To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first of Peter Snell&rsquo;s mile world records, the illustrious career of New Zealand&rsquo;s triple Olympic champion is today honoured with the World Athletics Heritage Plaque in the posthumous category of &lsquo;Legend&rsquo;.
The plaque jointly recognises Cooks Gardens, Whanganui, New Zealand, whose grass track was the venue for Snell&rsquo;s 3:54.4 run which on 27 January 1962 took one-tenth of a second off Herb Elliott&rsquo;s world record. Cooks Gardens, which since 1992 has had a synthetic track, boasts a distinguished history as a venue of outstanding middle distance performances and receives the plaque in the category of &lsquo;Landmark&rsquo;.
The <a href="https://worldathletics.org/heritage/plaque" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Athletics Heritage Plaque</a>, a location-based recognition, is awarded for &ldquo;an outstanding contribution to the worldwide history and development of the sport of track and field athletics and of out of stadia athletics disciplines such as cross country, mountain, road, trail and ultra-running, and race walking&rdquo;.
The plaque programme was inaugurated by World Athletics President Sebastian Coe on 2 December 2018 and today&rsquo;s announcement brings the total number of plaques worldwide to 72. 
<img style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f1ab467c01ce0f16c65a0f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />Peter Snell breaks the mile world record at Cooks Gardens (&copy; J Souter - Cooks Classic / Athletics New Zealand)
 Dubbed &lsquo;The Home of the Mile&rsquo;, Cooks Gardens emerged on the global stage thanks to Snell&rsquo;s world mile record there 60 years ago. 3:54 is a staggeringly fast time to run on a grass track even today.
<h3>&bull; Feature: <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage/news/60th-anniversary-peter-snell-first-mile-world-record" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60th anniversary of Snell&rsquo;s first mile world record</a></h3>
Many other all-time greats have since run the mile at Cooks Gardens including icons of the sport such as international stars Kip Keino, Jurgen May, Pekka Vasala, Steve Cram, Dave Moorcroft and Mo Farah, as well as Kiwi superstars John Walker, Jack Lovelock, Murray Halberg, Rod Dixon, and Dick Quax.
In total, Cooks Gardens has witnessed 69 sub-four-minute mile performances, with the track record belonging to double Olympic medallist Nick Willis who ran a time of 3:52.75 in 2006. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f1ad75df179b3b8f595d15.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
Left: Ray Flynn and John Walker in the mile at Cooks Gardens in 1985. Right: Nick Willis sets a track record of 3:52.75 in the mile at Cooks Gardens, Whanganui (&copy; Cooks Classic / Athletics New Zealand) 
The stadium&rsquo;s history stretches back to December 1897 when the first athletics meet took place at the venue. The very first race was won by leading Whanganui athlete Arthur Holder. Holder set a world record for the 300 yards in Napier in 1896. He also set a world best time for the 440yd hurdles (3ft 6ins) in 1897.
Today the venue is home to the annual Cooks Classic &ndash; the highlight of which is the mile event. Last year it held the first New Zealand mile championship event for 52 years. This year&rsquo;s edition of the meeting, which is a Challenger competition within the World Athletics Continental Tour, takes place this coming weekend on Sunday 30 January.
Chris Turner for World Athletics Heritage

New Zealand’s triple Olympic champion Peter Snell and Whanganui's Cooks Gardens jointly recognised

