With less than two weeks to go until the London Athletics Meet (23 July), we revisit some of the highlights from the Müller Anniversary Games on 20-21 July 2019, the last time this prestigious meeting was held in the London Stadium.
Over the course of the two-day event, 11 national records (at the time) were set, three of which were area records*:
Men
200m: Zhenye Xie (CHN) – 19.88*
400m: Jonathan Jones (BAR) – 44.63
1 Mile: Filip Ingebrigtsen (NOR) – 3:49.60
5000m: Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR) – 13:02.03
400mH: Karsten Warholm (NOR) – 47.12*
4 x 100m Relay: Netherlands – 37.99
Women
800m: Catriona Bisset (AUS) – 1:58.78
1500m: Gabriela Debues-Stafford (CAN) – 4:00.26
5000m: Sifan Hassan (NED) – 14:22.12*
5000m: Lonah Chemtai Salpeter (ISR) – 14:59.02
100mH: Danielle Williams (JAM) – 12.32
The area records were set by Xie, Warholm and Hassan.
Xie, an Olympic 4 x 100m relay bronze medallist in Tokyo 2021, was part of China’s national record breaking 4 x 100m team at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha. His 19.88 for 200m at the 2019 Müller Anniversary Games remains the Chinese national record and his lifetime best.
Warholm had first set the meeting record for the men’s 400mH in 2018 (47.65) but reduced it to 47.12 in 2019. Now the Olympic and world champion and world record holder (45.94), his progress since then has been incredible; in fact, what was a meeting record, national record and area record in 2019 is now only his tenth-best ever performance.
Double Olympic and world champion Hassan - who so impressively won the TCS London Marathon in April - has also gone from strength to strength since 2019, although her national record-breaking 14:22.12 from the Müller Anniversary Games remains her 5000m personal best. The versatile 30-year-old will return to the London Stadium, over the same distance, on 23 July.
In addition to the highlights on the track, there were equally special memories made off it. Due to the retrospective disqualification of Russian athletes for doping, British javelin record holder Goldie Sayers was belatedly awarded her 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medal, while the Jamaican women’s 4 x 400m relay teams – originally bronze medallists in the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games – were upgraded to silver. The presentations which were hugely popular with the knowledgeable London crowd.
