Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the 60m hurdles at the IAAF World Indoor Championships (© Getty Images)
Portland may well be a third time lucky for Pascal Martinot-Lagarde. Bronze medallist in 2012 and runner-up in 2014, the tall Frenchman hopes to finally achieve the first 60m hurdles gold for his country since Stephane Caristan won at the World Indoor Games in Paris in 1985.
Martinot-Lagarde set a season’s best of 7.47 in winning the French title ahead of Dimitri Bascou, who set a national record and world-leading 7.41 two weeks earlier in Berlin. Bascou will also be in Portland, but he withdrew from some competitions last month with hamstring pain and so might not be at his absolute best.
Omar McLeod posted the second-fastest time this winter (7.46) at the Millrose Games and will aim to become the second Jamaican man to reach the podium in the sprint hurdles, 12 years after Maurice Wignall took bronze in Budapest.
National champion Jarret Eaton (7.52) and Spencer Adams (7.58) want to keep the US on top as Omo Osaghae did two years ago in Sopot.
Hungarian record-holder Balazs Baji (7.55), Barbados’ Greggmar Swift (7.58) and Kuwait’s Asian indoor champion Abdulaziz Al-Mandeel (7.60) will also be vying for a place among the top three.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF
