Europe’s top indoor meetings this coming winter will predominantly be staged on Mondo tracks after the recent announcements of the 2020 calendar for the IAAF World Indoor Tour and European Athletics Indoor Permit Meetings.
Mondo surfaces currently account for more than three-quarters of the IAAF Certified Indoor Athletics Facilities worldwide, indoor arenas capable of staging major championships, including 29 of the 40 arenas in Europe.
European Athletics Green Inspiration Partner has provided the tracks for five of the seven venues for the 2020 IAAF World Indoor Tour meetings: Boston, Torun, Glasgow, Lievin and Madrid, the top one-day indoor meetings in the USA, Poland, Great Britain France and Spain respectively.
The track in Torun for the ORLEN Copernicus Cup on 8 February will also be the one that will be used for the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in the same city but it has already seen one other major international championship elsewhere.
It was originally installed in Sopot’s ERGO Arena for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 2014, after the civic authorities of Torun and Sopot signed an agreement to share it, and then taken up and moved 190 kilometres to its current location before being reassembled by Mondo the month after the championships had come to an end.
Another Mondo track to feature on the 2020 IAAF World Indoor Tour will on the Glasgow leg of the seven-meeting series, the Muller Indoor Grand Prix coming exactly a week after Torun on 15 February.
The hydraulic variable banked track at the Scottish city’s Emirates Arena was the competition surface for this year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in March.
Happy with tonight’s run, and as always, a fantastic night at the AIT Grand Prix, despite falling short (‘scuse the pun) of the win . Despite the lack of hurdles this meet is one of, if not my favorite meet in the Irish Calendar ! Thanks for having me again this year https://t.co/GqFg5Q9UxJ
— Thomas Barr (@TomBarr247) February 14, 2019
Europe’s top athletes will be also running on Mondo tracks at many of the European Athletics Indoor Permit Meetings next year.
Ireland’s top indoor athletics meeting, the AIT Grand Prix on 12 February, features the popular Sportflex Super X surface which is installed in almost half of the world’s IAAF Certified Indoor Athletics Facilities.
Mondo tracks also feature at the IFAM Indoor meeting in Ghent on 8 February, the Indoor Combined Events meeting in Tallinn on 8-9 February and the Istanbul Cup in its namesake city on 16 February, the top indoor meetings in Belgium, Estonia and Türkiye respectively.
The annual Istanbul Cup is staged in the Akatoy Athletics Arena which was also the venue for the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
A removable Mondo track has also been used for many years at the famous Banskabystricka Latka high jump meeting in Slovakia, whose next edition will take place on 4 February.