As the latest indoor season starts to ramp up, we look at a few reasons to look forward to what is coming in the days and weeks ahead
The indoor season might have already been up and running for some time but there’s no doubting that we’re about to head into the teeth of it over the next few weeks when it comes to elite competition. Here are a few reasons to get excited about what lies in store…
Music of the track
There are few better noises in the sport of athletics than the sound of competitors thundering their way around an indoor track. That unmistakable thud of spikes on boards is music to the ears of many athletics fans.
No margin for error
With the bends tighter, the laps shorter, the athletes packed that little bit tighter, the crowds closer, there is a particular edge to indoor competition that heightens the senses. Get your start wrong in the 60m and it’s game over. Likewise if you make any contact with the hurdles.
Lose concentration, or your footing, and it can prove incredibly costly, not to mention painful. It’s an environment where fluffing your lines is not an option.
Laying down early markers
So much can, and will, happen between now and the summer but this is a great opportunity for some big players to send out an early message to their rivals or post a performance of intent. A number of top names laid the groundwork for Olympic glory with gold at the World Indoor Championships last year and this will be the first chance to establish a form guide for 2025.
Grant Holloway (Getty)
Hurdling heroics
Last year saw the world record fall in the 60m hurdles on both the men’s and the women’s side. Grant Holloway is a seemingly unstoppable force in the event, while Devynne Charlton was also hugely impressive last year. Can anyone pose a threat?
The same but very different
Indoor track events beyond the 60m sprints and hurdles offer athletes a different way to cover the same distance. Having a 200m circuit rather than the usual 400m lap changes the mental picture significantly, while the banked curves represent another task to master. Seeing who can adapt best is always worth watching.
Field fightback
The more intimate indoor setting always lends itself well to the staging of field events – and the athletes tend to respond. The abilities, and personalities, of athletes such as Mondo Duplantis, Molly Caudery, Thea Lafond, Tara Davis-Woodhall, Hamish Kerr, Ryan Crouser and Miltiadis Tentoglou were showcased well in Glasgow last spring. With the track disciplines dominating most of the headlines and attention, this is a chance for the field athletes to fight back.
Ryan Crouser (Getty)
Indoor or short track?
No, we still can’t get used to the terminology, either. It was in 2023 that World Athletics introduced the term “short track” to replace “indoor” when it came to describing events and performances that take place on a 200m track, traditionally to be found indoors. The idea behind it has been to offer more flexibility for the setting of 200m tracks, meaning that performances on outdoor or temporary 200m circuits could be recognised for record and rankings purposes. Short track hasn’t quite stuck yet, though, and it will take some time for the athletics watching public to change the habits of a lifetime.
Jessie Knight beats Keely Hodgkinson and Ama Pipi in a blanket finish (Mark Shearman)
Spoiled for choice
You go months without any major championships and then two come along at once. Having originally been scheduled for 2020, and following further postponements in 2021 and 2023, Nanjing will finally get to host the World Indoor Championships – the first time the event has been staged in China – from March 21-23.
Just a few weeks earlier, on March 6-9, the Dutch town of Apeldoorn will host the European Indoor Championships. The Netherlands will be a real force and though star name and 400m indoor world record-holder Femke Bol will only be focusing on the relay events, sparks tend to fly when she has the baton.
Up and running
Finally, the full arrival of the indoor season signifies that the sport of track and field is well and truly up and running again after what seems like a very long winter. So many of us love the mud and thunder of the cross country, plus there have already been some amazing races on the roads in 2025, but this really is an important milestone in what will be a fascinating year ahead.
Upcoming events
February 22-23
Microplus UK Indoor Championships, Birmingham
USATF Indoor Championships, New York
February 28
World Indoor Tour Gold, Madrid
March 6-9
European Athletics Indoor Championships, Apeldoorn
March 21-23
World Athletics Indoor Championships, Nanjing
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