Dibaba to light up IAAF Indoor meet in Madrid

Genzebe Dibaba (L) of Ethiopia and Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon of Kenia compete in the women's 1500m semi-final during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 23, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

The IAAF World Indoor Tour heads to the Spanish capital tonight for the Madrid Indoor Meeting, the third stop of the six series after exciting meetings in Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf.

Former world junior 800m silver medalist Winny Chebet and Bethwel Birgen, who bagged the 2017 overall win in the six meetings, competed in the opening leg of the IAAF 2018 Indoor Tour in Karlsruhe, on Friday.

Birgen, a 7:32.48 runner outdoors, has battled perennial 1500m rival Silas Kiplagat and Edwin Soi, the Olympic 5000m bronze medalist in 2008, who’s still looking to return close to the form that propelled him to world indoor bronze over this distance six years ago.

Ethiopia’s world 1,500m record holder Genzebe Dibaba showed in Karlsruhe last Friday that she is in top form as she came relatively close to her world indoor 1,500m record of 3:55.17 by clocking 3:57.45. But after falling short in her world indoor 1,000m record bid in the altitude of Madrid last year, the Ethiopian has decided not to chase records at this year’s meeting.

Classy line up

Instead, her goal in the 1,500m in Madrid will be to simply win against a quality field that includes Germany’s European indoor silver medalist Konstanze Klosterhalfen, who finished runner-up to Dibaba in Karlsruhe in a PB of 4:04:00. 2014 world indoor silver medallist Axumawit Embaye of Ethiopia and Poland’s European champion Angelika Cichocka should also be a factor.

But some of the more in-form athletes will assault the world leading performances in their respective events and the local crowd will be delighted to witness some of the top Spaniards fighting for victory against high quality fields.

Tomas Stanek highlighted the Dusseldorf meeting on Tuesday with a huge 22.17m heave, a massive personal best for the 26-year-old Czech thrower to extend his leadership on this season’s list.

The European indoor silver medalist will have to tackle Konrad Bukowiecki, the man who finished ahead of Stanek in Belgrade last year. The Polish prodigy boasts a season’s best of 21.23m while Croatia’s Stipe Zunic set a PB of 21.13m in Dusseldorf. USA’s two-time world indoor champion Ryan Whiting is rounding into form with each competition this year and improved to 20.23m in Dusseldorf.

Two-time world champion Maria Lasitskene is enjoying a fantastic indoor season. The 25-year-old has won all five of her outings so far, topped by a world-leading 2.04m in Volgograd. Her main opponents in Madrid will be Bulgaria’s Olympic silver medallist Mirela Demireva, world U20 champion Michaela Hruba of the Czech Republic, Britain’s world and Olympic finalist Morgan Lake and Germany’s 2016 World Indoor Tour winner Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch.

The men’s 400m should be one of the main highlights, largely thanks to the presence of two-time world indoor and three-time European indoor champion Pavel Maslak.

The Czech star has still to make his debut over the distance this indoor campaign but clocked 32.52 for 300m a fortnight ago in Ostrava and so he seems ready to run fast on Thursday. The 26-year-old will have to be at his best as in-form Spaniard Óscar Husillos will also be in attendance.

The 24-year-old smashed the national indoor 300m record last month with a world-leading 32.39 – making him the second-fastest European in history at the distance behind Maslak – and should run close to his national indoor 400m record of 45.92 tonight in his first race this year. Also watch out for 2012 Olympic silver medallist Lugelin Santos.