Kenya’s Susan Ejore is Ethiopia’s greatest threat when it comes to this year’s 1500m women’s race at the Nanjing World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Although she finished sixth at the Olympic Games, Ejore is a danger to Ethiopia, who have named a strong team to take part in the indoor games.

Probbaly, eyes are on Gudaf Tsegay who has opted to focus on just one event rather than branch out as she did at the Paris Olympics. In the Olympics, Tsegay featured 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m but came away without a medal.

In the middle distance of that trio, there was a coming together with Faith Kipyegon and Tsegay dropped back to ninth by the finish. Sixth over 10,000m and then 12th in the 1500m.

These poor outings can, however, not take away the fact that she is the pre-race favourite to shine in Nanjing.

Going to Nanjing, the Ethiopian enjoys a stellar record in the last three years; she is a two-time world champion, her first gold won over 5000m in Oregon three years ago and then another over double the distance was claimed in Budapest in the summer of 2023. Tsegay also has one world indoor title to her name from Belgrade in the 1500m in 2022.

She ran the 1500m five seconds quicker than any of her championship rivals in Nanjing.

Diribe Welteji and Worknesh Mesele, Tsegay’s teammates, give Ethiopia a high chance of claiming all three podium positions.