World 800m leader and Spanish record holder Mariano García, world 800m indoor medalist Saúl Ordóñez and European 800m champion Álvaro de Arriba have been announced for the final meeting in the 2022 World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold series in Madrid on 2 March.

At CDM Gallur, the Spanish trio will take on Great Britain’s Elliot Giles, who owns the second-fastest indoor 800m time in history with 1:43.63, and Kenya’s Collins Kipruto, the 2020 World Indoor Tour overall winner in the 800m.

One year after his 1:45.66 solo win, Mariano García returns to Madrid. He will defend his 2021 victory turned into the Spanish record holder and world leader after his outstanding triumph at NB Indoor GP in Staten Island with 1:45.12.

The three-time Spanish 800m champion (2019 indoors, 2019 and 2020 outdoors) will aim to win his first international medal at Belgrade 2022 World Indoor Championship, after finishing fourth at Glasgow 2019 European Championship in his national team debut.

In Madrid, he will face the sole Spanish middle distance runner to win a global medal since 2008. Saúl Ordóñez came from nowhere to first make the World Championship, then the final and ultimately the podium at Birmingham 2018.

Following his bronze medal at Worlds, Ordóñez broke the Spanish outdoor 800m record with 1:43.65 in Monaco. The 27-year-old became Olympian in Tokio and has started 2022 in shape, finishing fourth in the 800m with 1:47.56 at Millrose Games and sixth in the mile with 3:55.27 at NB Indoor GP.

European indoor 800m champion in 2019 and 2016 Olympian Álvaro de Arriba will race in Madrid too.

The Spanish trio will take on Great Britain’s Elliot Giles, who owns the second-fastest indoor 800m time in history with 1:43.63. Giles, 27, won the European 800m bronze in Amsterdam in 2016 and reached the Olympic semifinals in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

This season, the British indoor record holder has been entered in three races and has won them all three. He took the victory in the 800m at World Indoor Tour meeting in Karlsruhe and then won the 1500m in Val-de-Reuil and Ostrava, setting a personal best of 3:35.93, the fifth-fastest time in the world so far this year.

The 2020 World Indoor Tour overall winner in the 800m Collins Kipruto of Kenya will also toe the line in the 800m at CDM Gallur. Kipruto, 27, already knows how to win in Madrid as he did it two years ago in his third World Indoor Tour victory of the year. In 2020 he set an 800m indoor PB of 1:45.86, while he set his outdoor PB of 1:43.95 in Doha in 2021.