Former European indoor 800m champion Adrian Ben leads a quality international field at the II International Meeting of Ourense on Saturday (21), with all the action streamed live on the European Athletics YouTube channel from 17:30 CET.
For the 27-year-old Ben, who won gold at the Istanbul 2023 European Indoor Championships, it will be his first 800m race of the season, having recently placed third over 1000m at the World Indoor Tour Gold event in Madrid in 2:16.80.
In Ourense, he returns to his favoured distance and will be seeking a confidence-boosting victory at this World Athletics Indoor Tour Challenger meeting over a field that includes Italy’s former European U23 champion Simone Barontini and rising British prospect Henry Jonas.
Husillos heads stacked 400m
Ben’s Spanish team-mate Óscar Husillos is also a former European indoor champion, having triumphed over 400m in Torun in 2021.
He faces an evenly matched field in the men’s 400m that includes fellow Spaniards David García Zurita and Bernat Erta Majo, Irish champion Jack Raftery, and Portugal’s João Coelho, who was fourth at the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
The women’s 400m could come down to a tussle between Italy’s World University Games bronze medallist Alessandra Bonora and Sophie Becker, a member of the Irish women’s 4x400m team that won silver at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.
In the men’s 60m hurdles, the big home hope is World University Games silver medallist Ángel Díaz, but he will have to overcome Senegal’s African Championships gold medallist and Paris Olympics semi-finalist Louis François Mendy, as well as Filipino athlete John Cabang, who won bronze at the 2024 African Indoor Championships.
Irish 5000m champion Jodie McCann steps down to the women’s 1500m, where she will take on Ethiopia’s former African 800m silver medallist Netsanet Desta.
The women’s 60m is teeming with experienced athletes and should come down to a battle between Portugal’s 26-time national champion Lorène Bazolo, 2023 European indoor finalist Arialis Gandulla, and France’s Gloria Hooper, a member of the French women’s 4x100m team that won bronze at the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships.
Lescay, Bonet and Inchude star in field line ups
In the men’s long jump, Spain’s European indoor bronze medallist Lester Lescay will face Portugal’s Gerson Baldé, whom he pushed out of the medals into fourth at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, as well as Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Maykel Massó of Cuba.
The women’s high jump field includes Spain’s Ona Bonet, who won bronze at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships, and Cuban champion Dacsy Brisón.
Olympic finalist and two-time European Throwing Cup gold medallist Jessica Inchude of Portugal heads the entries for the women’s shot put, while Portuguese record holder Pedro Buaró, whose best is 5.82m, starts as favourite in the men’s pole vault.