Olympic and world gold medallist and reigning European men’s high jump champion Gianmarco Tamberi has been confirmed in the line-up for the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czechia on 16 June.
The Italian showman had a truncated 2025, during which he struggled with an Achilles tendon injury, ending in an uncharacteristic early elimination in the qualification rounds at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
However, there have been some encouraging posts on his Instagram page in recent weeks showing Tamberi training intensively.
He will take on home favourite Jan Štefela in Ostrava. The Czech athlete won world bronze and European indoor silver last year.
Both athletes will have medal ambitions for the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships on 10–16 August, and the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting will provide an indicator of early-season form.
Szymański, Swoboda, Visser, Attaoui Fabbri also confirmed
Also confirmed for Ostrava is Poland’s world indoor champion Jakub Szymański in the men’s 110m hurdles, alongside international team-mate Ewa Swoboda, the European women’s 100m silver medallist, and the Netherlands’ recent world indoor silver medallist Nadine Visser in the women’s 100m hurdles.
There will be an attack on the men’s 1000m world record by the USA’s Josh Hoey and Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui, who recently won world indoor bronze over 800m. In the field events, reigning European champion Leonardo Fabbri of Italy will compete against Czechia’s former European indoor champion Tomáš Staněk.