Georgia Hunter Bell, Molly Caudery and Jeremiah Azu will be among Great Britain’s gold medal hopes at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.
The trio are part of an 11-strong British team, captained by 1500m runner Neil Gourley, competing at the three-day championships, which start on Friday.
Armand Duplantis, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Yaroslava Mahuchikh are among the global stars competing for honours.
The World Indoors usually take place every two years, but the event in Nanjing had to be postponed in 2020, 2021 and 2023, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Because Glasgow was awarded the event in 2024 and the bid process had already begun for the 2026 edition, Nanjing was allocated 2025.
It means athletes have two opportunities to win global titles this year, with the outdoor championships taking place in Tokyo, Japan in September.
Hunter Bell will aim to bounce back from the disappointment of missing out on the podium at the European Indoor Championships two weeks ago.
The Olympic 1500m bronze medallist, 31, was the strong favourite in Apeldoorn but faded to fourth in the closing stages, as team-mate Revee Walcott-Nolan clinched her first international medal.
Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay is the standout favourite for gold in Nanjing. The eight-time global medallist boasts a season’s best time five seconds quicker than anyone this year, having run three minutes 53.92 seconds in February.
Compatriot Diribe Welteji and American Heather MacLean have both also gone under four minutes in 2025, with Hunter Bell fourth-fastest in the line-up with a season’s best time of 4:00.63.
Like Hunter Bell, Caudery enjoyed a rapid rise to prominence in 2024, winning the world indoor title 12 months ago while her British record clearance over 4.92m was unmatched in 2024.
But the 25-year-old was left devastated after failing to qualify for the final at Paris 2024.
Caudery chose to skip the European Indoors to focus on her world title defence while she manages a small calf injury, and enters the competition with the leading season’s best after clearing 4.85m in February.
Azu, 23, will seek to use his European gold, which represented his first individual international medal, as a springboard to a global podium in the men’s 60m.
Olympic 400m finalist Amber Anning will hope to challenge in another major final following her disqualification at the European Indoors for a lane infringement.
However, European 3,000m silver medallist George Mills and Innes FitzGerald were both forced to withdraw from the team because of illness.
Swedish star Duplantis improved his men’s pole vault world record to 6.27m in February and the Swedish star will look to put on a show once again as he aims for a third world indoor title in four years.
The two-time reigning Olympic champion, one of the sport’s biggest names, has broken the world record a remarkable 11 times by the age of 25 and has six global titles to his name.
While Ingebrigtsen secured a record-equalling seventh European indoor gold with a third consecutive 1500m and 3,000m double earlier this month, the Tokyo Olympic champion is yet to win a world 1500m title.
The 24-year-old Norwegian had to settle for indoor silver in 2022, as he did outdoors in both 2022 and 2023 – finishing second to Britons Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr – and will be determined to go one better here as he seeks to replicate that double on the global stage.
Elsewhere, women’s high jump Olympic champion and world record holder Mahuchikh will look to regain the world title she won in 2022, while American Grant Holloway will chase his sixth consecutive global hurdles title.
Women
60m – Amy Hunt
400m – Amber Anning
1500m – Georgia Hunter Bell, Revee Walcott-Nolan
Pole Vault – Molly Caudery
Long Jump – Funminiyi Olajide
Men
60m – Jeremiah Azu, Andy Robertson
1500m – Adam Fogg, Neil Gourley
Shot put – Scott Lincoln
All times GMT.
Friday, 21 March
Morning session live streaming 02:00 – 06:00
Evening session live on BBC Two 10:30 -14:00
Finals: Men’s triple jump (03:05), men’s high jump (10:30), women’s shot put (11:50), women’s pentathlon 800m (13:15), (men’s 60m (13:24)
Saturday, 22 March
Morning session live streaming 02:00 – 05:00
Evening session live on BBC Two 10:30 – 14:00
Finals: Women’s pole vault (02:10), men’s pole vault (10:34), women’s triple jump (11:10), women’s 3,000m (11:15), men’s 3,000m (11:35), women’s 400m (12:44), men’s 400m (12:55), men’s 60m hurdles (13:05), women’s 60m (13:18)
Sunday, 23 March
Morning session live streaming 02:00 – 04:00
Evening session live on BBC Two 11:00 -14:00
Finals: Women’s long jump (02:19), women’s high jump (03:35), men’s shot put (11:38), men’s long jump (11:40), men’s heptathlon 1,000m (12:02), men’s 1500m (12:15), women’s 1500m (12:28), men’s 800m (12:40), women’s 800m (12:54), women’s 60m hurdles (12:57), men’s 4x400m relay (13:11), women’s 4x400m relay ( 13:21)
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