On the eve of the 69th Hanžeković Memorial, some of the greatest stars announced the Zagreb Meeting.
It is in Zagreb that Allyson Felix, the most decorated female track and field athlete of all time, is returning to the international circuit.
“I am very excited to be running here again and to be returning to competition. I need good races to be in form by the World Championships, where I will run on the US 4X400 relay team. Here, I want to improve my this year’s best and then continue improving towards the Olympic Games”, the six-time Olympic champion said.
Last year, Luvo Manyonga set a new meeting record in the men’s long jump – 8.46 metres. Everybody expects a lot from the current world champion this year, as well.
“This year hasn’t been good for me and this is my last meeting before the World Championships. I can’t promise a meeting record again, but we will have an excellent competition tomorrow. I hope that there will be a big crowd tomorrow, because, I can assure you that it will be great fun”, Manyonga announced the long jump event.
Sergey Shubenkov is the three-time winner of the Boris Hanžeković Memorial Race and if he wins tomorrow, he will set a record in the number of wins in the 110m hurdles:
“Thank you for that information, it is an additional motivation for me. I am very enthusiastic about tomorrow’s race; the race in Zagreb, at the Boris Hanžeković Memorial, is one of my favourite ones. This season has been very difficult for me, too. I had a two-month break and tomorrow’s race will be special for me in several ways. I will try to achieve as good a result as possible.”
Sara Kolak, the current Olympic javelin champion, is returning to the Zagreb Meeting after two years.
“This is my second appearance at Zagreb and I am really looking forward to it. This is my last test before the World Championships in Doha. I am feeling great and I can hardly wait to start throwing. My new coach Thorkildsen brought a lot of changes, but there are many more details and we are waiting for the test of our cooperation. If I do everything well technically, the result will be super”, Sara said.
Sandra Perković, the current Olympic, world and European discus champion, is looking forward to this year’s Hanžeković Memorial with special anticipation.
“We are getting the best track in Croatia. A huge thank you to the City of Zagreb for that. I would like to invite everybody to come support me, because I want to win tomorrow. I am in very good form. Apart from the track, we also got a new throwing circle. We will test it on Tuesday and see how good it is. I am looking forward to a good result tomorrow”, the Zagreb meeting record holder said.
The competition in Mladost Stadium starts at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 3 September 2019.