PBs and world bests at 2021 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meet in Karlsruhe

The indoor track season is underway, and we’re already seeing some exciting results. The World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting series kicked off on Jan. 29 in Karlsruhe, Germany, where we saw dozens of personal bests, a few season’s bests and a fantastic performance by Canada’s own Charles Philibert-Thiboutot in the men’s 3,000m. Here’s a look at the meet’s results.

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Elliot Giles of Great Britain began the men’s 800m in third place but moved into first position in the last 100m of the race, creating a sizeable gap from the field to take the win in 1:45.50, the fastest time anyone has posted this year. Dina Asher-Smith also did Great Britain proud, winning the women’s 60m in 7.08, matching her personal best and running the world-leading time so far this season.

The 3,000m races on both the men’s and women’s side proved to be two of the most exciting events of the meet, with Beatrice Chepkoech and Bethwell Birgen, both from Kenya, taking the women’s and men’s wins, respectively. Chepkoech won the women’s race in a world-leading time of 8:41.98, and Birgen won the men’s event in 7:34.12, gapping the field in the final laps of the race. His was also a world-leading time and a 13 second personal best.

Philibert-Thiboutot (CPT) ran a very strong race, finishing seventh in an indoor personal best time of 7:49.82, a four-second improvement over his previous indoor PB of 7:53.99.

With the indoor track season only just beginning, these results prove that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s elite athletes are in good form and we expect to see more impressive times over the coming weeks.

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