Home star Angelina Topic, Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece and USA’s Ronnie Baker are among the major medallists who will start their seasons at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold, on Wednesday (29).
The series kicked off in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Saturday and many more of the world’s best athletes will be in action when the top tier of the World Indoor Tour heads to the capital city of Serbia.
It is a happy hunting ground for multiple global gold medallist Tentoglou, who won the first of his two world indoor long jump titles in Belgrade in 2022. His preparations for that event included competing at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, where he was also victorious.
Since then he has won another world indoor title, a world outdoor title and a second Olympic title. This year offers him the opportunity to target two more world titles – indoors in Nanjing in March and outdoors in Tokyo in September – and he’ll be looking for a strong start to the season on Wednesday.
Tentoglou won ahead of Sweden’s Thobias Montler at both the Belgrade Indoor Meeting and World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 2022, and Montler forms part of field this time around, too. Joining them in the long jump line up are world U20 champion Roko Farkas and Filip Pravdica, both of Croatia, plus Cuba’s Lester Lescay, who won in Astana.
Another world U20 gold medallist in action is Topic. The 19-year-old, who also finished fifth at the World Indoor Championships and claimed European silver last year, closed her year with a win in Belgrade in December and will want to pick up from where she left off with more success in front of a home crowd.
Topic cleared a Serbian record of 1.98m to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Marrakech in May, a mark she matched in Paris in July. She returned to the French capital for the Olympic Games and qualified for the final, but was unable to compete through injury. She made a comeback just four weeks later and won the world U20 title in Lima.
On Wednesday she will go up against respective European indoor silver and bronze medallists Britt Weerman and Kateryna Tabashnyk, plus Michaela Hruba and Marija Vukovic.
“It’s wonderful to start the season in Belgrade, my home town, surrounded by friends and family,” said Topic. “It’s special to compete here again after three years, as this was the place I started my career at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. While it’s early to predict results, especially after my injury six months ago, I’ll give my best.”
The men’s shot put will feature Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki, USA’s Roger Steen and Serbian champion Asmir Kolasinac, the four-time Olympian who will be competing in his farewell meeting.
Baker and Dosso star in 60m, Skrzyszowska tops hurdles clash
On the track, the men’s 60m is headlined by USA’s Baker, the 2018 world indoor bronze medallist who is one of the fastest 60m sprinters in history. The PB of 6.40 he set in Albuquerque in 2018 places him third on the world all-time list, while he has dipped under 6.50 another 10 times in his career so far.
He won the overall men’s World Indoor Tour 60m title in 2020 but looking to deny him some precious points this time around will be the likes of Italy’s Samuele Ceccarelli, who won the European indoor title in 2023, and Oman’s Ali Anwar Al-Balushi, who finished second in Astana at the weekend. Joining them are Henrik Larsson, Jan Volko and Demek Kemp.
“My goal is to qualify for the World Championships and win a medal,” said Baker. “Tomorrow marks the season’s start, and I’m aiming for a strong performance.”
There’s more star quality in the women’s 60m, as Italy’s world indoor bronze medallist Zaynab Dosso competes along with Switzerland’s Ajla Del Ponte and Australia’s Torrie Lewis, the world U20 200m silver medallist who makes her indoor debut.
Dosso set a national 60m record of 7.02 in Torun last February before she became a world indoor medallist in Glasgow. She went on to claim 100m bronze at the European Championships in Rome, where she set another Italian record of 11.01.
Competition should also be fierce in the women’s 60m hurdles, with the field featuring Poland’s world indoor bronze medallist Pia Skrzyszowska, Nadine Visser of the Netherlands, Finland’s Reetta Hurske and Ireland’s Sarah Lavin.
South Africa’s Olympic finalist Prudence Sekgodiso leads the 800m field, while home favourite Elzan Bibic races the 1500m.