IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018

World Indoor 800m Preview: Ajee' Wilson's Time Has Come

World Indoor 800m Preview: Ajee' Wilson's Time Has Come

Can Ajee' Wilson win her first global title this week at the IAAF World Indoor Championships?

Feb 26, 2018 by Johanna Gretschel
World Indoor 800m Preview: Ajee' Wilson's Time Has Come

The IAAF World Indoor Championships are going down this week in Birmingham, England. The FloTrack crew will be on-site to provide updates and coverage of your favorite Team USA athletes, but for now, let's check out the top storylines for the women's 800m, where USATF champion Ajee' Wilson will aim for her first international title.

Canadian subscribers can watch the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships LIVE on FloTrack!

Women's 800m: Is It Time For Ajee' Wilson To Win Her First International Gold?

First Round: March 3, 11:50 local time
Final: March 4, 15:58 local time

Notable Entrants: Francine Niyonsaba, Margaret Wambui, Ajee' Wilson, Raevyn Rogers, Natoya Goule, Habitam Alemu

Analysis: When healthy, 23-year-old Ajee' Wilson has by now proved that she is the queen of 800-meter running in the United States. Her task this week in Birmingham is to rise to the top of the world ranks. 

She has earned world indoor silver and world outdoor bronze in the past two years -- could she manage the gold this time?

With reigning world and Olympic champion Caster Semenya of South Africa not entered in this week's IAAF World Indoor Championships, the road to victory is certainly much easier as Semenya has not suffered a loss over 800m since 2015.

Wilson's biggest foe, then, is Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba, who defeated her for world silver this past summer behind Semenya, and earned the world indoor gold in Portland in 2016. She also beat Wilson in the Monaco Diamond League meeting last summer, 1:55.47 to 1:55.61, when Wilson shattered the American record in the event. 

We talked to Ajee' Wilson about her potential to win world indoors and getting her American indoor record back at the USATF Indoor Championships press conference:

Ajee' Wilson wants American record back

 

In eight career head-to-head match-ups between the women, Niyonsaba has won seven times. 

Wilson's one win?

An unusual 600m race at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany last summer after Worlds, where Semenya set a world record of 1:21.77 and Wilson beat out Niyonsaba for runner-up honors by nearly a full second, 1:22.39 to 1:23.18.

Watch the 600m race where Ajee' Wilson defeated Francine Niyonsaba:


The other perennial medalist of this group is Kenya's Olympic and world indoor bronze medalist Margaret Wambui, whose season-best of 2:00.48 ranks fifth in the field. She recently lost to Habitam Alemu of Ethiopia, whose season's best of 1:59.69 is the fastest in the field and No. 2 in the world this year behind Laura Muir, who will race the 1500m and 3K but not the 800m.

Prediction: 1. Wilson 2. Niyonsaba 3. Alemu