A look ahead to the action in Istanbul this week, including medal predictions, useful links and streaming info

Back in 2012 the Atakoy Athletics Arena in Istanbul hosted the World Indoor Championships where winners included Ashton Eaton with a world record in the heptathlon, Valerie Adams in the shot put and Yelena Isinbayeva in the pole vault. Yamilé Aldama leapt to triple jump gold for Britain aged 39, while her team-mates in the women’s 4x400m scored a dramatic victory over the United States with Perri Shakes-Drayton holding off the challenge of world champion Sanya Richards-Ross to take gold.

If events at the 37^th European Indoor Championships in the same stadium this week (March 2-5) come anywhere close to generating that level of excitement, it will be a weekend to remember. Not surprisingly, though, organisers are keen to keep a lid on the pre-event publicity given that the host country is reeling from recent earthquake disasters.

“Serious discussions took place about whether it was appropriate for these championships to go ahead in such tragic circumstances,” European Athletics president Dobromir Karamarinov reveals, “but in the end all parties agreed they could provide some hope and have a positive impact on the country and its people.”

He adds: “However, these championships will not be the same as others. Consequently, we are toning-down the usual celebratory side-events and activities and focussing instead on the safety of our athletes and on providing them with the competition itself, along with providing help and support to the people of Turkey.”

The European Indoor Championships has always been a happy hunting ground for British athletes and in the all-time medals count only Russia has beaten Britain’s tally of 72 golds, 65 silvers and 52 bronzes. You can glance back at British successes here with our review of the period 1966-1975, 1976-1985, 1986-1998 and 2000-2019 with our 2021 coverage from Toruń here.

If you want a deep dive into the European Indoor Championships, though, then download our special digital issue. It is free to AW magazine subscribers but is available for non-subscribers as well here and contains event-by-event previews packed with statistics ahead of this weekend, plus interviews and nostalgia.

Keep an eye on our social media updates this weekend from our team in Istanbul with news and interviews.

For live timetable details and results, see the official site here.

While world record-breaker Mondo Duplantis is not competing in Istanbul, pretty much most of the other big European stars are tackling the championships. These include Karsten Warholm of Norway and Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who will both start as strong favourites for the 400m as they take a break from their specialist discipline of 400m hurdles.

Both are in brilliant form, but Bol especially is on fire after breaking world indoor records this year already at 400m and 500m.

Marcell Jacobs, the world indoor 60m and Olympic 100m champion, should in theory be strong favourite for the men’s 60m, but he was beaten in the Italian Championships recently by Samuele Ceccerelli and in-form Reece Prescod will also be keen to maintain Britain’s brilliant record in this event, which includes past victories by Jason Gardener, Richard Kilty, Colin Jackson and Linford Christie.

READ MORE: Istanbul 2023 digital special preview issue

Another Olympic champion in action is Jakob Ingebrigtsen – the Norwegian runs the 1500m and 3000m – but has illness during January taken the edge off his form? We will find out as he faces in-form Brit Neil Gourley in the 1500m and Adel Mechaal of Spain among others in the 3000m.

British middle-distance runners Keely Hodgkinson and Laura Muir have titles to defend too and look in brilliant form ahead of the championships. But you can guarantee there will be upsets over the four days of action, plus the European Indoors has a history of being an event where relatively unknown athletes enjoy a breakthrough on to the big time.

Medal predictions

Men

60m: 1 Jacobs (ITA) 6.47; 2 Prescod (GBR) 6.50; 3 Ceccarelli (ITA) 6.53

400m: 1 Warholm (NOR) 45.12; 2 Husillos (ESP) 45.63; 3 Bonevacia (NED) 45.80

800m: 1 Ordonez (ESP) 1:46.78; 2 Robert (FRA) 1:46.88; 3 Kramer (SWE) 1:46.90

1500m: 1 Ingebrigtsen (NOR) 3:33.64; 2 Gourley (GBR) 3:35.02; 3 Bartelsmeyer (GER) 3:35.23

3000m: 1 Ingebrigtsen (NOR) 7:35.56; 2 Mechaal (ESP) 7:36.45; 3 Parsons GER 7:42.34

60m hurdles: 1 Joseph (SUI) 7.50; 2 Llopis (ESP) 7.51; 3 Martinot-Lagarde (FRA) 7.52

High jump: 1 Protsenko (UKR) 2.29; 2 Poye (GER) 2.27; 3 Carmoy (BEL) 2.27

Pole vault: 1 Karalis (GRE) 5.85m; 2 Guttormsen (NOR) 5.85m; 3 Lillefosse (NOR) 5.80m

Long jump: 1 Tentoglou (GRE) 8.43m; 2 Montler (SWE) 8.17m; 3 Guerra (ESP) 8.05m

Triple jump: 1 Pichardo POR 17.24m; 3 Ihemeje (ITA) 17.11m; 3 Hess (GER) 16.94m

Shot put: 1 Stanek (CZE) 21.70m; 2 Bukowiecki (POL) 21.45m; 3 Bertemes (LUX) 21.37m

Heptathlon: 1 Mayer (FRA) 6337; 2 Skotheim (NOR) 6302; 3 Ehammer (SUI) 6280

4x400m: 1 Netherlands 3:02.65; 2 Spain 3:02.76; 3 Belgium 3:04.45

READ MORE: Istanbul 2023 digital special preview issue

Women

60m: 1 Kambundji (SUI) 7.01; 2 Swoboda (POL) 7.06; 3 Neita (GBR) 7.09

400m: 1 Bol NED 49.25; 2 Klaver NED 50.48 3 Kielbasinska 50.63

800m: 1 Hodgkinson (GBR) 1:59.23; 2 Horvat (SLO) 2:00.10; 3 Werro (SUI) 2:00.16

1500m: 1 Muir GBR 4:05.35; 2 Baker GBR 4:06.99; 3 Snowden GBR 4:07.45

3000m: 1 Klosterhalfen (GER) 8:37.65; 2 Klein (GER) 8:39.40; 3 Courtney-Bryant (GBR) 8:41.23

60m hurdles: 1 Hurske (FIN) 7.79; 2 Visser (NED) 7.81; 3 Kambundji (SUI) 7.83

High jump: 1 Mahuchikh (UKR) 2.04m; 2 Levchenko (UKR) 1.97m; 3 Lake (GBR) 1.97m

Pole vault: 1 Sutej (SLO) 4.80m; 2 Murto (FIN) 4.70m; 3 Svabikova (CZE) 4.75m

Long jump: 1 Mihambo (GER) 6.93m; 2 Vuleta (SRB) 6.89m; 3 Gardasevic (SRB) 6.81m

Triple jump: 1 Mamona (POR) 14.45m; 2 Danismaz (TUR) 14.23m; 3 Derkach (ITA) 14.18m

Shot put: 1 Schilder (NED) 19.55m; 2 Dongmo (POR) 19.43m; 3 Roos (SWE) 19.24m

Pentathlon: 1 Thiam (BEL) 4882; 2 Sulek (POL) 4798; Vidts (BEL) 4650

4x400m: 1 Netherlands 3:27.56; 2 Poland 3:28.44; 3 Czech Republic 3:32.65

The full British team is here.

For live coverage, the event is on the European Athletics website and, for UK viewers, BBC starting on Thursday March 2 on BBC2 at 1530.