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Rohan Watson (left) of Jamaica and Jeremiah Azu (right) of Great Britain compete in the men’s 60 metres final, while Puerto Rico’s Eloy Benitez falls to the ground at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on March 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin).
Jamaica’s Rohan Watson placed fifth in the men’s 60m final on the opening day of the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Friday.
Watson, the 2023 national 100m champion, clocked 6.59 seconds—his slowest time of the competition—after winning his preliminary heat in 6.54 and finishing second in the semifinals in 6.58 behind eventual gold medalist Jeremiah Azu.
Watson’s teammate Nishion Ebanks did not progress past the preliminary round, finishing third in heat three with a time of 6.70 seconds.
British sprinter Azu held off Australian rising star Lachlan Kennedy to claim the title, winning by just 0.01 seconds.
Only a hundredth of a second had separated the winners of the semifinals: Azu, Eloy Benitez and Ronnie Baker, teeing up a mouth-watering final in the last event of the first night of action in Nanjing.
Come the final, Puerto Rican Benitez pulled up very early on, grimacing in pain, while Baker was another injury casualty in the latter stages of the final.
In contrast, the athlete named ‘Azoom’ immediately got out of the blocks well and went on to match his personal best of 6.49m to fend off a fast-finishing Kennedy at the line.
South Africa’s Akani Simbine, a six-time global fourth- and fifth-place finisher, got the first major international individual medal of his career, clocking 6.54 for bronze.
