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The world’s best athletes started the outdoor season in the United States on April 24. The venue is the state of Oregon, Eugene, host of the 2022 world championships.

The Continental Gold Tour series is the second strongest competition system behind the Diamond League. Traditionally, the world’s best athletes take part in this event, just as they did during last year’s Gyulai István Memorial, the Hungarian stop of the series, where we witnessed a lot of fantastic results.

– We could say that we are very happy to even be able to organize the Gyulai István Memorial – Hungarian Grand Prix during the time of the pandemic, but there is so much more to it. Last year, the big international sporting events kept being cancelled in athletics, which included the Continental Tour Gold and the Diamond League series as well, so the high level of athletics on display at the Gyulai István Memorial was a bright spot. Based on the results, the Memorial was the fifth most successful international competition topping the Doha Diamond League – said Péter Deutsch, chairman of the Gyulai István Memorial – Hungarian Grand Prix’s organizing committee.

– Basically, the Continental Tour was able to uphold the operability of the international athletics competition system and the Gyulai Memorial was and is a very important station of this system. We are looking forward to announcing the programs and the athletes, but I can safely say that the Grand Prix will come out with the greatest and most versatile program of the last eleven years, so the competition should be outstanding from a Hungarian and international standpoint also – the chairman stated about the competition to be held on July 6.

It was evident on Saturday how important the Continental Tour is for the athletes. The newly renovated Hayward Field in Eugene was barely recognizable due to its beauty and it remains one of the landmarks of athletics.

This was the first international competition since the stadium’s renovation, where the likes of Allyson Felix, Noah Lyles, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Donavan Brazier and Christian Taylor competed. They are very well known to the Hungarian audiences, since they all participated at the Gyulai István Memorial at least once.

In the men’s 100 meters Trayvon Brommel won clocking a time of 10.01 beating Noah Lyles (10.17) and Emmanuel Matadi (10.19.). World champion Michael Rodgers (10.24) came in fourth.

Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo broke the meet record with a world leading 49.08 in the women’s 400 meters.

In the men’s triple jump two-time Olympic and four-time world champion Christian Taylor (16.52) finished third behind his compatriot, Donald Scott (16.89) and Jamaican Clive Pullen (16.55).

Blessing Okagbare emerged victorious in the women’s 100 meters while Allyson Felix (11.30) and Tianna Bartoletta (11.30) finished seventh and eighth respectively.

800 meter world champion Donavan Brazier competed in the 1500 meters this time where he came in third with 3:37.58 behind Australian Ollie Hoare (3:33.54) and Canadian Justyn Knight (3:35.85).

Rudy Winkler won the men’s hammer throw with a world leading 81.98 meters and Isaac Updike prevailed in the 3000 meters clocking a world leading 8:17.74.

Results.

Continental Tour Gold series 2021, competitions:

April 24 – USATF Grand Prix (Eugene, USA) ✅

May 9 – Ready Steady Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)

May 9 – USATF Golden Games (Walnut, USA)

(May 11 – Continental Tour Meeting (Nanjing, China)) – Cancelled

May 19 – Golden Spike (Ostrava, Czech Republic)

May 23 – Adidas Boost Boston Games (Boston, USA)

(June 5 – Racers Adidas Grand Prix (Kingston, Jamaica)) – cancelled

June 8 – Paavo Nurmi Games (Turku, Finland)

June 30 – Irene Szewinska Memorial (Bydgoszcz, Poland)

July 6 – Gyulai István Memorial (Székesfehérvár, Hungary)

September 5 – Skolimowska Memorial (Silezia, Poland)

September 14 – Hanzekovic Memorial (Zagreb, Croatia)

September 18 – Kip Keino Classic (Nairobi, Kenya)