Eye on the prize as Noah Kibet makes fourth World Indoor Championships
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Reading Time: 3min | Wed. 18.03.26. | 17:32
The men’s world short track all-time list has undergone some serious revision this year and three of the seven fastest men in history star in the field
The youngest ever men's 800m medalist at the World Indoor Championships, Noah Kibet, is looking to return to the podium on the world stage at the upcoming Championship, slated for Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, from 20 to 22 March.
Kibet was 17 years and 341 days when he secured his silver medal in 2022, clocking 1:46.35 in Belgrade.
He lines up for his fourth global Indoor Championships, at the age of 21.
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In 2023, he set a Kenyan U20 Indoor record of 1:44.98 in February, at the Millrose Games.
In 2025, Kibet lined up for Team Kenya in Nanjing, but was eliminated in the semi-finals, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 1:48.90.
Having regained form with victory at the 2026 Czech Indoor Gala, on 3 February, clocking 1:46.71, he is the sole representative for Kenya in the men's 800m and aims to upgrade his previous silver to gold.
His most recent competition was a second place finish in 1:45.77 at the Russian Winter, LFK CSKA, Moskva on 7 February.
The men’s world short track all-time list has undergone some serious revision this year and three of the seven fastest men in history star in the field, leaving a herculean task for the former World silver medalist.
In the absence of Josh Hoey, who set a world short track record of 1:42.50 in Boston in January, Eliott Crestan tops the entry list with his Belgian record of 1:43.83 from Ostrava last month.
That performance launched the 27-year-old to fourth on the world all-time list, behind only Hoey, Wilson Kipketer and Elliot Giles.
After his silver in 2025 and bronze in 2024, Crestan now has the chance to emulate Kipketer by becoming a three-time world indoor 800m medalist.
Should he do so, he would be just the third man to achieve the feat after Kipketer and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi.
Crestan will also take confidence from the impressive consistency he has shown the past couple of years.
He followed his season opener in Ostrava with two more World Indoor Tour Gold meeting victories in Liévin (1:43.91) and Toruń (1:44.07), the latter being his seventh consecutive sub-1:45 indoor 800m final, achieved at the same Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena Toruń that will host the championships this weekend.
Others include Maciej Wyderka, who leads home medal hopes following his 1:44.07 in Ostrava that improved Adam Kszczot’s Polish short track record by half a second.
He is joined on the host nation team by Filip Ostrowski, who ran 1:44.68 to finish runner-up to Hoey in his world record race in Boston.
Mark English further improved the Irish record to 1:44.23 to finish third in Ostrava and is now the 12th-fastest indoor 800m runner in history.
A five-time European medallist indoors and outdoors, he will be on the hunt for his first global podium.
Splitting that group on the world all-time list is rising talent Cooper Lutkenhaus, who ran a world U20 short track record of 1:44.03 in Winston Salem last month, a performance that catapulted him to sixth on the senior all-time list.
Great Britain’s 2023 world bronze medallist Ben Pattison is another major medallist in action, while Australia’s Peter Bol, who ran 1:43.89 outdoors in Perth last month, is entered for his first indoor competition since 2019.
Also among the entries are recent national record-setters Mohamed Ali Gouaned of Algeria, Navasky Anderson of Jamaica, Ryan Clarke of the Netherlands and Handal Roban of Saint Vincent.
They are joined by Algeria’s Slimane Moula and Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui, who set a European short track 1000m record of 2:14.52 at the World Indoor Tour meeting in Madrid.
Additional information by World Athletics