IAAF Vice-President Sergey Bubka was thrilled with what he saw at the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix on Monday.
“This competition has been taking place for 59 years; it is a wonderful tradition that athletics needs and you must keep it on. We want competitions like this one” Bubka said with undisguised enthusiasm.

On Monday evening, athletics fans could enjoy the best Zagreb Meeting ever. The Meeting, locally called Hanzek, has been taking place for as many as 59 years.

Before an audience of 10,000, the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix offered three world season's best results (and the season is at its end and not at the beginning!) and six meeting records, and it was probably one of the three best athletics meetings in the world this year.

Starting with the information that athletics fans from 59 countries will be able to see the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix on TV (which is a symbolic number for the 59th issue of the oldest one-day annual sporting competition in Croatia), the organizers presented some of the international stars, who will compete at the Mladost Sports Park on Monday, 31 August 2009 from 17:30 on.

At the press conference held two days before the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix, Milan Bandic, Mayor of Zagreb, announced another present for athletics fans. One of the best athletes of all times – Sergey Bubka – will be his guest on Monday, the day of the Meeting. Extreme efforts were made to bring the man, who brought the pole vault to another dimension unattainable for others, to say hello to the citizens of Zagreb and all the participants of the Zagreb Grand Prix.

The Day of Athletics took place in Zagreb's main square. It started in the morning with children, who competed in the high jump, „hurdles“, 20m races… The best competitors won awards. Later on, Croatian public figures competed in the shot put, and so did the world's best junior shot putters. At the end, interested people from the audience also had a chance to try it.

You can see the photo gallery here.

Quite a number of athletes, who will run and jump at the Mladost Sports Park in Zagreb on Monday, will come from Zurich, where they participated in the legendary Weltklasse on Friday and achieved very good results. Old/new World High Jump Champion Blanka Vlasic confirmed her good form before Zagreb Grand Prix in Zurich, where she won for the third time in a row, clearing 201cm in the first attempt.

The press could hear new information about the greatest one-day athletics event in Croatia at the press conference, which was held exactly one week before the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix. After the introductory words and congratulations to the Croatian athletes for their successes at the World Championships in Berlin, expressed by Djurdja Focic-Sourek and Gordana Pokrajcic on behalf of the City of Zagreb, and Velimir Basic, Secretary General of the Zagreb Sports Association, Ivana Brkljacic, Meeting Director, informed those present about the most important news.

After the third day of competition at the World Championships in Berlin, the Zagreb Grand Prix can boast with at least three reigning World Champions on 31 August 2009. After shot putter Christian Cantwell, the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix has the Hammer Throw World Champion Primoz Kozmus and the world's best triple jumper Yargelis Savigne on its entry list.

We saw great performances by the best shot putters at the World Championships in Berlin; most of them will be our guests at the 2009 IAAF Zagreb Grand Prix on Monday, 31 August. US shot putter Christian Cantwell is the new World Champion, Olympic Champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland finished second this time, while the World Champion from Osaka Reese Hoffa will look for a rematch, as he failed to win a medal in Germany. Zagreb is proud to have all of them at its Meeting.

At the press conference held on Monday, 10 August 2009, the organizers of the 2009 Zagreb Athletics Grand Prix introduced some of the world's greatest athletics stars, who will compete at the Mladost Sports Park in Zagreb on 31 August 2009. After a welcome address by Tomislav Sepec, Chairman of the Organizing Committee, and Ivana Brkljacic, Meeting Director, the new Meeting Manager Daniel Wessfeldt shared the most interesting information.

The 2009 Zagreb Grand Prix Meeting Director Ivana Brkljacic returned from Stockholm with an excellent piece of news. The men’s shotput at Zagreb on 31 August will be another highlight – this exceptional event will feature current Olympic Champion Tomasz Majewski. “I was invited to Stockholm by Meeting Director Rajne Soderberg to see what one of the world’s best organized meetings looks like and gather some experience, which could help us further our meeting. DN Galan has had the Super GP status so far, but will be a part of the Diamond League from next year”, Brkljacic told us.

The 2009 Zagreb Grand Prix, which will take place on Monday, 31 August 2009, has got this year's first international star. The 110m Hurdles World Record Holder and Olympic Champion Dayron Robles (aged 23) will run in the Mladost Stadium for the fourth time in a row.

The 2009 Zagreb Grand Prix athletics meeting took a new direction. The highest quality one-day sports competition in Croatia, the popular Hanzek, as it is locally called, got a new Meeting Manager. He is one of the most eminent athletics managers, Daniel Wessfeldt from Sweden.

It would have been difficult to imagine a more ideal afternoon. Sunny September, a perfect setting for a Zagreb Meeting featuring maybe the most stars in its 58-year long history. Seven Olympic Champions, 22 Olympic medallists, one couldn’t have imagined a better invitation to an athletics event in Croatia. Having Hanzek (as the Zagreb Grand Prix is called locally) later than usually because of Beijing paid off.