London Athletics Meet

London Athletics Meet
London Stadium, current host of the annual event
Date	July – August
Location	London, England (Glasgow, Scotland in 2014/Gateshead, England in 2021/Birmingham, England in 2022)
Event type	Track and field
World Athletics Cat.	GW [1]
Established	1953;72 years ago (1953)
Official site	London Anniversary Games
2025 London Athletics Meet

The London Athletics Meet, formerly known as the London Grand Prix and subsequently as the Anniversary Games and London Diamond League, is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the Diamond League. As the London Grand Prix, until 2012 all editions were held at the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace. The 2013 edition was renamed the Anniversary Games as it took place at the Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, exactly one year after the Olympic Games were held in the same venue and have been followed by an IPC London Grand Prix, making it a three-day event. In 2014 the meet was held in Glasgow, Scotland, as preparation for the Commonwealth Games held there later that month.

Event names

The event has been sponsored by a variety of companies including Norwich Union, Sainsbury's and Müller.

Event names for the London Athletics Meet

Years	Name	Sponsor
1953–1979	International Games	Rotary Watches Ltd [2]
1980–1988	British Games	Peugeot / Talbot [2]
1989	British Games	Royal Mail [3]
1990–1991	British Games	Parcelforce
1992	London Grand Prix	none
1993	IAAF Grand Prix Final
1994	London Grand Prix	Trustee Savings Bank
1995–1996	London Grand Prix	KP Nuts
1997–1998	London Grand Prix	none
1999–2001	British Grand Prix	CGU plc [4] [5] [6]
2002–2007	London Grand Prix	Norwich Union
2008–2012	London Grand Prix	Aviva
2013, 2015	Anniversary Games	Sainsbury's
2014	Glasgow Grand Prix [7]
2016–2019	Anniversary Games	Müller
2020	Not held [8]
2021	British Grand Prix [9]	Müller
2022	Birmingham Diamond League [note 1]	Müller
2023	London Diamond League [11] / London Athletics Meet [12]
2024	London Athletics Meet (Wanda Diamond League series) [13]	Wanda
2025	London Athletics Meet (Wanda Diamond League series) [14]	Novuna

Event locations

Event locations for the London Athletics Meet

Years	Venue	Region	Country
1953–2012	National Sports Centre	Crystal Palace, London	England
2013, 2015–2019, 2023–2025	London Stadium	Stratford, London	England
2014	Hampden Park [7]	Mount Florida, Glasgow	Scotland
2021	Gateshead International Stadium	Gateshead [9]	England
2022	Alexander Stadium	Birmingham [10]	England

Emsley Carr Mile

The Emsley Carr Mile remains a fixture at the annual meeting, with a history spanning back to 1953 at the White City Stadium. Emsley Carr, an athletics fan and the editor of The News of the World , created an annual mile race in the hope that the first four-minute mile would be achieved on British soil. Gordon Pirie won the first race, but Roger Bannister had run under 4 minutes in Oxford by time that the second race was competed. However, the tradition continued, with the winner signing his name in a red leather-bound book identical to the Bible used in Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Derek Ibbotson achieved the first sub-4-minute run at the race in 1956, and many of the best middle-distance runners have won at the Emsley Carr Mile since, including Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Hicham El Guerrouj. ^[15]

Millicent Fawcett Mile

The Millicent Fawcett Mile, a women's race, was first held in the 2018 Anniversary Games and won by Sifan Hassan in 4:14.71. ^[16] It commemorates suffragist Millicent Fawcett. ^[17] There had been a women's mile event at previous games, without this title, the previous record being held by Hellen Obiri who ran in 2017 in 4:16.56.

History

In 2009 pole vault favourite Yelena Isinbayeva lost for the first time in 18 competitions, beaten by Anna Rogowska. Kate Dennison set an eighth British record in the pole vault. ^[18]

On 24 January 2013 it was announced that London Grand Prix would be moved to the Olympic Stadium for 2013. The London Legacy Development Corporation had expressed interest in holding an athletics event at the stadium to coincide with the first anniversary of the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics. ^[19] After the 2013 event, a return to Crystal Palace was ruled out as according to Ed Warner it would be a backward step.

Hampden Park, which was due to host the athletics events at the Commonwealth Games and a temporary venue in Horse Guards Parade and the Mall, were mooted for the 2014 edition, before a return to the Olympic Stadium in 2015 due to a gap in the reconstruction schedule. ^[20] A four-year sponsorship deal with Sainsbury's was announced in January 2014. ^[21] In February 2014 it was confirmed that the Grand Prix event would move to Hampden Park and be known as the Glasgow Grand Prix. ^[7] The event returned to London in 2015 and continued to be known as the Anniversary Games until 2021.

The 2021 event, due to be held on 13 July, was moved away from London Stadium to Gateshead International Stadium due to the difficulty of reconfiguring the stadium for a single athletics event. ^{[22] [9]}

World records

Over the course of its history, a number of world records have been set at the London Grand Prix.

