Dayron Robles of Cuba dips under 13 seconds to win Olympic sprint hurdles gold (© Getty Images)
Olympic Champion Dayron Robles, World Indoor Champion Lolo Jones and Germany’s High Jump star Ariane Friedrich are among a group of leading athletes already signed for the BW-Bank-Meeting – an IAAF Indoor Permit Meeting - which will be staged in Karlsruhe’s Europahalle on 15 February 2009.
The upcoming meeting will be a jubilee edition as well. It will be the 25 time that the high-class athletics event will be staged. For the first time Alain Blondel is in charge as Meeting Director, since Siegfried König decided to step back and to hand over to his athletes coordinator Blondel after this year’s meeting. The 24th edition of the meeting in February had been crowned by Susanna Kallur’s world record. The Swede clocked 7.68 seconds in the 60m Hurdles.
Another hurdler who had achieved a superb result this year will be back in Karlsruhe next February: Dayron Robles. The Cuban sprint hurdler had taken the event in 7.40 seconds and later went on to take Olympic gold in Beijing.
The men’s Pole Vault could well produce another highlight on 15th February. Five top German vaulters have already been signed for the BW-Bank-Meeting. Danny Ecker, the world bronze medallist from Osaka, heads the list. Among his rivals will be the former World Indoor Champion Tim Lobinger, the reigning World Junior Champion Raphael Holzdeppe plus Björn Otto and Fabian Schulze.
The women’s 60m Hurdles will see the clash of two World Indoor Champions. Jones won the title in Valencia this year while Ireland’s Derval O’Rourke is her predecessor from Moscow 2006. Also in the field will be Germany’s Carolin Nytra, who had suprised this summer with a fine improvement to 12.82 seconds outdoors.
For the first time high jumper Ariane Friedrich will compete at the BW-Bank-Meeting. “I am looking forward to this since I have heard a lot of good things about this meeting. The atmosphere is said to be great,” says Friedrich, who had established herself among the world’s best high jumpers this year. “I will start my season in mid January and then hope to be in top form once the meeting in Karlsruhe comes up.”
“Since we will have the 25th edition we will invite all those athletes who have broken a European or a World Record in the history of our meeting,” said Blondel, who has already received several confirmations.
At present the following events are scheduled: Men - 60m, 300m, 800 or 1000m, 1500m, 3000m (Juniors), 60m H, Pole Vault, Triple Jump; Women - 400m, 800m, 1500 or 3000m, 60m Hurdles, and High Jump.
Jörg Wenig for the IAAF
