Britain’s Azu storms to world indoor 60m gold

Britain’s Jeremiah Azu added the world indoor 60m crown to his European title as he outsprinted Australian Lachlan Kennedy in Nanjing on Friday.

Azu exploded out of the blocks to clock a personal best of 6.49 seconds, edging Kennedy — who had set the world lead of 6.43sec in Canberra in January — by one hundredth of a second at Nanjing’s Cube stadium.

The Welshman roared as his name came up as the winner after Kennedy’s was first shown.

There was a first global individual medal, bronze, for South African Akani Simbine, who has finished fifth, fourth and fifth in the last three Olympic 100m races.

Azu’s performance topped the first day of competition in the Chinese city where the 12 medals on offer were won by athletes representing 12 different nations.

South Korea’s exuberant Woo Sangh-yeok won the men’s high jump final with 2.31m for a second world indoor gold after Belgrade in 2022.

Defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Hamish Kerr of New Zealand claimed silver with 2.28m ahead of Jamaica’s Raymond Richards on countback.

Woo’s winning mark was the lowest ever in the world indoors and far from the championship record of 2.43m set by Cuban Javier Sotomayor in Budapest back in 1989.

“It’s because of my experience at the Paris Olympics last year that I’m able to win this gold medal today,” said the South Korean, in reference to his disappointing seventh-placed finish in the French capital.

Canadian Sarah Mitton defended her shot put title with a best of 20.48 metres on her sixth and final attempt, having led from her second.

Newly-crowned European indoor champion Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands took silver with 20.07m, a centimetre ahead of Team USA’s two-time defending world outdoor champion Chase Jackson.

2021 Olympic champion Gong Lijiao, perhaps the host nation’s best chance of a medal, came fifth after failing to get past 19m.

There was history in the women’s pentathlon as European indoor champion Saga Vanninen improved on her silver from Glasgow last year to become the first Finnish woman to win a senior global combined-events title.

Vanninen ran 8.30sec over the opening 60m hurdles, before managing bests of 1.81m in the high jump, 15.81m in the shot put and 6.37m in the long jump.

She wrapped up the gruelling one-day event with 2:15.28 in the 800m to finish on 4,821 points, with Ireland’s Kate O’Connor taking silver (4,742), in a first for her country, and American Taliyah Brooks bronze (4,669).

The first gold of the championships went to Italy when Cuban-born Andy Diaz Hernandez bounded out to a dominant 17.80m in the men’s triple jump in the morning session.

China’s Zhu Yaming delighted the home crowd by claiming silver with a best of 17.33m, with defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso upgraded to bronze after Brazil’s Almir dos Santos was ruled to have worn non-regulation spikes.

Norwegian prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen kept his tilt at a world indoor double on track by qualifying for Sunday’s 1500m final after winning his heat in 3:39.80.

Before that, he has a date in the final of the 3,000m on Saturday in his bid to repeat his double European gold in China.

“I am glad to get to the final,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I’m trying to stay out of trouble and reduce the risk of falling, so I’m very happy with the result and looking forward to tomorrow too to fight for the medals.

“I think it’s going to be fun. Until this evening, I was all the way preparing for as much as possible despite the jetlag before going on to the track, but for the world championships, it’s definitely worth it.”