Fierce clashes in store for World Indoor Tour Gold season finale in Madrid

Rivalries will be renewed in Madrid as athletes battle for overall tour titles during the final World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2025. 

Global champions Sarah Mitton and Chase Jackson will go head-to-head in the shot put, while Dylan Beard and Wilhem Belocian will clash in the 60m hurdles, and the pole vault will star a showdown between Molly Caudery and Tina Sutej.

The scoring disciplines on the World Indoor Tour rotate each year and in Madrid they include the women’s 60m, 800m, 3000m, pole vault, triple jump and shot put, plus the men’s 400m, 1500m and 60m hurdles. Each athlete’s best three results through the season count towards their overall point score and the athlete with the most points in each scoring discipline at the end of the tour is declared the winner.

Mitton and Jackson are among the athletes in with a chance of securing top spot in the standings at the World Indoor Tour Gold Madrid 2025.

USA’s two-time world champion Jackson has achieved 25 points from three performances so far this season – two wins in Astana and Torun, plus a third-place finish in Karlsruhe – but another win or a runner-up finish would put her even further ahead. Canada’s world indoor champion Mitton was the winner in Karlsruhe and she also finished third in Torun, meaning she would match Jackson’s current score if she were to win in Madrid. In the result of a points tie, the overall winner would be decided by performance – the athlete with the farthest throw during any World Indoor Tour meeting this season would clinch the title. 

Mitton currently tops the list with the North American indoor record of 20.68m she thew in Karlsruhe, but Jackson is also in the indoor form of her life – in Torun she threw 20.24m to improve the US indoor record. Joining them in Madrid will be Sweden’s Fanny Roos, the two-time European indoor medallist, plus Portugal’s Olympic finalist Jessica Inchude, who threw a PB of 19.18m to win her national indoor title last weekend.

“Two years ago, I remember entering the stadium and it was pretty lively,” said Mitton, the 2023 winner in Madrid. “For us in the shot put, having that attention has really helped us throw much farther. Here in Madrid fans are like 10 metres from us and they can see how far the shot is going and the energy and strength that you’re putting into it. It’s really cool to be here, to have that again.

“It’s been a really exciting year for women’s shot put already,” she added. “We’ve had four women over 20 metres which historically, at least in my career, that’s never happened indoors, so I think it’s going to be a really exciting event tomorrow and as we carry that momentum through to the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing and then as we move forward to the outdoor season.”

In the pole vault, Great Britain’s Caudery will want to add some more precious points to the 17 she has secured so far thanks to a win in Karlsruhe and second place in Lievin, both with clearances of 4.75m. The world indoor champion has the chance to overtake Sutej in the overall standings, but the Slovenian world indoor medallist will also be looking to add to a score that currently places her top on 22 points after three events.

It’s a similar story in the women’s triple jump, with Cuba’s world indoor silver medallist Leyanis Perez Hernandez and Slovenia’s European finalist Neja Filipic both in the running for top spot. Perez Hernandez claimed victory in Lievin, while Filipic won in Astana. Finland’s Senni Salminen is the third athlete among the entries to have surpassed 14 metres so far this season.

The men’s triple jump is not a World Indoor Tour scoring discipline this year but with a field featuring Zango, Martinez and their fellow global medallist Yasser Triki, it will also command the spotlight. Both Burkina Faso’s world champion Zango and Algeria’s world indoor silver medallist Triki will compete for the first time this year, while Cuba’s 2022 world indoor gold medallist Martinez opened his season with a 17.03m leap at the start of this month.

Sprint showdowns and distance duels

Two athletes are in the running for the overall World Indoor Tour title in the men’s 60m hurdles. USA’s Beard is currently joint top of the standings and with his US compatriot Grant Holloway not competing in Madrid, Belocian of France is the only athlete who could deny him.

Beard won in Astana and New York, while Belocian was first in Karlsruhe and runner-up in Lievin. There will also be a fierce domestic clash, as Enrique Llopis goes up against Asier Martinez and Abel Jordan.

“I would like to break the 7.50 barrier tomorrow and get close to the Spanish record of 7.48,” said Olympic fourth-place finisher Llopis, who jointly holds the Spanish record with Orlando Ortega. “Tomorrow will be a perfect dress rehearsal ahead of the Europeans as I’ll face France’s Wilhem Belocian and Jordan, among others.”

In the women’s 60m, Luxembourg’s Patrizia van der Weken could secure overall top spot – a position she currently shares with Jacious Sears and Zaynab Dosso, who are not competing in Madrid. Van der Weken won in Ostrava and Karlsruhe, clocking 7.08 at the former to miss her national record set in January by just 0.01.

Maria Isabel Perez will want to put on a show for home fans less than a week on from her national record of 7.15 on the same track, while Australia’s world U20 200m silver medallist Torrie Lewis will also be looking to make her mark in a season that has seen her storm to a national record of 7.14. They will be joined in Madrid by Great Britain’s Bianca Williams and Belgium’s Delphine Nkansa.

“I’m really happy with how things are going,” said Van der Weken. “I opened up really well and then was quite consistent in my following races. Now I haven’t raced in about three weeks, so we shall see how it goes tomorrow.”

USA’s Brian Faust will take to the 400m start line with the aim of becoming the overall World Indoor Tour champion. Hungary’s Attila Molnar, who won in Belgrade and Ostrava, is top of the standings but he is no longer due to compete in Madrid due to illness. Faust won in Karlsruhe and was third behind Molnar in Belgrade.

The Spanish duo of Oscar Husillos and Inaki Canal will be looking for strong performances on home soil, while Liemarvin Bonevacia is entered for his first race since July.

Ethiopia’s Olympic 3000m steeplechase finalist Lomi Muleta, who won in Karlsruhe, could take a share of the overall World Indoor Tour lead by claiming victory in the 3000m. But she will face strong competition in the race from her 19-year-old compatriot Birke Haylom, who took seven seconds off the world U20 indoor 3000m record with 8:25.37 for third place in Lievin.

Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom is top of the standings in the men’s 1500m and he could secure the World Indoor Tour title. The world indoor finalist won in Karlsruhe and was third in Ostrava and Torun, and in Madrid he will race against France’s Louis Gilavert, Ireland’s Cathal Doyle and Luxembourg’s Charles Grethen.

The women’s 800m will feature Slovenia’s European indoor silver medallist Anita Horvat, who finished second in Belgrade, plus Lorea Ibarzabal of Spain and Ethiopia’s Worknesh Mesele and Tigist Girma. The entry list for the men’s 800m is led by USA’s Jonah Koech and Italy’s Catalin Tecuceanu. 

Jess Whittington for World Athletics

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