Swoboda beats Thompson-Herah in the 60m in Torun.
Swoboda now heads to the World Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 as a strong medal favourite
A thrilling head-to-head between home 60m star Ewa Swoboda and Jamaica’s five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah, plus world-leading performances by Gudaf Tsegay and Filip Mihaljevic, were the highlights of the ORLEN Copernicus Cup in Torun on Tuesday.
Swoboda went into the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting as the world leader following her 7.00 national record at the Orlen Cup in Lodz.
She was also unbeaten this year, having won in Dusseldorf in 7.10 on Sunday. Thompson-Herah, meanwhile, was looking to test herself again after running 7.08 to win in Birmingham on Saturday, with sub-seven seconds the aim.
They got incredibly close. In front of a passionate home crowd, Swoboda blasted out of the blocks with another trademark blistering start and soon began to leave her rivals behind. But as expected, Thompson-Herah soon closed the gap.
As the treble Tokyo Olympic champion gave chase, she narrowly ran out of track and so success was Swoboda’s, by just 0.01.
Poland’s 2019 European indoor 60m champion ran a meeting record of 7.03 to Thompson-Herah’s 7.04, while Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska was third in a PB of 7.14.
“I’m so very happy,” said Swoboda, who won her heat in 7.06. “I still can’t believe that I raced against Elaine Thompson-Herah and that I won against her. It was a pleasure to compete with her. Wow.”
Swoboda now heads to the World Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 as a strong medal favourite but is not allowing herself to get carried away.
“What will be, will be,” she added, with Thompson-Herah still undecided as to whether she will head to the global event in Serbia. “Belgrade is going to be good, for sure,” said Swoboda. “I think we can fight for a great result there.”
Thompson-Herah’s hope for the indoor season had been to improve her start and on lining up alongside Swoboda, she said: “It most definitely helped me, because I still tried to hold my drive phase.
“It was wonderful to compete with her, she is doing great indoors. I am grateful to have raced with her today and I am really happy with my performance.”
