The Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena sits on the edge of the old walled town of Torun, still one of Poland’s most majestic sites along the Vistula River. Here, for the next three days, many of the world’s biggest stars will battle it out for medals at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
Sometimes, this event is served up as an appetiser before the bigger ones later in the season. That is not the case this time around.
With 670 athletes from 110 nations ready for action, these are the only senior global track-and-field championship, indoors or outdoors, of 2026. World Athletics have dreamed up the inaugural World Ultimate Championship, set for three days in Budapest in September, with $10 million (€8.7 million) in prizemoney. It remains to be seen how well that will be received.
Torun provides the one global multi-events competition at senior level. Sunday’s pentathlon will be contested by Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, although her year does include the European Championships in Birmingham in August.
Among the Irish athletes to already shift their focus to Birmingham are Cian McPhillips, Sarah Healy and Rhasidat Adeleke, all bypassing Torun. But after her exceptional return of four medals from four competitions last year, O’Connor isn’t thinking about anything less than another podium position here.
A year on from winning pentathlon silver at the World Indoors in China – backing that up with another silver in the heptathlon at the World Championships in Japan – O’Connor has already shown clear signs of improvement. Two lifetime bests in the 60m hurdles (8.21 seconds) and the long jump (6.50m) at the National Indoors three weeks ago is evidence of that.
Kate O’Connor found her best form at the National Indoor Championships three weeks ago, leaping to a lifetime best in the long jump. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
On the eve of these championships, World Athletics rolled out some of the sport’s biggest names for a media event, Anna Hall among them. A few months younger than O’Connor – Hall turns 25 next week – the US star already has the complete set of world heptathlon medals, but this is her first appearance on the world indoor stage.
“I’ve wanted to do World Indoors for a very long time,” said Hall. Her lifetime best of 5,004 points, set in 2023, is fourth on the world all-time list, notably better than O’Connor’s best of 4,781. O’Connor’s prime motivation will be to close that gap, possibly even test Hall all the way to the gold medal.
Part of the beauty and essence of any multi-event discipline is that fortunes and failures are so easily flipped. Sometimes, having five events all in one day is even more demanding than the seven-event heptathlon, which is spread over two days.
What is certain is O’Connor has arrived in Torun in prime condition.
“I knew I’d been training well. But it’s one thing doing it really well in training, [and] another coming out whenever you’re under pressure,” she said of her performances last month. “Last year I made so many leaps and bounds forward, but I hope I can do more magical things this year.”
Also speaking at the media event on Thursday evening, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said: “Athletics is one of the most loved sports in Poland, if not the most-loved sport.”
The hosts also have two pentathlon medal contenders in Paulina Ligarska and Adrianna Sułek-Schubert.
O’Connor’s pentathlon silver in China was Ireland’s first World Indoors medal since Derval O’Rourke won gold in the 60m hurdles in 2006. Another fascinating battle awaits.
She isn’t the only Irish medal contender here. Five of the 11 Irish athletes are in action during Friday’s opening sessions, starting with Bori Akinola in the heats of the 60m, before Mark English begins his quest to make his first global final in the 800m.
With five European medals to his name, including three indoors, no athlete in this event is more experienced than English. Although he turned 33 on Wednesday, he is still speeding up, taking his own Irish indoor record down to 1:44.23 last month.
That ranks him fifth fastest here, with Belgium’s Eliott Crestan leading the way with his 1:43.83. English will have no complaints about his draw, the fastest in the fourth of six heats. The top two (plus the six fastest times) progress to Saturday’s semi-finals. He will have one of Poland’s hopes, Filip Ostrowski (1:44.68), for company.
Akinola goes in the third of seven heats in the 60m. His recent Irish record of 6.54 is the third fastest in that line-up. The top three, plus three fastest times, will qualify for the semi-finals later on Friday. Maeve O’Neill and Emma Moore, both of whom are making their senior Irish debuts, won’t have it easy in their 800m heats.
Irish in Action on Friday (all times Irish)
Bori Akinola – Men’s 60m Heats – 9:20
Maeve O’Neill, Emma Moore – Women’s 800m Heats – 11:51
Mark English – Men’s 800m Heats – 12:26
James Gormley – Men’s 1,500m Heats – 17:54
Men’s 60m – SF – 19:16
Men’s 60m – Final – 20:22