Giles pulls out of European Indoors to focus on Olympics

(Reuters) - Britain's Elliot Giles, who ran the second-fastest indoor 800m of all time in Poland last week, has withdrawn from the European Indoor Championships to focus on the Tokyo Olympics, British Athletics said.

Giles' time of one minute, 43.63 seconds broke Sebastian Coe's long-standing British record of 1:44:91, which the double Olympic 1,500m champion set in 1983.

The Indoor Championships will take place from March 4-7 in Poland.

"Giles and his coach have decided to withdraw from the Championships to ... prepare for the start of the outdoor season and the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games," British Athletics said in a statement https://www.britishathletics.org.uk/news-and-features/additions-to-british-team-confirmed-for-2021-european-athletics-indoor-championships.

The Tokyo Games are due to begin on July 23.

(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)