04 March 2008

Russian High Jump title defender Yaroslav Rybakov leads the World lists with 2.38m and seems on good form to keep his World Champion status.

Three days before the 12th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain, it is clear that the local organisers have achieved their aim of ensuring a record number of participating countries. 

Judging from the currently available team selections, eleven individual World Champions from Osaka will be amongst the competitors (5 men and 6 women) and the same number of individual title defenders are expected to appear in their winning events.

This means that nearly half of the Championship events will definitely boast a new Indoor Champion after the weekend, this is particularly evident in the running events like the women's 400m where the only remaining title defender is 2006 400m Champion, Olesya Forsheva (RUS) who competes only in the 4x400m Relay. 

Below we take an event by event review of the Osaka World Champions, Moscow 2006 title defenders and other previous World Indoor winners, likely to be participating in Valencia this weekend.