Rio Olympic champions set to compete in Birmingham
Five Rio Olympic champions will be among 25 current global medallists competing at the world’s top indoor athletics meeting this weekend in Birmingham.
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix, which is the final of the IAAF World Indoor Tour, will take place on Saturday at the Barclaycard Arena and will see some of the very best athletes in the world competing.
Sir Mo Farah will be one of those Olympic champions as he runs in the 5000m. The four-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion will face a field including Scotland’s Andrew Butchart.
Laura Muir will be aiming for Kelly Holmes’ 13 year-old British 1000m record at the event. This year, Muir has already set British indoor records over 5000m with a time of 14:49.12 and 3000m with a time of 8:26.41 and will be hoping for another on Saturday.
Hot from retaining his British title, the world’s number one 60m hurdler Andrew Pozzi will face outdoor world record holder Aries Merritt and fellow Brits David King and David Omoregie.
The highlight of the field events is set to be the women’s long jump, which will see world indoor bronze medallist Lorraine Ugen and Olympic finalist Jazmin Sawyers go head to head.
Terry Colton, major events director at UK Athletics, is looking forward to having the event in Birmingham.
He said: “It is incredibly important to have events like this. We are always keen to have major sporting events come into the city as it is fantastic for Birmingham to host an event like this, where some of the world’s most renowned athletes can compete. Of course, it is helpful for the economy too, as it is bringing people into the city.
“Birmingham is hoping to be the bidding city for the Commonwealth Games in 2026, so I think events like this help towards that.”
Over 6,000 people are set to head to the arena this weekend to watch the event and Terry believes that by regularly hosting sport events, the interest in sport can be maintained.
He said: “When the Olympics came to London, there was a huge amount of interest, which generated a lot of interest in sport.
“Unfortunately, we can’t have the Olympics in the UK every single year, but an event like this helps maintain the interest and encourages younger people to get involved with sport.
“We have a lot of potentially great athletes coming through across sports and, with funding and investment in athletics, we can be ready for the next generation.”
The event will also see Britain’s European 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith, who equalled the world leading time of 7.13 seconds in Karlsruhe last week, go head to head with double Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica and world indoor 60m champion Barbara Pierre of the USA, in the 60m.
Kim Collins will make his 50th appearance on British soil, and his 10th appearance at the Barclaycard Arena in the men’s 60m on Saturday. He will be up against European indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty, European 100m champion James Dasaolu, European relay gold medallist CJ Ujah and Olympic long jump champion Jeff Henderson of the USA, who will also compete in the long jump.
