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| European hammer champion Libor Charfreitag of Slovakia. |
German distance runner Arne Gabius has had an outstanding year a will go to the 2012 European Athletics Championships with medal ambitions over 5000m, despite probably having to face Great Britain's defending champion and 2011 European Athlete of the Year Mo Farah.
Gabius was the second fastest European over 3000m indoors, behind Farah, and currently lies second on this summer's European rankings over 5000m behind the Briton after his outstanding personal best of 13:13.43 at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo earlier this month.
It took more than 13 seconds off his four-year-old best and was the fastest run by a German athlete over the distance for 10 years.
Originally from Hamburg but now based in Tübingen, the 31-year-old Gabius talked to European Athletics about his hopes and aspirations for the forthcoming European Athletics Championships.
The interview with Arne Gabius, who is will be looking to improved dramatically on his 12th place from two years ago in Barcelona, can be seen here.
Libor Charfreitag was rather more successful than Gabius at the last edition of the Championships in the Catalan city, taking the hammer gold medal.
The thoughtful and erudite Slovakian talked exclusively to European Athletics about the build-up to defending his title which, as he admits, has not gone as smoothly as he would have liked despite being hugely motivated to repel all the continent's pretenders to his crown.
Charfreitag's interview can be seen here.
The 2012 European Athletics Championships will be staged in the Finnish capital from 27 June to 1 July.