Peter Snell and Cooks Gardens jointly honoured with the Heritage Plaque

At the Cooks Gardens athletics track in Whanganui stands a life-size bronze statue of Peter Snell, frozen in time as he crosses the finish line opposite to enter the hallowed realm of world record breakers for the first time.
<img style="width: 40%; margin-left: 20px;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f175ff8e4cb21dde29733f.JPG" alt="Peter Snell statue" align="right" />Today marks the 60th anniversary of the spellbinding night when the late, truly great New Zealand middle-distance running colossus &ndash; &ldquo;a Sherman tank with overdrive,&rdquo; as the Sports Illustrated writer Leslie Hobbs memorably depicted him &ndash; beat Herb Elliott&rsquo;s world record for the mile.
World Athletics is proud to mark the occasion with the award of a Heritage Plaque which will be installed at Cooks Gardens, which now boasts a synthetic track in place of the grass surface on which Snell powered his way to the first of his two world mile records.
<h3>&bull; Announcement: <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/heritage/news/peter-snell-cooks-gardens-whanganui-heritage-plaque">Peter Snell and Cooks Gardens jointly honoured with the Heritage Plaque</a> </h3>
<h2>&lsquo;Still a novice miler&rsquo;</h2>
Like the very best world record performances, the story of Snell&rsquo;s stunning 3:54.4 mile on home soil on 27 January 1962 was a tale of the unexpected.
True, he was a reigning Olympic champion, but that surprise success in Rome in 1960 had come as a breakthrough 800m runner. Two years on, the 23-year-old Kiwi was, in the words of his coach, the legendary New Zealand distance running guru Arthur Lydiard, &ldquo;still a novice miler&rdquo;.
Snell had clocked 4:01.2 at Timaru earlier in the New Zealand summer season and his goal in Whanganui, on the west coast of his homeland&rsquo;s North Island, was purely to break four minutes. No one had ever achieved the feat on New Zealand soil.
Nobody was expecting an assault on the 3:54.5 world record figures set by Elliott, the peerless Australian Olympic 1500m champion, at Santry Stadium in Dublin in 1958. Secretly, Snell felt that if all went well he might possibly challenge the New Zealand record set in that race in the Irish capital by his training partner, Olympic 5000m champion Murray Halberg: 3:57.5.
The previous Saturday, Snell had won an 880 yards race in Auckland in a national record of 1:48.2. The following day, in blistering heat, he ran 22 miles around the Bombay Hills from his home in Pukekohe &ndash; maintaining his base stamina, as per the Lydiard philosophy &ndash; in preparation for the Whanganui mile.
There were no signs of fatigue in the 880 yards he contested in Hamilton on the Wednesday, three days before the Whanganui meet. Quite the contrary. Snell crossed the line in 1:47.1, breaking his national record by more than a second. Had he not eased his foot off the gas down the home straight, he might have broken US runner Tom Courtney&rsquo;s five-year-old world record for the half-mile distance, 1:56.8. 
<h2>Stars shine on Snell</h2>
When Saturday 27 January dawned with leaden skies and the heavens opening with a vengeance over most of New Zealand&rsquo;s North Island, it seemed that Snell had sacrificed that global mark for the sake of a 4:05 plod around a muddy track.
In Whanganui, however, the rain just about held off as the spectators massed on the banked terrace encircling the Cook&rsquo;s Gardens track.
As the esteemed New Zealand sportswriter Norman Harris recalled in his wonderfully evocative pen-portrait of the evening in Lap of Honour, &ldquo;They sit there on the green banks, 16,000 strong, the sinking sun glowing in their faces and the black thunder clouds straight above them. Anywhere else but New Zealand and they might be gathering to await a religious pageant.
&ldquo;The rain is still not falling. The sun sets and the lights are turned on, and back in the depths of the darkness a hundred cigarettes glow on the banks. The faintest trace of moisture falls from the sky and makes the grass shine&hellip;and then nothing. At nine o&rsquo;clock, half an hour before the race, there is a break in the sky above. The stars are shining!&rdquo;
At 9.30pm, Snell got to his marks with the rest of the mile field halfway down the back straight. On the odd-sized track of 385.85 yards (352.8m), there were 280 yards and then four laps to be run.
The seven-strong line-up included 800m runner Barry Cossar, who had agreed to set the pace in the first half of the race, and Halberg, who was expected to take over the burden to the three-quarters mark.
Crossar duly led through 440 yards in 60.7. Snell was seventh and last in 61.3 but swiftly moved up to third, reaching halfway in 2:00.8.
With Halberg struggling, Snell surged into the lead, Harris noting, &ldquo;The length and ease of that slumbering stride of his puts all others to shame.&rdquo;
The crowd roared when his time at the three-quarters mark was announced: 2:59.8. A collective gasp of surprise soon followed as the slender British runner Bruce Tulloh shot in front but Snell passed him and then launched into overdrive down the back straight.
&ldquo;All eyes are on Snell, thousands of voices starting to shout for him,&rdquo; Harris wrote. &ldquo;He comes around the bend running gloriously. Faster still. Faster. And faster.
&ldquo;The noise grows even louder; high above the roar there rises a vibrant shout for &lsquo;Snell! Snell! Snell!&rsquo; The dust is bouncing off the arc lights with the noise of it.
&ldquo;He has swung out of the bend, straightened up, fastened his eyes on the end of the straight, and now he is sprinting with his spikes digging into the turf. He is thundering down the straight with all the certainty of a tidal wave. He hits the tape in the onrush, runs yards through it.&rdquo;
&ldquo;For four minutes no announcement is made, while the crowd shout, clap and clamour. At last the loud-speaker crackles: &lsquo;Here is the most amazing announcement ever made at Cook&rsquo;s Gardens &ndash; Peter Snell has equalled the world record.&rsquo;
&ldquo;The tremors from Cook&rsquo;s Gardens go right across Whanganui. Then, spontaneously, 16,000 voices start together on &lsquo;For He&rsquo;s A Jolly Good Fellow.&rsquo; The song has never been sung so enthusiastically.&rdquo;
The announcer was wrong. The world record listed in the programme was 3:54.4. It should have been 3:54.5.
Snell pointed the error when he was interviewed by reporters at track side and the message was relayed to the announcer. When the correction was made public, and the world record finally announced, the crowd were &ldquo;half demented&rdquo;, as Harris put it.
The timekeepers worked out that Snell had covered the final 440 yards in 56.4, his splits being: 61.3, 59.5, 59.0 and 54.6. He had covered the last 118 yards in 14.6, matching the winning time in the preceding 110 yards hurdles.
Tulloh finished second in 3:59.3 and proceeded to become European 5000m champion in Belgrade later in the year. Australian Albie Thomas was third in 4:03.5 and Halberg fourth in 4:07.2. 
<h2>World 800m record followed</h2>
Exactly a week later, on 3 February, Snell followed up with an even more stunning exploit: an 800m world record of 1:44.3 on the Lancaster Park grass track in Christchurch. It stood as a world record for 11 years and as the Oceania record for 56 years. It remains the New Zealand record, ahead of John Walker&rsquo;s 1:44.92.
If Snell had achieved nothing else, his world record double of early 1962 would suffice to earn him track and field immortality. Yet he also compiled a formidable competitive record, losing several minor races but nailing victory in every one of his five major championship outings: the 1960 Olympic 800m in Rome, the 1962 Commonwealth 880 yards and mile in Perth, and the 1964 Olympic 800m and 1500m in Tokyo. His double in Tokyo was the first at the distances since Britain&rsquo;s Albert Hill in Antwerp in 1920.
It was at the Rome Olympics that Snell dramatically announced his arrival on the world stage. He arrived as the new national 880 yards record-holder, with a time of 1:49.2, but as a 21-year-old unknown quantity to the wider world. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/77caa644-b2b7-42a5-b69d-fa4febedb340.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 The 800m was expected to be a battle between world record-holder Roger Moens from Belgium and Jamaica&rsquo;s George Kerr. Instead, the 5ft 10in, 13st Kiwi with the physique of an All Black rugby player powered past the despairing Moens in the final 25 metres to claim victory in 1:46.3, an Olympic record.
Four years later, in Tokyo, Snell destroyed the opposition with devastating bursts down the back straight, winning the 800m by half a second in 1:45.1, another Games record, and unleashing a 53.2-second last lap to take the 1500m by one-and-a-half seconds.
He also improved his mile world record to 3:54.1 in Auckland in November 1964 and clocked a 1000m world record of 2:16.6 in the same month. 
<h2>&lsquo;It was all about the conditioning&rsquo;</h2>
It all might not have been. Tennis was Snell&rsquo;s first sporting love. He was a quarter-finalist in the New Zealand Under 17 championships.
Towards the end of his schooling he found that his powerful physique better suited him to running and his successes brought him into the orbit of Lydiard, a former New Zealand marathon champion, who persuaded him that a weekly training regime of 100 miles &ndash; including a Sunday 22 miler, as well as hill running and interval training &ndash; would equip him with the stamina base required to become a world-class 800m runner. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/9be5b873-f5a8-499e-b3b0-3e160d31e1af.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> 
&ldquo;I came to the conclusion that it was all about the conditioning,&rdquo; Snell told Runner&rsquo;s World. &ldquo;Spend as much time as you can on the conditioning and you&rsquo;ll eventually get yourself into, as Lydiard liked to say, a &lsquo;tireless state&rsquo;.
&ldquo;You could run the 22-mile course and feel like you could go out the next day and do it again. Once you got there, it was a very heady feeling. You could do a great volume of training, get your intervals down to race pace, and do faster than race pace.&rdquo; 
<h2>Determined to the last</h2>
Snell retired from the track in 1965 and moved to the US in 1971, gaining a PhD in exercise physiology and becoming director of the Human Performance Center at the University of Texas in Dallas. His sporting success continued to late in his life.
In 2003 he won the 65 and over section at the US orienteering championships. At the age of 78 he won a team silver medal at the World Masters table tennis championships in Auckland in 2017. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f1785d7c55a373f7f867d1.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 On 20 November 2019, despite having suffered a heart attack a week earlier and against his doctor&rsquo;s advice, Snell attempted to board a flight in Dallas determined to attend <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/news/heritage-mile-night" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a reunion of world mile record-holders in Monaco</a>. Feeling dizzy, Snell returned home.
On 12 December 2019, aged 80, Snell died of heart failure.
Vivid memories of his dashing deeds, at Cooks Gardens and beyond, live on.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics Heritage

