Coleman strolls to 60m victory at US indoor

LOS ANGELES, California: US sprint star Christian Coleman overcame a sluggish start before sweeping to victory in the 60 metres in a world leading time at the USA Indoor Championships on Saturday.

Coleman, 23, stumbled out of the blocks but quickly got into his stride to power home in 6.37secs, just outside his own world record of 6.34secs set on the same track in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2018. The blistering time easily bettered Coleman’s own world leading mark for 2020 of 6.48secs set in Friday’s heats.

Coleman, the reigning world 100m champion and favourite to be crowned world’s fastest man at this year’s Olympics in Tokyo, had been targeting a world record in his first meeting of the season.

That goal looked well within his grasp earlier on Saturday after he cruised to victory in his semi-final, pulling up 20 metres before the tape to win in 6.51secs. However a slight stumble as he exploded from the blocks in the final proved costly before he eventually powered home well clear of Marvin Bracy (6.49secs) and Brandon Carnes (6.53sec).

Coleman afterwards took positives from his performance despite missing out on the world record. “It felt pretty good,” Coleman said. “I thought I had a shot at the record, but this was just for me to come out here and compete and break my training.

“We haven’t done a whole lot of speed work so I’m pretty satisfied with my time. “I think I could have executed my start a lot better. But we haven’t done a lot of speed work, so this gives me a lot of confidence going into the outdoor season.”

Elsewhere Saturday there was also a world leading time in the women’s 60m final, with Mikiah Brisco winning gold with a time of 7.04secs, just ahead of Javianne Oliver in 7.08secs. In the men’s shot put meanwhile, 2016 Olympic champion Ryan Crouser signalled his return to form with a world leading throw of 22.6m.