World indoor 800m champion Mariano García will seek his second victory at CDM Gallur when he returns to the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid on 22 February.
The Spaniard claimed his first win on home soil in 2021, in his second appearance in Madrid, when he clocked a personal best of 1:45.66 to defeat global medalists Amel Tuka of Bosnia and Pierre-Ambroise Bosse of France.
García returned to Madrid 12 months later to get a second place just ahead of the World Indoor Championship. By that time, he had already broken the 20-year-old Spanish indoor 800m record with a 1:45.12 triumph at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Staten Island, followed by a second straight World Indoor Tour win in Liévin.
In Belgrade, García put the icing in the cake of a superb indoor season, crowed with the world 800m title.
Outdoors, the 25-year-old Spaniard kept the momentum by winning the European 800m trophy in a thrilling finish, where he defended his leading position of world 1500m champion Jake Wightman’s attack.
In Madrid, García will conclude his set up for the European Indoor Championship, to be held in Istanbul in 2-5 March.
Sweden’s national record holder Andreas Kramer (1:44.47 outdoor, 1:45.09 indoor), Burundi’s Eric Nzikwinkunda – who has an outright personal best of 1:45.16 – and Spain’s U23 four-time champion Javier Miron (with an outright PB of 1:44.82) have also been confirmed for Madrid.
