Tokyo’s 10.000 meters gold-medallist Selemon Barega clinched the top spot with a 7:41.38 run and joined an elite Ethiopian club of Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie who also achieved this double. With this result, Barega took his silver medal from four years ago up a notch and obtained his first World Indoors gold.
Another Ethiopian who stood on top of the podium was Samuel Tefera, who defended his World Indoors title by shocking Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who recently broke World Indoor record by 3:30.60, in Liévin, France. Tefera, whose world record was broken last month by the Norwegian, denied Ingebrigtsen his first senior world title. This completed a golden sweep in both 1500- and 3000-metres events by the Ethiopians.
RECORD BREAKERS
Belgrade 2022 also witnessed some historic world record moments. Yulimar Rojas, who broke the world record in triple jump at the Olympics last year, produced another history-making leap and extended her own world indoor record by more than 30 centimetres, improving it from 15.43 to a staggering 15.74. This sixth jump sealed a third consecutive World Indoors gold medal for the Venezuelan, a feat that was never achieved before in the discipline.
Armand Duplantis, who set the record-breaking bar at 6.19 meters just a few weeks before, again in Belgrade, made it past 6.20 on his final attempt, setting a new world record. The Swede, who already secured his first senior world title, made his last jump after the women’s 4x400 final, the last medal-decider of the event, and went over the bar.
At the men’s 60m hurdles race, Grant Holloway equalled his own world-record mark of 7.29 in the semi-finals to qualify for the medal race, in which he eventually obtained his first World Indoors gold. The semi-finals of the same event were also marked by the qualification of David King by a tirage-au-sort after he and Japan’s Shusei Nomoto were tied at 7.565 seconds and could not be divided by more delicate measurements.
MOMENTS TO REMEMBER
Ukrainian athletes, who travelled to the championships by escaping the Russian invasion and a war-torn country, also produced some of the biggest highlights of the event. Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who was the women’s high jump bronze-medallist at last year’s Olympic Games, finally won a global senior title with a 2.02 jump. Moreover, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk, whose main event is the long jump, improved her personal best with 14.74 and clinched the silver medal at the women’s triple jump, behind world-record holder Yulimar Rojas.
Other memorable moments of the 2022 World Indoor Championships included the men’s shot put that saw Darlan Romani stepping on a first global major podium after years of finishing on the edge. While Ryan Crouser did not deliver the world-record he was expected to produce, the Brazilian saw an opening and clinched the gold medal with an area record measurement of 22.53.
Men’s 60 meters final, which brought the long-awaited showdown of Olympic, and world 100-meter champions concluded with Lamont Marcell Jacobs crossing the line by three-thousands of a second in front of his main rival, Christian Coleman. The winning mark of 6.407 was also an area record for the Italian. At the women’s race, Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland became the first European winner since 1999.
The biggest cheer from the Serbian crowd came on the final night when Ivana Vuleta leapt to a second consecutive World Indoor title with 7.06.
At the relay races that capped off the 2022 World Indoor Championships, the USA teams were at the center of a major upset as they missed the podium in both finals, which was a first at the event since Budapest 2004. The Dutch, on the other hand stepped on both podiums with men’s bronze and women’s silver. Femke Bol, who won silver at the 400m final behind Bahamas’ Shanuae Miller-Uibo, led the team on the second step of the podium with an anchor leg run of 50.26 seconds.
