Reigning world, European and Olympic champions are among the first high-profile athletes to be announced for the Anhalt 2021 in Dessau on 21 May, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting.
Fresh from an indoor season which culminated with a silver medal at the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Malaika Mihambo is confirmed for the long jump in Dessau.
The reigning world and European champion provided one of the highlights of last year’s meeting which took place in early September due to the coronavirus pandemic, reaching out to a world lead of 7.03m off an abbreviated approach. Mihambo was the only jumper to surpass seven metres last year, a feat she achieved both indoors and outdoors.
In the javelin, world leader Johannes Vetter from Germany faces his long-time domestic rival and teammate Thomas Rohler, the reigning Olympic and European champion.
Rohler is yet to compete this year but Vetter, the 2017 world champion, has already been in scintillating early season form, setting a world leading mark of 91.50m in a meeting at his training base in Offenburg on Saturday.
Prior to Dessau, Vetter is due to compete for Germany at the European Throwing Cup in Split - an event in which he holds the championship record with 92.70m - on 8-9 May and at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic on 19 May.
Another expected highlight is an all-Ukrainian clash in the high jump featuring Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Yuliya Levchenko. Mahuchikh is cresting a five competition winning streak which she amassed during the indoor season although Levchenko did defeat her compatriot at this meeting last year on countback at 1.96m.
On the track, former European indoor and outdoor champion Cindy Roleder is due to make her comeback to racing less than five months after giving birth to her first daughter in early January.
Roleder, who also won a silver medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2015 World Athletics Championships, is targeting the Olympic qualifying standard which stands at 12.84 in the sprint hurdles.
"The strength and endurance are already fully back. The big question is whether the speed will come back. But all in all I would not have thought that I would be that far," said Roleder in a recent interview to announce her return to racing.
The Anhalt 2021 is the first World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze event to take place this summer. The full calendar as of 27 April can be found here.