Samuele Ceccarelli at the European Indoor Championships (© AFP / Getty Images)
Italy’s European indoor 60m champion Samuele Ceccarelli will take on Britain’s European 100m bronze medallist Jeremiah Azu at the Czech Indoor Gala, the second World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of 2024, in Ostrava on 30 January.
Azu is the defending men’s 60m champion, having clocked 6.58 – 0.02 off his PB – to win in Ostrava earlier this year. Ceccarelli will make his debut at the meeting during a season in which he will look to build on the PB of 6.47 he set to win his continental title in Istanbul in March. He is no stranger to racing in Ostrava, however, having finished second at the Golden Spike meeting outdoors in June when he ran 10.15 in the 100m.
They will line up alongside home favourites Jan Veleba, who won at the Czech Indoor Gala in 2022, and national indoor champion Zdenek Stromsik.
"The Czech Indoor Gala is my favourite meeting. It's the biggest indoor race in the Czech Republic and I usually do quite well there, so I'm looking forward to it,” said Veleba. “I'm especially curious about Ceccarelli, who had an amazing indoor season. We'll see if he can follow it up.
“I believe that I will come to Ostrava in good shape so that I can compete with the best. It will be my last indoor season, so I want to get the best out of myself.”
The men’s 800m will feature a battle between Britain’s Max Burgin and Elliot Giles.
Burgin has fond memories of Ostrava and he will be keen for that to continue as he prepares for a debut indoor season. The 21-year-old has faced injury challenges the past few years but in 2021 he set a European U20 record of 1:44.14 to win at the Golden Spike meeting and the following year he finished third in 1:44.54, before running a PB of 1:43.52 in Turku.
Giles does have experience of the Czech Indoor Gala, having won the 1500m in a meeting record of 3:35.93 in 2022. This time he will contest the 800m, an event in which he has a 1:43.63 PB, making him the second-fastest indoor 800m runner of all time.
They will line up alongside Czech athletes Filip Snejdr and Jakub Dudycha, the European U20 champion.
Their Czech compatriots Tereza Petrzilkova and Lada Vondrova will also be in action, having already been announced for the women’s 400m.
