The man who holds the world discus title, a number of European champions, and one of the top triple jumpers of all time headline those selected for the European Champion Clubs Cup in Birmingham this weekend.
The annual event – organised by European Athletics – sees clubs who have won their national titles face opponents from across the continent. Birmingham-based Birchfield Harriers are hosting the event and their athletes will face strong competition from countries including Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal.
Our coverage will be brought to you live from the Alexander Stadium on this page of runjumpthrow.com and runnerspace.com in North America, with the action kicking off at 11am UK time on both days with UK open events.
Two hours later, a host of senior internationals will take to the stage. European champion Ivet Lalova-Collio from Bulgaria (above) is lined up for both of the women’s sprints.
On the men’s side, Turkey’s Jak Ali Harvey (PB: 9.92s) is expected to go up against home hero Joel Fearon (9.96s), while Commonwealth bronze medalist Leon Reid goes in the 200m on Sunday.
The second day of competition is likely to be highlighted by the appearance of IAAF World Championship London 2017 winner Andrius Gud≈æius of Lithuania, who set a new personal record of 69.21 to win the discus competition by two centimetres from Sweden’s Daniel Ståhl.
But undoubtedly one of the biggest stars to watch out for will be triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo (above), the only current competitor apart from double-Olympic champion Christian Taylor to have cleared the magic 18m mark.
The women’s 5000m could be a great match-up between 21-year-old European 5,000m and 10,000m champion Yasemin Can of Turkey (PB: 14.36.82) and the experienced Sara Moreira of Portugal (14:54.71), who has won continental titles over the half marathon and cross country.
Another Turkish winner from Amsterdam 2016 is Yasmani Copello, who looks to be the favourite in the men’s 400m hurdles. It will be equally interesting to see if Barcelona 2010 gold medalist Marcin Lewandowski of Poland can get the better of his rivals in the 1500m.
Excitingly, both Saturday and Sunday finish with relay races in which the home crowd will be cheering on the likes of world 4x400m medalists Zoey Clark (above, left) and Matthew Hudson-Smith.
You can check out the event website for a full list of names, along with the event timetable.