Remembering Snell's 3:54.4, set at Cooks Gardens in 1962

60th anniversary of Snell’s first mile world record

Many of the world&rsquo;s top athletes, including multiple global medallists and a world record-holder in Mondo Duplantis, will make their season debuts when this year&rsquo;s World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold action kicks off at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on Friday (28).
Duplantis has been the dominant force in the men&rsquo;s pole vault over the past few years and he doesn&rsquo;t intend for that to change in 2022, a year in which he is targeting success at both the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade and the World Championships in Oregon. It all starts in Karlsruhe in southwestern Germany, where the 22-year-old will compete for the first time on Friday.
The Swedish star has been the world record-holder for almost two years now, having cleared 6.17m in Torun and then 6.18m in Glasgow just a week apart during the 2020 indoor season. In 2021 he picked up from where he left off, achieving 14 six-metre clearances, including at the Olympic Games where he gained gold with a vault of 6.02m, and recording world-leading marks of 6.10m indoors and outdoors. No athlete has yet soared over a six metre-high bar in Karlsruhe and Duplantis has set that as his target as he seeks to improve the meeting record of 5.95m achieved by Renaud Lavillenie in 2021.
"If nobody has jumped six metres in Karlsruhe, then I feel like it&rsquo;s about that time," he said at the pre event press conference. "It&rsquo;s always really exciting going into your first competition because as an athlete you have an understanding of the shape that you are in and you can kind of predict what you can do, but you don&rsquo;t fully know until you get out there on the track and compete. I feel good about it and I think somebody needs to jump six metres here."
He is looking forward to attempting to do that in front of crowds of fans, too.&nbsp;
"The past two years have been quite difficult. Sometimes it feels like you are just jumping in front of cameras," he explained. "Even though you know that there are other people beyond the cameras and in front of their TVs watching you, it is kind of hard to realise it and get that feeling when you are in the stadium, so it is really exciting that we are starting to jump in front of more and more people now.
"I feel like ever since I broke the world record in February 2020, the pandemic started to settle in. So ever since I started to really figure out how to jump high, I haven&rsquo;t been able to get full spectators to watch me, and I want to show people what I can do."
The track in action for the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe is the same as the one used for the 2013 European Indoor Championships in&nbsp;Gothenburg, where former world record-holder&nbsp;Lavillenie won with a 6.01m clearance and came agonisingly close to managing 6.07m. Although the bar remained up on his final attempt, it had been nudged from one of its pegs.
"I saw what Renaud was able to do on this track, making 6.01m quite easily and then having that funny attempt at 6.07m," said Duplantis. "That was one of the main driving forces for me to come to this meet in general, because I saw that it&rsquo;s a place where you can jump high and I want to go to places where I can jump high and try to do something special and I feel like Karlsruhe is a place to do that."
He won&rsquo;t be the only athlete aiming high, however, with the field also featuring Poland&rsquo;s five-time world medallist Piotr Lisek and their fellow six-metre-plus vaulter KC Lightfoot, who finished joint fourth at the Tokyo Olympics with Emmanouil Karalis, another of the entries in Karlsruhe. Valentin Lavillenie is back in the stadium where his brother set the meeting record last year, while world fourth-place finisher Bo Kanda Lita Baehre competes in front of home fans. 
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<h2>Spotlight on Aregawi and Giles</h2>
All eyes will be on Ethiopia&rsquo;s Berihu Aregawi in the men&rsquo;s 3000m, following his world 5km record run on the roads of Barcelona on New Year&rsquo;s Eve. The 20-year-old ran 12:49 at the Cursa dels Nassos, taking two seconds off Joshua Cheptegei&rsquo;s world record, and that was after a 12:52 run in Lille in early November and an impressive track season during which he won the 5000m at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, finished fourth on his Olympic debut in Tokyo and won the Ethiopian 10,000m title. Prior to that, Aregawi had started his year with a 7:29.24 3000m in Lievin &ndash; the fastest ever indoor performance by a teenager.
His fellow 20-year-old Jacob Krop began his 2022 on the roads, running a PB of 27:23 to finish third in the 10K Valencia Ibercaja. Krop, who has an outdoor 3000m PB of 7:30.07, will be making his indoor debut. He will be joined by fellow Kenyans Abel Kipsang, the Olympic fourth-place finisher, and Justus Soget, the 2018 world U20 1500m bronze medallist. Spain&rsquo;s Adel Mechaal returns to the track after racing on the road and cross country so far this year.
Britain&rsquo;s Elliot Giles has fond memories of this meeting, with his 1:45.50 800m win marking the start of a successful 2021 indoor campaign. After improving to 1:45.49 in Lievin 10 days later, the 2018 world indoor fourth-place finisher then stormed to a time of 1:43.63 in Torun to become the second-fastest ever indoor 800m runner behind world record-holder Wilson Kipketer. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/953a1ee8-3aa8-4b19-97aa-788638b7d01e.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Andreas Kramer placed third on that occasion in Torun, setting a Swedish indoor record of 1:45.09, and was also among those in Karlsruhe last year. Spain&rsquo;s European indoor champion Alvaro de Arriba will join that duo on the start line.
The world champion is in action in the women&rsquo;s 800m, with Uganda&rsquo;s Halimah Nakaayi racing indoors for the first time since her 2:01.96 PB set in Lievin in 2020. She will line up alongside multiple German champion Christina Hering and Sweden&rsquo;s 2016 European bronze medallist Lovisa Lindh.
Nakaayi&rsquo;s Ugandan compatriot Winnie Nanyondo contests the 1500m. Olympic and world finalist Nanyondo was runner-up last year in Karlsruhe behind Katharina Trost, who also returns to race on home soil. Joining them will be Ethiopia&rsquo;s Olympic fourth-place finisher Freweyni Hailu, Hirut Meshesha and 2014 world indoor silver medallist Axumawit Embaye, who set her indoor PB in Karlsruhe back in 2015. Kenya&rsquo;s Edinah Jebitok, who recently won at the Elgoibar Juan Muguerza Cross Country, also races, as do Spain&rsquo;s Marta Perez and Esther Guerrero. 
<h2>Global medallists Tapper and Pozzi highlight hurdles</h2>
Jamaica&rsquo;s Megan Tapper has not raced indoors since 2018 and now she does so as an Olympic medallist. The 27-year-old had the competition of her life in Tokyo, setting a PB of 12.53 in the heats before claiming 100m hurdles bronze in 12.55. The Jamaican champion went on to match that position with a third-place finish in the Diamond League final.
Her compatriot Danielle Williams, meanwhile, has raced indoors much more recently and the 2015 world 100m hurdles champion will be looking to build on the 7.92 she ran in Clemson earlier this month. Germany&rsquo;s 2015 world 100m hurdles silver medallist Cindy Roleder, who contested her first pentathlon since 2014 a few weeks ago, returns to her specialist discipline in Karlsruhe, with European champion Elvira Herman of Belarus also among the entries for the women's 60m hurdles.
In the men&rsquo;s event, Britain&rsquo;s world indoor champion Andrew Pozzi will again go up against world medallist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France. Pozzi clocked 7.44 &ndash; a time which remains his second-quickest ever, just 0.01 off his PB &ndash; to win in Karlsruhe in 2017 and the Briton went on to win the European indoor title later that season. The following year, he added the world indoor title to his CV. Three-time world indoor medallist Martinot-Lagarde, meanwhile, makes his fifth appearance at the Karlsruhe meeting, and will be joined by his compatriot Aurel Manga, the world indoor bronze medallist, plus Germany's Martin Vogel.
Another athlete seeking a strong performance on home soil will be Olympic and world long jump champion Malaika Mihambo, who tests her speed by racing the 60m. With a PB of 7.22, the athlete with a 7.30m long jump best ran 7.37 in Karlsruhe in 2020. Her compatriot Tatjana Pinto, who ran 7.06 in 2018 and won in Karlsruhe that same year, returns to competition for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics, while European indoor bronze medallist Jamile Samuel of the Netherlands is among those also taking to the start line.
Poland&rsquo;s European champion Justyna Swiety-Ersetic goes in the 400m along with Germany&rsquo;s world leader Corinna Schwab, who ran 51.95 in Chemnitz last weekend, and Lieke Klaver, who formed part of the winning Dutch 4x400m team at the European Indoor Championships last year. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/7b055f22-1b4d-40f5-8f80-5a2cb42b29b5.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 The women&rsquo;s high jump no longer features Olympic and world champion Mariya Lasitskene, who has been forced to withdraw due to suffering a cold, and so Ukraine&rsquo;s 2017 world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko now leads the entries along with leading German high jumper Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch and Bulgaria&rsquo;s 2016 Olympic silver medallist Mirela Demireva, with the trio all having cleared two metres or higher during their careers so far.
"Karlsruhe is my first competition of the season, and I&rsquo;m curious about what I can get out of the competition tomorrow," said&nbsp;Jungfleisch. "Training has been going well, and I am really motivated. I hope, of course, to be able to jump 1.90m or higher."
Germany&rsquo;s 2016 world indoor silver medallist Max Hess will look to make the most of the home advantage for a strong show in the men&rsquo;s triple jump, where he will face Azerbaijan&rsquo;s European indoor champion Nazim Babayev and Melvin Raffin of France. Sweden&rsquo;s two-time European indoor silver medallist Thobias Montler won the Diamond League final in September and after racing over 60m in Vaxjo last weekend he returns to contest his specialist event against Spain&rsquo;s Olympic fourth-place finisher Eusebio Caceres, Germany&rsquo;s European indoor fifth-place finisher Maximilian Entholzner and France&rsquo;s world U20 champion Erwan Konate.
The INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe is the first of this season&rsquo;s seven World Indoor Tour Gold meetings, with the series then moving on to Manhattan (29 January), Staten Island (6 February), Lievin (17 February), Birmingham (19 February), Torun (22 February) and Madrid (2 March).
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Mondo Duplantis, Berihu Aregawi and Malaika Mihambo all set to star at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe

