NANJING — Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis headlines a stellar cast in the Chinese city of Nanjing at a world indoor athletics championships delayed three times by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nanjing's Cube will play host to 576 athletes from 127 countries and regions, who will contest 26 events over three days of action from March 21-23.

That number includes 11 individual defending champions — notably world record holders Duplantis (pole vault), Devynne Charlton and Grant Holloway (60 meter hurdles) — and 20 medalists from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Duplantis, Holloway, Hamish Kerr (high jump), Thea Lafond (triple jump) and Miltiadis Tentoglou (long jump) followed up their Glasgow indoor successes with Olympic gold. They will be joined in Nanjing by fellow Olympic gold medalists Yaroslava Mahuchikh (high jump) and Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1,500 m and 3,000 m), also world record holders.

"I'm super excited," Duplantis said. "It was my first time competing in China last outdoor season for the first two Diamond League meets, and I jumped extremely well, broke the world record, to 6.24 m.

The US-born Swede comes into the competition having bettered his world record — for the 11th time — to 6.27m at an indoor meet in the French city of Clermont on March 1.

But Duplantis insisted there would be no recalibration of his season goals.

"No, not really," he said. "It's not the first time I've broken the world record in the indoor season. It's going according to plan right now."

Duplantis said he knew that he was capable of "higher heights", insisting that he was "not fixated "on a specific benchmark.

"It takes a little bit of time, and it's by fairly small increments — and it does get a little bit more difficult every time.

"I'd like to get over 6.30 m in the near future and then keep pushing it from there. Indoors is a great opportunity always to break the world record because we don't have to deal with the wind and whatnot, so we have a lot more controlled variables in that sense."

Ukraine's reigning Olympic, world and European outdoor champion Mahuchikh will compete, fresh from winning a third European title in Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

Mahuchikh won her latest accolade with a best of 1.99 m before deciding not to go any higher, towards her record mark of 2.10 m.

"I won the gold medal for my country. Of course, I am a little bit disappointed, because I wanted to try and jump a bit higher," she said.

"I hope at the next championships I will be in better shape."

Norway's Ingebrigtsen completed a distance double in the 1,500 and 3,000 m in Apeldoorn.

"Competitions and championships are what it is all about," Ingebrigtsen said. "I have always been training towards something and setting goals, with the championship in mind. That is what it's about. Racing, representing our nation and celebrating the sport."

The US team does not feature Olympic 100 m champion Noah Lyles. Instead, Marcellus Moore, Emmanuel Wells and Ronnie Baker head the 60 m sprint entries.

Holloway will bid to become the first hurdler to win three consecutive world indoor titles. Teen prodigy Quincy Wilson is another absentee, the 17-year-old having turned down an invitation and insisting "school comes first".

Paris silver medalist, Jamaica's Kishane Thompson, is ruled out with an injury. His compatriots Nishion Ebanks and Rohan Watson, however, will contest the 60 m sprint.

AFP