By Birmingham Organisers
American double world champion Noah Lyles headlines the men’s 60m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham, part of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting – at the Utilita Arena in Birmingham on 19 February and he’s targeting something special.
The 24-year-old Olympic 200m bronze medallist and the fastest man in the world over the distance in 2021 with a swift time of 19.52 seconds, is ranked fourth on the global all-time list (19.50).
READ MORE: Complete results from the 2022 New Balance Indoor Grand Prix
Lyles is coming off an impressive weekend in New York where he ran a personal best of 6.56 to win the men’s 60m dash at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix on February (6) and will line up in Birmingham, hoping for more success.
He will take on fellow countryman Ronnie Baker, the bronze medallist in the 60m at the 2018 World Indoor Championships and the man who finished fifth over 100m at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Baker, who has a PB of 6.40, opened his 2022 season with a third-place finish at the Millrose Games on January 29 where he ran 6.54.
The Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham is the fifth meeting of the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold level series. There are seven Gold level meetings across the series which started with Karlsruhe on 28 January and which conclude in Madrid on 2 March.
A strong British contingent, led by reigning national indoor champion Andy Robertson, will join the US stars in Birmingham.
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Robertson, 31, was fourth in the 2021 European Indoor Championships and won the 60m at the BoXX United Manchester World Indoor Tour meeting in his season-opener on 22 January in 6.60, inside British Athletics’ qualification standard for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Belgrade. He backed that up with victory for England in the DNA Indoor Match in Glasgow on 5 February (6.62). His lifetime best, dating back to 2016, is 6.54.
Lyles, who will compete at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham for the first time, said: “I’ve run on the US indoor circuit this year, and this meet will be the final one for me. I have seen a lot of fast times come from the Birmingham track, and I’m looking forward to running there.
“My main focus this year is on defending my titles at the World Athletics Championships this summer and continuing to get better. Every training session and every race is working towards achieving that goal, and this race fits right into that.”
Throughout the World Athletics Indoor Tour series, each athlete’s best three results will count towards their overall point score. The athlete with the most points in each scoring discipline at the end of the tour will be declared the winner and will be awarded a USD$10,000 bonus along with a wild card entry for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade (March 2022).
Meanwhile, the meet will also see five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica, world indoor 60m hurdles record-holder and world outdoor 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway of USA, along with British Olympic 1500m silver medallist Laura Muir, Olympic 800m silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson and Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, competing as well.
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