Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 (© Getty Images)
Although she hasn’t competed since last August, Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas will defend her world indoor triple jump title.
The world champion and Olympic silver medallist set an indoor PB of 14.79m last year before going on to win the world title in London seven months later. The 22-year-old has had some minor injury concerns this winter but feels fit enough to line up in Birmingham.
If Rojas isn’t quite at her best, though, Keturah Orji could capitalise and become the first US woman to win a senior global triple jump title.
A now much-improved athlete compared to the performer who finished fourth at the 2016 World Indoor Championships, 21-year-old Orji bounded to world-leading 14.53m North American indoor record in Clemson back in January. Just days before departing for the UK, the Olympic fourth-place finisher jumped 14.18m at the SEC Indoor Championships and finished second in the long jump with 6.53m.
Authorised neutral athlete Viktoriya Prokopenko has also improved this winter. She added 44 centimetres to her indoor PB with an outright lifetime best of 14.44m in February. The 26-year-old has jumped beyond 14.20m on three occasions this winter and heads to Birmingham with a six-meet winning streak.
Iryna Vaskouskaya of Belarus has leapt a 14.30m personal best this campaign, while world indoor bronze medallist Paraskevi Papahristou of Greece has jumped a season’s best of 14.25m.
European under-23 gold and silver medallists Elena Andreea Panturoiu of Romania and Spain’s Ana Peleteiro could also contest for medals. Both women have registered 14.22m this season, which is a lifetime best for the latter.
Jamaica’s 2014 world indoor bronze medallist Kimberly Williams comes into the competition with a 14.16m season’s best.
Nicola Sutton for the IAAF
