Men’s events preview – IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014

With just two days to go to the start of the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships in the Polish city of Sopot which will be held between 7-9 March, the IAAF website editorial team have put the spotlight on some of the top athletes in action this weekend in the men's events at the ERGO Arena.

Please note that this preview is based on entry information received by the IAAF but before the official start lists have been decided.

60m

In the absence of the injured James Dasaolu and Jimmy Vicaut, the emerging young US sprinter Marvin Bracy heads to Sopot bearing the mantle of favourite. The 20-year-old won the US title at high altitude in Albuquerque in 6.48 and boasts a 6.50 best at sea level, courtesy of his Millrose Games victory.

Other likely contenders include Trell Kimmons, who finished just 0.01 down on Bracy in the US Championships final, St Kitts and Nevis’ Jason Rogers, Qatar’s Femi Ogunode, Jamaican Nesta Carter and Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers, the latter pair respectively second and third in Istanbul two years ago.

400m

Lalonde Gordon, the Olympic bronze medallist from Trinidad and Tobago, is by far the fastest man among the entrants having run 45.17 this winter.

Dominican Republic’s Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos and Costa Rica’s 2012 World Indoor Championships winner Nery Brenes are also in the field but next quickest on season’s bests are the one-two from the US Championships, Kyle Clemons and David Verburg. 

Czech Republic’s reigning European champion, indoors and outdoors, Pavel Maslek and Great Britain’s Nigel Levine should also feature.

800m

A re-run of last year’s 2013 IAAF World Championships is a possibility, with four of the top five finishers from the Moscow final having been entered.

On that occasion, the USA’s Nick Symmonds got closest to Mohammed Aman, the prodigious Ethiopian who will be defending the crown he won as a junior in Istanbul in 2012.

Aman will start as clear favourite in Sopot after running an African record of 1:44.52 in Birmingham. The in-form South African Andre Olivier, the Polish pair of two-time European indoor champion Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski, Spain’s Kevin Lopez and Britain’s Andrew Osagie have all also been running well and so it will be a battle just to make the final.