Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Andy Pozzi in Karlsruhe (© Andreas Arndt)
World indoor champion Andrew Pozzi is to open his World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold campaign at the INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on 28 January, when he will again go up against world medallist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the 60m hurdles.
A former winner in Karlsruhe, Pozzi clocked 7.44 – a time which remains his second-quickest ever, just 0.01 off his PB – for victory in 2017 and the Briton went on to win the European indoor title later that season. The following year, he added the world indoor title to his CV, gaining gold on home soil in Birmingham.
Martinot-Lagarde finished seventh on that occasion in Karlsruhe but was in medal-winning form by the time of the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade, finishing just 0.01 behind Pozzi for silver, which he added to the gold he won in Prague two years earlier. He also claimed European indoor silver in 2019 and bronze in 2013, plus world indoor medals in 2012, 2014 and 2016, while in the 110m hurdles his world bronze was claimed in 2019, the year after his European Championships victory.
This will be Martinot-Lagarde's fifth appearance in Karlsruhe, with the 30-year-old also having raced in the German city in 2012, 2013 and 2021.
They will line up alongside their fellow European indoor gold medallist Wilhelm Belocian of France, who won in Karlsruhe last year before taking the continental title in Torun in a PB of 7.42, 0.01 ahead of Pozzi. Germany's Martin Vogel joins them in the field.
Already announced for the meeting are Elliot Giles and Andreas Kramer in the 800m, and world record-holder Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault.
The INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe is the first Gold level meeting in the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour calendar, with the action then moving on to Manhattan, Staten Island, Lievin, Birmingham, Torun and Madrid.