Global stars converge on Karlsruhe for World Indoor Tour Gold opener

Organisers of the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix have confirmed that two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo will return to the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting on Staten Island, New York, on 6 February.
Miller-Uibo is coming off a 2021 season that saw her go undefeated over 400m, starting with a Bahamian indoor record at last year&rsquo;s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, and ending with the successful defence of her Olympic title, recording a remarkable 48.36 to break her own continental record.
Miller-Uibo will face stiff competition in Wadeline Jonathas, the 2020 US indoor 400m champion and Olympic 4x400m champion.
Other key additions the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix include Omar McLeod, the 2016 Olympic sprint hurdles champion, who will line up in the flat 60m against the previously announced Noah Lyles and Ronnie Baker.
Diamond League 110m hurdles champion Devon Allen will join world record-holder Grant Holloway in the 60m hurdles, while Eorupean and Commonwealth 1500m medallist Jake Wightman will step up in distance to contest the 3000m, where he&rsquo;ll take on Spain&rsquo;s 2017 European indoor champion Adel Mechaal and Luis Grijalva, the Guatemalan record-holder at 1500m, 3000m and 5000m.
The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix is the third World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2022. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series, starting with Karlsruhe on 28 January and culminating in Madrid on 2 March.
Organisers for World Athletics

2016 Olympic sprint hurdles champion Omar McLeod also confirmed for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix

Miller-Uibo ready to return to Staten Island

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is looking for a Database Specialist Coordinator to support their test management team.
The AIU, created in 2017, is responsible for implementing the World Athletics testing programme worldwide. The testing programme is at the heart of the AIU's anti-doping strategy and mainly consists of doping control tests in and out of competition.
The responsibilities of the Database Specialist Coordinator include: administering the AIU retention and retest programme, assisting the test team in the implementation of the AIU test programme for the second tier test pools, and assisting the out-of-competition testing team.
More details can be found on the job advert: <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=2f8200df-a8e8-4629-b4b2-f3225c6518f9.pdf&amp;urlSlug=aiu-database-specialist-coordinator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">English</a> | <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/download/download?filename=422f59db-8fab-49e0-90f0-000d300d4d00.pdf&amp;urlSlug=coordinateurtrice-specialiste-en-base-de-donn" target="_blank" rel="noopener">French</a>
 To apply, candidates should send the following in English <a href="mailto:emploi@worldathletics.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">emploi@worldathletics.org</a> before 25 February 2022:
- Letter of application highlighting your motivation for the post and relevant experience
- Up-to-date curriculum vitae
- Details of current remuneration
- Names and contact details for three referees (referees will not be contacted until final interview stage)

The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is looking for a Database Specialist Coordinator 

