Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class

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 eve ...

meeting at the Letzigrund in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one 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, ...

events, it now serves as a final of the Wanda Diamond League, alongside

Memorial Van Damme The Memorial Van Damme is an annual athletics event at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, that takes place in late August or early September. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now the final event of the Diamond Le ...

between 2010 and 2019. In 2021, Welklasse Zürich will serve as the sole final of the Diamond League. One of the first large-scale international athletics events (outside the Summer Olympics), it is sometimes referred to as the one-day Olympics. Weltklasse Zürich first took place on 12 August 1928. In the beginning, the meeting was nicknamed by the public the "Nurmi meeting" after the most admired and celebrated participant at the time,

Paavo Nurmi Paavo Johannes Nurmi (; 13 June 1897 – 2 October 1973) was a Finnish middle-distance and long-distance runner. He was called the "Flying Finn" or the "Phantom Finn", as he dominated distance running in the 1920s. Nurmi set 22 official world ...

. On 21 June 1960, on the Letzigrund track,

Armin Hary Armin Hary (, ; born 22 March 1937) is a retired German sprinter who won the 1960 Olympic 100 meters dash. He was the first non-North American to win the event since Percy Williams of Canada took the gold medal in 1928, the first man to run 10 ...

became the first human to run the 100 m dash in 10.0 seconds. UBS has supported Weltklasse Zürich as its main sponsor since 1981. Other sponsors are Vaudoise Assurances, Migros, Le Gruyère Switzerland, Medica,

Omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...

, Swiss,

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automaker Toyota. The Lexus brand is marketed in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide and is Japan's largest-selling make of premium cars. It has ranked among the 10 largest Japanese ...

, Erdgas and Puma.

History

The meeting was conceived in 1924 by athletic section of the

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

which became 1934 the Leichtathletik Club Zürich and first held at the Letzigrund on a dirt track on 12 August 1928 as the Internationales Leichtathletik-Meeting in Zürich."Weltklasse: 1928-2003"
''

Swissinfo SWI swissinfo.ch is a multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the wor ...

''. 14 August 2003. Retrieved 16 May 2021. The meet would not be held regularly on an annual basis until 1973, and the Weltklasse introduced electronic timing the following year.

Track surface

The first surface was made of dirt in 1928, and the first synthetic track surface in Europe was installed in 1968. The number of lanes was increased to eight in the early 1970s which forced the Weltklasse to be put on hold for a few years for the construction to take place. The current surface at the Letzigrund Stadium was developed in 2014 by the Swiss company CONICA. The new surface was installed in June 2014 at a cost of 800,000 CHF and was paid for by the city of Zurich, which owns Letzigrund Stadium.

World records

Over the course of its history, numerous

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 Weltklasse Zürich.

Meeting records

Men

Women

References

External links

*
Diamond League – Zürich official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weltklasse Zurich Sport in Zürich Diamond League IAAF Golden League Athletics competitions in Switzerland Recurring sporting events established in 1928 Summer events in Switzerland IAAF World Outdoor Meetings