1984 : Date of creation of the meeting. New world record in the pole vault by S. Bubka, 5 m 88.
1989 : The arrival of C. Lewis with his 4x200m team from the Santa Monica Track Club.
1991 : Fabulous high jump competition from J. SOTOMAYOR who improved on the best performance in the world that year with 2 m 40.
1992 : 18 World and /or Olympic Champions. A number of duels took place on the track: in 200m, M -J. PEREC, G. MALCHUGINA and M.OTTEY courted the best performances in the world that year.
1996 : 10 of the 18 events saw the presence of future Olympic Champions of Atlanta, including M-J. PEREC - M. JOHNSON - J. GALFIONE - N. MORCELLI – A. JOHNSON – B. KISS – V. NYONGABO – D. HEMMINGS – L. ENGQUIST. There was also the presence of F. FREDERICKS, double silver medallist. The latter won the meeting's 100 m in 9”95.
1997 : Despite the rain, the meeting provided numerous world bests (F. FREDERICKS in the 100m in 10”09, M. OTTEY in 11”19, H. EL GUERROUJ in the 1500m in 3'31”76 and D. DETCHENIQUE at the height of 2 m 31).
1998 : C. ARRON created a sensation in winning the 100m in 10”99, establishing the third best French performance of all time. The pole-vaulter J. HARTWIG also bettered the American record on clearing 6m.
1999 : 1st year in the Stade De France®, 57 500 spectators, 2 records of France, 1 record of Europe, 7 records of the Meeting.
2000 : The fusion between the two meetings in Paris and Saint-Denis? Recognized on the international scene and became official on March 31 2000, also credited with the Golden League label. In this Olympic year numerous track stars were present. No less than 9 Olympic champions of Atlanta (1996), 16 world champions in Seville (1999) and 12 world record men and record women. A total of 19 Meetings records were beaten during this first Meeting Paris Saint-Denis, including that of the women's 3000m by L. CHOJECKA in 8'33”37 and that of the women's 200m by C. FREEMAN in 22”62 …
2001 : The 2001 edition of the Meeting Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis was once again marked by a large number of best world performances of the season. M. JONES (10”84) and H. EL GUERROUJ (3'28”38) were the main stars of the evening, not forgetting the public whose presence made the Meeting the very top athletics meeting in the world, in terms of attendance.
2002 : On the 5th of July 2002, the 48 000 spectators at the Meeting Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis were not to be disappointed by their night despite the rain freezing on the terraces. Thanks in particular, to F. SANCHEZ 47”91 (Best World Performance of the year) in the 400m hurdles and to M. JONES, impressive winner of the 100 with the best time of the year (10”89). Also in the 100m, M. GREENE took victory in a time of 9”99, while H. EL GERROUJ, honoured his fans by scoring the WR and PB in the 1500m (3'29”96) that year. Then, R. MESNIL became the first Frenchman to win in the Stade de France® with a vault of 5.65m despites awful pole-vaulting conditions.
Flashback 2003 :
On the 4th of July 2003, less than fifty days before the World championships 2003 were to take place in the same stadium, the 55 000 spectators of the Stade de France® came out in force to encourage the two friends and French middle- distance runners, Bob Tahri and Mehdi Baala. At the end of the night, the first became the former European record man beating at the same time the French record of Joseph Mamoud, in 8'06''91. A few minutes before, his friend from Strasbourg took the 1500m French record away from Driss Maazouzi in 3'30''97.For the first time a Frenchman scored 3'30''. While Allen Johnson clocked up the best time of the year and the 9th best of all time in 12''97 in the 110m hurdles, the Kenyan Abraham Chebii, won the 5000m, in 12'53''37, ahead of the mythical Hailé Gebreselassie. Same glory for Gabriela Szabo, who got 8'34''09 in the 3000 m after a wonderful race.
Highlights of 2004 : Arron, Djhone… and a world attendance record.
Three of the season's world's best performances were achieved Friday, 23 July 2004, during the last edition of the Gaz de France Paris Saint- Denis Meeting, just three weeks before the opening of the Olympic Games in Athens: in the 1500m by the Kenyan Bernard Lagat (3'29''21), the 3000m by his compatriot Isabella Ochichi (8'31''32) and over 400m by the Bahamian Tonique Williams-Darling, the future Olympic champion. But the most emotional moments of the evening were provided by two French athletes, cheered on by the clamour of an ecstatic crowd at the Stade de France®, who had come in their masses, offering this meeting the world attendance record for an athletics meeting (63 851 spectators) . An imperious Christine Arron dominated a cracking 100m (11''10), and Leslie Djhone winner of the 400m in 44''99, enhanced his reputation with a first victory in a Golden League meeting.
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Paris
2003 reports and results 