Job vacancy: AIU Database Specialist Coordinator

Organisers of the INIT Meeting Karlsruhe &ndash; the first World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2022 &ndash; are adding the finishing touches as they prepare for the series opener on 28 January.
The seven-meeting Gold tour will then head straight to the US for stops in Manhattan (29 January) and Staten Island (6 February) before returning to Europe for the meetings in Lievin (17 February), Birmingham (19 February) and Torun (22 February) before the concluding competition in Madrid on 2 March.
The scoring disciplines on the World Indoor Tour rotate each year. For 2022 they are: Women: 400m, 1500m, 60m hurdles, high jump, long jump Men: 60m, 800m, 3000m/5000m, pole vault, triple jump, shot put
Each athlete&rsquo;s best three results will count towards their overall point score. The athlete with the most points in each scoring discipline at the end of the tour will be declared the winner and will be awarded a USD$10,000 bonus along with a wild card entry for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22. 
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 Athletes already announced include world pole vault record-holder Mondo Duplantis for the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe and the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham, with Olympic 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson joining him in Birmingham. The Millrose Games is set to star Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu, Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser, Olympic pole vault champion Katie Nageotte and 2016 world indoor 60m champion Trayvon Bromell, who will also race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, where he will be joined by world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder Grant Holloway.
The Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais features Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs, Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Gudaf Tsegay, who returns to the venue of her world indoor 1500m record set last year and will this time race the mile. One year on from their brilliant battle over 3000m in Lievin, the trio of Getnet Wale, Selemon Barega and Lamecha Girma will race over the distance again at the Copernicus Cup in Torun.
The 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series will enjoy more broadcast coverage than ever this season with, as of today, 22 broadcast deals agreed by Infront. This includes free-to-air agreements with SVT in Sweden, TVE in Spain and MTV IN in Finland and new agreements in Russia with Match Tv and North and Latin America through ESPN, Direct Tv, Flo Sports and Flow Sports. Other takers include ORF in Austria, ARENA in the Balkans, Polsat Group in Poland and new broadcaster Sky in Italy on the back of the country&rsquo;s success at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
In territories where rights haven&rsquo;t been sold, World Indoor Tour Gold meetings will be shown on World Athletics' YouTube channel and Facebook page.
<h3>2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour national broadcasters</h3>
Karlsruhe, 28 January: SWR Manhattan, 29 January: NBC Staten Island, 6 February: NBC Lievin, 17 February: L&eacute;quipe 21 Birmingham, 19 February: BBC Torun, 22 February: Polsat Sport Madrid, 2 March: TVE 
<h3>International broadcast intentions</h3>
Oversport: Albania
Arena Sport: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia
Match TV: Russia
Polsat Sport News: Poland
Swiss Sport TV: Switzerland
Cosmote: Greece, Cyprus
Sky: Italy
TVE: Spain
A1 Bulgaria: Bulgaria
Sport TV: Portugal
Sportdeutschland: Germany
ORF: Austria
Ziggo: Netherlands
TG4: Republic of Ireland
MTV Oy: Finland
SVT: Sweden
Charlton: Israel
Sport 1: Lithuania
Direct TV: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela
ESPN: Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama
Flow Sports: Anguilla, Antigua &amp; Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Barthelemy, St Kitts &amp; Nevis, St Lucia, Saint Martin, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad &amp; Tobago, Turks &amp; Caicos.
FloSports: USA, Canada, Australia
 More broadcasters may be added in the coming days and will be confirmed nearer to the time of the first meeting.

Three days to go until series opener on 28 January

World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meetings ready for lift-off

