MOSCOW, December 24 – Silas Kiplagat, the fastest man in the world over 1500m in 2014, will return to the Russian Winter meeting in Moscow February 1as he aims to secure another victory at the IAAF Indoor Permit meeting.
The Diamond Race champion enjoyed a superb summer in which he clocked a lifetime best of 3:27.64, taking him to fourth on the world all-time list.
Kiplagat also came close to setting a PB indoors when winning at the Russian Winter meeting in 3:35.85.
But the 2011 world silver medallist will be up against two of the other top-four finishers from the 2014 Russian Winter meeting, neither of which will be easy to beat.
Fellow Kenyan Bethwel Birgen won at the 2013 Russian Winter meeting before finishing a close second to Kiplagat one year later. He defeated Kiplagat in their three other indoor encounters in 2014.
Aman Wote set Ethiopian records in both the 1500m and mile during the past summer with respective marks of 3:29.91 and 3:48.60.
He finished fourth at the 2014 Russian Winter meeting, but went on to out-perform both Kiplagat and Birgen at the World Indoor Championships when taking the silver medal in Sopot.
Other big names so far confirmed for the Russian Winter meeting include world indoor high jump champion Maria Kuchina, French sprint hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, US sprinter Mike Rodgers and Olympic 800m silver medallist Nijel Amos.
