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| Phillips Idowu hopes to impress the crowd in Bydgoszcz on 3 June. |
The XI European Athletics Festival in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz on 3 June has announced its first set of invited athletes, which includes 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallists Marcin Lewandowski, Phillips Idowu and Libor Charfreitag.
The Polish meeting is the first of nine 2011 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings that will be held in the coming months.
The highlight of the Bydgoszcz meeting for local fans might be the 800m, which sees the current outdoor champion Lewandowski up against his rival and compatriot Adam Kszczot, who won at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
The pair have made no secret of the fact that they hope to have several tilts at the long-standing Polish 800m record of 1:43.22, which has belonged to Pawel Czapiewski since 2001.
Up against the two Polish runners, who will also have the meeting record of 1:45.21 in their sights, will be South Africa’s current world champion over two laps of the track Mbulaeni Mulaudzi.
Great Britain’s triple jump star Phillips Idowu is expected to delight the crowd in his special event and should challenge his own meeting record of 17.36m which he achieved three years ago.
The men’s pole vault will see Ukraine’s 2010 European Athletics Championships silver medallist Maksim Mazuryk up against Russia’s 2008 Olympic Games silver medallist Yevgeniy Lukyanenko, who set his personal best and the Bydgoszcz meeting record of 6.01m just a few weeks before he climbed the podium in Beijing.
Another pole vaulter who will be competing this year and who has happy memories of the venue is Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe, who won at the 2008 World Junior Championships which were held in Bydgoszcz..
Slovakia’s Libor Charfreitag will compete in hammer.
'I’m not quite as in the same shape as I have been at this time in previous years. Last year, I was already throwing 80 metres,” said Charfreitag last week.
“This year, I’m far behind this (he threw 76.18m in Walnut, California, on 16 April, his only hammer competition so far this year) but because the peak of the season will not be until the end of August. I don’t have to be as sharp. I expect that in a month’s time I'll be much better in tune, ' he added.