There seems to be a harvest of upsets at the 2018 World Indoor Championships! The drama started with the men’s High Jump where reigning World Champion (outdoor), Mutaz Barshim was pipped to GOLD by 20-year-old Danil Lysenko on Day 1 of the competition.
The upsets continued on Day 2 with the men’s Long Jump event, which provided a thrilling contest as another youngster, 19-year old Juan Miguel Echevarría, stole the limelight to win his first senior title, a global one at that, with a World Lead (WL) of 8.46m.
The star-studded lineup boasted of reigning World Outdoor Champion and Olympic Silver medallist Luvo Manyonga, who was also the World Leader coming to the World Indoors; London 2017 Silver and Bronze medallists Jarrion Lawson and Ruswahl Samaai, as well as USA’s Marquis Dendy. As such, no one would have given the young Cuban a chance.
Echevarría opened his campaign with a leap of 8.19m, before bettering the mark to an impressive 8.28m on his second attempt. He was fouled on his third, before raising the stakes higher after recording a jump of 8.36m on his fourth attempt.
By this time, Manyonga had taken the lead, having recorded no jumps in his first and second attempts, then securing a jump of 8.33m on his third, before soaring to an African Record of 8.44m in the fourth round, bettering his former record of 8.40m set in Metz last month.
But the Cuban leapfrogged the South African in the fifth round to sail to his World Leading mark and Personal Best (PB) of 8.46m. Manyonga tried to regain the lead but was fouled on his fifth and sixth attempts.
The teenager has certainly come a long way since finishing 5th at the 2016 World U-20 Championships in Poland, and is now the youngest male medallist in a Field event at the World Indoor Championships.
The battle for Bronze was between USA’s pair of Dendy and Lawson, but a PB of 8.42m in the fifth round, gave the former the edge as Lawson settled for 4th place with a best jump of 8.14m.
Another upset was recorded in the women’s Shot put where London 2017 GOLD medallist, China’s Lijiao Gong was relegated to 3rd position as Rio 2016 Bronze medallist Anita Marton, and Jamaica’s Danniel Thomas-Dodd, proved to be worthy competitors on the evening.
Gong was fouled on her first attempt but went on to take the lead with her second throw which landed at 18.98m. However, her Hungarian rival who had recorded throws of 18.29m and 18.30m on her first and second throws respectively, overtook the rest of the field with a then WL of 19.48m.
Marton then extended her WL to 19.62m to claim her third consecutive World Indoor title. Thomas-Dodd who narrowly missed out on a medal in London last year after finishing 4th, threw a National Indoor Record of 19.22m, which she secured on her third attempt, to take the Silver medal. Gong settled for Bronze with her final throw, which landed at 19.08m, a Season’s Best.
