by Justin Lagat
Grant Holloway, 2021 NB Indoor GP, 60m hurdles, photo by Kathy Camara via Peacock TV
The Meeting International Lieven will happen on Thursday, February 17. Justin Lagat wanted to tell us which events he would be watching from Iten, Kenya. The meet should be pretty impressive. Justin just wrote a piece for us on one of the top meetings in the 2022 World Indoor Tour.
The organizers of the Lievin World Indoor Tour Gold meeting, which will happen on Thursday, the 17th of February, have assembled some incredible fields that would make it so difficult for any athletics fan to miss.
Some of the big names to watch out for include Tsegay Gudaf in the women’s mile; Jacob Ingebrigtsen and Samuel Tefera in the men’s 1500m; Selemon Barega and Getnet Wale in the men’s 3000m; Grant Holloway and Pascal Lagarde in the men’s 60m Hurdles; Marcell Jacobs, Ronnie Baker and Ferdinand Omanyala in the men’s 60m.
Ethiopia’s Tsegay, the Tokyo bronze medalist in the women’s 5000m race, broke the women’s 1500m world indoor record last year at the same event and will be hoping to do so again for the indoor mile.
Ingebrigtsen set the European 1500m indoor record in Lievin last year after running his personal best time of 3:31.80. That time is slightly slower than Tefera’s 3:31.04 and he might be pushed to set another European record if he is to win here again.
With the combination of Barega and Wale in the men’s 3000m, it will be another race to watch out for some very fast times and a possible world record with Wale’s personal best time already just 0.08 seconds away from the long-standing world record of 7:24.90 by Kenya’s Daniel Komen.
In the women’s 3000m, Ethiopia’s Hayle Taye is still a relatively new name but is a rapidly rising star that will be worth watching out for.
World 800m Champion, Uganda’s Halimah Nagaayi will battle it out with Jamaica’s Natoya Goule in the women’s 800m.
Kenya’s Abel Kipsang will be the favorite to win the men’s 2000m race and will hopefully get to beat the national record on 4:55.72.
The sprints will be amazing to watch as well with Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala continuing to inspire Kenyan runners as witnessed in the 1st Athletics Kenya track and field meeting in Nairobi where more runners registered to run them.
A live stream of the meeting will be available in a number of territories through the World Athletics YouTube channel, and on different TV stations in other territories.
