World Indoor Championship: Noah Lyles Vs Christian Coleman and All Other Rivalries To Watch Out

The indoor season of 2024 is reaching its sunset with the upcoming World Indoor Championship. The Commonwealth Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, will witness the best track and field stars converge on its grounds between 1-3 March. However, while every athlete will bring promise to the field, the final battle will always simmer down to the last two competitors.

The World Indoor Championship will have several of these rivalries which will be a treat to watch for the fans. The US is sending a total of 57 athletes to the upcoming tournament in Glasgow. Which of these athletes should you be on the lookout for and how many of them will turn up the heat in the contest?

Noah Lyles against Christian Coleman in the men’s 60m at the World Indoor Championship

The Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman rivalry has several layers to it. While both men excel in one race course, the sparks will fly farther when they face each other at the World Indoor Championship. So far, Lyles is winning the indoor battle, with two overall wins in the 60m dash, including one over Coleman.

Both speedsters clashed at the recent USATF Indoor Championship, where Noah Lyles clinched a 0.01-second win. Lyles posted a time of 6.44 seconds to win the event held in NYC. With this, he hit the equalizer for his 2023 Eugene Diamond League defeat. Apparently, Coleman had mimicked the same 100m timing of Lyles, 9.83 seconds, to defeat him by 0.02 seconds. The World Indoor Championship will now decide the result of this rivalry with a tiebreaker.

Yaroslava Mahuchikh versus Nicola Olyslagers in the women’s high jump

The women’s high jump will see an extraordinary competition between a fiery young veteran and an older but sharp athlete at the World Indoor Championship. Ukraine’s 22-year-old Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australia’s 27-year-old Nicola Olyslagers will compete for the top gold against each other once again. The duo have previously faced each other at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as the 2023 World Athletics Championship.

Despite Mahuchikh being the younger athlete, she has far more medals than her Australian counterpart. She is also the gold medalist of the 2023 WAC where Olyslagers could only manage the bronze medal. On the other hand, the 2020 Tokyo Games saw Mahuchikh go home with a bronze and Olyslagers taking silver. Now, the World Indoor Championship will test the potential of both athletes one more time and set the tone for the upcoming Paris Olympics.

Warholm versus Jereem Richards in the men’s 400m at the World Indoor Championship 

While all the aforementioned athletes have faced each other, the next entry will see two athletes who haven’t crossed paths yet. Karsten Warholm is a Norwegian athlete who specializes in hurdles. He will be entering the 400m flat race at the World Indoor Championship to extend his flat prowess even more. However, he will still face a hurdle in the form of Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem ‘The Dream’ Richards.

Warholm has a whole shelf stacked full of gold medals which also includes three world and the reigning Olympic gold. On the other hand, Richards has fewer medals, but in the right discipline. On top of it, he is also the 2022 World Indoor Championship gold medalist in the event. Thus, this showdown will showcase a duel between pure athletic prowess and technical discipline. 

The Mondo Duplantis versus Chris Nilsen showdown 

American pole vaulter Chris Nilsen will be up against the reigning Olympic and world champion Mondo Duplantis at Glasgow. The two NCAA stalwarts will be facing each other at the World Indoor Championship to add another chapter to their rivalry. So far, the game is in favor of Duplantis, who is also the world record holder. 

Chris Nilsen, however, is showing promise, agility, and vigor in his performance to overcome the Swedish pole vaulting superstar. The Tokyo Olympic Games saw Nilsen bag the silver medal against Duplantis. But, when it came to the 2023 WAC, Nilsen was forced to take a bronze home while Mondo scored the gold. 

This was a decline from the American’s 2022 effort, where he won the silver medal on the home soil of Eugene. On top of it, Duplantis is also the 2022 World Indoor Championship victor. The US athlete is slowly climbing up and getting closer to the Swede.

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He recently clinched the gold medal in the USATF Indoor Championship with a 6.01-meter vault. However, the current personal best and the world record of Duplantis stands at 6.23 meters. Thus, the young American will have to make an uber effort to surpass the Swede, who is trying to surpass his own world record as well. 

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