The Internationales Stadionfest (ISTAF) is an annual

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

meeting at the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, Germany. It was first held in July 1921 at the

Deutsches Stadion The ''Deutsches Stadion'' ("German Stadium") was a monumental stadium designed by Albert Speer for the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg, southern Germany. Its construction began in September 1937, and was scheduled for completion in 1943. ...

, which was replaced from 1937 by the Stadium of the 1936 Olympic Games. Since 2006 ISTAF has been sponsored by DKB and officially known as the DKB-ISTAF and from 2010, had been part of the

IAAF World Challenge The IAAF World Challenge was an annual, global circuit of one-day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). First held in 2010, it replaced the IAAF Grand Prix and IAAF Super Grand Pri ...

, the second tier of global one day athletics events. Nowadays it's part of the

World Athletics Continental Tour The World Athletics Continental Tour is an annual series of independent track and field athletic competitions, recognised by World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF). The Tour forms the second tier of international one-day meetings after the ...

Silver tier, the third overall tier.

History

On 3 July 1921 the ''

Berliner Sport-Club Berliner Sport-Club, commonly known as Berliner SC, is a German association football club based in Berlin. The team is part of a sports club which also has departments for badminton, hockey, and rugby. History ''Berliner SC'' was created ou ...

'' (BSC), the '' Sport-Club Charlottenburg'' (SCC) and the ''Schwimm-Club Poseidon'' organised the first sports festival under the current name of Internationales Stadionfest or ISTAF. On 23 March 1937 the BSC, the ''Deutscher Sport-Club'' (DSC, later ''Olympischer Sport-Club'' OSC) and the SCC, agreed to hold international sports festivals together and organized the first meeting on 1 August 1937 at the Olympic Stadium, where the event is still held today. Four ISTAF meetings, in 1938, 1941, the first post-war in 1949, as well as 1953, were all held at the Mommsen Stadium, but since 1955 meetings have been held annually at Berlin's Olympic Stadium in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

. The 2002 and 2003 ISTAF meetings were held at the

Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the western part of the locality of Prenzlauer Berg in the borough of Pankow in Berlin. The sports complex covers an area of approximately 22 hectares and comprises ...

instead, due to reconstruction of the Olympic Stadium in preparation for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. There were several ISTAF-free years during the Second World War and after: 1940, as well as 1943-48 and again in 1950 and 1951. A meeting wasn't held in 1972 because of the

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...

and again in 1973, as a result of the

terrorist attack Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

at the 1972 Olympic Games. From 1993 to 1997, the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

classified ISTAF among the

Golden Four The Golden Four was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings in Europe, which lasted from 1993 to 1997. The four meetings that comprised the series were the Bislett Games (Oslo), Weltklasse Zürich (Zürich), Memorial Van Damme (Brussels ...

meetings and from 1998 to 2009, it became part of the

IAAF Golden League The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of outdoor track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Athletes who won specific events at all of the series meetings were awarded a jackpot prize, ...

. When the

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

was conceived, it had been provisionally planned for Berlin to hold one of its meetings, but it was unable to meet the criteria set for the new elite series, therefore as from 2010, ISTAF became part of the second tier World Challenge circuit instead.

Indoor Events

ISTAF was also held as an indoor meeting at the Deutschlandhalle for a few years until 1968, and from 2014 onwards as the

ISTAF Indoor The ISTAF Indoor is an indoor track and field meeting which takes place at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin, Germany. The inaugural edition took place on March 1, 2014. Since 2021 the ISS Dome in Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in ...

at the Mercedes Benz Arena (formerly O2 World Berlin), the first large indoor athletics event in Berlin for some time. On 31 January 2021, the ISTAF Indoor Düsseldorf will be held in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

as the successor to the PSD Bank Meeting, against a larger backdrop at the ISS Dome. Meeting director and managing director of the ISTAF is Martin Seeber.

World Records

Over the course of its history, many

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

have been set at the ISTAF.

Meeting records

Men

Women

List of winners

Track disciplines

References

External links

Official website

TOP 10 ISTAF-Starters
{{Athletics in Germany Annual track and field meetings IAAF Golden League IAAF World Challenge Sports competitions in Berlin International sports competitions hosted by Germany Athletics competitions in Germany Recurring sporting events established in 1937 Athletics in Berlin IAAF World Outdoor Meetings