The history of World Athletics Indoor Championships entails both tight battles and overwhelming dominance.
A good example of exceptional dominance was Wilson Kipketer’s world record of 1:42.67 at men’s 800 metres in Paris 1997 – the Dane beat his runner-up, Mahjoud Haida, by over 3 seconds.
In Budapest 1989, Javier Sotomayor overpowered the high jump contest by a difference of 8 centimeters with the indoor track world record of 243. The same winning margin was achieved for women’s high jump by Mariya Lasitskene in Birmingham 2018. The pole vaulter Steve Hooker beat his runner-up, Malte Mohr, by a huge difference – 31 centimetres – in Doha 2010.
The two most overwhelming wins in triple jump, 40 cm (2004) and 35 cm (2003) margins, belong to the double indoor track champion Christian Olsson.
In his top years, Ashton Eaton showed total dominance in both outdoor and indoor tracks. In the 2012 world indoor championships in Istanbul, the American crushed others by an astonishing gap of 574 wit th WR result of 6645. Carolina Kluft also beat her rivals hands down (by 218 points) at pentathlon in Birmingham 2003.
In Barcelona 1995, Irina Privalova timed 50.23 at women’s 400 metres, winning by 1.15 seconds. A legend at 800 metres, Maria Mutola achieved an incredible seven world indoor championship titles, one of which was with a margin of over 2 seconds to the runner-up. True dominance was also seen at women’s 1,500 metres in Sopot 2014, when Sweden’s Abeba Aregawi won the championship with 4:00.61 – beating the runner-up, Axumawit Embaye, by over 6.5 seconds.
Sally Pearson’s championship at 60 metres hurdles by .21 seconds in Istanbul is another example of overwhelming victory.
