In 2008, the Zagreb international athletic meeting will be held for the 58th time. This more than half a century long athletic story originated as a duel between two strongest clubs in Zagreb - Mladost and Dinamo. It became international when good foreign athletes started participating in it in 1958. The 110m hurdles memorial race, which has been part of the meeting from the very beginning, is named after Boris Hanžeković, a Zagreb athlete, who ran the hurdles between the two world wars, and who became famous after winning over the famous Greek athlete Hristos Mantikas at the Balkan Games in 1938. Respectable athletes participated in the meeting as early as in the 60s and 70s, but world athletic stars started pouring into Zagreb in 1997 and their number has been increasing every year. In 1998, "Hanžek" as we call this competition, ranked first on the EAA (European Athletic Association) list, so it climbed the ladder and got included into IAAF (World Athletic Federation) meetings. That year, the meeting moved from the Maksimir stadium to the Sava Sports Park, which turned out to be a great move. Night atmosphere, great results and organization lifted the meeting to rank second on the IAAF list. The reward by the IAAF was certain - the meeting was granted the Grand Prix II status on its 50th anniversary, in 2000. Three years later, according to the new classification, the Meeting climbed the ladder again to become the Zagreb Grand Prix. It is the only sporting event in Croatia that has been broadcast live by Eurosport for years now. In more than half a century, numerous Olympic and world champions and world record holders have visited Zagreb: Alberto Juantorena, Reinaldo Nehemiah, Jordanka Donkova, Ana Quirot, Nellie Cooman, Patrick Sjőberg, Jan Železny, Marc McCoy, Sally Gunnell, Brigita Bukovec, Noureddine Morceli, Dennis Mitchell, Leroy Burrell, Marion Jones, C.J.Hunter, Ivan Pedroso, James Beckford, Marc Crear, Javier Sotomayor, Colin Jackson, Gail Devers, Merlene Ottey, Kajsa Bergqvist, Hestrie Cloete. After featuring only one top Croatian athlete - Branko Zovko - for years, in the past few years, the Meeting has also been built around the success of other Croatian athletes - Blanka Vlašić, Ivana Brkljačić, Siniša Ergotić and Jurica Grabušić. It was at the 2003 Zagreb Meeting that Ivana Brkljacic and Jurica Grabusic achieved the Olympic standard for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. We all still remember the boiling night atmosphere and that cry of happiness that spread across the Mladost Stadium after Blanka Vlašić cleared 2m. This great ambience, as well as the excellent organization and record-filled results can guarantee that the Zagreb Grand Prix will again be an event one shouldn't miss in this Olympic year, as well. In the Olympic year of 2004, the audience at the Mladost Stadium witnessed another great Zagreb Meeting, locally called „Hanzek“. One of the participants in the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial Race, 110m hurdles, was Xiang Liu, who became Olympic Champion in Athens that summer. Besides the Chinese hurdler, further stars of the Meeting were Jana Pittman, who won in the women's 400m hurdles, and Hestrie Cloete, who bested Blanka Vlasic in the women's high jump, clearing 200 cm.
Kajsa Bergqvist, a great high jumper and always a dear guest in Zagreb, repeated this result of 2m in 2005. So Vlasic, Cloete and Bergqvist shared the meeting record in the women's high jump until 2006. But only Kajsa and Blanka have remained at the top since 2006. It was a splendid competition, the highlight of the Zagreb Meeting, Croatia's and Sweden's record holders both cleared 201 cm, and Vlasic won due to fewer attempts.
Although the women's high jump topped everything else, the 2006 Meeting went down in history as one of the strongest ones ever. In the men's 200m, we saw the rising star of the world's athletics Usain Bolt. Legendary hurdler Allen Johnson bested Dayron Robles of Cuba in the Memorial Race. In the women's 100m, Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas was faster than Kim Gavaert, and in the women's 400m, Danijela Grgic of Croatia stood on the podium next to great runners Vanja Stambolova and DeeDee Trotter. Besides the women's hammer throw, a traditionally strong event, in which Tatyana Lysenko achieved the meeting record with the result of 76.54 m, Daryia Pishalnikova and Nicoleta Grasu had an excellent duel in the women's discus throw, as well.
The IAAF showed that the Zagreb Meeting was appreciated among the athletics family, including Hanzek in the 14 meetings, which kept the Grand Prix status in the new World Athletics Tour system. Only 6 Golden League meetings and 5 Super Grand Prix meetings are above this category.
Athletes and Meeting organizers had bad luck in 2007. Rain and cold weather chased the audience away from the stands and made good results impossible. Still, Panama's long jumper Irving Saladino, who would become World and Olympic Champion, achieved a memorable result and Dayron Robles won the Memorial Race for the first time.

BLANKA VLASIC IS TRADEMARK OF ZAGREB MEETING

Croatia's best female athlete of all times, a woman that the whole world admires, never forgets to tell everyone:
„Zagreb is my favourite meeting, I enjoy jumping at the Mladost Stadium the most!“
Blanka and „Hanzek“, as the Zagreb Meeting is called locally, are inseparable. It was here that she cleared 189 cm and achieved the Olympic B standard for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, and it was here, at the Mladost Stadium, that she won at a major IAAF meeting for the first time at the age of 17 a year later.

Blanka Vlasic is the trademark of the Zagreb Grand Prix. She has won here three times, but a silver medal will be remembered the most. On that hot and humid 7 July 2003, the stadium exploded when Blanka Vlasic cleared 2 metres for the first time and equalled the Croatian record set by Biljana Petrovic 14 years earlier. An image that will be always remembered: Blanka in tears on the mattress. She endured everything, even a small pressure put on her by the organizers, who gave her the start number 200.
„This is a dream come true. Thanks to the spectators, they carried me over the bar“, Blanka Vlasic said then.
The queen of the queen of sports. She is always in Zagreb.
„I will jump at Hanzek until the end of my career.“
She only missed one Zagreb Meeting – in 2005, when she was recovering from a serious thyroid gland surgery.
Blanka and Hanzek are inseparable…