Kevin Mayer will be one of the headline acts on home soil at the Meeting de Paris, a European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting, at the Paris AccorHotels Arena on 27 January.
Mayer is planning a low-key indoor season but he has already competed once in 2019, dusting off the cobwebs with a 5.14m clearance in Miramas on 6 January. Mayer is currently in Miami, Florida for a three-week stint of warm weather training ahead of his first big competition of the season where he will contest both the 60m hurdles and pole vault.
Mayer is not planning to defend his heptathlon title at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships from 1-3 March but he is confirmed for the Meeting de l’Eure in Val de Reuil on 1 February, the Perche Elite Tour in Rouen on 9 February, the Meeting de Lievin on 10 February and the French Indoor Championships in Miramas on 16-17 February.
Mayer set his 60m hurdles lifetime best of 7.79 at this meeting last year and he will face another top class line-up which is led by reigning European 110m hurdles champion Pascal Martinot-Lagarde. The field also includes Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega from Spain, world bronze medallist Balazs Baji from Hungary and world indoor bronze medallist Aurel Manga from France.
The men’s pole vault line-up is headed by Renaud Lavillenie who goes in pursuit of a fifth European indoor title in Glasgow this winter. Lavillenie opened his indoor campaign impressively, clearing a world-leading 5.82m in Tignes before three attempts at 5.90m.
Two-time European indoor champion Richard Kilty lines up in the men’s 60m against former world 100m record-holder Asafa Powell from Jamaica while Poland’s Ewa Swoboda and Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji are both confirmed for the women’s 60m.