Saturday to Sunday
- Palaindoor National Meeting (Ancona, ITA) - The first of several streamed meetings in Ancona over the next 3 weeks; The Men's 1500 is the standout event with Yassin Bouih, Giovanni Filippi & Federico Riva and in the other events there's a lot of good young athletes (the entries cover seniors down to U18)
- DNA Clubs U20/U18/U16 Indoor Meeting (Valencia, ESP) - 6 mixed-gender teams competing here in 7 events culminating in "The Hunt" - a handicapped mixed relay of 4 legs of 1000, 800, 600 & 400
- DNA Clubs Senior Indoor Meeting (Valencia, ESP) - Same format as for the junior match above; There's some good athletes competing here including Paula Sevilla (60m), Leticia Gil (LJ), Maria Belen Toimil (SP) and a strong Men's 400
- ongoing Graduate Classic (Lincoln, NB, USA) - see post above
- All Japan Inter-Prefectural Women's Ekiden Championship AKA The Empress's Cup (Kyoto, JPN) - Teams representing each of Japan's 47 prefectures line up for this and each team is a mix of pros, Uni athletes, High School athletes and the best amateurs; This race is always loaded with talent and this year is no exception with the likes of Seira Fuwa, Ririka Hironaka, Nozomi Tanaka, Mao Ichiyama & Yuka Ando all due to run. I expect those 5 (Tanaka excepted?) will run on the longest leg, the final 10km leg, and Kayoko Fukushi's 30:52 leg record should be under threat from Fuwa and maybe Hironaka too
- Italian 35km Race Walking Championships (Pescara, ITA) - Although there's no Stano, Palmisano or Giorgi here, the fields for the 35km & 20km races are still pretty good featuring the best of the rest in Italy (the 35km races are the only races with national titles on the line); The Men's 35km is particularly strong with plenty, including Stefano Chiesa and Francesco Fortunato (35km debut), capable of getting major champs standards given the right conditions; The World Champs & European Champs standards for 35km are 2:33/2:35:30 for the men and 2:54/2:55 for the women
- Cross Internacional Ciudad de Valladolid (Valladolid, ESP) - Nice line-ups here. In the Women's race Tsige Haileslase (ETH; 15:18 & 32:39 PBs; although she's also entered in Houston below), Aimee Pratt, Sara Moreira, Caterina Ribeiro, Lidia Campo, Blanca Fernandez & Beatriz Alvarez should all place highly; The Men's race looks competitive with a decent field including Dani Arce, Raul Celada who had a breakthrough 2021, David Bascuñana & Rui Pinto (POR)
- Houston Marathon & Half Marathon (Houston, TX, USA) - WA Elite Label races; Competitive looking fields here with 4 men at 2:08 or better and 4 sub-2:24 women including Atsede Baysa & Keira D'Amato; The half marathons probably have more overall depth and include the likes of Sara Hall & Shadrack Kimining; 4 Brits are due to make debuts - Jess Judd (Half), Alice Wright (Full), Luke Caldwell (Full) & Emily Kearney (Full)
Next major post possibly on Tuesday evening. If not, definitely on Wednesday evening for Thursday's Victorian Milers Club Meet #3.
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