The Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham - formerly known as Aviva Indoor Grand Prix – was held at the Utilita Arena Birmingham in Birmingham, UK on Saturday 19 February. It is part of the World Indoor Tour Gold series and is one of a handful of events to hold IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings status. It serves as the perfect preparation for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia from 18-20 March.
At the Indoor Grand Prix, 5-time Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson-Herah was the star of the show and displayed her indoor dominance with victory in the 60 m. The Jamaican finished sharply in 7.08 secs though she showed the athlete’s desire for perfection by stating she’d hoped to run sub-7 secs. Elsewhere, stylish Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis narrowly missed a new world indoor record of 6.19 m.
Unfortunately, the news was confirmed that Scottish middle- and long-distance sensation Laura Muir would miss the remainder of the indoor season after she withdrew from DNA Indoors with a back injury on 5 February. Brits were still able to delight in Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson setting a new British record to win the women's 800 m and she will no doubt be looking towards this weekend’s UK Athletics meet for further glory.
Don’t worry if you missed the opportunity to see the indoor athletics live over the weekend, as the UK Athletics Indoor Championships and World Trials are racing towards us from 26-27 February also held at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham. Tickets are on sale and start at GBP £12.60 (USD $17.10) with some great family packages on offer. Bring along family and friends to feel inspired by the country’s top athletes. National titles and places on the GB & NI team are all up for grabs ahead of the World Indoors.
All eyes then turn to the big one: the World Athletics Indoor Championships. The competition was inaugurated as the World Indoor Games in 1985 in Paris, France. The championships have been held every 2 years – alternating years with the European Athletics Indoor Championships - except for when they were held in consecutive years 2003 and 2004 to facilitate the need for them to normally be held in alternate years to the main World Athletics Championships (outdoors). The world's top track and field athletes will head to Štark Arena in Belgrade, Serbia and you can too! Tickets start from just RSD din 600 (GBP £4.28 / USD $5.81).
Due to the rearrangement of the 2020 Olympics and subsequent rescheduling of other championships, 2022 is set to be a bumper year for athletics! As the indoor season comes to a close after the Worlds, we move outdoors. The Müller British Athletics Championships at the end of June are held before the World Athletic Championships (15-24 July) in Eugene, USA. The European Athletics Championships (15-21 August) will be hosted by Munich as part of the European Championships where 9 individual championships in different sports will all take place “under one roof”. The Wanda Diamond League features 14 meets in various cities throughout the year - with several already on sale - and gets underway in Doha on 13 May.
Get on track and check out athletics events and tickets here!
