Bislett Games

Bislett Games
The Bislett Games 4 June 2010
Date	June–July
Location	Oslo, Norway
IAAF Cat.	GW[1]
Established	14 July 1965

The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. It is sponsored by ExxonMobil and officially known as the ExxonMobil Bislett Games.

History

The Bislett Games are held at Bislett Stadium. Photo: Kjetil Ree

The first international athletics meeting at Bislett was held in 1924. Until 1937 the competitions are known as "The American Meetings". Different organizers staged the meetings between 1947 and 1965 until the three athletics associations BUL, Vidar and Tjalve formed the Bislett Alliance. At this year Arne Haukvik founded the Bislett Games. He was a former politician and director of the meeting, who used to invite the athletes, sponsors and the press to his home for his traditional "strawberry party" the day before the event each year. He died of cancer in 2002 at age 76. The tradition however is continued.

Bislett Stadium was used for speed skating events at the Olympics, but nowadays it is better known for its Bislett Games athletics meeting. Bislett Games attract the best track and field athletes from all over the world, and 65 world records have been set on its forgiving, brick-coloured track so far. Due to the building of the new Bislett Stadium in Oslo, which started in April 2004, the 2004 edition of the traditional athletics meeting was staged on Fana stadion in Bergen under the name Bergen Bislett Games.

In 2009, a severe storm delayed proceedings and even caused damage to the track-side clock display. Sanya Richards recorded the fastest women's 400 metres time since 2006 while the Dream Mile brought a number of records with winner Deresse Mekonnen improving upon his Ethiopian record, Kenyan William Biwott Tanui setting a world junior record and third-placed Augustine Choge beating his personal best. Former javelin winners Andreas Thorkildsen and Tero Pitkämäki continued their five-year shared dominance of the Bislett Games, with Pitkämäki taking the victory this time.^[2]

World records

Over the course of its history, numerous world records have been set at the Games and former athletics meetings at Bislett stadium. 1985 three new records was set at the same evening.^[3]

Bislett Games

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
2008	5000 m	14:11.15	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
2008	800 m (junior)	1:42.69	Abubaker Kaki	Sudan
2007	5000 m	14:16.63	Meseret Defar	Ethiopia
2004	5000 m	14:24.68	Elvan Abeylegesse	Turkey
2004	5000 m (junior)	14:30.88	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia
2000	Javelin throw	69.48 m	Trine Hattestad	Norway
1997	10000 m	26:31.32	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia
1994	10000 m	26:52.23	William Sigei	Kenya
1994	20000 m walk	2:04:55	Bernardo Segura	Mexico
1993	10000 m	26:58.38	Yobes Ondieki	Kenya
1986	10000 m	30:13.74	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1985	10000 m	30:59.42	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1985	5000 m	13:00.40	Saïd Aouita	Morocco
1985	Mile	3:46.32	Steve Cram	United Kingdom
1984	5000 m	14:58.89	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1984	10000 m	30:59.42	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway
1982	5000 m	13:00.41	David Moorcroft	Great Britain
1981	1000 m	2:12.81	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1980	Mile	3:48.8	Steve Ovett	United Kingdom
1979	800 m	1:42.33	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain
1975	3000 m	8:46.6	Grete Waitz	Norway
1975	3000 m steeplechase	8:10.4	Anders Gärderud	Sweden
1974	1000 m	2:13.9	Rick Wohlhuter	United States
1965	10000 m	27:39.4	Ron Clarke	Australia

Differently named meetings

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1964	Javelin throw	87.12 m & 91.72 m	Terje Pedersen	Norway
1955	1500 m	3:40.8	László Tábori Gunnar Nielsen	Hungary Denmark
1955	3000 m steeplechase	8:45.4	Pentti Karvonen	Finland
1953	Hammer throw	62.36 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway
1952	Hammer throw	61.25 m	Sverre Strandli	Norway

American meetings

Year	Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality
1936	110 m hurdles	13.7	Forrest Towns	United States
1935	110 m hurdles	14.2	Alvin Moreau	United States
1934	Shot put	17.40 m	Jack Torrance	United States
1934	Discus throw	52.42 m	Harald Andersson	Sweden
1925	Pole vault	4.23 m	Charles Hoff	Norway
1924	110 m hurdles	14.2	Percy Beard	Canada

