World Athletics Indoor Championships 2022 - Day 2 morning session: Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh claims high jump gold, Christian Coleman and Marcell Jacobs through to 60m semi-finals
Here's what happened on Day 2 of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Saturday with a huge triumph for the Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women's high jump.
Athletics
Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh is women's high jump indoor world champion
There was a huge victory for the Ukraine's 20-year-old high flyer Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women's high jump final on Saturday morning.
It was the only final in the morning session and the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist set a new world leading mark of 2.02m to claim the title.
She was pushed all the way by Australia's Eleanor Patterson who went over at 2.00m to take silver.
While Nadezhda Dubovitskaya from Kazakhstan took bronze with a 1.98m clearance - a new Asian indoor record.
Ajee Wilson, Natoya Goule, Halimah Nakaayi through to 800m final
After some bad news for the Keely Hodgkinson (See below) who holds the world leading time this year, we saw solid performances from the other big names in the 800m.
Ajee Wilson, Natoya Goule, Halimah Nakaayi, Catriona Bisset and Habitam Alemu. will all contest the final tomorrow.
Alemu led the way this morning, but there are plenty of challengers for the final.
Samuel Tefera and Jakob Ingebrigtsen look good in men's 1500m
The men's 1500m heats as saw defending champ Samuel Tefera clock 3:37.05 - the fastest time of the day.
The 22-year-old Ethiopian will have Jakob Ingebrigtsen to contend with in the final and it's set to be a fascinating encounter after Ingebrigtsen broke Tefera's world indoor record earlier this year.
Abel Kipsang, Ollie Hoare and Taddesse Lemi are ones to watch too in tomorrow's final.
Keely Hodgkinson out of 800m, Garrett Scantling withdraws from heptathlon
Some bad news for British athletics fans as Keely Hodgkinson is forced to withdraw from the women's 800m heats due to injury.
The Tokyo 2020 silver medallist was favourite for many in the 800m here in Belgrade.
Elsewhere Garret Scantling is out of the heptathlon with food poisoning according to worldathletics.com.
Olympic champion Damian Warner and Swiss star-in-the-making Simon Ehammer are leading in the battle for the title.
Men's 60m heats: Jacobs and Coleman cruise to semi-finals
Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Marcell Jacobs and defending champion Christian Coleman won both their respective heats and are through to this afternoon's semi-finals in the men's 60m.
Coleman clocked 6.51s in heat 1, while Jacobs ran heat 5 in 6.53s.
"First of all, I want to thank you for all attention and support I get here in Belgrade. It is very nice to race in front of the cheering fans," the Italian said afterwards.
"The heats are done, the result is good and I hope to get better in the next two runs and hopefully get a medal Coleman is a great and strong runner, he is a real challenge for me and also the rest of the field.
"Coleman is really fast but Bracy is running very well too. So we will see how it goes later on. In the final, everything is open. My shape was not the best this morning because I prefer to run in the evening, but I will try to do my best later on."
For Coleman, he said this on his return to the track:
"It felt pretty good. Perhaps a little rusty, but I was taking it easy and smooth," he said after his heat where he eased up near the the finish line with a comfortable lead.
"I'm going to pick it up for the semis and try to be at my best for the finals. I'm defending champion but nobody's going to give me this as a favour. It could be anybody's race. I've got to go out there and try to execute it. We're here to compete against the best and I'm looking forward to it."
Marvin Bracy of the USA posted the best time of the qualifiers in 6.46s, and was delighted:
"I am pumped about that. To come out and produce that performance was a shock, but it shows all my hard work is paying off. A PR is a great way to start because that wasn't the intention at all. I just wanted to win the heat.
"I am absolutely gunning for Christian's (COLEMAN, USA) crown. I'm not here to lose... I'm going to give Christian a run for his money... It's going to be a US one-two, that's the goal."
Women's 60m hurdles: Turbo-charged Samba-Mayela tops heat but Danielle Williams is out
France's Cyrena Samba-Mayela clocked 7.91 to lead the qualifiers for the semifinals.
"Running in the morning I didn't expect to run that fast," the Frenchwoman ssaid. "A season's best, I didn't expect it but the track is really fast, really fast. It's like you're wearing turbo."
Gabby Cunningham and Alaysha Johnson from the USA topped their respective heats, while Swiss hurdlers Noemi Zbaren and Ditaji Kambundji also advanced.
And there was a shock exit for 2015 world champion Danielle Williams after she hit an early hurdle and could only finish sixth in her heat.
Belgrade 2022 Indoors Preview
Day 2 of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Championships is stacked with stars on Saturday morning (19th March) in Belgrade.
Day 1 began with some big names on the track in Serbia, and Day 2 is no different.
Tokyo 2020 100m gold medallist Marcell Jacobs is after the 60m sprint title here in Belgrade, but he'll have one eye on USA sprinter Christian Coleman.
Coleman is defending champion and world record-holder (6.34) and will not relinquish that title easily.
It's one of the most anticipated sprint duels in the world of track as Olympic 100m champ goes up against the American who's making a comeback from an 18-month suspension for missing doping tests.
The American is only the second 100m world champion to compete in the World Indoors after his compatriot Maurice Greene in 1999.
Heats in the morning in the men's 60m will be followed by the semi-final and final in the evening session.
We will see a final on Saturday morning in the women's high jump with 20-year-old Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australia’s Eleanor Patterson set for a soaring showdown.
Updates from the morning session are below. We'll also have action from the evening session starting at 17:30 CET.
Saturday morning event schedule at World Indoors 2022
DAY 2 - Saturday, Morning, 19 March - All *times Central Europe (GMT +1). Medal finals in bold.
- 09:30 60m H Heptathlon Heats
- 09:50 60m Heats W R1
- 10:30 Pole Vault Heptathlon M
- 10:45 60m M R1
- 11:00 Women's High Jump
- 11:40 800m R1 W
- 12:15 1500m R10 M
The evening session begins at 17:30 CET.