LIEVIN, FRANCE — World-leaders Grant Holloway and Christina Clemons headline the men’s and women’s respective 60m hurdles fields for Tuesday’s (9) Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, the second World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting on the 2021 calendar. World Athletics will provide a live stream of the event on its Youtube channel.
Holloway Star Entry In Men’s Race
In the men’s 60m hurdles, world 110m hurdles champion Holloway will make his second appearance in the event this season after opening his 2021 campaign with a record-equaling performance at the American Track League Meeting #1 last month.
The 23-year-old flashed to an eye-popping 7.35 seconds to match his own North American indoor record in Fayetteville, Ark., on Jan 24.
Holloway will start as the favorite to add to his victory on Tuesday but is expected to be challenged by his fellow countrymen Jarret Eaton and Aaron Mallett.
Spain’s Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega, as well as world indoor bronze medallist Aurel Manga, recent Karlsruhe winner Wilhem Belocian and former European silver medalist Paolo Dal Molin of Italy, are also expected to challenge the US star.
Clemons Leads Women’s Field In Lievin
Clemons, who clocked 7.83 seconds at last Friday’s ISTAF Indoor Berlin meeting at the Mercedes-Benz Arena to improve the previous best time in 2021 and the American will be aiming to build on that performance against a high-quality field.
Nine of the 15 total starters for Tuesday’s race have dipped under 8-seconds at some point in their careers, with the likes of Germany’s Nadine Visser, Nooralotta Neziri of Finland, and African champion Amusan Tobi Amusan of Nigeria all breaking that barrier already this season.
Visser comes into the race with a seasonal best of 7.90, done while finishing to Clemons in Berlin, while the Neziri set a national indoor record of 7.91 to take third place in that same race.
Neziri had opened her season with a 7.92 seconds performance when beating Amusan (7.94) and the European indoor champion Visser in Karlsruhe last month.
Former European Indoor champion Eline Berings of Belgium owns a personal best of 7.92, but the 34-year-old will be searching for her first sub-8 seconds performance in five years.
