The indoor season will crank up a notch in intensity this weekend with World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meetings taking place in Dortmund (20) and Luxembourg (21) which will feature a handful of European indoor and outdoor champions in action for the first time this winter.
Both meetings will be streamed live on the European Athletics YouTube channel. This is our guide on where and how you can watch and who will be in action.
Sparkassen Indoor Meeting Dortmund, Germany
- When? 14:00 local time (CET) - 20 January. Live stream starts at 15:00 local time (CET).
- Entry list & timetable (in German)
Italy's reigning European indoor champion Samuele Ceccarelli opens his season in the 60m against a field which includes another fast improving sprinter in Germany’s Joshua Hartmann who clocked 6.53 for 60m and a German record of 20.02 for 200m last year.
But perhaps the most mouthwatering clash of the programme sees reigning Olympic champion and local star Malaika Mihambo, who missed the 2023 World Athletics Championships through injury, renew her rivalry with European triple jump champion Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk from Ukraine in the long jump. The latter is also due to make a rare appearance in the 60m.
The men’s pole vault features reigning European indoor silver medallist Emmanouil Karalis from Greece against Norway’s European bronze medallist Pal Haugen Lillefosse and a typically strong German contingent including 2013 world champion Raphael Holzdeppe, Oleg Zernikel and Torben Blech.
World 4x400m relay champion Lisanne de Witte from the Netherlands faces Ireland's Phil Healy and Sophie Becker in the women’s 400m while multiple world and European indoor champion Pavel Maslak from Czechia opens his season in the men’s 400m.
CMCM Indoor Meeting, Luxembourg
- When? 15:00 local time (CET) - 21 January. Live stream startes at 16:00 local time (CET).
- Entry list & timetable (in German)
There will be a generational clash in the high jump with reigning European indoor champion Douwe Amels from the Netherlands facing Sweden’s Melwin Lycke Holm, the reigning European U20 champion.
Double European U20 100/200m champion Marek Zakrzewski from Poland is another rising star in action in the 200m. He could possibly challenge the European indoor U20 record of 20.99.
Other continental champions in action include 2021 European indoor champion Elise Vanderelst from Belgium in the women’s 1500m and Switzerland’s Angelica Moser, who also struck gold at the 2021 European Indoor Championships, in the pole vault.
And there will also be high hopes locally for Patrizia Van der Weken in the 60m and Bob Bertemes in the shot put. Van der Weken has already improved her national record to 7.17 this indoor season and both athletes won at this meeting last year.
Another highlight from last year’s meeting was Natalia Christofi winning the 60m hurdles and breaking the eight second-barrier for the first time with a Cypriot national record of 7.93. Can she repeat this year?