NANJING, China — Britain’s Jeremiah Azu won the gold medal in the men’s 60 metres final in a scorching 6.49 seconds to edge out Australian Lachlan Kennedy in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
Nanjing was already guaranteed a new sprint champion with American Christian Coleman absent from the first major global athletics meeting since last year’s Paris Olympics and newly-crowned European indoor champion Azu stepped up.
“I knew I could win it. I said at the Europeans that I want to take over the world. This is just the start of our journey,” an elated Azu told the BBC after he was confirmed as the winner.
“The plan is to keep on winning. The sky isn’t the limit, there’s way, way more than that. Let’s see what the summer brings – I’m excited for it.”
A personal best by the 23-year-old meant he remained unbeaten so far this year as he beat Kennedy by a hundredth of a second after an electric final in which American Ronnie Baker sustained a hamstring injury shortly before the finish.
South Africa’s Akani Simbine settled for bronze with a time of 6.54 seconds after another leading contender Eloy Benitez of Puerto Rico took an early tumble and did not continue.
Italy’s Olympic bronze medallist Andy Diaz Hernandez came up with a world-leading effort of 17.80m to seal the triple jump gold.
The Cuban-born athlete, who won Olympic bronze at last year’s Paris Games, laid it all on the line in his very first jump in Nanjing’s Cube, the new world lead moving him to 23rd on the all-time list.
“My plan was never to jump only once,” said Diaz Hernandez.
“I felt strong to set a new record but it didn’t happen this time. There was a very long wait in between jumps so I was quite inactive for too long and this led to the decision of skipping the following attempts,” he added according to AFP.
“But I feel strong and this is indicative that good jumps could happen this summer.”
In the absence of Olympic gold and silver medallists Jordan Alejandro Diaz Fortun of Spain and Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo, Diaz Hernandez had come to China in good form.
He hopped, skipped and jumped his way to 17.71m to win European indoor gold in Apeldoorn earlier this month.
China’s Zhu Yaming delighted the home crowd by claiming silver with a best of 17.33m, with Brazil’s Almir dos Santos taking bronze (17.22m).
Defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso, who is also the world outdoor champion, could only finish fourth with 17.15m.
Three-time Olympic medallist Will Claye of the US misfired, along with Cuba’s 2022 world indoor champion Lazaro Martinez, both missing the final shoot-out in the sandpit.
Christopher Bailey led the way in qualifiers for the men’s 400m with a lead time of 45.70sec, along with US teammates Jacory Patterson and Brian Faust.
Brazilian Matheus Lima and Canada’s Christopher Morales-Williams also sailed through to the semi-finals.
American hope Josh Hoey, the second fastest runner ever over 800m indoors, safely negotiated his heat to qualify for the semi-final.
“It was a very smooth race. I executed as what I’ve planned, just to run as smooth and easy as possible, no specific time target,” said Hoey, whose world-leading 1:43.24 in New York last month placed him just half a second off Wilson Kipketer’s world record set in Paris back in 1997.
“I’ve been training with a new coach, which has been very beneficial to me. We’ve done more speed endurance, 800 specific-type work, that has helped me with my results,” said Hoey.
