Just weeks after the excitement (and Irish medals) at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn, the World Indoor Championships takes place this week from March 21-23 in Nanjing, China, with 576 athletes from 127 countries, including 20 Olympic medallists, set to compete. We can expect a few days of exciting competitions, record breaking performances and unique moments, with no doubt some history being made in the process.
Ireland will send a team of six individual athletes including European 3,000m Gold Medallist Sarah Healy (UCD) and bronze pentathlon medallist Kate O’Connor (Dundalk St Gerards). Other athletes to represent Ireland are: Andrew Coscoran, Sarah Lavin, Sophie O’Sullivan and James Gormely. Unfortunately, the European 800m bronze medallist Mark English and fellow 800m European participant Cian McPhillips have been forced to withdraw due to injury.
Sarah Healy (UCD) may have been crowned the European Champion over 3,000m but her task to achieve gold will be much tougher in Nanjing. Her season’s best of 8:30.79 ranks her eight in the World this year. Favourites are the Ethiopian pair of Freweyni Hailu who won the 1500m at the World Indoors in Glasgow last year and has recorded a world lead of 8:19.98 in Liévin, France last month. Birke Haylom, ranked third in the World has run 8.25.37 also in Liévin. Other athletes to look out for are Whittni Morgan (USA) ranked fourth in the world with 8:28.23 along with ace championship performer Jess Hull (8:30.91) and Shelby Houlihan (8:31.25). The ladies 3000m will be held at 11:15am Irish time this Saturday.
Kate O’Connor (Dundalk St. Gerard’s AC) is in action on Friday morning, kickstarting her Nanjing 2025 campaign with the 60m hurdles at 2:.05am Irish time. O’Connor heads to the Championships as the European Indoor bronze medallist and is currently ranked number three in the World. Pentathlon’s can often produce unpredictable results but Ireland’s Kate O’Connor is tipped by many international athletics correspondents as being one to look towards for a podium placing. Saga Vanninen (Finland) is the current European Champion and won silver last year at the Worlds in Glasgow. Both Vanninen and O’Connor have been very much inform this season, with both setting National Records and having personal bests in multiple disciplines. In the absence of the two Belgian heptathletes, their main opposition will come from Hungary’s Xenia Krizsan who was seventh at the Paris Olympics. Krizsan has yet to compete this year.
Andrew Coscoran (Star of the Sea) was fifth at the European Championships recently in Apeldoorn. Coscoran with his 7:30.75 is ranked 11th in the world. All eyes will be on Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen as he targets both the 1500m and the 3000m titles. Ingebrigtsen has achieved the double at the last three editions of the European Indoor Championships, however a world indoor title is the only one that currently eludes him. Injured for the World Indoors in Glasgow last year, the 24-year-old has only competed at one previous edition of the World Indoors (Belgrade 2022), where he finished second. If Ingebrigtsen achieves the double in Nanjing, he’ll become just the second man in World Indoor Championships history to take two individual gold medals at one championship, following Haile Gebrselassie’s distance double in 1999. The Norweigan will be challenged by a group of three Ethiopians’; Berihu Aregawi (Olympic 10,000m silver medallist), Biniam Mehary (world U20 indoor record-holder), and steeplechaser Getnet Wale, all of whom have bettered 7:30 indoors. While George Mills (GBR) and Ky Robinson (Australia) have faster times, Ingebrigtsen has proved to be the better championship racer. Andrew Coscoran will have a lot to do to finish in the top six.
James Gormely (Carmer Runners) will don the green vest for the second time and within just a few weeks. Gormely will compete alongside Coscoran in the 3000m. While he has a world ranking of 55th, he is 11th fastest out of the 16 on the startlist based on the 2025 season. Ingebrigtsen incidentally is below Gormely at 13th. The men’s 3,000m is scheduled for Saturday at 11.33am Irish time.
Sarah Lavin (Emerald AC) will contest the 60m hurdles heats on Sunday at 2.25am Irish time. The semi-finals (which Lavin should have the ability to qualify for) are scheduled for 11.35am Irish time with the finals at 13.01. Lavin recently finished fourth at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn and while we would dearly love to see her medal, she will have a lot of work to do to match her fifth place in Glasgow last year. Her seasons best is 7.92 from her fourth position at the Europeans with progressive improvements over the previous six weeks. Lavin is however, an experienced championship performer and we can expect her to deliver nothing short of her best.
Ditaji Kambundji (Switzerland) has the World lead at 7:67 which she achieved when she won the European Indoors a few weeks ago, equalling Susanna Kallur’s long-standing European record from 2008. Other podium contenders may be Nadine Visser (Netherlands) and American Grace Stark who has run 7:74 and was an Olympic finalist in the 100m hurdles.
Sophie O’Sullivan (Ballymore Cobh AC) will be in action on the opening day of the championships at 10.33am in the heats of the Women’s 1500m. The final is scheduled for Sunday at 12.28pm. O’Sullivan opted to race the outdoor season in Australia this year, skipping any indoor track experience she might have gained. She has already clocked 4:06.74 at the Perth Classic earlier this month. This time places her well down the pecking order. However, O’Sullivan is well known for her championship performances and making a final would not be beyond the realms of possibility given her determination.
Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia) has the world lead at 3:53.92, which is over five seconds quicker than her Ethiopian teammate Diribe Welteji. Unlike Paris, where she opted for three races (and came away with no medal) she has focused on just one event (1500m) in Nanjing. The last time she won a World Indoor title was over 1500m in Belgrade in 2022. Tsegay and Welteji will be accompanied by a third Ethiopian Worknesh Mesele. Other athletes who have their eyes on the podium are: Heather McClean (USA) who is currently ranked third in the World. Georgia Hunter Bell (GBR) will be seeking to avenge her disappointing fourth place at the recent European Indoors.
Irish History at the World Indoors
To date there have been twenty editions of the World Indoors, starting with he inaugural world indoors in 1985 in Paris. Ireland have won nine individual and one relay event in its 40 year history. Starting in 1987 which was probably one of our best ever years; Marcus O’Sullivan won the 1500m while Frank O’Meara won gold in the 3000m with Paul O’Donovan finishing second. O’Sullivan has been the most prolific medal winner with three titles in the 1500m (1987, 1989 and 1993). O’Meara took gold in the 3000m in 1987 and 1991.
In 1997 Sonia O’Sullivan won her only World Indoor medal – a sliver in the 3000m. Six years later it was the turn on the sprinting events with Paul McKee famously winning a bronze in the 400m (Budapest 2004). At the same championships, the Irish relay team of Rob Daly, Gary Ryan, David Gillick and David McCarthy were promoted to third team when the Americans were disqualified for an illegal change-over. Our last medal was in 2006 when Dervla O’Rourke took her historic gold medal in the 60m hurdles, winning in 7:84 seconds in Russia. This has been the last time Ireland won a medal at any World Indoor Championships. Can this year mark the end of our 19-year medal drought?