Weekly Recap: Jakub Szymański Ties Men’s 60m Hurdles WL with 7.37 seconds

As we approach the end of the 2026 indoor season, many athletes are completing their buildups for the World Athletics Indoor Championships, to be held in Toruń, Poland, from March 20–26.

There was little shifting in the world top lists in the middle and long distance events this week, with nobody cracking the top 10 in the world rankings who didn’t already appear there. Most of the big advances this week came in the short sprints and field events.

The world calendar may have been lighter this week, but we still saw two new world leads. Jessica Schilder moved into the top spot in the women’s shot put, while Jakub Szymański moved into a three-way tie in the men’s 60-meter hurdles.

Here’s a brief look at the top results in the world this week.

The Oval Update Global Athlete of the Week

Our pick for athlete of the week is Jakub Szymański for tying the world lead in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with his run of 7.37 seconds at the ISTAF Indoor 2026. Szymański’s personal best run ties Americans Dylan Beard and Trey Cunningham.

On his way to victory in Berlin, Szymański established a new Polish record and moved into a tie for 24^th fastest time in history. Szymański now also has the 13 fastest times in Polish history.

Szymański, Beard, and Cunningham remain the favorites heading into the World Indoor Championships. Between them, they’ve run the eight fastest times in the world. Grant Holloway holds the world record in the event with 7.27 seconds and has run eight of the nine fastest times of all time and 13 of the fastest 16.

Jonielle Smith Runs 7.04s, Azu run 6.47 seconds

Jonielle Smith ran the sixth fastest time in the world this year with 7.04 seconds in her home country of Jamaica. Going into this season, Smith had a personal best of 7.15 seconds until opening her season with a personal best of 7.06 seconds in January.

On the men’s side, Jeremiah Azu had the fifth fastest time in the men’s 60-meter with a time of 6.47 seconds at the ISTAF Indoor 2026 to take home the win in Berlin. Azu is the defending World Indoor Champion. Last year, he ran 6.49 seconds in Nanjing to edge out Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy, who ran 6.50 seconds.

Guttormsen Clears 6.06m and Wen Su Jump 17.11m

After years of dominance in the men’s pole vault, Mondo Duplantis finally seems to have legitimate challengers on the world stage. We’re a week removed from Emmanouil Karalis moving into the number two spot of all time with his jump of 6.17 meters, but now Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen has also made a jump up the all-time list with his first clearance over 6.00 meters since 2023.

His new personal best jump of 6.06 meters from this past weekend in France ties him with Mondo Duplantis for the second-highest jump in the world so far. The jump also moves him into a three-way tie for the number six spot all-time with Steven Hooker and Sam Kendricks.  

Karalis also jumped 6.06 meters in the same competition.

On the women’s side, Eliza McCartney jumped 4.81 meters in her home country of New Zealand, moving into the number two spot this year, while Great Britain’s Molly Caudery jumped 4.70 meters for the eighth farthest mark in the world so far this year.

In the high jump, Russia’s Ilya Ivanyuk had the third-highest jump of the year so far with 2.30 meters. Only Danil Lysenko (2.33 meters) and Jan Štefela (2.32 meters) have jumped higher so far.

Olympic and World Champion Hamish Kerr jumped 2.28 in New Zealand this past weekend.

Wen Su jumped 17.11 meters in the men’s triple jump in his home country of China, the second farthest jump in the world so far. Almir Dos Santos went 17.02 meters in Brazil, and Ilya Telkunov went 17.00 meters in Russia.

Liam Adcock got off to a good season in the men’s long jump with 8.23 meters, just 11 centimeters off her personal best from last summer.

Jessica Schilder Extends Her World Lead

Jessica Schilder extended her world lead to 20.69 meters in the Netherlands this past weekend, building on her throw of 20.49 meters from February. The defending World Champion tied her personal best with the throw.

On the men’s side, Tom Walsh went 21.10 meters while Jacko Gill went 20.64 meters at the same competition in New Zealand to move up to 10th and 16th in the world, respectively.

What’s Coming Up?

The Mondo Classic is coming up on March 12 in Uppsala, Sweden. Duplantis took home the victory last year over Karalis with a jump of 6.05 meters, but will the order flip this year?

The next major event on the world calendar is the World Athletics Indoor Championships to be held March 20–22, 2026.