Reigning European 100m champion Dafne Schippers from the Netherlands has been confirmed for the 60m at the IFAM Meeting in Ghent, a European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting, on 10 February.
Schippers retained her 200m title at the IAAF World Championships in London last summer and the Dutch sprinter will be looking to add to her title haul at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham from 1-4 March.
Schippers won the European indoor 60m title in Prague three years ago and a silver medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland in 2016. In the build-up to those championships, Schippers lowered her lifetime best to 7.00 to equal Nelli Cooman’s long-standing Dutch record and move to equal third on the European all-time lists headed by Russia's Irina Privalova at 6.92.
'The talks have been running for some time. Today we have reached an agreement with her management so Schippers will start with us,” said a spokesperson from the IFAM Meeting.
Schippers’ foremost goal outdoors this year will be the European Athletics Championships in Berlin. She has already claimed five medals from her three appearances at the biennial event: 4x100m silver in 2012, 100m and 200m gold in 2014 and 100m and 4x100m gold in 2016.
Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski has also been confirmed for the 1500m.