It has been almost two-and-a-half years since Pawel Wojciechowski won a surprise pole vault gold medal at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu. For the then 22-year-old, it looked to be the start of a fantastic career.

Olympic 100m hurdles champion and 2011 World Athlete of the Year Sally Pearson will defend her IAAF World Indoor Championships 60m hurdles crown, announced Athletics Australia on Thursday (16).

Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov produced the best indoor performance in the world for 21 years when he cleared 2.41m at the Yuriy Lukasevich Memorial meeting in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Thursday (16).

US teenage prodigy Mary Cain broke the long-standing world junior indoor record for 1000m with a time of 2:39.25 at the Boston University Multi-Team Meet in Boston on Thursday night (16).

The 32nd Cross Internacional de Italica in Santiponce on the outskirts of the Spanish city of Sevilla, an IAAF Cross Country Permit Meeting, will see Uganda s Timothy Toroitich and Ethiopia s Hiwot Ayalew start as favourites on Sunday (19).

Comparisons with the all-time greats of Norwegian distance running set the narrative of stories in the domestic press when Karoline Bjerkeli Gr vdal first emerged as a 16-year-old in 2006.