The Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne is an annual outdoor track and field meeting which takes place in February at the Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, Australia since 2023. Last held under the old name, Melbourne Track Classic, in early March 2016, prior to 2012 the meeting was held at the Olympic Park Stadium. The competition was inaugurated in the late 1980s at the Olympic Stadium and gained a place on the

IAAF Grand Prix The IAAF Grand Prix was an annual, global circuit of one-day outdoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It was created in 1985 as the IAAF's first seasonal track and field circu ...

circuit in its formative years. It remained on the major international outdoor track and field circuit, featuring as the opening race of the year on the

IAAF World Athletics Tour The IAAF World Athletics Tour was an annual global circuit of one day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). Formed in 2006, it comprised two separate levels of athletics meetings: t ...

from 2005 to 2009. It was the first race 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 Prix ...

series from 2010 through 2016. The event was also one of the foremost meets of the

Australian Athletics Tour The Australian Athletics Tour, formerly the ''Athletics Grand Prix Series'' is a series of annual Australian track and field competitions which is held from February to April. Australian athletes aiming at selection in the Olympic Games, World C ...

, along with the Sydney Track Classic. In 2023, the meet was upgraded and reimagined as the Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne, held in memory of the athletics luminary as

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 ...

Gold Level meet and part of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series. Plant was known as one of the driving forces in the development and promotion of athletics in Australia. He was a meet promoter and athlete agent as well as strong supporter of the athletes. Plant was not without controversy, however, having asked heptathlete

Jane Flemming Jane Christina Flemming OAM (born 14 April 1965) is a former Australian Olympic track and field athlete. She completed her HSC in 1982 at Mater Christi College, Belgrave. She was the 1990 Commonwealth Games champion at heptathlon and long jum ...

to provide a substitute urine sample for the javelin thrower Sue Howland, fearing Howland would test positive to an anabolic steroid at the Ulster Games in Belfast on 30 June 1986. The Melbourne Track Classic featured many high level performances including continental Oceanian records by

Tim Forsyth Tim Forsyth (born 17 August 1973 in Mirboo North, Victoria, Australia) is a retired Australian three-time Olympic high jumper: 1992, 1996, and 2000). Forsyth's first success on the international scene came in 1990 with a silver medal ...

in the men's

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

Nathan Deakes Nathan Deakes (born 17 August 1977 in Geelong) is an Australian former race walker. Deakes trained with the Australian Institute of Sport. By performances, Deakes is Australia's best and most successful ever race walker, winning several in ...

in the men's 5000 metre walk,

Scott Martin Scott Martin may refer to: * Scott Martin (media) (born 1989), Northern Irish media influencer and former rugby player * Scott Martin (thrower) (born 1982), Australian athlete in shot put and discus * Scott Martin (co-driver) (born 1981), British r ...

in the

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

Lisa Corrigan Lisa Corrigan (born 2 December 1984 in Blacktown, New South Wales) is an Australian middle-distance runner and the current Australian record holder over the one mile where she set a time of 4.22.6 in 2007. She set her personal best time of 4:0 ...

in the mile run and Bronwyn Thompson in the women's long jump.Area Outdoor Records - Women - OCEANIA

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 ...

. Retrieved on 2011-03-05. National records have also been set at the meeting by New Zealand and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's athletes.

Editions

Meeting records

Men

Women

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maurie Plant Meet - Melbourne Annual track and field meetings Athletics competitions in Australia IAAF World Challenge IAAF Grand Prix IAAF World Outdoor Meetings World Athletics Continental Tour meetings Maurie Plant Meet