Ethiopian athletes eye 2020 World Indoor Championships

Looking forward to the upcoming 2020 IAAF World Indoor Championships, Ethiopian athletes are expecting to feature in the event which will take place in Nanjing, China. The 2018 world indoor champions Yomif Kejelicha and Samuel Tefera will be among the athletes highly expected to compete and perform in the championships.

The 2018 indoor 3000m champion, Yomif Kejelicha and the 1500m champion Samuel Tefera are looking forward to collect points in the World Indoor Tour, which will count towards the 2020 World Championships. World Athletics has confirmed the dates, disciplines and scoring information ahead of the fifth edition of the global tour.

The fifth edition of the tour features 11 point-scoring disciplines, including the men’s 60m, 800m, 3000m/5000m, 1500m and field events. The indoor tour will start in Boston, US on January 25 and the final meeting will be held in Madrid, Spain on February 21.

According to the confirmed schedules, each athlete’s best three results will count towards their points tally and the athlete with the most points in each discipline at the end of the tour will be declared the winner at the finale in Madrid, and receive USD 20,000. In addition, the winners of each individual event’s will receive USD 3,000 with the tour offering a combined prize purse of USD 570,350.

The World Indoor Tour competitions will be hosted in six different countries for a four week period in the run-up to the IAAF World Championships Indoor in Nanjing. Entry rules and standards state that each member is entitled to register up to three athletes in each events of the championship, provided that all have achieved the corresponding entry standards. It is known that the tour winners will be eligible for a wildcard entry to the World Athletics indoor Championships in China, subject to the approval of their national federation.

The 18th World Athletics Indoor Championships will be held from 13 to 15 March 2020 and over 200 athletes are expected to compete in 26 events.

It is to be recalled that in the 17th edition of the competition, the Ethiopian national team concluded the event with four gold medals and one silver medal to finish behind the US on the medals board.  

Source: The Reporter