IAAF launches World Indoor Tour

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has rejigged its indoor schedule with the launch of its World Indoor Tour.

The new format, which consists of four competitions, will launch in 2016 to replace the IAAF Indoor Permit meetings that have occurred in recent years.

All four competitions will be staged in February 2016, starting with the Karlsruhe indoor meeting in the German town on 6 February. The New Balance Indoor Grand Prix will follow in Boston, USA, on 14 February.

The final two events, Globen Galan in Stockholm Sweden, and Glasgow’s Indoor Grand Prix, will take place on 17 and 20 February respectively.

Karlsruhe, Boston and Stockholm were regular hosts of the IAAF’s Indoor Permit meetings, as was Birmingham’s Barclaycard Arena, formerly know as the National Indoor Arena (NIA), since 2003.

Birmingham and Glasgow will alternate hosting the event until 2020, with each city holding the competition every second year. The former is preparing to host the IAAF World Indoor Championships in 2018, while the latter is bidding for the European Indoor Championships in 2019.

Next year’s World Indoor Championships will be held in Portland, Oregon (USA).

The World Indoor Tour will have half of the individual indoor championship disciplines as tour events each year across a two-year period, and will include a points system and prize money.

Each World Indoor Tour meeting will stage a minimum of 12 events, with a core group of five or six disciplines. The core disciplines will be chosen by the IAAF during the World Indoor Tour Meeting.

The individual overall winner of each event will receive US$20,000 (£13,347, €18,368) and will qualify for the next edition of the World Indoor Championships as a wild card entry.