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≡ WORLD INDOOR TOUR ≡
World Athletics announced that its World Indoor Tour for 2026 has expanded to 77 meets in all, the most ever, with the first event on 13 December in Romania.
The World Indoor Tour is made up of four levels of meets, including “Gold,” “Silver,” “Bronze” and “Challenger.” A 12-page set of regulations (C 1.5) covers the requirements for each level (almost):
Gold:
● Minimum $75,000 prize money
● $7,050 per-event min. prizes for places 1-6
● Minimum 6, up to 9 “core events”; min. 14 events total
● 3,000 seating capacity
● Anti-doping testing required (min. 10)
Silver:
● Minimum $30,000 prize money
● No required events or minimum per meet
● $4,000 per-event min. prize money
● 2,000 seating capacity
● Anti-doping testing required (min. 6)
Bronze:
● Minimum $12,000 prize money
● No required events or minimum per meet
● $2,500 per-event min. prize money
● 1,000 seating capacity
● Anti-doping testing required (min. 4)
Challenger:
● No requirements listed other than approval of the meet by the national federation and submission to the World Athletics calendar.
In terms of athlete payment and support, the rules require for Gold-Silver-Bronze meets:
● “Organisers must pay prize money within 30 days of receipt of the doping control clearance from the Athletics Integrity Unit and complete invoices which must comply with the communicated legal, fiscal and procedural requirements of the Organiser.”
● “Organisers must reimburse an Athlete’s travel expenses. The reimbursement will either be made at the Meeting or within 2 weeks after the Meeting, provided the necessary paperwork (i.e. receipts, invoices etc.) has been given to the Organiser.”
So the requirements are pretty light on the lower end of the scale, for Bronze and Challenger meets. The meet breakdown for 2026:
● 8 Gold-level
● 26 Silver
● 16 Bronze
● 27 Challenger
Thus, the meets which will attract nearly all of the attention will be the eight gold meets:
● 24 Jan.: New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston
● 01 Feb.: Millrose Games in New York
● 03 Feb.: Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava (CZE)
● 06 Feb.: World Indoor Tour Gold Madrid in Madrid (ESP)
● 08 Feb.: INIT Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe (GER)
● 11 Feb.: Belgrade Indoor Meeting in Belgrade (SRB)
● 19 Feb.: Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophee EDF in Lievin (FRA)
● 22 Feb.: ORLEN Copernicus Cup in Torun (POL)
As with the Diamond League, the schedule is all over the weekly calendar, with five of the eight Gold-level meets taking place within 11 days.
The U.S. has two Silver-level meets listed: the UCS Spirit National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada on 16-17 January and the Sound Invite in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on 14 February.
There are two Bronze-level meets listed in the U.S.: the Dr. Sander Invitational in New York on 24 January (same day as the New Balance Indoor) and the DeLoss Dodds Invite in Manhattan, Kansas on 30-31 January.
It will be a busy indoor season, but as is usually the case today, hard to follow.
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