As she reflects on a breakthrough year, capped with two Olympic silver medals, the deeply religious Marileidy Paulino would be inclined to describe her 2021 season as a miracle. But hard work, discipline and determination comprise the recipe for this late comer to athletics.
The second youngest of six siblings in her household &ndash; she has five other siblings on her father&rsquo;s side &ndash; Paulino grew up an active girl in Don Gregorio, a one-hour drive west from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. With no sporting background in the family, Paulino did not participate in organised sport until the age of 18, when she started to practise handball. As she was offered a monthly salary to join the Air Force as a track and field athlete, she changed to her definitive sport a year later.
At first, when she started training under coach Heriberto Garcia in a baseball field, she didn&rsquo;t take the sport too seriously. In 2015 she missed a local meet for army athletes on her 19th birthday. &ldquo;It was my birthday and I did not want to celebrate competing,&rdquo; she reasons.
But early in 2016, she joined the training group of Cuban coach Yaseen Perez, who had recently arrived in the country. She made her competitive debut in March 2016 with respectable times of 12.01 and 24.67 for 100m and 200m, which she improved to 11.89 and 24.54 two weeks later at the Military Games. This performance opened the door for her first international experiences in Colombia and Cuba, where she improved to 11.61 and 23.81. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61efe2d980400397b9920365.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;I was very excited to board a plane for the first time,&rdquo; she recalls of those competitions. &ldquo;I was really motivated to see that my talent was rewarded with an international trip. I donned the national uniform for the first time. It&rsquo;s beautiful and a great honour to represent my country. The track in Colombia was amazing.&rdquo;
She ended the season by reaching the 100m and 200m finals at the NACAC U23 Championships. &ldquo;Back then, my love for the sport was not that deep,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I did not know much about the sport.&rdquo;
In 2017 she attempted the 400m for the first time. She was scheduled to run the 100m and 200m double as usual at the National Military Games, but a team member withdrew from the 400m. Paulino gave it a try and led through 370m before dropping to third at the finish with 56.30. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t like the distance at all and did not think I would run it again.&rdquo;
She ended her season at the World University Games in Taipei, where she missed making the 200m final by one place and before her 4x100m relay squad was disqualified.
&ldquo;I hate long trips,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;It took us a day and half. I can&rsquo;t sleep on planes. The food was very different. I only ate rice and eggs. But I was happy to see my compatriot Luguelin Santos&rsquo; win (400m) and listen to our national anthem.&rdquo;
At the start of 2018, Paulino tried racing indoors for the first time. Although she didn&rsquo;t particularly enjoy her two competitions in New York, she set national records for 60m (7.45) and 200m (23.82).
Outdoors, she improved the national 200m record to 22.87 in the heats at the Central American and Caribbean Games, but had to settle for fourth in both sprint events. Only 0.01 separated her from the bronze in the 100m where she ran a marginally wind-assisted 11.33, having set a PB of 11.39 in the semifinal. She found some consolation with the 4x100m bronze medal.
The following year didn&rsquo;t result in any personal bests, but consistency was crucial.
&ldquo;2019 gave me a lot of confidence,&rdquo; says Paulino, who reached the 200m final at the Pan-American Games. &ldquo;The cold and humid weather affected me a lot at the Pan American Games in Lima. After warm-up, my body got cold and couldn&rsquo;t perform at my best.&rdquo;
She also made her World Championships debut in Doha. &ldquo;The World Championships was an incredible experience. This time, it was too hot. Warming up at 2pm was almost unbearable. I had the opportunity to meet some of the world&rsquo;s best, including world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith and Elaine Thompson.&rdquo;
Paulino closed the season by taking 200m silver at the World Military Games in China, her first individual medal at an international meet. &ldquo;It was emotional. I was very happy. I kept my consistency for seven months.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61efe29480400397b992035f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
&nbsp;
<h2>Turning point</h2>
With many international competitions cancelled during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, Paulino had just one race in 2020. But it proved to be something of a turning point.
With no specific training, she raced over 400m in Santo Domingo and took half a second off the national record with 51.88.
&ldquo;I was not training for the event; I just tried a 400m off the back of my 200m preparation and realised I had the potential to be a good 400m runner,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Training for 400m is very different and more demanding but I managed well.&rdquo;
Paulino stayed in Cuba to train for four months, then returned home and followed the training programme that had been set by her coach, who stayed in Cuba. She would start training at 6am at the local baseball stadium and would finish by 8am, before the baseball players arrived.
The next goal was to achieve the Olympic standard, which she achieved with her 2021 season&rsquo;s debut as she reduced her own national record to 50.31
She impressed on her European debut as an instrumental member of Dominican Republic&rsquo;s silver-winning mixed 4x400m squad at the World Athletics Relays in Silesia, qualifying her team for the Tokyo Olympics.
After a few races in Europe, Paulino felt her old spikes made her uncomfortable. She tried a new pair and rushed to a meeting in Huelva, Spain, to help training partner Anabel Medina reach the Olympic qualifying time.
&ldquo;That was the sole intention,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t give it my all, so I was surprised to see the time: 49.99 &ndash; my first time under 50 seconds.&rdquo;
She was ready to be a serious contender in Tokyo.
Before the individual 400m in Tokyo, she and her teammates proved the silver medal in Poland was no fluke. Running the second leg in the mixed 4x400m final, Paulino put her team in the lead halfway through and anchor Alexander Ogando pipped USA&rsquo;s Vernon Norwood at the line for the silver medal. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61efe2ba80400397b9920362.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 &ldquo;Many thought running the relay would negatively affect my performance in the individual event, but we knew we had a chance and it would be a great motivation for the individual 400m,&rdquo; says Paulino, who produced a 48.7 split in the final. &ldquo;That was a historic performance by the team. We won a medal and beat the US quartet. I am so proud of them.&rdquo;
Buoyed by her relay success, Paulino carried that momentum through to the individual 400m, winning her heat (50.06) and semifinal (49.38).
&ldquo;I felt fresh every time I stepped on the track,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Running sub-49-second pace so comfortably in the semifinal before slowing down towards the finish gave me the confidence I would fight for a medal.&rdquo;
In the final, she was one of four women in medal contention with 100 metres to go. &ldquo;At that point, I felt like I had extra gear and sprinted towards the line,&rdquo; she recalls. &ldquo;I accelerated my arm movements and that helped me move my legs faster.&rdquo;
After she crossed the finish line in second place in 49.20, her fifth national 400m record of the year, she held up her left spike with a phrase written on it: &lsquo;Silence. God is my hope&rsquo;.
It took a while for the result to sink in. &ldquo;My first realisation was at the medal presentation when Luisin Mejia (IOC member from the Dominican Republic) presented the medals. When I saw the flag, I knew it was for real.&rdquo; Paulino also received phone calls from the country&rsquo;s President and First Lady.
In order to stay fully focused while in Tokyo, Paulino disconnected herself from social media three days prior to her arrival in Japan until the end of the Games. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t know what was happening in my country and how people were reacting. I only stayed in contact with my family,&rdquo; she says. 
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 Paulino&rsquo;s two Olympic medals opened the door to her Wanda Diamond League debut and she suitably rose to the occasion, winning in Lausanne (50.40) and Paris (50.12) before ending the season with a second-place finish in 49.96 at the Diamond League final in Zurich.
She was given a hero&rsquo;s welcome at home when she returned from Europe. A caravan took her from Santo Domingo airport to her hometown of Don Gregorio. &ldquo;It was great to see the love of so many people,&rdquo; says Paulino, who was given an apartment in Santo Domingo from the national government. &ldquo;I was really tired from the trip, jetlagged. They hosted me in another event in my hometown the following day. At first, I couldn&rsquo;t go unnoticed to do my shopping. Things have calmed down now.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61efe26b80400397b992035c.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
&nbsp;
<h2>Guidance from Perez</h2>
Perez, her coach, has been instrumental in Paulino&rsquo;s success. &ldquo;When we started working together, I saw in her a strong woman physically,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Her movements were wide and not fluid, so we needed to work on her technique. We decided to focus on 100m and 200m to begin with, but from the start she always had good natural endurance.&rdquo;
&ldquo;For any sprinter, the 100m is the event in which you learn how to run. My work was initially focused on teaching her how to run before deciding on her speciality. At first I thought the 200m would be her event, but then I saw her potential for 400m. Other seasoned coaches also advised me that she would be a better fit for that event.
&ldquo;(Before her 51.88 run in 2020) she was not totally convinced she could be a contender in the 400m,&rdquo; added Perez. &ldquo;That race paved the way for the results we have achieved so far.&rdquo;
Off the track, Paulino is just like many other people her age. She enjoys spending time at the beach, by the river or in the countryside. She also loves dancing and spending time with loved ones, trading jokes and enjoying good food and wine.
But when she sets foot on a track, she is fiercely determined. Indeed, beyond her obvious talent, Perez believes Paulino&rsquo;s success is thanks to her discipline, her ambitions and her drive to meet her goals. &ldquo;She loves to set objectives, and she&rsquo;ll often surpass our own goals for training,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;This is an advantage; I never need to push her.&rdquo;
As Paulino started to get more serious in athletics, her respect grew for two compatriots: two-time Olympic 400m hurdles champion Felix Sanchez and 2012 Olympic 400m silver medallist Luguelin Santos. The latter raced alongside Paulino in the heats of the mixed 4x400m in Tokyo. &ldquo;He is a warrior,&rdquo; Paulino says of Santos. &ldquo;I love his fighting spirit on the track.
&ldquo;Felix is a national hero. I see him on a regular basis. I am not in his training group, but he gives me motivation every time we interact. He is a great person. He was proud and cried of happiness when we won those medals in Tokyo.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61efe2f180400397b9920368.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Having become the first woman from the Dominican Republic to earn an individual Olympic medal in athletics, Paulino now knows what it feels like to be considered a national hero. But she doesn&rsquo;t let it get in the way of the goals she has set for 2022.
&ldquo;I want to perform well at the World Championships and in the Diamond League,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I also count on my team to be in the mix for the medals again in the mixed relay.&rdquo;
&ldquo;We plan to run fewer 400m races this year and will focus on the first half of the race and work on her speed,&rdquo; added Perez. &ldquo;She will run a few 200s and even some 100s. The goal is to stay at the same level. We do not want to rush anything and we work towards Paris 2024. If she runs 48 seconds, it is welcome, but that&rsquo;s not the goal.&rdquo;
Whatever the ultimate goal, Paulino appears to have immeasurable potential in her new discipline.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for World Athletics

