Konstanze Klosterhalfen won silver in the 1500m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade two years ago and a return to the podium will be the target for the German at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships from 1-3 March.
Klosterhalfen is yet to fully finalise her plans for the indoor season but the 21-year-old could cross paths again with Laura Muir who won a 1500m and 3000m double in Belgrade, setting championship records in both finals: 4:02.39 in the 1500m and 8:35.67 in the 3000m.
Muir added the European outdoor 1500m title to her resume at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships last August but Klosterhalfen was narrowly run out of the medals in the last two laps of the 5000m. After an injury disrupted build-up, Klosterhalfen finished fourth in a race won by Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands.
Now based in Portland, Oregon under the tutelage of Pete Julian, Klosterhalfen impressed on her racing debut in the United States last weekend, clocking 2:43.07 for 1000m and 4:29.06 for the mile on the same day. Her next race will be over 5000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on 26 January when she will face former world 1500m champion Jenny Simpson.
Klosterhalfen will return to German soil the following month for the German Indoor Championships in Leipzig on 16-17 February although she is yet to decide which distance to contest.
She produced one of the standout performances in last year’s championships, winning the 3000m in gun-to-tape fashion in 8:36.01 to break Katrin Ullrich’s long-standing German indoor record.