Czech Republic&rsquo;s world indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak will return to action over two laps of the track at the Russian Winter, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, in Moscow on 1 February.The European indoor champion missed most of last summer due to a hamstring injury. In his first race since last May, Maslak has said that he is looking for time of about 46 seconds in Moscow.The meeting record dates from 1996 and is 45.81, held by Qatar&rsquo;s Ibrahim Ismail, while Maslak&rsquo;s personal best and national indoor record is 45.24 &ndash; making him the second-fastest European ever indoors &ndash; was set when winning his world indoor title in the Polish city of Sopot last March. Among his rivals over 400m in the Russian capital will be the USA&rsquo;s world indoor 4x400m champion Calvin Smith, Jamaica&rsquo;s Akheem Gauntlett, and Portugal&rsquo;s 20-year-old 400m national record-holder Ricardo Dos Santos. Organisers for the IAAF

Czech Republic’s reigning world and European indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak will return to action after missing most of last summer due to a hamstring injury when he competes over two laps of the track at the Russian Winter meeting, an IAAF Indoor Permit meeting, in Moscow on 1 February.

Maslak set to return to action at Russian Winter

The following world indoor records have recently been ratified...Women<o:p></o:p>1500m&nbsp;&ndash; 3:55.17 Genzebe DIBABA ETH, Karlsruhe, GER, 1 Feb 14 previous: 3:58.28 Yelena SOBOLEVA RUS, Moskva, RUS, 18 Feb 06Men &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<o:p></o:p>4 x 400m &ndash;&nbsp;3:02.13 United States* USA, Sopot, POL, 9 Mar 14&nbsp;*Kyle CLEMONS, David VERBURG, Kind BUTLER III, Calvin SMITH previous: 3:02.83 United States* USA, Maebashi, JPN, 7 Mar 99 Andre MORRIS, Dameon JOHNSON, Deon MINOR, Milton CAMPBELL &nbsp;&nbsp;IAAF

The following world indoor records have recently been ratified…

World indoor records ratified

Calvin Smith was still waiting for the family welcome into the world record breakers’ club as he left the track in the Ergo Arena, having brought a momentous conclusion to the three days of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot.The man who brought home the baton for the US men’s 4x400m relay quartet in a world indoor record* time of 3:02.13 had yet to receive a congratulatory telephone call from his famous father. “I always speak to him before races,” Smith said. “He gives me advice.“It feels good to get into the world record books like he did. I know he had a world record in the 100m and the 4x100m. And now we’ve got two world record breakers in the family.“Oh man, I look up to him and how he ran. I’m just proud to hold the Smith name up to where my dad had it.”So that makes two Calvin Smiths in the record books. The younger prefers to call himself Calvin Smith II rather than Calvin Smith Junior. “Just because, ever since I was little, when somebody called me 'junior,' my dad would correct them and say it was actually 'second',” he said by way of explanation.At 26, Calvin II had already followed his father into track and field posterity as a gold medal winner on the global stage. At the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the University of Florida sociology graduate ran the second leg for the victorious US 4x400m relay team.At the 2014 World Indoor Championships, he ran an assured anchor leg, clocking a quick 45.12 split, to bring the US quartet – which also comprised individual 400m bronze medallist Kyle Clemens, David Verburg and the delightfully named Kind Butler III – home comfortably inside the official 3:02.83 world record set by the US at the 1999 Championships in Maebashi. (A US team of Kerron Clement, Wallace Spearmon, Darrold Williamson and Jeremy Wariner clocked 3:01.96 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 2006 but was not ratified because the full anti-doping procedure required for ratifying records was not carried out at that meeting).Calvin I made his first entry in the world record books at Colorado Springs in July 1983, clocking 9.93 for the 100m. In doing so, he broke an iconic record that had stood at 9.95 to Jim Hines since the Mexico City Olympics of 1968. At the inaugural IAAF World Championships in Helsinki later that summer, Smith won the 200m, finished second behind Carl Lewis in the 100m and was a member of the world record-breaking US 4x100m quartet. The following year, he won Olympic gold in Los Angeles as part of another US world record-breaking 4x100m team. In Rome in 1987, he successfully defended his World Championship 200m crown.Calvin II was born in December 1987, nine months before his father won Olympic 100m bronze in Seoul, promoted to third behind Lewis and Linford Christie in the revised result after the disqualification of Ben Johnson. He is more than happy to carry his father’s name on the modern-day global track circuit.“It feels good to have my dad’s name because everybody either watched him run or heard about him,” Calvin II said. “Sometimes when I’m on the track the announcer will say, ‘This is the son of the former 100m world record holder.’ It just makes me proud, and determined not let down the name. “I don’t see it as an extra pressure. For the most part I just try to think about my own thing, because my dad was a 100m and 200m guy and I’m in the 400m. It’s different races.” Calvin I is now 53 and lives close to him in Atlanta. “He’s been a big influence,” Calvin II said. “When he was running and I was little, I used to go to the track and play around and I just kind of fell in love with track and started running. “I always talk to him on the day of a race, before I head to the track. He gives me words of encouragement. He tells me what I need to do.”Which, on Sunday, was to put the Calvin Smith name back in the world record book.Simon Turnbull for the IAAF*subject to the usual ratification procedures

Calvin Smith was still waiting for the family welcome into the world record breakers’ club as he left the track in the Ergo Arena, having brought a momentous conclusion to the three days of the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot.

Calvin Smith provides family with second helpings of world records   

The USA quartet of Kyle Clemons, David Verburg, Kind Butler III and Calvin Smith set a world indoor record* of 3:02.13 in the men's 4x400m relay at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014 on Sunday (9). The USA team will receive a world record bonus of US$50,000.*subject to the usual ratification proceduresMore to follow

The USA quartet of Kyle Clemons, David Verburg, Kind Butler III and Calvin Smith set a world indoor record of 3:02.13 in the men's 4x400m relay at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Sopot 2014 on Sunday (9).

Maslak set to return to action at Russian Winter

World indoor records ratified

Calvin Smith provides family with second helpings of world records

FLASH – Men's 4x400m relay USA 3:02.13 WORLD INDOOR RECORD