Meet record attempts, early head-to-head showdowns, star-powered openers and repeat victory attempts are among the big storylines for the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday.

Headlining the meet will be World and Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece, who will be opening his 2024 campaign with an eye on the meet record of 8.21m/26-11.25. Tentoglou, who won this meet as an 18-year-old in 2018 and again two years later, owns an indoor personal best of 8.55m/28-0.75. His bast season-opening indoor mark is 8.15m/26-9.

Another meet record that could be in jeopardy is in the women’s 60m, where Ewa Swoboda of Poland will be on the attack. The meet mark of 7.10 was run in 2016 and the 26-year-old Swoboda owns a personal best of 6.99. Her top 10 fastest times dating back to 2016 are all faster than the meet record and the average of those times in 7.04.

Tina Sutej of Slovenia will face off against Angelica Moser of Switzerland in an intriguing early-season women’s pole vault competition. Sutej, the 2011 NCAA Indoor champion at Arkansas, holds the meet record of 4.82m/15-9.75 and has competed in this meet five times, winning three. 

But Moser, the 2021 European Indoor champion, is more than game for the challenge. She equaled her outdoor PR of 4.75m/15-7 in finishing fifth, one spot behind Sutej, at the World Championships in Budapest last summer.

Tom Walsh of New Zealand headlines a strong field in the men’s shot put. Remarkably, the 2017 world champion will be throwing in his first indoor meet outside of the World Indoor Championships. He will face four men who have won continental titles in reigning European champion Filip Mihaljevic of Croatia, 2021 European indoor champion Tomas Stanek of the Czech Republic, 2018 European champion Michal Haratyk of Poland, and 2017 European indoor champion Konrad Bukowiecki of Poland.

American Alaysia Johnson will be looking for a second straight victory here in the 60m hurdles. The 27-year-old from Spring, TX used her win here in 7.87 as a springboard to a fabulous run at the USA Indoor Championships, where she clocked a personal-best 7.82 for gold. Johnson’s main competition this time figures to come from European champion Pia Skrzyszkowska, European indoor champion Reetta Hurske, and 2018 world indoor bronze medalist Nadine Visser.

Also back looking for a repeat this year is Dutch quarter-miler Lieke Klaver, who ran on the Netherlands’ gold medal winning 4x400m at the World Championships last summer. The European indoor 400m runner-up, won this race last year in 51.00.

There is more at stake on the World Athletics Indoor Gold Tour this year.

In a change of format, athletes’ top three performances will count towards their overall point tally. The athlete amassing the most points in each scoring discipline will earn a $10,000 bonus but will also be offered a wildcard entry into the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Prize money for the Gold events has been set at a minimum of $7,000 for each individual discipline, including $3,000 for the winner.