Sprinter Bori Akinola will be the first of 11 Irish athletes to see competitive action at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland when he lines out in the 60m heats on Friday morning.
Across three days of competition 81 world medals will be up for grabs at the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena and Akinola comes into the championships in flying form having broken Israel Olatunde's national record for the event last month at the World Indoor Tour Gold meet in Belgrade, Serbia with a time of 6.54 seconds.
The 24-year-old will take to the starting blocks in Torun at 9.20am Irish time.
In the women’s 800m heats, both Maeve O’Neill and Emma Moore will make their respective senior international debuts when they line up at 11.51am in the hope of making progress.
O’Neill, who is studying at Providence College in Rhode Island, broke the national indoor record over 800m recently, running a time of 2:00.33 at Boston University, while Moore has enjoyed a breakthrough 2026, lowering her personal best to 2:01.21 in January. The Galway woman sits fourth on the Irish indoor all-time list for the event.
Mark English is the final Irish athlete in action in the opening session, with his 800m heat taking place at 12.26pm.
The Donegal doctor will have high hopes of making Sunday’s final and has been in excellent form this season, lowering his own Irish indoor 800m record on two occasions.
English, who turned 33 earlier this week, ran his best of 1:44.23 at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava, Czechia in early February before returning to altitude for a training camp.
He also ran an Irish indoor 600m record in January, clocking 1:15.80 at the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena in Dublin.
Friday’s evening session could see Akinola in action if he progresses from his heat, with the 60m semi-final slated for 7.16pm and the final a little over an hour later.
James Gormley returns to these championships having raced in the 3000m in Nanjing, China last year.
The 27-year-old ran an indoor personal best of 3:37.60 in Boston last month which qualified him for the event and moved him to eighth on the Irish indoor all-time list.
He will be competing in the 1500m event on Friday, with his heat at 5.54pm.