The remarkable rise of the one-lap sprinter from the Dominican Republic

Marileidy Paulino, from 400m newcomer to Olympic silver medallist in one year

World half marathon bronze medallist Yalemzerf Yehualaw opened her 2022 season in spectacular style by claiming victory at the Total Energies Great Ethiopian Run 10km, taking 38 seconds off her own race record with 31:17.
Her winning time is the fastest 10km ever recorded at altitude, with Addis Ababa standing 2350m above sea level. Gemechu Dida won a close men's race in 28:24, just five seconds shy of the long-standing race record.
Yehualaw, who set the previous event record of 31:55 in 2019, came into the race eager to impress after having to withdraw from the Valencia 10km just two weeks ago. Today she ran a smart race, making her break from long-time leader Girmawit Gebregziabiher, the 2018 world U20 5000m bronze medallist, just past the 7.5km mark after cresting the hill near the National Palace.
At the 9km turn at Urael Church, Yehuawlaw accelerated dramatically and pulled clear of her rival, cruising to the finish line to win by 12 seconds from Gebregziabiher, who clocked 31:29. Double world U20 medallist Melknat Wedu, still just 17 years of age, finished third in 31:45.
The men&rsquo;s race was much closer, with six athletes still in contention in the final 500 metres. In the end it was Dida who took a surprise victory over former Dubai Marathon champion Getaneh Molla with Boki Diriba finishing third as two seconds separated the podium finishers.
The highest-placed non-Ethiopian athlete was Kenya&rsquo;s Cornelius Kibet Kemboi, who finished sixth in 28:39. A total of 17,600 runners finished the mass race.
Organisers for World Athletics
<h2>Leading results</h2>
Women 1 Yalemzerf Yehualaw (ETH) 31:17 2 Girmawit Gebrzihair (ETH) 31:29 3 Melknat Wedu (ETH) 31:45 4 Gete Alemayehu (ETH) 32:06 5 Bosena Mulate (ETH) 32:17 6 Hawi Feyisa (ETH) 32:18 7 Birtukan Wolde (ETH) 32:22 8 Anchinalu Desse (ETH) 32:38 9 Mebrat Gidey (ETH) 32:42 10 Ayenaddis Teshome (ETH) 32:49
Men 1 Gemechu Dida (ETH) 28:24 2 Getaneh Molla (ETH) 28:25 3 Boki Diriba (ETH) 28:26 4 Moges Tuemay (ETH) 28:31 5 Getachew Masresha (ETH) 28:33 6 Cornelius Kibet Kemboi (KEN) 28:39 7 Teresa Ggnakola (ETH) 28:43 8 Solomon Berihun (ETH) 28:55 9 Ashenafi Kiros (ETH) 28:59 10 Antenayehu Dagnachew (ETH) 29:05

World half marathon bronze medallist clocks 31:17, taking 38 seconds off the race record

Yehualaw breaks race record at Great Ethiopian Run

World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Benjamin Kogo, who claimed Olympic 3000m steeplechase silver for Kenya at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, has died at the age of 77.
Kogo&rsquo;s achievements sparked the start of Kenya&rsquo;s great success in the steeplechase, as he became the first athlete to contest the event for his country at the Olympics when racing at the 1964 Games in Tokyo. There, he finished fifth in his heat in 8:51.0.
Four years later he progressed to not only make the final, but reach the podium. With a time of 8:51.56, Kogo secured silver behind his compatriot Amos Biwott and Kenyan athletes would go on to win 10 of the following 13 Olympic men&rsquo;s finals in the discipline.
Kogo had led the field during the early stages of that tactical 1968 final and was joined by the USA&rsquo;s George Young at the bell. Kogo was ahead off the final water jump but as he powered away, his lesser-known compatriot Biwott stormed past to take the title.
As well as his Olympic silver medal, Kogo won gold at the inaugural African Games in 1965 and claimed bronze at the 1966 Commonwealth Games. His PB of 8:31.6 was set in Paris in 1967.
He retired in 1972 after a hip injury meant he was unable to qualify for that year&rsquo;s Olympics.
World Athletics

Benjamin Kogo, 1944-2022

Kenya's 1968 Olympic steeplechase silver medallist Kogo dies

Ireland&rsquo;s Ciara Mageean and Britain's&nbsp;Scott Lincoln were among the winners as the season&rsquo;s World Athletics Indoor Tour action got started at the BoXX United Manchester World Indoor Tour meeting on Saturday (22).
A number of qualifying marks for the World Athletics Indoor Championships were achieved during the Silver level meeting&nbsp;at Manchester Regional Arena in the UK, as athletes target the global event in Belgrade in March.
In an exciting 3000m race, European indoor 1500m bronze medallist Mageean chased down and then pipped Albania&rsquo;s long-time leader Luiza Gega by three tenths of a second, winning in an indoor PB of 8:47.23 after a storming last lap.
Verity Ockenden finished third in 8:51.17 as the top seven athletes all broke nine minutes. 
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 The men&rsquo;s 3000m was won by Qatar&rsquo;s Mohamad Al Garni in 7:52.68 from Italy&rsquo;s Yassin Bouih in 7:53.66, with Osian Perrin running&nbsp;7:54.41 to improve his own UK U20 indoor 3000m record and finish fourth. Romania&rsquo;s Claudia Bobocea secured a six-second win in the women&rsquo;s 1500m in 4:06.24.
There were some promising performances by Britain's top shot putters, with Lincoln improving to an indoor PB of 20.73m to win the men&rsquo;s event and Sophie McKinna throwing 18.53m, a centimetre off her indoor best, in the final round of the women's contest to triumph ahead of her fellow 2019 world finalist Chase Ealey of the USA, who threw 18.49m.
Britain&rsquo;s European indoor fourth-place finisher Andrew Robertson ran 6.60 and his compatriot Amy Hunt a 7.21 PB to win the 60m finals.
The World Indoor Tour now moves on to the&nbsp;Czech Republic for the Bronze level&nbsp;Kladno Indoor meeting on 27 January, before the first Gold level event of the season, the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe in Germany, the day after.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/calendar-results/7172608/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a> 
<h2>Fast sprints in the US</h2>
Over in the United States, US sprinter Marybeth Sant-Price ran a PB of 7.08 at the Red Raider Open in Lubbock on Friday (21) for the fastest women&rsquo;s 60m in the world so far this year. In another race, Saint Lucia&rsquo;s 20-year-old Julien Alfred matched her national record with 7.10. In the 60m hurdles, Alia Armstrong was 0.01 off her PB with 7.96 and Eric Edwards clocked 7.65.
Also in Lubbock, 16-year-old US sprinter and American football player Nyckoles Harbor achieved a world U18 200m best, storming to a time of 20.79 at the Texas Tech Under Armour High School Classic. It improves on the 20.95 run by Brian Herron in 2017.
At the Larry Wieczorek Invitational in Iowa, Jamaica&rsquo;s 19-year-old Ackera Nugent, who won the world U20 100m hurdles title in Nairobi in August, improved her 60m hurdles best by 0.01 to 7.90, while&nbsp;Olin Hacker clocked the quickest indoor mile so far in 2022 with an outright PB of&nbsp;3:56.66. At the Carolina Challenge in Columbia, Anavia Battle ran&nbsp;22.76 for 200m.

