GERMAN MEETINGS: KARLSRUHE indoor meeting looks to pole vaulter Holzdeppe to raise the rafters

Germany’s 2013 IAAF World Championships pole vault gold medallist Raphael Holzdeppe will compete at the Karlsruhe indoor meeting on 31 January, the first of the 2015 IAAF Indoor Permit meetings, the meeting organisers announced on Friday (5).

After his triumph in Moscow, Holzdeppe struggled with a series of injuries during last winter and his drop of form during the early part of the summer, and an admitted lack of confidence as a result of his modest results, meant he brought a premature end to his 2014 campaign in mid-June and he missed the European Championships in August.

“However, I feel fit again,” said Holzdeppe cheerfully from South Africa, where he is currently training.

Although he has not announced his full schedule, his outing in Karlsruhe is likely to be his first competition in more than seven months.

Holzdeppe is targeting the German indoor championships, which are also in Karlsruhe, on 21-22 February and, if he qualifies, the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague the following month.

He will be joined by German sprinter Verena Sailer at the Karlsruhe indoor meeting, ensuring considerable local interest in the well-known meeting where Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba broke the world indoor 1500m earlier this year.

Organisers