Competition will once again be fierce at the Orlen Copernicus Cup in Torun on Sunday (16) in what will be the penultimate Gold level meeting on the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Tour.
Wild card entries for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Nanjing are on the line in the 11 scoring disciplines on this year’s tour, and it’s still all to play for in most of those.
World indoor silver medallist Ewa Swoboda carries the hopes and expectations of the home crowd into the women’s 60m, but she’ll be up against tour leader Patrizia van der Weken, the in-form sprinter from Luxembourg who defeated Swoboda in Ostrava recently.
World indoor bronze medallist Zaynab Dosso could also challenge for the victory, while 2022 world indoor champion Mujinga Kambundji and rising Australian talent Torrie Lewis cannot be discounted.
The women’s shot put provided one of the highlights of the recent World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Karlsruhe, and the top three from that competition will renew their rivalry in Torun.
World indoor champion Sarah Mitton, who won in Karlsruhe with a North American indoor record of 20.68m – the longest indoor throw in the world since 2013 – will clash with two-time world champion Chase Jackson, two-time European champion Jessica Schilder and 2022 world indoor champion Auriol Dongmo.
In the absence of Prudence Sekgodiso, world indoor champion Tsige Duguma has an opportunity to join the South African at the top of the tour standings if she wins the 800m in Torun. Millrose Games winner Shafiqua Maloney and Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu should provide tough opposition.
World and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou is yet to win a long jump competition this year, so the Greek athlete will be looking to put that right in Torun. But he’ll be up against the two athletes who have consistently been his nearest rivals in recent times: Sweden’s three-time European indoor silver medallist Thobias Montler and Italy’s world indoor silver medallist Mattia Furlani.
A victory in the men’s 60m hurdles could give Dylan Beard the overall lead in the tour standings, ahead of world and Olympic champion Grant Holloway who isn’t racing in Torun. Polish record-holder Jakub Szymanski will be on home soil, though, and will be aiming to make amends for a slightly below-par outing in Lievin on Thursday.
Two-time world champion Gudaf Tsegay will also be out for redemption after her recent outing in Lievin, but she’ll be up against the woman who beat her there, fellow Ethiopian Freweyni Hailu. This time they’ll be racing over 1500m with the likes of Birke Haylom and Japan’s Nozomi Tanaka also in the field.
Fresh from her world-leading run in the 60m hurdles Lievin, Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent will be aiming to continue her momentum in Torun. She’ll take on world indoor record-holder Devynne Charlton, Ditaji Kambundji and Nadine Visser.
A few days after setting a world U20 indoor 3000m in Lievin, Ethiopia’s Biniam Mehary will drop down in distance to the 1500m where he’ll face Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom and Britain’s Elliot Giles. In the men’s 800m, meanwhile, world indoor silver medallist Andreas Kramer opens his season and takes on a field that includes Italy’s European bronze medallist Catalin Tecuceanu.
Olympic 400m bronze medallist Natalia Bukowiecka didn’t finish her last race in Ostrava earlier this month, but she’ll get her season back on track in Torun. Norway’s Henriette Jaeger and Britain’s Laviai Nielsen, both of whom broke 50 seconds outdoors for the first time last year, are also in the field.
Following their clash in Lievin, where Leonardo Fabbri emerged victorious with a world-leading 21.95m ahead of compatriot Italian Zane Weir, the Italian duo will go head-to-head again on Sunday.
Elsewhere, world silver medallist Ernest Obiena takes on China’s Huang Bokai in the men’s pole vault, while Adrianna Sulek-Schubert and Jana Koscak will clash in the women’s pentathlon. – worldathletics.org
