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Nicky Hilts (left) from Abts and Georgia Bell of Great Britain compete in the women’s 1,500 meters at the World Athletics Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, on Friday. (Petr David Josek – Associated Press)
American middle-distance runner Nikki Hiltz, from Aptos, won the second heat of the women’s 1,500 meters at the World Indoor Championships at the Commonwealth Arena in Glasgow, England, on Friday.
Hiltz, a transgender and non-binary runner, won the long-distance division at the USATF Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico last month, finishing in a personal best time of 4 minutes, 4.34 seconds.
The top three finishers from each of the four heats advanced to Sunday’s final.
Great Britain’s Georgia Bell (4:04.39) was second behind Hiltz, with New Zealand’s Maia Ramsden (4:06.51) third, winning from a heat of seven runners.
“The last 50 times I was like, ‘Should I do it or should I quit?'” Hiltz said. “And I thought, ‘I don’t know, why not?'” I think the audience went silent because she was from England. But she was fun. She was used to winning and she knew she had another gear, so she thought, “Why not?” But I didn’t even know we were going that fast. To feel that good and go to 4:04, yeah, I’m not mad about it. ”
Hiltz placed fourth in the 400 and 800 behind Australia’s Linden Hall, Bell and Poland’s Weronika Ryzakowska.
With 1,200 points, Hiltz was in third place behind Bell and Belgium’s Elise Vanderelst, and with 100 points to go, she moved up further. Bell was unable to react to Hiltz’s kick.
Ethiopia had three players qualify for the 12-man final. The US and UK each advanced two places.
Heat 1 was won by Ethiopia’s Hleweini Haile in 4:12.38, Diribe Weltezi won heat 3 in 4:07.17, and Birke Hayrom (4:11.54) took second place in heat 4.
Weltezi is second in the world rankings with a personal best and season best of 3:55.47. Heil, who is ranked 4th in the rankings, followed with a personal best time of 3 minutes 55.28 seconds, followed by Heiron who placed 7th with a time of 3 minutes 58.43 seconds.
Hiltz just posted his best finish of the season, ranking 14th. A top 3 finish would be a huge accomplishment.
“I think I can break four minutes,” Hiltz said. “But maybe that’s it. That’s probably my ceiling, 3:59. But I just try to go out there and execute. You never know what’s going to happen in a situation like this. Put yourself in a position to be there. And I’ve had a great last 200, so I’m not going to count myself out completely. I think it’s going to be fast and a battle, but 4th or 3rd. I did my best.”
Great Britain’s Levy Walcott-Nolan (4:13.06) and Spain’s Esther Guerrero (4:14.23) also advanced from heat one, followed by Portugal’s Salome Afonso (4:07.55) and American Emily McKay (4:08.04). ) also won from heat 3.
France’s Agathe Guillemot (4:11.46) won heat four, followed by Canada’s Lucia Stafford (4:11.56) in third place.
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