World Indoor Championships: Julien Alfred Beaten as Kenya’s Medal Hopefuls Leave Empty-Handed

Julien Alfred failed to defend her World Indoor Championship title when she was beaten in the 60m final at the 2026 edition in Torun, Poland on Saturday night.

The St Lucian came into the championship as the woman to beat but it was Italian Zaynab Dosso who walked home with gold after getting her revenge on Alfred.

Dosso, who lost to Alfred last year to settle for silver, improved to gold this time after winning a very tight race in 7.00 seconds. She got off the blocks first and maintained her lead, winning with a small margin.

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Second place and a silver medal went to American Jacious Sears, who recorded a season’s best 7.03 seconds, with Alfred settling for silver also in 7.03 but in a slower reaction time.

Alfred had hoped to make it back-to-back world indoor titles but found the going tough against a well-prepared Dosso and Sears. Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, another top contender, could only finish seventh after clocking 7.07 seconds.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s hopes for a medal on Saturday disappeared in thin air when all finalists ended the day empty-handed.

Team Kenya had Jacob Krop in the men’s 3,000m final but he narrowly missed out on a medal after finishing fourth behind Britain’s Josh Kerr, who won the race, ahead of American Cole Hocker while Frenchman Yan Schrub completed the podium.

Then came the 400m women’s final which had Mercy Adongo Oketch and she also missed out on the podium after finishing third in the second heat of the final.

Adongo clocked 51.25 seconds with Lurdes Gloria (50.72) Manuel of the Czech Republic winning gold ahead of Poland’s Natalia Pukowiecka (50.83) as Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands completed the podium in 51.01.

That was after Brian Tinega had also missed a medal in the men’s 400m when he finished fourth in the first heat of the final in a time of 46.62 seconds.