Dina Asher-Smith is the biggest international name confirmed for the 50th anniversary edition of the Jablonec Indoor 2023 on 21 January, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting.
The Jablonec Indoor meeting celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and is the first World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting to be held in Europe in 2023. In total, six events will be held in the Czech Republic. The full European indoor calendar for 2023 can be found here.
Asher-Smith won her first individual senior medal on Czech soil at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, taking silver in the 60m when she was still a teenager. Since then, the Brit has amassed a dizzying medals haul from major events including four gold medals at the European Athletics Championships and gold in the 200m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships.
Asher-Smith, who still won medals in the 200m at the World Athletics Championships and European Athletics Championships in an injury-ridden season, faces a largely domestic field including Czech record-holder Klara Seidlova and Nikola Bendova.
The men’s shot put will also be in focus in Jablonec with reigning European indoor champion and home favourite Tomas Stanek headlining the event. The Czech record-holder faces a field which includes Portugal’s Francisco Belo, Romania’s Andrei Toader and Wictor Pettersson from Sweden.
Elsewhere, former European indoor champion Petr Svoboda opens his season in the 60m hurdles and Radek Juska takes on Ukraine’s Serhiy Nykyforov in the long jump.
European champion Schilder confirmed for Nehvizdy
Reigning European shot put champion Jessica Schilder from the Netherlands headlines an all-star women’s shot put line-up at the Hvězdy v Nehvizdech in Nehvizdy on 31 January, the second World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting of the season.
Schilder faces fellow 20 metre-plus performer Sarah Mitton from Canada while continental competition will be supplied by Germans Sara Gambetta and Katharina Maisch as well as European indoor silver medallist Fanny Roos from Sweden and former world indoor champion Anita Marton from Hungary.
Tomas Stanek is also confirmed for the men’s shot put and he will face an even stronger field which is bolstered by the inclusion of European silver medallist Armin Sinancevic from Serbia and Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki, the 2017 European indoor champion.
At the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava on 2 February, another World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, the track events will provide some of the highlights. Czech favourite Lada Vondrova goes head-to-head with prolific racer Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands, a world and European finalist last year, in the 400m while reigning European indoor champion Patryk Dobek from Poland takes on Elliot Giles and Amel Tuka in the 800m.
Giles is the second fastest indoor 800m performer in history with his 1:43.63 clocking in 2021 which surpassed Sebastian Coe's long-standing British indoor record of 1:44.91 which dated back to 1983 in terms of antiquity.