Ekaterina Poistogova (© Getty Images)
UPDATED with details of women's 1000m, men's 1500m and both 60m Hurdles races
Olympic medallists Yekaterina Poistogova, Yarisley Silva and Mutaz Essa Barshim will all take part at the Russian Winter event – an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting – in Moscow on 3 February.
Poistogova was relegated to the B race at this meeting 12 months ago, which she won in a personal best of 2:38.94, but then had a stunning summer which included winning the Olympic Games 800m bronze in London.
This year, Poistogova will run in the main race A, along with the Ukraine duo of Nataliya Lupu and Anzhela Shevchenko, as well as Kenya’s Winny Chebet.
Naturally there will also be some good Russian rivals for Poistogova as well: Yelena Soboleva, 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships 800m gold medallist Yelena Kotulskaya (nee Kofanova), 2012 European Athletics Championships 800m bronze medallist Irina Maracheva, Kristina Khaleyeva and Svetlana Podosyonova.
The meeting record belongs to Yuliya Chizhenko with 2:32.16 from 2006, which is also the Russian and European record.
Silva, who took the silver medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games, is part of a Pole Vault field that includes the last two World champions: Brazil's 2011 winner Fabiana Murer and her Polish predecessor Anna Rogowska. Also included in the line-up are Great Britain's 2011 World indoor bronze medallist Holly Bleasdale and rising Ukrainian talent Hanna Shelekh.
Qatar’s Barshim will be the main star of the men’s High Jump. Last summer, he posted the equal-highest mark of 2012 with his 2.39m lifetime best at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Lausanne and has continued this year where he left off, recently jumping a world-leading 2.33m in Sweden.
Kenyans keen to impress
In the men’s 1500m, there is a strong Kenyan contingent including 2011 World Championships silver medallist Silas Kiplagat and two-time World Indoor Championships medallist Daniel Komen.
Up against them will be Ethiopia’s Mekonnen Gebremedhin and Spain’s Diego Ruiz. The meeting record is 3:35.19 and belongs to Burundi’s Venuste Niyongabo from back in 1996.
Some of the best female hurdlers in the world will line up in women’s 60m Hurdles.
London 2012 Olympics Games 100m Hurdles bronze medallist Kellie Wells is accompanied by her American compatriots Christina Manning and Ginne Crawford, Belarus’ 2011 World Indoor Championships medallist Alina Talay, Austria’s 2012 Olympic finalist Beate Schrott and the Russian pair of Tatyana Dektyareva and Svetlana Topilina will also be in action.
Russia’s 110m Hurdles record holder and 2012 European champion Sergey Shubenkov will be looking for a quick time in the men’s 60m Hurdles. Among his rivals will be USA’s Kevin Craddock, Great Britain’s Andrew Pozzi and Hungary’s Daniel Kiss.
Ethiopia's World indoor 800m champion Mohammed Aman, the only athlete in the past two years to have beaten David Rudisha in the 800m, is part of a strong field in the men’s 600m where the world indoor record (1:15.12) could be under threat. Olympic medallists Nijel Amos and Timothy Kitum are also in the field, alongside local star and 2004 Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy.
World indoor bronze medallist Aleksandr Menkov will return to Moscow, keen to win for a second consecutive year after posting an indoor best of 8.24m in 2012. The World and Olympic finallist’s main rivals will be Great Britain's 2008 World indoor silver medallist Chris Tomlinson, Greek record holder Louis Tsatoumas, Ghana's 2006 World indoor champion Ignisious Gaisah and Russia's World junior record holder Sergey Morgunov.
Organisers for the IAAF
