European indoor long jump champion Larissa Iapichino will make her season debut at the Alessio Giovannini Memorial on Ancona, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Challenger meeting, on Saturday 17 January.
The 23-year-old Italian won her first major senior title when she struck gold at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, and she will be hoping for a strong launch pad towards another medal-laden season.
One major target will be the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, where she will be hoping to improve on silver from Roma 2024. In Ancona, Egyptian national record-holder Esraa Owis leads the opposition to Iapichino at the World Athletics Indoor Tour challenger meeting.
Exciting sprints
Also making his first outing of 2026 is former European indoor 60m champion Samuele Ceccarelli. The Italian sprinter will take on meeting record holder Jenns Fernandez of Cuba.
Elisa Valensin and Margherita Castellani, both members of Italy’s victorious women’s 4x100m relay team at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships and Italian 400m hurdles record-holder Ayomide Folorunso will all clash over 200m.
The women’s 400m includes 800m specialists Eloisa Coiro who will lead the home challenge and Slovenia’s European indoor bronze medallist Anita Horvat.
The women’s triple jump entrants include Romania’s Alexia Dospin who won gold at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships.