![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gyulaimemorial.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GyIM22-4-het-w.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
On 8 August the 2022 Gyulai Istv\u00e1n Memorial \u2013 Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix will begin in Sz\u00e9kesfeh\u00e9rv\u00e1r. As we are waiting for that, let’s look back at how last year’s competition held at the Regional Athletic Center in Bregy\u00f3 became the fifth strongest one-day competition in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n Already in the first decade of the Memorial’s history, Asafa Powell and Yohan Blake visited us, Mutaz Essa Barshim jumped for the world record, but in 2021 the competition entered a completely different level. In the six months leading up to the July meeting there were constant announcements of the arrival of great stars, from which you could guess that something huge was in the works.<\/p>\n On the first day of the two-day competition, Anita Wlodarczyk won the women’s hammer throw for the fifth time and the young Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan triumphed in the men’s event with an individual record of 80.78 metres. At Monday’s press event, a few weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, the world’s best athletes were interviewed by young athletes who returned home really inspired.<\/p>\n On the next day nine competition records were broken, which has a huge value in an event that goes back ten years: the names of Liveta Jasiunaite (javelin throw), Maksim Nedasekau (high jump), Tom Walsh (shot put), Elaine Thompson-Herah (100 metres), Akani Simbine ( 100 metres), Pedro Pichardo (triple jump), Femke Bol (400 m hurdles), Yasmani Copello (400 m hurdles), Shericka Jackson (200 metres) and Muktar Edris (3000 metres) were added to the honor board near the start-finish line.<\/p>\n If that wasn’t enough, Akani Simbine’s 9.84 time in 100m and Hugues Fabrice Zango’s 17.82m in triple jump were both African records. Yasser Mohamed Triki’s new Algerian record of 17.33m also entered the history books, just as no Dutch woman had previously run the 400m hurdles faster than Femke Bol’s time of 52.81.<\/p>\n Among the returning guests not only Wlodarczyk was able to collect another first place but Sweden’s Daniel Stahl also won the discus throw for the third time in a row.<\/p>\n Among the biggest stars of the sport, Grant Holloway, Andr\u00e9 De Grasse and Steven Gardiner also left Sz\u00e9kesfeh\u00e9rv\u00e1r with a trophy. Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, second in the 100m, and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, second in the 200m, said they also really enjoyed competing in Hungary.<\/p>\n Elaine Thompson-Herah became the first among the first, she achieved the highest score so she received the dr. Spiriev Bojidar Award.<\/p>\n Among all one-day competitions of the year, the Gyulai Istv\u00e1n Memorial became the fifth strongest in the ranking based on the WA performance points table. Only the Diamond League Finals in Zurich and the Diamond League competitions in Oregon, Lausanne and Monaco had higher scores.<\/p>\n The Memorial was by far the best tournament among the meetings in the Continental Tour Gold series and it was also ahead of eight events from the Diamond League.<\/p>\n This year, the biggest goal is to introduce those athletes to the Hungarian fans who will come back on August 19-27, 2023, to fight for the gold medal at the World Athletics Championships to be held in Budapest. Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, shot putter Ryan Crouser, discus thrower Daniel Stahl, sprinter queen Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, hammer throwers Wojciech Nowicki and Bence Hal\u00e1sz, as well as hurdlers Jasmine Camacho-Quinn and Grant Holloway clearly belong to this category.<\/p>\n