15 December 2009- Ethiopia’s best middle distance hope Gelete Burka has lined up a string of top flight indoor races in the run-up to the 2010IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha on 7-9 March 2010.

Among the venues in her sights are Stockholm, Karlsruhe, Birmingham, and Stuttgart. This means that Burka is likely to skip the cross country season in favour of her indoor preparations. 

24-year old Burka finished third in the world indoor 1500m in Valencia two years ago but was later elevated to the gold medal position after the top two runners in the race Yelena Soboleva and Yuliya Fomenko from Russia were both disqualified for committing doping offenses.

According to EME News quoting her management agency Global Sports Communications, Burka is expected to make a number of race appearances in Europe before heading to the Middle East to compete in Doha's Aspire Dome in defence of her title.