Hodgkinson, Tshite among stars ready to light up Liévin

Fast times and fierce field clashes are on the cards at the penultimate World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of the season in Liévin, France, on Thursday night.

With just over a month to go until the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26, the fields are stacked and many athletes will want to make a statement when they compete at the Arena Stade Couvert, scene of a number of world records over the years.

They include Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who moved to third on the world 800m short track all-time list when she clocked a world-leading British record of 1:56.33 at the UK Indoor Championships on Saturday.

In Liévin she will line up alongside Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma, the 2024 world indoor champion and Olympic silver medallist behind Hodgkinson in Paris, and Nigist Getachew, the world indoor silver medallist.

Adding further strength to the field are Switzerland’s Diamond League champion Audrey Werro, who recently ran 1:57.27 at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Belgrade, and Poland’s European indoor champion Anna Wielgosz.

INJURY FORCES BOL OUT

Dutch world 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol, who has switched her focus to the 800m this year, was also due to be in Liévin to test herself in the 600m but the 25-year-old has withdrawn due to a tendon issue in her foot.

A world record-holder features in the 2000m as Australia’s Jessica Hull races in Liévin for the first time.

The Olympic and world 1500m medallist set her world 2000m record of 5:19.70 outdoors on her debut at the distance in Monaco in 2024 and now she races the 2000m indoors for the first time.

The world 2000m short track best stands at 5:23.75, set by Genzebe Dibaba in 2017.

Joining her in the 2000m, racing on home soil, is European indoor champion Agathe Guillemot who formed part of the French team that clinched silver behind Hull’s winning Australian team at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee last month.

Guillemot more recently ran a national short track record of 4:02.12 to finish third in a Karlsruhe World Indoor Tour Gold 1500m won by Georgia Hunter Bell, who is also in action in Liévin.

Great Britain’s Hunter Bell set a world lead in Karlsruhe of 4:00.04, just 0.2 off the short track PB she clocked when earning world indoor bronze last year.

The Olympic bronze medallist races that distance again in Liévin where she will line up alongside her compatriot and fellow world indoor medallist Jemma Reekie, Canadian record-holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom, who won at the World Indoor Tour Gold meetings in Ostrava and Madrid earlier this month and then finished second between Hunter Bell and Guillemot in Karlsruhe.

TSHITE IN THE 3000M MIX

Another French star competing in front of a home crowd is double European indoor medallist Azeddine Habz who steps up to the 3000m after opening his indoor season with a 1500m win in Karlsruhe.

Among his rivals is South Africa's Tshepo Tshite, who won in Madrid and Belgrade.

This time the men’s 1500m will feature Portugal’s world champion Isaac Nader, who started his season with a 3000m win ahead of Tshite in Ostrava, plus Kenya’s world bronze medallist Reynold Cheruiyot and Irish record-holder Andrew Coscoran.

The women’s 3000m will star Ethiopia’s world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu, who ran the fourth-fastest time in history of 8:19.98 to win in Liévin last year, against her compatriot Hirut Meshesha and Italy’s Olympic and double world medallist Nadia Battocletti.

The women’s 60m hurdles is full of major medallists and will star a clash of world champions as Switzerland’s world 100m hurdles gold medallist Ditaji Kambundji goes up against Bahamian two-time world indoor 60m hurdles winner and world record-holder Devynne Charlton.

The meeting features heats before the final and also among the entries are Pia Skrzyszowska, Nadine Visser and Megan Simmonds.

The men’s event will include USA’s Olympic and world 110m hurdles medallist Daniel Roberts against home stars Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey.

Watch the action live on SuperSport Variety 3 and SS Africa 1

Source: worldathletics.org