Date July – August Established 1953 | Event type Track and field | |
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Location London, England (Glasgow, Scotland in 2014) Official site London Anniversary Games | ||
The London Athletics Grand Prix is an annual athletics event held in London, England. Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the IAAF Diamond League. Until 2012 all editions were held at the National Sports Centre in Crystal Palace. The 2013 edition was known as the "Anniversary Games" as it took place in the Olympic Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, exactly one year after the Olympic Games were held in the same venue and have been followed by a IPC London Grand Prix. Making a three day event. In 2014 the meet was held in Glasgow, Scotland, as preparation for the Commonwealth Games held there later that month.
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Emsley Carr Mile
The Emsley Carr Mile remains a fixture at the annual meeting, with a history spanning back to 1953 at the White City Stadium. Emsley Carr, an athletics fan and the editor of The News of the World, created an annual mile race in the hope that the first four-minute mile would be achieved on British soil. Gordon Pirie won the first race, but Roger Bannister had run under 4 minutes in Oxford by time that the second race was competed. However, the tradition continued, with the winner signing his name in a red leather-bound book identical to the Bible used in Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Derek Ibbotson achieved the first sub-4-minute run at the race in 1956, and many of the best middle-distance runners have won at the Emsley Carr Mile since, including Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Hicham El Guerrouj.
History
In 2009 pole vault favourite Yelena Isinbayeva lost for the first time in 18 competitions, beaten by Anna Rogowska. Kate Dennison set an eighth British record in the pole vault.
On 24 January 2013 it was announced that London Grand Prix would be moved to the Olympic Stadium for 2013. The London Legacy Development Corporation had expressed interest in holding an athletics event at the stadium to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the start of the 2012 Summer Olympics. After the 2013 event a return to Crystal Palace was ruled out as according to Ed Warner it would be a backward step. Hampden Park which was due to host the athletics events at the Commonwealth Games and a temporary venue in Horse Guards Parade and the Mall were mooted for the 2014 edition, before a return to the Olympic Stadium in 2015 due to a gap in the reconstruction schedule. A four-year sponsorship deal with Sainsburys was announced in January 2014. In February 2014 it was confirmed that the Grand Prix event would move to Hampden Park and be known as the Glasgow Grand Prix.
World records
Over the course of its history, a number of world records has been set at the London Grand Prix.
Event names
The 2016 event was sponsored by Müller. It was formerly sponsored by Sainsbury's.