Team Kenya continues chase for World Indoor medals in Poland

Team Kenya continued its quest for medals at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland with three athletes advancing to the finals of their respective events on Friday, 20 March night.

After a morning session of mixed results, the evening period started on a good note for the lean Kenyan squad as Susan Ejore stepped on the track, competing in heat two of the women's 1500m.

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The American-based runner clocked 4:11.41 for third place, securing her spot in Sunday's, 22 March, final.

Ejore trailed Ethiopian Birke Haylom in the opening laps of the highly contested race, at one point coming to her shoulder, but could not hold on to her pace and she was overtaken on the line by home runner Klaudia Kazimierska who came second in 4:11.33 as the Ethiopian won the heat in 4:10.66.

“It was a packed race with some very good girls, but I went in there and executed my plan,” Ejore said, adding that she was looking forward to making it to the podium, in Sunday's final, a first for her since making her maiden appearance for Kenya at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Solid start for Team Kenya at World Indoor Championships in Poland [VIDEOS]

The University of Oregon student will be hoping to go one better than last year’s edition in Nanjing, where she finished fifth in the final after clocking 4:03.89.

In the men's 1500m race, Kenya's sole representative Festus Lagat, lining up in heat three found the going tough as he clocked 3:40.26 for seventh place, missing out on the three automatic qualifying places.

Next on the line was women's 400m national champion Mercy Adongo, racing in heat one of the semifinals, where she clocked 51.90 to book her place in the final, finishing behind Czechia's Lurdes Gloria Manuel who timed a 50.96 person best (PB).

Adongo had booked her place in the semis in the morning session when she came second in Heat Six, timing a hugely impressive 51.57, which fell just four hundredths of a second behind her PB time of 51.53 she set in February at the Meeting Metz Moselle in France.

She now turns her focus to Saturday's, 21 March, final (Heat Two) slated for 10:48 pm, becoming the first Kenyan woman to feature in the 400m final at the global competition.

The heats are due to a new race format for the Indoor 400m that saw the number of athletes per heat reduced from six to four, leaving lanes one and two empty due to their inherent disadvantage on tight indoor curves. The main goal is to increase participation, ensure fairer racing conditions, and enhance the athlete and spectator experience.

Joining her in the final is men’s 400m runner Brian Tinega, who clocked 45.75 for second place in Heat Two of the semis, finishing behind Canadian Christopher Morales who won the heat in 45.35.

The 23-year-old, who is a student-athlete at Texas Tech University, will be chasing a medal when he lines up in Heat One of the final on Saturday at 8:34pm.

Meanwhile, 2022 World Indoor Championships silver medalist Noah Kibet, who was in top form while comfortably winning Heat Six of the men’s 800m in 1:45.84 on Friday, is back on track for the semis from 3:16pm, where he hopes to hold his own and book a place in Sunday's final.

Competing in his fourth World Indoors Championship, the 21-year-old is hoping to go one better than his last appearance in Nanjing 2025, where he was eliminated in the semi-finals, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 1:48.90.

Kibet was 17 years and 341 days when he secured his silver medal in 2022, clocking 1:46.35 in Belgrade.

Also in action on Saturday night is Jacob Krop, who steps on track at 9:22pm for the men's 3000m against a formidable field. The 2022 World 5000m silver medalist will bank on his flying start to 2026 to leave his mark on the global stage.

‎He started the season with a runner-up finish at the Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting in Germany on 8 February, clocking 7:38.64 over 3,000m, narrowly edged by the Netherlands’ Stefan Nillessen, who timed 7:38.48.

‎He followed that up with yet another runner-up finish at the Hauts-de-France Indoor Meeting, slicing his time down to 7:34.68, results that have him confident of a good outing.

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The men’s 3000m here, will, however, be no walk in the park, as it features the full men’s 1500m podium from the 2024 Olympics, along with the world 3000m steeplechase champion in a stacked clash of medalists.

USA’s Cole Hocker, who already has Olympic 1500m and world 5000m titles to his name, targets his first world indoor title after 1500m silver in 2024, while Great Britain’s 2023 world 1500m champion Josh Kerr will want to regain the title, two years on from his victory in Glasgow.

They go up against USA’s Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Yared Nuguse, who got 3000m silver behind Kerr two years ago, plus New Zealand’s steeplechase ace Geordie Beamish, while Azeddine Habz, Yann Schrub and Andrew Coscoran could also be in the mix.