World champions return to Budapest for Gyulai Memorial | PREVIEWS | World Athletics

Six individual world champions will return to the venue of their global triumphs to compete at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – in Budapest on Tuesday (12).

The Gyulai Memorial – also known as the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix – has been held in Szekesfehervar since 2014, but this year it returns to the Hungarian capital. Budapest’s National Athletics Centre, which has been reconfigured since the 2023 World Championships, will welcome a host of the sport’s leading stars for what will be the penultimate Continental Tour Gold meeting before the World Championships in Tokyo.

Pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis is one of six athletes who’ll be returning to the Hungarian capital for the first time since winning a world title in Budapest two years ago. On that occasion, the Swede won with a Hungarian all-comers’ record of 6.10m; in the two years that have passed since then, Duplantis has increased his world record to 6.28m, set in Stockholm in mid-June.

Duplantis, who set a meeting record of 5.80m in Szekesfehervar in 2022, will take on rising Greek vaulter Emmanouil Karalis, who recently moved to third on the world outdoor all-time list with 6.08m. World bronze medallist Kurtis Marschall is also in the field.

The hammer is often a big focus of any athletics competition held in Hungary, and this year’s Gyulai Memorial is no different. World and Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg, who won in Szekesfehervar last year with 81.87m, will seek a repeat victory as he takes on a field that includes home favourite Bence Halasz, the Olympic silver medallist who recently set a PB of 81.94m in Budapest.

Olympic bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan is also in the line-up, as is 2021 Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki and five-time world champion Pawel Fajdek.

Multiple world and Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is part of a 100m field that also includes her compatriot Shericka Jackson, the two-time world 200m champion. Jamaican champion Tina Clayton, Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith and USA’s Jacious Sears add further quality to the line-up.

Femke Bol, winner of her past 40 consecutive invitational races in the 400m hurdles, returns to the Gyulai Memorial, looking to add to the victories she achieved in 2020 (54.67) and 2021 (52.81). Being back in the stadium where she won her world title could even inspire her to attack the meeting record of 51.68, held by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

The men’s long jump reunites three of the top four finishers from the 2023 World Championships, led by multiple world and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou. The Greek athlete takes on Jamaican duo Tajay Gayle and Carey McLeod.

In the women’s long jump, world champion Ivana Spanovic takes on world indoor champion Claire Bryant.

World leaders in action

Along with Duplantis, Tentoglou and Bol, the world-leading performers in several other disciplines will be in action in Budapest.

Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson, who reduced his PB to a world-leading 9.75 at the recent Jamaican Championships, stars in a 100m field that also includes meeting record-holder Akani Simbine, African record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala, USA’s Ronnie Baker and Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake.

World leader Zakithi Nene is one of five men in the 400m field with a sub-44-second PB. The South African takes on Olympic bronze medallist Muzala Samukonga, USA’s Khaleb MacRae, Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald and Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago.

Fresh from a world-leading 22.82m at the Italian Championships, world silver medallist Leonardo Fabbri forms part of a shot put field that includes world indoor champion Tom Walsh, meeting record-holder Joe Kovacs, Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell and world indoor silver medallist Roger Steen.

Britain’s 2024 world indoor champion Molly Caudery, who recently cleared a world-leading 4.85m, headlines the women’s pole vault field.

World leader Cordell Tinch goes in the men’s 110m hurdles, while Jamaican record-holder Ackera Nugent faces Nadine Visser of the Netherlands in the women’s sprint hurdles.

Elsewhere, European champion Gabriel Tual features in a men’s 800m field that includes world bronze medallist Ben Pattison, European indoor champion Samuel Chapple and Spain’s Mariano Garcia.