Marin Šarec

Meeting Director Ivana Brkljačić asked an interesting question a few weeks before the Zagreb Meeting in the Olympic year of 2012: „Which female athlete would you really very much like to see in Zagreb this year?“ The answer presented itself as it was a few days after the end of the Olympic Games in London, […]

The Boris Hanžeković 110m hurdles Memorial Race has always been the central event of the Zagreb Meeting, held in the Maksimir Stadium first, and in the Mladost Stadium in the last 15 years. Four Olympic Champions have won the race that bears the name of Croatia’s best pre-World War 2 hurdler and Balkan Champion. Canada’s

For years, the track in the Mladost Stadium had been considered too slow to achieve top sprint results. It was back in 1999 that Canada’s Bruny Surin said that „it was a bit too soft“, looking at his winning time of 10.08 in the 100m in disbelief. A month and a half later, Surin won

Four athletes won the Zagreb 110m Hurdles Memorial Race three times. Slovenia’s Stanko Lorger was the best in 1960 (14.7), 1961 (14.5) and 1962??? (14.8). USA’s Charles Foster also won three times in a row: in 1978 (14.0), 1979 (13.95) and 1980 (13.82). Slovakia’s Igor Kovač won the Memorial Race in 1993 (13.56), 1994 (13.52)

USA’s Gail Devers is definitely one of the best female track and field athletes of all time (three Olympic and five world gold medals), but she did not manage to win in any of her four appearances in Zagreb, both in the 100m flat and 100m hurdles events. Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina bested her in the

The Zagreb Meeting moved from the Maksimir Stadium, which was under reconstruction, to the still not reconstructed and dusty Mladost Stadium in the summer of 1999. Still, we remember it by a great list of participants (Gail Devers, Colin Jackson, Olga Shishigina, James Beckford, Bruny Surin…) and a fantastic race. In the 110 metre hurdles,

The most intriguing event at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu was the disqualification of Usain Bolt in the 100m final due to false start. So the world record holder came to Zagreb two weeks later with a clear intention to run significantly faster than 9.92, which was enough for Yohan Blake to win the

If there was a contest for the most important event in the 63-year long history of the Zagreb Meeting, Blanka Vlašić‘s performance in 2009 would definitely win. After defending the high jump world title in Berlin, Blanka put the cherry on the cake at her favourite meeting, the Hanžeković Memorial in Zagreb. Despite the impressive

Although the Hanžeković Memorial is linked to Zagreb, the Meeting was held outside of Croatia’s capital once in its 63-year long history. It was in 1981, when the Maksimir Stadium was being renovated for the European Athletics Cup and the 31st Meeting was held in Karlovac. The main star of the Meeting was USA’s Brian