SATS Scottish Athletics Track Statisticians
IAAF GOLDEN LEAGUE
The IAAF Golden League was launched in 1998. It brought together the most important one-day athletic meetings - at Oslo (Bislett Games), Rome (Golden Gala), Monaco (Herculis), Zurich (Weltklasse), Brussels (Memorial Van Damme) and Berlin (ISTAF) to create the IAAF Golden League which preceded the IAAF Grand Prix/Golden League Final.
The format of the Golden League was designed to have the greatest impact on public opinion by focusing attention on athletics as a TV spectacular in a concentrated period of time between July 9 1998 and September 5 1998.
At each of the Golden League Meetings there were 12 Golden League Events:
7 for men (100m, 400m, 1500m, either 3000m, 5000m or 10000m, 400m hurdles, Triple Jump and Pole Vault) and 5 for women (100m, 400m, 1500m, 100m hurdles and Javelin). A $1 million prize was available to share among those athletes who won Golden League events at each Golden League Meeting and at the Grand Prix Final.
The IAAF guaranteed the appearance of a number of top athletes at each Golden League Meeting to ensure a consistently high standard of competition. It was also the aim of the IAAF and the Meeting Organisers to foster the spirit of competition by focusing on prize money rather than appearance money as a method of rewarding performance.
In 2010. the Golden League was replaced by the Diamond League.
MEETINGS
The meetings that formed the IAAF Golden League were:
| Bislett Games | Oslo, Norway | 1998-2009 |
| Golden Gala | Rome, Italy | 1998-2009 |
| Herculis Meeting | Monaco, Monaco | 1998-2002 |
| Gaz de France | Paris, France | 1999-2009 |
| Weltklasse | Zurich, Switzerland | 1998-2009 |
| Memorial van Damme | Brussels, Belgium | 1998-2009 |
| ISTAF | Berlin, Germany | 1998-2009 |
| Note: the 2004 meeting of the Bislett Games was held at Bergen. | ||
JACKPOT EVENTS
Participating athletes had to win at least six (2000 and 2001 only five) meetings in their discipline to earn a share of the Golden League Jackpot of USD 1 million (2000 - 2002 50 kg gold instead). The disciplines changed annually.
Jackpot Winners
|
Year |
Jackpot winners |
| 1998 | Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR), Haile Gebreselassie (ETH), Marian Jones (USA) |
| 1999 | Wilson Kipketer (DEN), Gabriela Szabo (ROU) |
| 2000 | Gail Devers (USA), Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR), Maurice Greene (USA), Trine Hattestad (NOR), Tatyana Kotova (RUS) |
| 2001 | Andre Bucher (SUI), Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR), Allen Johnson (USA), Marion Jones (USA), Violeta Szekely (ROU), Olga Yegorova (RUS) |
| 2002 | Hicham El Guerrouj (MAR), Ana Guevara (MEX), Marion Jones (USA), Felix Sanchez (DOM) |
| 2003 | Maria Mutola (MOZ) |
| 2004 | Christian Olsson (SWE), Tonique Williams-Darling (BAH) |
| 2005 | Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS) |
| 2006 | Asafa Powell (JAM), Sanya Richards (USA), Jeremy Wariner (USA) $250,000 each; Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH), Irving Saladino (PAN) $83,333.33 each |
| 2007 | Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS), Sanya Richards (USA) |
| 2008 | Pamela Jelimo (KEN) |
| 2009 | Kenenisa Bekele (ETH), Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS), Sanya Richards (USA) |
Scottish Appearances at Golden League Meetings
The following Scottish athletes appeared in the jackpot-scoring events at Golden League meetings:
Kathy Butler - 1999 Oslo 11th 3000m 8:48.37; Paris 9th 3000m 8:52.38. 2001 Rome 13th 3000m 8:53.63; Paris 10th 3000m 8:43.23. (Butler represented Canada in 1999 before changing allegiance to GBR); Brussels 10th 3000m 8:40.97. 2002 Oslo DNF 5000m. 2004 Zurich 6th 3000m 8:52.34; Brussels 5th 5000m 15:05.51; Berlin 8th 5000m 15:14.77.
Ian Gillespie - 1998 Rome 19th 5000m 13:28.57.
Lee McConnell - 2002 Zurich 6th 400m 51.29. 2004 Bergen 5th 400m 51.69. 2009 Berlin 4th 400m 52.22.
Allan Scott - 2009 Oslo 7th 110mH 13.90.
SATS
Scottish Association of Track Statisticians (SATS)
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