Meeting records

Men

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
100 m	9.79 (+0.6 m/s)	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	7 June 2012	[4]
200 m	19.79 (+1.7 m/s)	Usain Bolt	Jamaica	13 June 2013	[5]
400 m	43.86	Michael Johnson	United States	21 July 1995
800 m	1:42.04	David Rudisha	Kenya	4 June 2010
1000 m	2:12.18	Sebastian Coe	Great Britain	11 July 1981
1500 m	3:29.12	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	9 July 1998
Mile	3:44.90	Hicham El Guerrouj	Morocco	4 July 1997
2000 m	4:50.01	Jakob Ingebrigtsen	Norway	11 June 2020	[6]
3000 m	7:27.42	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	9 July 1998
Two miles	8:15.2	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	17 July 1979
5000 m	12:52.26	Kenenisa Bekele	Ethiopia	27 June 2003
6 miles	26:47.0	Ron Clarke	Australia	14 July 1965
10,000 m	26:31.32	Haile Gebrselassie	Ethiopia	4 July 1997
25000 m (track)	1:12:46.51	Sondre Nordstad Moen	Norway	11 June 2020	[7]
110 m hurdles	13.00 (−0.1 m/s)	Ladji Doucoure	France	29 July 2005
300 m hurdles	33.78	Karsten Warholm	Norway	11 June 2020	[8]
400 m hurdles	47.33	Karsten Warholm	Norway	13 June 2019	[9]
2000 m steeplechase	5:20.00	Krzysztof Wesołowski	Poland	28 June 1984
3000 m steeplechase	8:01.83	Paul Kipsiele Koech	Kenya	9 June 2011	[10]
High jump	2.38 m	Mutaz Essa Barshim	Qatar	15 June 2017	[11]
Pole vault	6.00 m	Tim Lobinger	Germany	30 June 1999
Long jump	8.59 m	Ivan Pedroso	Cuba	7 July 1997
Triple jump	18.01 m (+0.4 m/s)	Jonathan Edwards	Great Britain	9 July 1998
Shot put	22.29 m	Tomas Walsh	New Zealand	7 June 2018	[12]
Discus throw	70.51 m	Virgilijus Alekna	Lithuania	15 June 2007
Hammer throw	81.14 m	Jüri Tamm	Soviet Union	16 July 1985
Javelin throw	94.22 m (Old design) 92.60 m (Current design)	Michael Wessing Raymond Hecht	West Germany Germany	3 August 1978 21 July 1995
5000 m walk	20:27.0+	Erling Andersen	Norway	3 August 1979
10,000 m walk	40:50.0	Erling Andersen	Norway	3 August 1979
20,000 m walk	1:27:56.8	Erling Andersen	Norway	23 August 1981
30,000 m walk	2:35:45.6	Tore Brustad	Norway	20 July 1970
50,000 m walk	4:42:10.0	Per Ola Sverre	Norway	9 August 1974
4 × 1500 m relay	14:40.4 (ht)	Tony Polhill 3:42.9 John Walker 3:40.4 Rod Dixon 3:41.2 Dick Quax 3:35.9	New Zealand	22 August 1973

Women

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Ref
100 m	10.82 (−0.5 m/s)	Marion Jones	United States	9 July 1998
200 m	21.93 (+0.7 m/s)	Dafne Schippers	Netherlands	9 June 2016	[13]
400 m	49.23	Taťána Kocembová	Czechoslovakia	23 August 1983
600 m	1:29.06	Hedda Hynne	Norway	11 June 2020	[14]
800 m	1:55.04	Jarmila Kratochvílová	Czechoslovakia	23 August 1983
1500 m	3:57.40	Suzy Favor-Hamilton	United States	28 July 2000
Mile	4:17.25	Sonia O'Sullivan	Ireland	22 July 1994
3000 m	8:27.21	Gabriela Szabo	Romania	30 June 1999
5000 m	14:11.15	Tirunesh Dibaba	Ethiopia	6 June 2008
10,000 m	30:13.74	Ingrid Kristiansen	Norway	5 July 1986
100 m hurdles	12.49 (+0.7 m/s)	Sally Pearson	Australia	7 June 2012	[15]
200 m hurdles	26.11 (-0.9 m/s)	Line Kloster	Norway	11 June 2020	[16]
300 m hurdles	39.42	Sara Petersen	Denmark	11 June 2020	[17]
400 m hurdles	53.18	Deon Hemmings	Jamaica	4 July 1997
3000 m steeplechase	9:03.71	Norah Jeruto	Kenya	13 June 2019	[18]
High jump	2.05 m	Stefka Kostadinova	Bulgaria	4 July 1987
Pole vault	4.85 m	Yelena Isinbayeva	Russia	15 June 2007
Long jump	7.29 m (+0.9 m/s)	Heike Drechsler	Germany	22 July 1994
Triple jump	15.11 m (+0.1 m/s)	Yamilé Aldama	Cuba	27 June 2003
Shot put	20.26 m	Valerie Adams	New Zealand	9 June 2011	[19]
Discus throw	71.00 m	Galina Savinkova	Soviet Union	16 July 1985
Javelin throw	76.34 m (Old design) 69.48 m (Current design)	Fatima Whitbread Trine Hattestad	United Kingdom Norway	4 July 1987 28 July 2000
3000 m walk	13:45.7	Frøydis Hilsen	Norway	23 August 1981
5000 m walk	22:59.6	Anita Blomberg	Norway	17 June 1988

+ = en route to a longer distance

See also

• Dream Mile

References

External links

• Diamond League – Oslo Official Web Site