News06 Jan 2016


Defar, Bromell and Martinez set for Boston

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Meseret Defar on her way to a world indoor best over two miles (© AFP / Getty Images)

Meseret Defar, Trayvon Bromell, and Brenda Martinez are the first three athletes to sign up for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on 14 February, part of the new IAAF World Indoor Tour.

Defar is the 2004 and 2012 Olympic 5000m champion and four-time world indoor 3000m champion. The Ethiopian superstar set a two miles world best at this event in 2008. The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will be Defar’s first track competition since she gave birth to a daughter in 2014.

“Boston really is a second home to me,” said Defar, who will be competing at this meeting for the ninth time since 2002. “I am very happy to come back to have my first competition on the track back at a place that has been so good to me since the beginning of my career.”

Bromell last summer became the youngest US athlete in history to win a World Championships medal at 100m when he tied for a surprise bronze in Beijing.

He set a world junior record of 9.97 in 2014 and then improved his best to 9.84 last year, making him the fourth-fastest US sprinter in history and the fastest teenager in the world.

Martinez became the first US woman to win a World Championships medal at 800m when she took bronze in 2013. At last year’s New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, Martinez anchored her team to a world record in the distance medley relay.

Organisers for the IAAF

2016 IAAF World Indoor Tour calendar
6 February – Karlsruhe Indoor Meeting (Karlsruhe, GER)
14 February – New Balance Indoor Grand Prix (Boston, USA)
17 February – Globen Galan (Stockholm, SWE)
20 February – Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix (Glasgow, GBR)