Meeting Villa de Madrid Indoor keeps adding big names to its elite field – and today is time to announce the strongest ones. Next Friday February 21st Gallur Municipal Sports Center will host the seventh and final stop of the World Athletics Indoor Tour, where the men’s shot put will be among the key attractions.
Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki leads a field which includes the last eleven Spanish indoor champions. 22 year old Bukowiecki kicked off his season three days ago in Valencia, helping his team Playas de Castellón to win the I Copa LaLigaSports club competition with three attempts over 20.80m before a last one of 21.13m, which ranked 2nd in the world so far this year.
Bukowiecki – whose 22.00m indoor personal best (2018) ranks him the World’s 13th ever – already won the European Indoor title in Belgrade 2017, and later in 2018 took a silver medal at the European Outdoor Championship in Berlin. He also won three continental youth golds in 2015 (U20), 2017 and 2019 (both U23) and finished sixth at the World Championships in Doha last October in an epic final.
The young Polish knows how to succeed in Madrid, as he finished second in 2019 and sixth in 2018. Two years before he had broken the world junior record of 20.61m (with 7,260kg shot) in Gallur, only a few days after breaking the current world junior record of 22.46 (with 5kg shot) in Torun.
Alongside Bukowiecki, Meeting Villa de Madrid Indoor will see the best two shot putters of Spain of the last decade. Málaga-born Borja Vivas (35) came back to competition this winter after undergoing to surgery due to his knee injuries after the 2018 Mediterranean Games. 2014 European Outdoors silver and 16 times national champion (8 indoor, 8 outdoor), Vivas has already competed four times this year, all in Antequera, setting his season best of 18.84m.
Also Barakaldo-born Carlos Tobalina has suffered injuries, but this winter has put the shot over 19.29 indoor in Valencia and 19.66 outdoor in León. The World Indoor Tour final is a big deal for Tobalina, as it’s scheduled the week before the Spanish Championship in Ourense, where he will try to win his sixth title (2016, 2017 and 2019 indoor; 2018 and 2019 outdoor).
Egyptian Mostafa Amer Hassan (21.30m in 2017), Bosnian Mesud Pezer (21.15m in 2018) and Luxembourgish Bob Bertemes (21.03m in 2019, but 22.22m outdoor in 2019) will also be in the field.
