Athletics: 17th IAAF World Indoor Championship Birmingham 2018 |09 February 2018

Dylan Sicobo to run the 60m dash

Seychelles’ men’s 100m record holder Dylan Sicobo will represent the country at the 17th IAAF World Indoor Championship Birmingham 2018, to be staged from March 1-4 and hosted for the second time in the UK's second largest city.

Sicobo, who got the 100m record of 10.33 seconds during the semifinal of the Jeux de la Francophonie in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, last year, and matched the time in the final to win the gold medal, will line up for the 60m dash.

The 20-year-old, who was crowned Sportsman of the Year 2017 on January 19 this year, has for the past two years been training at the IAAF High Performance Centre in Réduit, Mauritius and a good result in Birmingham will surely put him in the right frame of mind for the regular season.

Preliminary figures show that a total of 767 athletes ‒ 429 men and 338 women ‒ from 154 federations will compete, the 17th edition of the IAAF's second largest competition one of the biggest ever.

According to reports, although there will be a slight reduction in numbers between the preliminary entries and final participants, the championships are on target to become the largest in more than two decades, since the 1997 edition in Paris attended by 712 athletes.

Additionally, only once, when athletes from 172 countries took part at the 2012 championships in Istanbul, have more member federations fielded teams.

The organisers of the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018 have released details about tickets and have revealed that prices start at just £5 (around R90) and that a family of four (with two adults and two children) will be able to attend some sessions of the Championships for just £50 (around R950).

According to the organisers, the championship will have a thrilling start, with three straight finals on Thursday night (March 1). Five out of the six sessions feature finals, while the Friday morning will be a dream for multi-events fans, with three events from the heptathlon and three from the pentathlon taking place.

The Friday evening will see the conclusion of the pentathlon, men’s long jump final and women’s 60m final.

The Saturday morning’s finals include the women’s triple jump and men’s shot put, while the evening features the men’s 60m final and the women’s 1500m final.

The championship will come to a spectacular close on the Sunday afternoon with eight more finals taking place in three hours of non-stop action, starting with the men’s pole vault and culminating with the 4x400m relays.