Helsinki Grand Prix

Helsinki Grand Prix
Helsinki Grand Prix
	The host venue – Helsinki Olympic Stadium
Location	Helsinki, Finland
Event type	Track and field
Established	1959
Last held	2006

The Helsinki Grand Prix (Finnish: Maailmankisat, World Games in English) was an annual one-day outdoor track and field meeting held at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland. Established in 1959, it was originally organised by a local athletics club, Helsingin Kisa-Veikot (HKV). It continued in this format, with Apu magazine a key sponsor, for nearly three decades. In 1987, HKV came to an agreement where the Finnish Amateur Athletic Association took on the operating costs of the competition. The Finnish Association ceased this arrangement in 1992, causing the cancellation of the 1993 meeting due to financial difficulties.^[1]^[2]

Following the successful hosting the 1994 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, the meeting was rebooted and incorporated into the annual IAAF Grand Prix series upon that competition's founding in 1998.^[3] It continued to be a high-level meeting for international athletes, and was again included the top bracket upon the creation of the IAAF World Athletics Tour in 2005. During this period it had title sponsors and was known as the Ericsson Grand Prix (1998–2000), Asics Grand Prix (2001–2004) and GE Money Grand Prix (2005–2006). However, the 2006 meeting proved to be its last and the meeting folded in 2007.^[4]

Best athlete prize

BERJAYA — Jorma Kinnunen on the javelin podium at the 1965 meeting

At each competition, the best athlete of the meet would be presented with a sculpted glass prize.^[5]^[1]

1959 Gert Potgieter – 400 metres hurdles
1961 Jay Silvester – discus throw
1963 Pentti Eskola – long jump
1965 Ron Clarke – 5000 metres
1967 Judy Pollock – 800 metres
1969 Jorma Kinnunen – javelin
1971 Ralph Mann – 400 metres hurdles
1973 Ben Jipcho – 3000 metres steeplechase
1975 Bronisław Malinowski – 3000 metres steeplechase
1976 Seppo Hovinen – javelin
1977 Samson Kimobwa – 3000 metres steeplechase
1978 Henry Rono – 3000 metres steeplechase
1979 Renaldo Nehemiah – 110 metres hurdles
1980 Mac Wilkins – discus throw
1981 Brian Oldfield – shot put
1982 Tiina Lillak – javelin
1983 Arto Bryggare – 110 metres hurdles
1984 Igor Nikulin – hammer throw
1985 Willie Banks – triple jump
1986 Tom Petranoff – javelin
1987 Saïd Aouita – mile run
1988 Oleg Protsenko – triple jump
1989 Salvatore Antibo – 10 000 metres
1990 Hollis Conway – high jump
1991 Noureddine Morceli – 1 500 metres
1992 Seppo Räty – javelin
1994 Merlene Ottey – 100 metres
1995 Geir Moen – 200 metres
1996 Frankie Fredericks – 100 metres
1997 Trine Hattestad – javelin
1998 Haile Gebrselassie – 5000 metres
1999 Marion Jones – 200 metres

Meet records

Men

Men's meeting records of the Helsinki Grand Prix
Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Ref.
100 m	9.87	Frankie Fredericks	Namibia
200 m	20.14	Ato Boldon	Trinidad and Tobago
200 m	20.14	Obadele Thompson	Barbados
400 m	44.53	Mark Richardson	United Kingdom
800 m	1:43.97	Mbulaeni Mulaudzi	South Africa	^[6]
1500 m	3:31.00	Noureddine Morceli	Algeria
3000 m	7:26.03	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
5000 m	12:39.36	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
10,000 m	27:16.50	Salvatore Antibo	Italy
3000 m steeplechase	8:10.15	Moses Kiptanui	Kenya
110 m hurdles	13.12	Colin Jackson	United Kingdom
400 m hurdles	48.06	Ruslan Mashchenko	Russia
High jump	2.37 m	Hollis Conway	United States
Pole vault	5.90 m	Riaan Botha	South Africa
Long jump	8.44 m	Dwight Phillips	United States
Triple jump	17.82 m	Jonathan Edwards	United Kingdom
Shot put	22.47 m	Werner Günthör	Switzerland
Discus throw	70.98 m	Mac Wilkins	United States
Hammer throw	84.14 m	Yuriy Sedykh	Soviet Union
Javelin throw	89.98 m	Sergey Makarov	Russia
4 × 100 m relay	38.38		Trinidad and Tobago

Women

Men's meeting records of the Helsinki Grand Prix
Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Ref.
100 m	10.86	Marion Jones	United States
200 m	21.91	Marion Jones	United States
400 m	50.39	DeeDee Trotter	United States
800 m	1:57.10	Sigrun Wodars	East Germany
1500 m	4:02.9	Tatyana Kazankina	Soviet Union
3000 m	8:40.72	Maricica Puică	Romania
5000 m	14:52.66	Fernanda Ribeiro	Portugal
10,000 m	31:00.64	Kayoko Fukushi	Japan	^[7]
100 m hurdles	12.66	Damu Cherry	United States	^[8]
400 m hurdles	54.05	Sandra Farmer-Patrick	United States
High jump	2.00 m	Stefka Kostadinova	Bulgaria
Pole vault	4.50 m	Svetlana Feofanova	Russia
Long jump	7.09 m	Inessa Kravets	Ukraine
Triple jump	15.05 m	Trecia-Kaye Smith	Jamaica	^[9]
Shot put	20.63 m	Natalya Lisovskaya	Soviet Union
Discus throw	65.82 m	María Cristina Betancourt	Cuba
Hammer throw	69.19 m	Olga Kuzenkova	Russia
Javelin throw	68.47 m	Osleidys Menéndez	Cuba
4 × 100 m relay	42.65		United States