Mateusz Przybylko in Dusseldorf (© Andreas Arndt/organisers)
European high jump champion Mateusz Przybylko has his sights firmly set on winning the IAAF World Indoor Tour crown in his event this winter.
The 26-year-old German, who jumped to world indoor bronze in Birmingham last March, will begin his World Indoor Tour series campaign in Karlsruhe on 2 February, with subsequent stops planned in Torun four days later and at the finale in Dusseldorf on 20 February in his quest for the $20,000 Tour prize and a wild card berth to the 2020 World Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
Karlsruhe is familiar territory for Przybylko, who won his first national indoor title in this southwestern German city in 2015 and two years later finished second at this World Indoor Tour meeting. But February's will be his first appearance since taking the European title last summer before a dizzyingly passionate home crowd at Berlin's Olympic Stadium.
Przybylko set his indoor best stands of 2.30m last year, but has sailed clear at 2.35m outdoors in each of the past two seasons.
In Karlsruhe he'll take on Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi, the 2016 European and world indoor champion who topped 2.38m indoors and 2.39m outdoors that season only to see his Rio Olympic hopes dashed in anguish by injury that sidelined him for nearly a year. A 2.33m clearance this past August illustrated that the 26-year-old is on the mend.
The Karlsruhe meeting record of 2.31m, set by Bahamian Troy Kemp, dates back to 1994. In Torun, the record is 2.27m, set by Pole Sylvester Bednarek in 2017. Meanwhile, Dusseldorf will stage the men's high jump for the first time.
Organisers and Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
