A winter rich in records

With the end of March I consider the indoor season over. Some indoor competitions could still take place but I believe that the champions who are preparing for the summer season have started their preparation and are not seeking indoor records anymore.

That been said, it is clear that the 2021 indoor season was one of the richest in world records. 

Ryan Crouser pursued his hunt for the absolute shot put world record. His 22.82, an indoor world record, is just 30 cm shy of R. Barnes' 23.12. Will Crouser be the one to break it, or will Kovacs or Walsh pip him at the post? Time will tell.

The former and new world record holders, Tamgho and Zango

Hugues Fabrice Zango produced the first indoor 18+ meter jump. With 18.07 m he broke his coach's (T. Tamgho) indoor world record of 17.92 m. I have been watching his progress since 2019 and I am convinced that he is far from his maximum.

Gudaf Tsegay broke Genzebe Dibaba's indoor 1500 m record by more than 2 seconds! With 3:53.09 she is 8th on the all-time list of outdoor performances. If she manages to keep her momentum in the outdoor season I would not be astonishing if she were the first women to run a 1500 m under 3:50.

Grant Holloway with 7.29 s took off a 100th of a second from the old record of Colin Jackson in the 60 m hurdles. It's really reassuring because his last year's indoor season was rather underwhelming. I watched "live" his race and I must say that I am impressed by his fluidness over the hurdles. 

Chepkoech in Monaco

The last world record was not an indoor one. In the same Monaco road-race where J. Cheptegei had established, last year, his 5 km world record Beatrice Chepkoech improved S. Hassan's world record by one second to 14:43. The conditions were far from ideal with a strong wind and a low temperature. 

But that's not all. Several world records have been established in the under-20 age group and, in fact, one was broken twice. 

Keely Hodgkinson improved the 800 m indoor U20 world record with 1:59.03  but did not get to keep it since Athing Mu ran in 1:58.40 a few weeks later.

Ackera Nugent ran an impressive 7.91 on the 60 m hurdles equalling the time established by Grace Stark last year. However, to this date, for World Athletics Stark's record is in "pending ratification" status and the official record is still 8.00 by Klaudia Siciarz.

Nugent racing the hurdles

Jente Hauttekeete broke the 6000 points barrier in the indoor heptathlon. His performances are really impressive: 7.07 s, 7.33 m, 15.64 m (with a 6 kg shot), 8.06 s, 4.70 m and 2:46.71. In September he had completed a decathlon with 7833 points but his performances were wind-aided (and in any case the WR of N. Kaul stands at 8435 points).

Iapichino in her record jump

Larissa Iapichino not only broke the world U20 record in long jump with 6.91 m, but she also managed to equal her mother's, world champion and olympic silver medalist Fiona May, indoor record. Next stop, mom's outdoor record of 7.11 m.

Matvey Volkov is the son of world and olympic silver medalist Konstantin Volkov. and just like his father he is a pole vaulter. This winter he established the U18 best performance with 5.60 m. Unfortunately , being of russian nationality, he was absent for this year's indoor European's.

Finally, I would like to mention Y. Mahuchikh's 2.06 m high jump on February 2. Mahuchikh is born in 2001 and so this year she is no more "under-20". No official records or best performances are recognised for the U23 age group (a best performances list can be found in the Wikipedia) and in any case Kostadinova's 2.09 m world record is also the U23 world best. (Of course, Mahuchikh's jump counts as the best indoor U23 performance).

PS1. Oh, there was also a woman's race-walk 20 km record by J. Yang, with 1:23:49 but I prefer to forget about it.

PS2. And just a few days after this article was published Ruth Chepngetich smashed the hafl-marathon world record with 1:04:02.