A first outing for Belgium's European 400m champion Alexander Doom, a fascinating Spanish middle distance clash between Adrian Ben and Mariano Garcia and early season outings for national record holders Enrique Llopis and Jael Bestue top the bill in World Athletics Indoor Tour meetings in Glasgow and Valencia on Saturday (30), both of which are being live streamed by European Athletics.
The Grand Premio Ciudad de Valencia, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting, will be streamed live on the European Athletics' YouTube channel from 7:15pm (CET).
Llopis will be competing in the 60m hurdles after opening his season in Luxembourg where he ran a blistering 7.50, a time which he repeated last weekend for victory in Dusseldorf.
However, the Spaniard will be eager to knock more off his time with his eyes set on making podiums this year after his painful fourth place finish in Tokyo, and at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
He will be among a strong Spanish field, as well as Portuguese sprint hurdlers Abdel Larrinaga and Edson Gomes, Italy’s Nicolo Giacalone, Michal Sierocki from Poland, and Greece’s Christos-Panagiotis Roumtsios.
Meanwhile, Bestue leads the women’s 60m sprint after running 7.18, also in Luxembourg, which puts her fourth on the 2026 European list currently.
As a 200m specialist, Bestue will be making the most of the indoor season to race over shorter distances before setting her sights firmly on the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships where she will be chasing a podium finish.
In Valencia she will also be racing against the young Slovenian talent, Lucija Potnik, who placed sixth over 100m at the Bergen 2025 European U23 Championships at just 20-years-old.
Strong middle distance fields assembled
The men's 1500m will be highlighted by Ben and Garcia, both of whom have won major honours in the 800m. Ben won the 2023 European indoor 800m title while Garcia pipped Jake Wightman for the European outdoor title in Munich 2022.
The field also includes fellow Spaniards Pol Oriach and Carlos Saez as well as Pol Moya who set an Andorran record of 3:38.37 on his season's debut in Luxembourg.
In the women's 800m, 2025 European U23 silver medallist Rocio Arroyo Soria will face strong domestic opposition from the likes of Lorea Ibarzabal and Daniela Garcia while Poland's 2021 European indoor silver medallist Mateusz Borkowski from Poland's will face tough opposition as he opens his season.
He will be racing against a field including former European U23 champions Simone Barontini and Spain’s Pablo Sanchez-Valladares and Ethiopia’s reigning world U20 champion General Berhanu Ayansa.
Romania's European U23 champion Alexia Ioana Dospin headlines the women's triple jump while Portugal's Gerson Balde, a world and European indoor finalist, goes in the men’s long jump against leading Spaniards Eusebio Caceres and Jaime Guerra.
Doom returns to Glasgow
Belgium’s Doom returns to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs when he competes at the scottishathletics EAP Indoor International in Glasgow on Saturday (31).
The World Athletics Indoor Tour Challenger meeting will be streamed live on the European Athletics website from 18:45 CET on Saturday (31).
Doom won 400m gold in the World Athletics Indoor Championships at the Emirates Arena in 2024, pipping Norway’s world 400m hurdles record holder Karsten Warholm to the title. He then went on to anchor Belgium to gold in the men’s 4x400m.
Two years on and he will be looking to rekindle memories and ignite his season with a quick time in his first race of 2026 in the men’s 400m.
British athletes set for sprint tests
Interest will also surround the women’s 400m where Great Britain’s multiple Olympic, world and European 4x400m medallist Laviai Nielsen and Portuguese champion Sofia Levreshina are the leading entrants.
The 60m sprints also present some interesting match ups. British international Joy Eze and Imani Lansiquot are set to line up in the women’s race.
The men’s short sprint features European indoor bronze medallist Andrew Robertson against in-form Irish athlete Toluwabori Akinola, who has banked wins in Dublin and Lyon already in January.
The men’s 200m features twice Czechia champion Ondřej Macík and former Swiss champion Felix Svensson.
In the 800m races, 2024 European U18 silver medallist Shaikiri King and twice European indoor 800m finallist Guy Learmonth lead the British challenge in the women's and men's races respectively.