Another action-packed weekend of athletics awaits as we reach the three week to go countdown to the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships. We pick out seven of the expected highlights over the next three days.
Thiam to make her high jump debut in 2021
Olympic and European heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam will take on the individual high jump specialists for the first time this season at the Meeting de l’Eure in Val-de-Reuil on Sunday (14).
After a low-key 2020 season, Thiam began her indoor season on an optimistic note with two 8.39 clockings in the 60m hurdles in Ghent last weekend.
Thiam is no stranger to upsetting individual specialists in both the high jump as well as the long jump. In Val-de-Reuil, Thiam will face Ukraine’s European indoor silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko and her training partner Iryna Herashchenko.
The Meeting de l’Eure will be streamed live on the European Athletics Facebook page.
Lavillenie goes head-to-head with Nilsen
The likes of Sam Kendricks and Armand Duplantis might be absent but Renaud Lavillenie faces strong opposition in Val-de-Reuil when he goes head-to-head with the latest emerging US talent Chris Nilsen in the pole vault.
Nilsen finished second on countback to Duplantis in Lievin on Tuesday evening, a competition in which Lavillenie had to settle for third. Nilsen and Lavillenie both cleared 5.93m in Rouen on Saturday with the French veteran finishing just ahead by virtue of countback.
From an international standpoint other highlights include world champion Grant Holloway in the 60m hurdles, Ethiopians Gudaf Tsegay and Getnet Wale in the 800m and 1500m respectively and French-based Hugues Fabrice Zango from Burkina Faso in the triple jump.
Three six metre-plus vaulters to compete in Lodz
The men’s pole vault roadshow heads to the Orlen Cup in Lodz on Friday (12) when two of the Polish heroes of the event will be in action in the build-up to the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Reigning and former European indoor champions Pawel Wojciechowski and Piotr Lisek face two vaulters with global accolades to their name: two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and reigning Olympic champion Thiago Braz.
Lisek has a particularly excellent record at this meeting with five victories in Lodz since 2015.
The event will be streamed live here.
Swoboda to open season in Lodz
Reigning European indoor 60m champion Ewa Swoboda will face for the first time this season at the Orlen Cup in Lodz.
Swoboda most recently won at the Orlen Cup in 2019 - her third victory at this meeting - on the road to her gold medal in Glasgow. She sped to a 7.13 clocking in both her heat and in the final.
Jumps in focus at the Greek Indoor Championships
European champions Ekaterini Stefanidi and Miltiadis Tentoglou will be two of the main attractions at the Greek Indoor Championships in Pireas, Athens on 12-13 February.
Stefanidi’s season is gradually gaining pace with a 4.63m season’s best to finish second in the pole vault in Lievin. Tentoglou also set a season’s best of 8.23m in the long jump in the same competition.
Krause to drop down to the 1500m in Luxembourg
After a very quiet 2020 season, Gesa Felicitas-Krause’s busy indoor season takes her to Luxembourg on Saturday (13) for the CFCM Indoor Meeting. Her sixth race of the season will be over 1500m in which she will face Kenyan youngsters Edinah Jebitok and Josephine Kiplangat.
World and European 100m hurdles medallist Pamela Dutkiewicz-Emmerich also makes her season’s debut in the 60m hurdles. A small injury forced her to withdraw from both Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf last month.
The event will be streamed live here.
Take two for Ehammer in Frankfurt
Simon Ehammer was on course for a huge score at the Swiss Combined Events Championships in Magglingen last Sunday but the 20-year-old incurred the dreaded three fouls at his opening height of 4.70m in the pole vault.
Live results can be found here.
The reigning European U20 decathlon will seek to qualify again for the European Indoor Championships in Frankfurt, Germany this weekend.