The good, the bad and the other
The good
There was so much good stuff at the 2026 World Indoor Championships that it’s hard to know where to start.
We understand the need to take championships around the world. When you are in a country or city where they love their track, the atmosphere is always good. On that score, Poland and Torun earn well.
From GB’s perspective, three golds in George Hunter Bell, Keely Hodgkinson and Molly Cudder in 30 minutes is hard to beat. Even better because Georgia and Keely are training partners.
Indoor competition with seven female pole vaulters at 4.70 and three bronze medals.
Three silver medals in women’s high jump with a coefficient of 1.99.
Cooper Lutkenhaus wins the men’s 800 at age 17 and has to celebrate at McDonald’s. too young for the pub.
0.14 seconds was the margin by which Cole Hawker beat Josh Kerr in the 2-24 Olympic 1500m and the margin by which Josh beat Coleen Toru in the 3000m.
The bad
There were a number of oddities at the event, such as Mark English losing his shoe, continuing to run and missing out on qualifying by one place. It reminded me of a nursery rhyme.
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,
went back to sleep
his pants
One shoe off, one shoe off
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.
The other one
Then there was Molly Palmer, the British long jumper, in her first ever international competition, who jumped into the sand, only to find that it had not spoiled. He was in a pit and fell back. To be fair to the officials, he was bounced again.
It was great to see the athletes stop for selfies and autographs as they left the track.
Sixty years later, I can still remember those who stopped signing and those who didn’t.
