The IAAF Council yesterday approved the addition of a special high jump session for the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018 on the evening of Thursday 1 March, which means that the championships, which will be held at Arena Birmingham, will now be a four day event instead of the traditional three: 1 – 4 March 2018.

The timetable has been structured so that the first competition session of the championships will showcase both the men’s and women’s high jump on the evening of Thursday 1 March. There will also be two sessions on Friday 2 March, two sessions on Saturday 3 March and a session packed full of finals on the afternoon of Sunday 4 March.

Five out of the six sessions feature finals, whilst the Friday morning will be a dream for multi-events fans, with three events from the heptathlon and three from the pentathlon taking place.

The Friday evening will see the conclusion of the pentathlon, men’s long jump final and women’s 60m final, which could include the likes of Britain’s fastest woman Dina Asher-Smith and double Olympic Champion and 2016 world indoor gold medallist Elaine Thompson.

Saturday morning’s finals include the women’s triple jump and men’s shot put, whilst the evening features the men’s 60m final and the women’s 1500m final, the event in which Laura Muir won her first gold medal at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade last month.

The championships will come to a spectacular close on the Sunday afternoon with an incredible nine finals taking place in three hours of non-stop action, starting with the men’s pole vault, previously won twice by France’s Renaud Lavillenie, and culminating with the 4x400m relays.

More than 400 athletes from 150 countries will compete at Arena Birmingham over the four days and fans can now register for updates and tickets to attend one of the biggest sporting events in the 2018 calendar at www.wicbirmingham2018.com. Those who register will get first priority to buy tickets when they go on sale in a few weeks’ time, and releasing details of the timetable now gives everyone a chance to take this information before buying tickets.

Britain’s World and European Indoor high jump silver medallist Robbie Grabarz said:

“It’s great that the IAAF World Indoor Championships Birmingham 2018 will showcase the high jump and give field events the attention they deserve. I personally believe the high jump is one of the most exciting disciplines in athletics and as an athlete that lives in Birmingham I’m delighted that my event has been chosen to start off the championships. The crowd on the Thursday evening will be in for a treat and hopefully it will inspire some young people to take up the event.”