Hugues-Fabrice Zango in the triple jump at the Meeting de Paris (© KMSP / FFA)
World bronze medallist Hugues Fabrice Zango is aiming to attack the world indoor triple jump record at the Meeting Villa de Madrid Indoor on 21 February, the final World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting of 2020.
The Burkinabe triple jumper produced the leap of his life at the recent Meeting de Paris, setting an outright African record of 17.77m. The performance puts him equal fourth on the world indoor all-time list and just 15 centimetres shy of the world indoor record held by his coach, Teddy Tamgho.
Although Madrid’s Gallur Municipal Sports Center is yet to witness a world indoor record, the Spanish city played host to Maris Bruziks’ world indoor triple jump record of 17.54m in 1986.
Zango will line up against Portugal’s 2008 Olympic champion and European champion Nelson Evora, world U20 champion Cuba’s Jordan Díaz, Cuba’s Christian Napoles and USA’s Donald Scott, who finished fifth and sixth respectively at the 2019 World Championships, European indoor champion Nazim Babayev, Spanish record-holder Pablo Torrijos, who won in Boston last month, Azerbaijan’s 2009 world bronze medallist Alexis Copello, USA’s Chris Benard, China’s Wu Ruiting and Turkey’s Necati Er.
The middle-distance fields are just as loaded with talent.
Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who earned world bronze last year with a lifetime best of 3:54.38, leads the women’s 1500m entries. The 23-year-old recently won in Torun with an indoor PB of 4:00.09 and will be looking to bank another 10 points in Madrid.
She’ll face compatriots Axumawit Embaye, Alemaz Samuel and Lemlem Hailu, Uganda’s Winnie Nanyondo and Kenya’s Josephine Kiplangat, as well as Spain’s Esther Guerrero, Marta Pérez and Solange Andreia Pereira.
Kenya’s Michael Saruni, the second-fastest man of all time indoors over 800m, will take on leading Polish duo Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski.
Saruni, who is coached by 1988 Olympic champion Paul Ereng, clocked 1:43.98 in New York City last year to become just the second man ever to better 1:44 indoors.
Kszczot, the world indoor champion for the distance, and Lewandowski, the world 1500m bronze medallist, finished second and third respectively in both Dusseldorf and Torun in this year’s World Athletics Indoor Tour.
Kenya’s Collins Kipruto, who is undefeated this year after victories in Ostrava, Torun and Satra, is also in the field, along with world silver medallist Amel Tuka, world finalist Adrian Ben, African Games silver medallist Cornellius Tuwei and European indoor champion Álvaro de Arriba.
The men’s shot put line-up for Madrid has also been revealed. It includes European silver medallist Konrad Bukowiecki, Bob Bertemes of Luxemburg, Mesud Pezer of Bosnia Herzegovina, Spain’s Borja Vivas, Carlos Tobalina and Egypt’s Mostafa Amer Hassan.
Organisers for World Athletics