World records set at the London Athletics Meet

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
2004	Pole vault	4.90 m	Yelena Isinbaeva	Russia
2005	Pole vault	4.96 m	Yelena Isinbaeva	Russia
	Pole vault	5.00 m	Yelena Isinbaeva	Russia
2016	100 m hurdles	12.20 (+0.3 m/s)	Kendra Harrison	United States
2018	T38 200 m	25.93	Sophie Hahn	United Kingdom
	T34 100 m	16.80	Kare Adenegan	United Kingdom
	3000 m walk (track)	10:43.84	Tom Bosworth	Great Britain
2023	U20 5000 m	14:16.54 [note 2]	Medina Eisa	Ethiopia

Meeting records

Men

Men's meeting records of the London Athletics Meet

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Place	Ref.	Video
100 m	9.78 (−0.4 m/s)	Tyson Gay	United States	13 August 2010	Crystal Palace	[24]
200 m	19.47 (+1.6 m/s)	Noah Lyles	United States	23 July 2023	Stratford	[25]
400 m	43.74	Matthew Hudson-Smith	Great Britain	20 July 2024	Stratford	[26]
800 m	1:42.00	Emmanuel Wanyonyi	Kenya	19 July 2025	Stratford	[27]
1500 m	3:28.82	Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech	Kenya	19 July 2025	Stratford	[28]
Mile	3:45.96	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	5 August 2000	Crystal Palace	[29]
3000 m	7:27.64	Mohamed Katir	Spain	13 July 2021	Gateshead	[30]
Two miles	8:01.72	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	7 August 1999	Crystal Palace	[31]
5000 m	12:55.51	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	30 July 2004	Crystal Palace	[32]
110 m hurdles	12.93 (+0.6 m/s)	Aries Merritt	United States	13 July 2012	Crystal Palace	[33]
400 m hurdles	47.12	Karsten Warholm	Norway	20 July 2019	Stratford	[34]
3000 m steeplechase	8:06.86	Brimin Kiprop Kipruto	Kenya	27 July 2013	Stratford	[35]
High jump	2.41 m	Javier Sotomayor	Cuba	15 July 1994	Crystal Palace
Pole vault	6.03 m	Renaud Lavillenie	France	25 July 2015	Stratford	[36]
Long jump	8.58 m (+0.2 m/s)	Luvo Manyonga	South Africa	22 July 2018	Stratford	[37]
Triple jump	17.78 m (+0.6 m/s)	Christian Taylor	United States	22 July 2016	Stratford	[38]
Shot put	23.07 m	Ryan Crouser	United States	23 July 2023	Stratford	[39]
Discus throw	71.70 m DLR	Mykolas Alekna	Lithuania	19 July 2025	Stratford	[40]
Javelin throw	90.81 m	Steve Backley	Great Britain	22 July 2001	Crystal Palace	[41]
Mile walk (track)	5:31.08	Tom Bosworth	Great Britain	9 July 2017	Stratford	[42]
3000 m walk (track)	10:43.84	Tom Bosworth	Great Britain	21 July 2018	Stratford	[43]
4 × 100 m relay	37.60	Chijindu Ujah Zharnel Hughes Richard Kilty Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake	Great Britain	21 July 2019	Stratford	[44]
	37.46	Racers Track Club Daniel Bailey Yohan Blake Mario Forsythe Usain Bolt	Antigua and Barbuda /  Jamaica	25 July 2009	Crystal Palace	[45]

Women

Women's meeting records of the London Athletics Meet

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Place	Ref.
100 m	10.75 (+1.2 m/s)	Marie-Josée Ta Lou	Ivory Coast	23 July 2023	Stratford	[46]
200 m	21.71 (−0.6 m/s)	Julien Alfred	Saint Lucia	19 July 2025	Stratford	[47]
400 m	48.57 DLR	Nickisha Pryce	Jamaica	20 July 2024	Stratford	[48]
800 m	1:54.61	Keely Hodgkinson	Great Britain	20 July 2024	Stratford	[49]
1500 m	3:54.75+	Gudaf Tsegay	Ethiopia	19 July 2025	Stratford	[50]
Mile	4:11.88	Gudaf Tsegay	Ethiopia	19 July 2025	Stratford	[50]
3000 m	8:21.64	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	15 July 1994	Crystal Palace
5000 m	14:12.29	Gudaf Tsegay	Ethiopia	23 July 2023	Stratford	[51]
100 m hurdles	12.20 (+0.3 m/s) DLR	Kendra Harrison	United States	22 July 2016	Stratford	[52]
400 m hurdles	51.30 DLR	Femke Bol	Netherlands	20 July 2024	Stratford	[53]
3000 m steeplechase	8:57.35	Jackline Chepkoech	Kenya	23 July 2023	Stratford	[54]
High jump	2.05 m	Kajsa Bergqvist	Sweden	28 July 2006	Crystal Palace	[55]
Pole vault	5.00 m	Yelena Isinbayeva	Russia	22 July 2005	Crystal Palace	[56]
Long jump	7.02 m (−0.5 m/s)	Malaika Mihambo	Germany	21 July 2019	Stratford	[57]
Triple jump	15.27 m (+1.2 m/s)	Yamilé Aldama	Sudan	8 August 2003	Crystal Palace
Shot put	20.90 m	Valerie Adams	New Zealand	27 July 2013	Stratford	[58]
Discus throw	69.94 m	Sandra Perković	Croatia	23 July 2016	Stratford	[59]
Javelin throw	72.98 m (old design)	Fatima Whitbread	United Kingdom	10 July 1987	Crystal Palace
	68.26 m (current design)	Barbora Špotáková	Czech Republic	9 July 2017	Stratford	[60]
4 × 100 m relay	41.55 DLR	Dina Asher-Smith Imani Lansiquot Amy Hunt Daryll Neita	Great Britain	20 July 2024	Stratford	[61]

Notes

1. Officially a continuation of the Anniversary Games, not of the Birmingham Diamond League meetings. ^[10]
2. Not ratified as no anti-doping test was taken after the race. ^[23]

References

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External links

• Diamond League – London Official Web Site