Hodgkinson among stars ready to light up Liévin

Fast times and fierce field clashes are on the cards for the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF – the penultimate World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of the season – in Liévin on Thursday (19).

With just over a month to go until the World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26, many athletes will want to make a statement when they compete at the Arena Stade Couvert, scene of a number of world records over the years.

They include Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, who moved to third on the world 800m short track all-time list when she clocked a world-leading British record of 1:56.33 at the UK Indoor Championships on Saturday.

The Olympic champion is targeting an even faster time in Liévin. Jolanda Čeplak’s world record stands at 1:55.82 and it was set on the day that Hodgkinson was born – 3 March 2002.

“We have some high hopes for the next couple of weeks for the indoors,” Hodgkinson said after her 1:56.33 in Birmingham.

In Liévin she will line up alongside Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma, the 2024 world indoor champion and Olympic silver medallist behind Hodgkinson in Paris, plus the top two from last year’s World Indoor Championships: South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso and Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew.

Adding further strength to the field are Switzerland’s Diamond League champion Audrey Werro, who recently ran 1:57.27 at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Belgrade, and Poland’s European indoor champion Anna Wielgosz.

Dutch world 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol, who has switched her focus to the 800m this year, was also due to be in Liévin to test herself in the 600m but the 25-year-old has withdrawn due to a tendon issue in her foot.

“I’m using and pushing my body in new ways this year,” she wrote on social media. “It’s a fine line, and right now my body is telling me it’s a bit too much. Time for rehab and building towards the outdoor season.”

A world record-holder features in the 2000m as Australia’s Jessica Hull races in Liévin for the first time.

The Olympic and world 1500m medallist set her world 2000m record of 5:19.70 outdoors on her debut at the distance in Monaco in 2024 and now she races the 2000m indoors for the first time. The world 2000m short track best stands at 5:23.75, set by Genzebe Dibaba in 2017.

Joining her in the 2000m, racing on home soil, is European indoor champion Agathe Guillemot who formed part of the French team that clinched silver behind Hull’s winning Australian team at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee last month. Guillemot more recently ran a national short track record of 4:02.12 to finish third in a Karlsruhe World Indoor Tour Gold 1500m won by Georgia Hunter Bell, who is also in action in Liévin.

Great Britain’s Hunter Bell set a world lead in Karlsruhe of 4:00.04, just 0.2 off the short track PB she clocked when earning world indoor bronze last year. The Olympic bronze medallist races that distance again in Liévin where she will line up alongside her compatriot and fellow world indoor medallist Jemma Reekie, Canadian record-holder Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom, who won at the World Indoor Tour Gold meetings in Ostrava and Madrid earlier this month and then finished second between Hunter Bell and Guillemot in Karlsruhe.

Another French star competing in front of a home crowd is double European indoor medallist Azeddine Habz who steps up to the 3000m after opening his indoor season with a 1500m win in Karlsruhe.

This time the men’s 1500m will feature Portugal’s world champion Isaac Nader, who started his season with a 3000m win in Ostrava, plus Kenya’s world bronze medallist Reynold Cheruiyot and Irish record-holder Andrew Coscoran.

The women’s 3000m will star Ethiopia’s world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu, who ran the fourth-fastest time in history of 8:19.98 to win in Liévin last year, against her compatriot Hirut Meshesha and Italy’s Olympic and double world medallist Nadia Battocletti.

Belgium’s two-time world indoor medallist Eliott Crestan heads the 800m field after his 1:43.83 win in Ostrava that moved him to fourth on the world short track all-time list. He seeks a third win in a row at this meeting, while 2024 world indoor silver medallist Lieke Klaver will also defend her title to race world 400m hurdles bronze medallist Emma Zapletalová in the 400m.

The women’s 60m hurdles will star a clash of world champions as Switzerland’s world 100m hurdles gold medallist Ditaji Kambundji goes up against Bahamian two-time world indoor 60m hurdles winner and world record-holder Devynne Charlton.

The men’s event will include USA’s Olympic and world 110m hurdles medallist Daniel Roberts against home stars Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey.

Rivalries renewed in the field

Leonardo Fabbri started his season by throwing 22.50m outdoors in Stellenbosch earlier this month and the Italian three-time world medallist will look to maintain that momentum indoors.

He opens his indoor season to defend his title in Liévin and will go up against a strong field starring two-time world champion Joe Kovacs, Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell who won in New York and was second in Ostrava and Madrid, and world indoor silver medallist Roger Steen who won in Belgrade with 22.07m – the farthest indoor mark of the season so far.

Two-time world indoor pole vault medallist Emmanouil Karalis of Greece tops the season list with his 5.93m clearance from Łódź and he seeks his first six metre-plus vault of the year in a contest that will see him go up against two-time world champion Sam Kendricks and his fellow global medallists Ernest Obiena, Chris Nilsen and Kurtis Marschall.

In the women’s event home favourite Marie-Julie Bonnin, who won the world indoor title last year, faces three-time world gold medallist and defending champion Katie Moon plus Wilma Murto.

Spain’s Olympic champion Jordan Díaz clashes with 2024 world indoor silver medallist Yasser Triki and 2022 world indoor champion Lázaro Martínez in the triple jump.