An annual favourite of London Stadium’s calendar is the Muller Anniversary Games, revoking memories of that special summer in 2012. Over the years and many events that have taken place in a special weekend of athletics action, numerous records have been broken and then broken again. Looking ahead to this year’s edition in July, here’s a selection of some spectacular world and meeting records made on Anniversary Games weekend;
A year on from the wonder and spectacular events of the 2012 Olympics, highlighted on ‘Super Saturday’, the same buzz was there for what was to be a highly anticipated tradition of sporting celebration in 2013. An all British field ran the men’s 100m, a twist which got the crowd fanatically patriotic. This was won by Adam Gemilli, who'd go on to become a world 4x100m relay champion in 2017 at London Stadium.
A stand-out meeting record was in the women’s 800m that year. USA’s Brenda Martinez stormed away from the pack to win by a minute and a half, 1:58:19, a world silver medallist also in 2013. The Americans have a good history with London Stadium, Justin Gatlin becoming world champion for the first time in 12 years, the women’s 4x100m world record in 2012 and outstanding showings from Alyson Felix and Christian Taylor.
The women continued to raise the bar for them. Tianna Bartoletta leaped to 7.01m, a fantastic meeting record despite her personal best being even better, 7.17m in her gold medal triumph in 2016. The best at London Stadium’s Anniversary Games, was Kendra Harrison taking the 100m hurdles world record by one hundredth of a second in 2016. She took down a 28-year old record, now she can strive for a gold medal too.
Elsewhere, other notable meeting records include serial champion and fan favourite Renauld Lavillenie clearing the six-metre mark, 6.03, in 2015. That same day, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson set the track a-light with a time of 22.10 in the 200m, a year later she was Olympic 200m champion. As for Great Britain, Laura Muir broke Kelly Holmes’ British 1500m record in 2016, running 3:57:49. An astonishing run which put her in the spotlight of British athletics for years to come.
Last year, British athletes were stealing the show again as three world records tumbled. Tom Bosworth, a 20km walk silver medallist in the Commonwealth Games, kicked off the weekend with a superb world record in the 3,000m walk. The 28-year-old walked, to a time of 10:43:90, taking three seconds off a record set in the same year he was born.
There was a superb world record for multiple world and Paralympic medallist Kare Adenegan in the T34 100m. The 17-year-old posted a scintillating time of 16.80, to beat the old mark by over three-tenths of a second. Then T38 200m Paralympic and world champion Sophie Hahn broke her own world record in the T37/38 200m with a blistering 25.93 knocking 0.18 seconds off her previous best.
As you can see, record-breaking performances are the standard at the Anniversary Games, this years event should be no different.
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