Ireland’s Ciara Mageean and Britain's Scott Lincoln were among the winners.

World Indoor Tour kicks off in Manchester

Kenya&rsquo;s Hellen Obiri started her year with a win at the Northern Ireland International Cross Country, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver event, in Dundonald on Saturday (22).
Untroubled throughout, the world cross country champion ran 26:44 to secure a 20-second triumph in the women&rsquo;s 8km race, with Northern Ireland&rsquo;s Hannah Irwin winning the domestic battle behind her to finish runner-up, three seconds ahead of Scotland&rsquo;s Mhairi Maclennan.
&ldquo;It is my first time running cross country here. The course was good, it was challenging, but I am used to doing a lot of cross country. It is a sign of my preparation towards my outdoor season,&rdquo; Obiri told BBC Sport NI.
Looking to the months ahead, the two-time world and Commonwealth 5000m champion added: &ldquo;In 2022 we have a lot of competitions. We have the Commonwealth Games, we have the World Championships and we have some Diamond Leagues and road races. I will talk with my manager and coach to see what is best for me in the 2022 season.&rdquo;
Obiri's win in&nbsp;Dundonald came on the same day that the&nbsp;Kenyan Cross Country Championships took place, with <a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/news/report/kenyan-cross-country-championships-chepkemoi-chebolei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joyce Chepkemoi and Samuel Chebolei claiming the national titles in Eldoret</a>.
Finishing fourth in Dundonald, on the outskirts of Belfast, was England&rsquo;s Eleanor Bolton, while European U20 cross country champion Megan Keith finished fifth for Scotland.
In the men&rsquo;s 10km race it was England&rsquo;s Zak Mahamed who was victorious, as he ran 29:49 to claim a seven-second win ahead of Italy&rsquo;s Iliass Aouani.
Mahamed, Aouani and Scotland&rsquo;s Stuart McCallum had broken away midway through the race, but McCallum dropped back on the penultimate lap, leaving Mahamed and Aouani to battle for the win.
Behind McCallum, who ran 30:03, Hugo Milner finished fourth and Jack Millar fifth.
The 4km women&rsquo;s U20 race was won by Scotland&rsquo;s Hannah Ryding, while victory in the 6km men&rsquo;s U20 race was claimed by England&rsquo;s Sam Mills. 
<h3>Leading results</h3>
Women's 8km 1 Hellen Obiri (KEN) 26:44 2&nbsp;Hannah Irwin (GBR) 27:04 3&nbsp;Mhairi Maclennan (GBR) 27:07 4&nbsp;Eleanor Bolton (GBR) 27:21 5 Megan Keith (GBR) 27:25
Men's 10km 1&nbsp;Zak Mahamed (GBR) 29:49 2&nbsp;Iliass Aouani (ITA) 29:56 3&nbsp;Stuart McCallum (GBR) 30:03 4&nbsp;Hugo Milner (GBR)&nbsp;30:14 5 Jack Millar (GBR) 30:26

Hellen Obiri started her year with a win at the Northern Ireland International Cross Country.

Obiri claims cross country win in Dundonald

Racing on one of the toughest and most exciting courses ever designed for a cross country meeting in Kenya, Joyce Chepkemoi and Samuel Chebolei became the national champions, securing victory in Lobo Village in Eldoret on Saturday (22).
Representing the Kenya Defence Forces, Chepkemoi was greatly surprised by her&nbsp;senior women&rsquo;s 10km&nbsp;win at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships, having finished seventh at the last national event.
World marathon champion Ruth Chepngetich had been the first to make a surge around one kilometre into the race, making sure that the field was already in single file as they plunged into the muddy section.
By the 3km mark, there was a group of five runners remaining in the leading pack.
Chepkemoi went on to claim the title in&nbsp;34:00.00 ahead of Margaret Chelimo, who clocked 34:01.8 representing the Kenya Police, and Celliphine Chespol, who ran 34:23.3 representing the Kenya Prison Service.
"The course was tough, especially the muddy section," said Chepkemoi.
&ldquo;After the&nbsp;Memorial Agnes Tirop World Cross Country Tour&nbsp;that will happen here, is when I will decide on my next step.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Chelimo, who finished fourth at the Olympic trials in both the 5000m and the 10,000m races and narrowly missed out on representing her country in Tokyo, said it is still too early for her to decide which distance she will be focusing on, to make sure she secures a spot on the Kenyan team for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon this year.
There were some major upsets in the senior men&rsquo;s 10km race as relatively new names dominated the closing stages after Daniel Simiu Ebenyo &ndash; who was seen as the pre-race favourite following his recent 26:58 10km win in Valencia &ndash; dropped out mid-race. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61ec191a0012043342e2b037.jpg" alt="" width="100%" />
 Often, the senior titles are claimed by athletes representing the Police, the Kenya Defence Forces or the Prison Service. But the top three places in the men&rsquo;s race&nbsp;this time around&nbsp;went to runners from the general public.
North Rift&rsquo;s Chebolei, the younger brother of world 1500m finalist Ronald Kwemoi, broke away from his nearest competitor during the final 2km lap to create a gap that would earn him a win in a comfortable margin. Clocking 29:28.9, he finished ahead of Kennedy Kiprop of Western in 29:35.2 and Vincent Kiprotich of Central Rift in 30:02.6.
In the men&rsquo;s U20 race, Benson Kiplangat from South Rift waited until the last two laps before taking it to the front and dominating. The reigning world U20 5000m champion crossed the finish line of the 8km race in 24:08.00 ahead of Samuel Kibathi of Central in 24:16.9 and Raymond Kipkorir of South Rift in 24:21.40.
World U20 3000m steeplechase bronze medallist Faith Cherotich, also from South Rift, won the women&rsquo;s U20 race in 20:28.4 ahead of her teammate Purity Chepkirui, the world U20 1500m champion, in 20:34.8 and Central Rift&rsquo;s Grace Loibach in 21:07.0.
The U18 events were dominated by runners from the North Rift, with the name of the world marathon record-holder Brigid Kosgei getting mentioned as her sister, Pamela Kosgei, won the girls&rsquo; race in 18:19.4. Maurine Jepkoech followed in 18:34.6 before South Rift&rsquo;s Evaline Chepkoech took third place in 18:43.2.
Also from the North Rift, Charles Rotich won the boys&rsquo; race in 18:05.2. Raphael Dapash of South Rift came second in 18:10.00 before another North Rift athlete, Vincent Maiyo, completed the podium in 18:18.4.
Justin Lagat for World Athletics

Joyce Chepkemoi and Samuel Chebolei became national champions in Lobo Village in Eldoret.

Melak takes on Worku at 90th Cinque Mulini

World Athletics impressed with Budapest’s vision following site visit

How to follow and watch the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Karlsruhe

Olympic champion Thompson-Herah headlines Birmingham 60m

Olympic champions among stars in the spotlight at Millrose Games