The 2008 Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo will lead a quality 800m field in the upcoming IAAF Indoor Permit meeting to be held in Moscow February 2.
2008 Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo
The organisers have revealed a host of top names, which also includes Olympic bronze medallist Yekaterina Poistogova, 2011 European indoor champion Jenny Meadows and reigning European indoor champion Nataliia Lupu.
Flying the Kenyan flag high together with Jelimo will be upcoming talent Nelly Jepkosgei.
Despite being the world indoor champion for the distance, this will just be Jelimo’s fourth indoor 800m race to date.
It will also be something of a comeback for the 24-year-old,(pictured) who had just one race in 2013, a low-key 400m run in early May. She suffered an ankle injury in June and has not been able to compete. However, her agent Barnaba Korir said Jelimo is ready to take on the world in Moscow, after missing the World Championships last August.
The last time Aleksandr Menkov competed in Moscow was at the IAAF World Championships.
After triumphing there with a national record of 8.56m, Menkov will aim to win again in front of a home crowd at the Russian Winter meeting in his nation’s capital city.
Meanwhile, another global gold medallist in the jumps, 2011 world champion Fabiana Murer, is the first big name revealed for the women’s pole vault field.
Olympic bronze medallist Kellie Wells heads a US-dominated 60m hurdles field. Team-mates Nia Ali, Yvette Lewis and Kristi Castlin will also be taking part, alongside European indoor and outdoor silver medallist and French champion Cindy Billaud.
In the women’s 60m flat, 2010 world indoor bronze medallist Ruddy Zang Milama will face US duo Mikele Barber and Lekeisha Lawson, Jamaica’s Aleen Bailey, Nigeria’s Gloria Asumnu and sub-seven-seconds sprinter LaVerne Jones-Ferrette.
Among those already announced for the Russian Winter are long jumper Darya Klishina, Olympic high jump champion Ivan Ukhov and world heptathlon champion Hanna Melynchenko.
World 800m champion Mohammed Aman leads a quality field in the men 600m. The latest addition for that event is Qatari record-holder and Asian champion Musaeb Abdulrahman Balla, who finished second to Aman at last year’s Russian winter.
By ELIZABETH MBURUGU and IAAF
