Jamaica’s five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah and Poland’s world leader Ewa Swoboda will go head-to-head in a featured women’s 60m clash at Tuesday’s (22) 2022 ORLEN Copernicus Cup, which is part of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series.
Expect something fast from Swoboda and Thompson-Herah?
Thompson-Herah, who is making a rare appearance again indoors, enters the meeting in Torun on the back of a victory at the 2022 Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham on Saturday (19), while Swoboda was also in winning form at the 2022 ISTAF Indoor Düsseldorf on Sunday (20).
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The Jamaican who dominated the women’s sprints at the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer, opened her indoor campaign with a 7.08 seconds clocking in Birmingham and although she was aiming to dip under 7.00 seconds, the 29-year-old was happy to be finally racing again.
Her match up with Swoboda on Tuesday, the world leader at 7.00 seconds, could very well produced the first sub-seven seconds clocking in almost four years and Thompson-Herah is looking forward to running two rounds at this meeting.
“I was hoping to dip below seven seconds (at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix), but it didn’t work out,” she said. “With heats and a final in Torun, I think that will help me to get below the seven seconds I am hoping for.”
Thompson-Herah owns a personal best of 6.98 seconds, a time she achieved in Birmingham in 2017.
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Swoboda looks to maintain winning form
Meanwhile, Swoboda will be seeking to build on her quick start to the 2022 indoor campaign when she returns to racing on home soil. The 2019 European indoor 60m champion posted the fastest time in the world this season when she set a PB and Polish national record at the Orlen Cup in Lodz, earlier this month.
The 24-year-old who also owns a 7.04 seconds clocking this term, backed up her season performances at the ISTAF Indoor meeting in Dusseldorf on Sunday when she ran 7.10 secs for the win. Swoboda, who is returning from an injury setback, also ran a cruising 7.12 secs in the heats in Germany.
Also lining up in the women’s 60m dash at the 2022 ORLEN Copernicus Cup is Briton Daryll Neita, who improved her personal best to 7.11 when finishing second behind Thompson-Herah in Birmingham over the weekend.
Flavoring the entries are Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska, who a clocked PB of 7.22 to finish second to Swoboda in Dusseldorf, her compatriot Marika Popowicz-Drapala and Luxembourg’s national record holder Patrizia van der Weken.
