Venue: Utilita Arena, Birmingham Date: Saturday, 25 February |
Coverage: Watch live from 13:30-16:05 GMT on BBC iPlayer & BBC Sport website and app |
Laura Muir will target a world record over 1,000m as Keely Hodgkinson aims to improve her British 800m mark at the World Indoor Tour Final in Birmingham.
“This is the first time running the 1,000m [indoor] where I’ve actually run the time before. I know physically I can do it,” said the 29-year-old Scot.
Hodgkinson, meanwhile, has already set a world record over 600m this year.
In the sprints, home athletes Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita take on world 200m champion Shericka Jackson in a tantalising race over 60m (14:03 GMT).
British champion Neita moved one hundredth of a second behind Asher-Smith in the UK all-time rankings after improving her personal best to 7.05 seconds this month.
The men’s 60m event (13:51) includes Jeremiah Azu and Adam Gemili, however Reece Prescod has withdrawn before next week’s European Indoor Championships.
Coverage of Saturday’s action from Utilita Arena, which concludes with the women’s 1,000m (15:30) and 800m (15:48), is available on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
Record-chasing Muir full of confidence
Olympic 1500m silver medallist Muir set the European indoor record when she raced over 1,000m in Birmingham six years ago, bettering Kelly Holmes’ British record in the process.
The European and Commonwealth 1500m champion won the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in New York earlier this month as she continues her World Championship preparations.
She at last ended her wait for a world medal with 1500m bronze in Oregon last year, despite missing two months of training earlier in 2022 because of suffering a stress reaction to her femur.
“I feel I’m in a really good spot,” said Muir, who will look to add to her four European indoor titles next week.
“I was fortunate the last time I competed in the kilometre in Birmingham I got the European record, so hopefully I can go one further,” added the Scot.
“I have a bit more experience and knowing I have ran the time before is a good confidence booster.”
Hodgkinson ‘could get close’ to world record
Rising star Hodgkinson has won all three races she has contested in 2023, claiming victory in her most recent outing by almost three seconds as she set another world leading time in a dominant 800m display in Lievin last week.
It continued a hugely impressive start to the season for the in-form 20-year-old, who like Muir has a European title to defend in Istanbul.
And while the Olympic and world silver medallist will primarily aim to improve her British record time of one minute 57.20 seconds on Saturday, in the very city where she set that mark 12 months ago, threatening the world record is not out of the question.
The long-standing indoor record of 1:55.82 is held by Slovenian Jolanda Ceplak – and it was set on the same day Hodgkinson was born in 2002.
“I feel I’m in pretty good shape and if the perfect, smooth race was to happen I could get close to it,” Hodgkinson said.
“I’d like to give it a shot but my aim is ultimately to try and break my own British record,” she added.
“It’s a very hard record to break, but I’ll just go out and do my best and see what happens.”