For the second time in two years, the athletics world will be transfixed by a global indoor competition.
In 2025, fans were treated to both the European and World Indoor Championships in the same season, with Ireland producing its most successful campaign in history — three medals in 20 minutes on the final day in Apeldoorn.
Kate O'Connor then made history by claiming the nation’s first world indoor medal in 19 years.
Athletics Ireland have sent 11 athletes to Torun, Poland, for the 21st edition of the championships.
This year, history could be made once again, with O’Connor in contention to secure Ireland’s first-ever multi-event gold at a major international competition on Sunday.
It could also offer a wholesome full-circle moment: it is exactly 20 years since Derval O’Rourke claimed gold in the 60m hurdles in 2006.
Women’s pentathlon
O'Connor has made just one appearance since her historic feat of claiming heptathlon silver at the World Championships in Tokyo last September.
This time, the 200m and javelin are dropped and the five events are compressed into a single day, all taking place on Sunday, which can make for a tough and intense schedule for the competitors.
Defending champion Saga Vanninen will be absent, but such has been O’Connor’s progression over the past year that the Finn may not have been considered a major threat regardless.
All five of the top-10 finishers from Tokyo will be in Torun, including champion Anna Hall, who could prove extremely difficult to beat.
The American is one of only five athletes ever to surpass 5,000 points in the indoor event. Another member of that elite group, local favourite Adrianna Sulek‑Schubert, is also in the field. The Polish star, however, has a season’s best of 4,667 points and has not yet returned to her pre‑pregnancy peak after the birth of her first child two years ago.
O’Connor produced two massive personal bests in the 60m hurdles and long jump at the National Championships earlier this month. With those factored in, she will comfortably break her own national record, but may still fall around 49 points short of the magic threshold likely needed to topple the dominant Hall and secure gold.
The Louth woman has repeatedly shown her grit and determination, even competing through a "bockidy knee," as commentators Greg Allen and David Matthews memorably described in Tokyo last September. She will once again lean on that steely composure as she aims to secure a fourth international medal in just over 12 months.
Such a result would be extraordinary, and would mark the most successful 12‑month spell ever produced by an Irish athlete, equalling Sonia O'Sullivan's 1998 medal haul in the process.
Men's 3,000m
Andrew Coscoran and Nick Griggs enter the longest event at the World Indoor Championships ranked second and third on this year's season’s best list.
Both Irish representatives set their qualifying marks at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston in January. Coscoran then went on to break his own indoor 1500m national record a few weeks later in France, clocking 3:33.09.
While all of this reads well on paper, a few major contenders have yet to post significant times this year and could prove dangerous when Saturday evening comes around.
All three Olympic 1500m medallists from Paris 2024 are entered, and could cause problems if the straight-final follows the typical pattern: a last-kilometre burn-up.
With 14 men in the field, traffic will be a factor, and the danger of falling always increases when the early pace is slow. Both athletes will want to stay well positioned from the gun — but so will everyone else.
If either Coscoran or Griggs wins a medal, it would mark the first time an Irishman has reached the podium in the event since Frank O’Mara’s gold in 1991.
Better still, imagine if history from the 1987 Championships repeated itself: O’Mara and Paul Donovan went 1–2 in the event, separated by just seven hundredths of a second. We can dream.
Men's 800m
Mark English will be targeting a first global final, and potentially a medal, in the men's 800m on Sunday afternoon, but he’ll first have to navigate two challenging rounds.
The 33-year-old, whose birthday fell on Wednesday, has already broken his own 800m national record twice this season. However, he hasn’t raced since early February, with Athletics Ireland confirming he went to altitude to prepare for these championships.
English enters the Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena as the fifth-ranked athlete in the world this year and has been drawn in heat four, where he is also the fastest on paper.
Eliott Crestan of Belgium is the fastest man in the world this season thanks to a 1:43.83 performance, recorded in the same race where English last competed and broke the NR, in Ostrava in February.
The pair are no strangers: Crestan won silver when the Donegal athlete took bronze at last year’s European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.
Interestingly, only one world indoor final in history has been won in a sub‑1:44 time. The revised break-line rule introduced for this indoor season appears to have contributed to a surge in fast performances across the 800m.
Crestan is also an athlete who likes to attack from the gun, so fans should expect a fast pace from the outset in the final.
Other Irish interest
Sarah Lavin just missed out on a spot in the final in Nanjing last year after finishing an unlucky fourth in Apeldoorn just 16 days earlier, but she has been a finalist before with an impressive fifth-place finish at the 2024 championships in Glasgow.
A seasoned championship performer, the Limerick native typically gets quicker through the rounds, and she'll be hoping to make magic in the 20th anniversary year of Derval O’Rourke’s World Indoor gold in the event.
Lavin’s training partner Ciara Neville is poised to make her return to the global stage in the women’s 60m. The 26-year-old will earn her first individual Irish cap since 2021, when she competed at the European Indoors in the same stadium. She will be joined by Antrim’s Lauren Roy, and both women will likely feel that Rhasidat Adeleke’s 7.17 national record is within reach.
National record holder Bori Akinola will contest his second championship as an individual, and his first on a global stage. He arrives confident, with his Irish record of 6.54 fast enough to have won bronze at last year’s Championships.
Competition in the event is as stiff as ever. Akinola has been drawn in heat three, with a favourable lane four at the time of writing. Only Dominik Illovszky has run quicker on season’s best this year, and with the top three in each heat plus the next three fastest times qualifying for the semi-finals, the 24-year-old should progress comfortably.
If he can go one further and book a lane in the final, he would become the first Irishman ever to do so.
Maeve O’Neill and Emma Moore will line up in the women’s 800m. Both have set personal bests this year and will be hoping to build valuable experience on their senior debuts by advancing to the semi-finals.
James Gormley will be Ireland’s sole representative in the men’s 1500m heats. He made his Irish debut at last year’s European Indoors after transferring allegiance from Great Britain in 2024.
International one to watch
Despite his dominance, Armand Duplantis continues to impress and consistently deliver on the big stages, he has won the men's pole vault at the last three editions of the World Indoors.
The 26-year-old keeps pushing the boundaries of what was once thought possible in the gravity‑defying event, all while producing catchy music singles in his spare time.
The Swede broke his own world record at his self‑named meet, the Mondo Classic, last week with a 6.31m clearance. He looks almost certain to take the title again and equal the record for the most World Indoor crowns, currently held by Sergey Bubka.
While the rest of the field are still some distance back, six athletes have cleared six metres or higher this year, the first time that has ever happened , and it's still only the indoor season.
Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis is the closest to Duplantis, though still 14 centimetres adrift. His only career victory over the Swede came at the World Indoor Championships in 2018.
Listen to live updates from the World Athletics Championships on Saturday and Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
