The International Prague Indoor Meeting on Tuesday 25 February, a test event for next year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships at the O2 Arena, will likely offer some spectacular performances.
Current European indoor and outdoor champion Pavel Maslák, who has shown tremendous early season form, will try to break the 500m European best.
Czech Republic's Maslák has enjoyed running these unconventional distances as he already beat the European best time at 300m in Gent as he prepares for the 400m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot, Poland.
“We agreed with my coach to run the 500m. It is not a simple event but I believe that with the support of the spectators I will run a good time,” said Maslák.
At the open meeting in the Strahov Hall in January, he already achieved the second fastest time by a European when he won in 1:01.15. He will have to dig a bit deeper if he wants to catch Israel’s Donald Sanford who holds the best European time with 1.00.86.
With Maslak’s current shape he could even get close to the world best of 1:00.17 by American Ken Lowery from 1987.
Russia’s Ivan Ukhov, the Olympic champion in the high jump, is another athlete who will be eager to compete in Prague.
He has attempted 2.40m heights at every competition he has taken part in this year. In Arnstadt, he even came close to clearing 2.44m - what would have been the world indoor record.
The captain of the Russian team in Sopot leads the world rankings with his brilliant 2.41m from Chelyabinsk last month and will be part of a special competition of four athletes in Prague.
Ukhov will face fellow Russian Aleksey Dmitrik, who himself has cleared 2.40m also in Arnstadt, Romania’s Mihai Donisan and the Czech Republic’s Jaroslav Baba, the bronze medallist from last year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg.
Russia’s Ekaterina Postogova, the Olympic bronze medallist, is listed in the 800m with teammate Yelena Korobkina, who won the national championships this week, the woman to beat in the 1500m.
France’s Pierre-Ambroise Bosse, the European under-23 champion from Tampere will make his first 800m appearance this season, as he will be up against the current world champion, indoors and out, Ethiopia’s Mohammed Aman.
Tickets are available from Saturday 15 February and details can be found here: www.sazkaticket.cz.