The start lists are now live for the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham, which takes place at the Barclaycard Arena on Saturday 18 February.
A total of five Rio Olympic champions will be among 25 current global medallists competing at the world’s top indoor athletics meeting, which is the final of the IAAF World Indoor Tour.
Sir Mo Farah (coach: Alberto Salazar) will be one of those Olympic champions as he competes in the 5000m. The four time Olympic champion and five time world champion will face a field including Scotland’s Andrew Butchart (Derek Easton), who ran the third fastest 3000m in the world this year with a time of 7:41.05 in New York on Saturday.
Another Scot in superb form is Laura Muir (Andy Young), who will be aiming for Kelly Holmes’ 13 year old British 1000m record at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix. This year Muir has already set British indoor records over 5000m with a time of 14:49.12 and 3000m with a time of 8:26.41 and will be hoping for another on Saturday.
Hot from retaining his British title, the world’s number one 60m hurdler Andrew Pozzi (Benke Blomkvist) will face outdoor world record holder Aries Merritt and fellow Brits David King (James Hillier) and David Omoregie (Blomkvist).
The highlight of the field events could be the women’s long jump, which will be a repeat of Sunday’s British Athletics Indoor Team Trials as world indoor bronze medallist Lorraine Ugen (Shawn Jackson), heptathlon specialist Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Olympic finalist Jazmin Sawyers (Kelly Sotherton) all go head to head in a battle of Britain.
The sprints in particular are expected to provide major excitement, with mouth-watering clashes in both the men’s and women’s events.
Britain’s European 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith (John Blackie), who equalled the world leading time of 7.13 seconds in Karlsruhe last week, will go head to head with double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica and world indoor 60m champion Barbara Pierre of the USA, in the 60m. Newly crowned British champion Asha Philip (Steve Fudge) will provide further British interest in a world class field.
The legendary Kim Collins will make his fiftieth appearance on British soil, and his tenth appearance at the Barclaycard Arena, when he lines up in the men’s 60m on Saturday. He will clash with European indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty (Michael Khmel), European 100m champion James Dasaolu (Lloyd Cowan), European relay gold medallist CJ Ujah (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) and Olympic long jump champion Jeff Henderson of the USA, who also competes in the long jump.
Councillor Ian Ward, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, who support the event, said: “I am delighted to welcome back the Müller Indoor Grand Prix to Birmingham, an event which Birmingham City Council is very proud to support. We’ve now hosted indoor athletics for 25 years and in that time we’ve seen 15 world records set at the Barclaycard Arena and witnessed some of the best ever indoor athletics performances. With the line up that has now been confirmed, I’m sure Saturday’s action will be extremely exciting and yet more records could be broken right here in Birmingham.”
Start lists for the Müller Indoor Grand Prix can be viewed at: http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/british-athletics-series/muller-indoor-grand-prix/migpbschedule/
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix is the number one ranked indoor grand prix in the world. A very limited number of tickets are still available at www.britishathletics.org.uk