Femke Bol in Szekesfehervar (© David Balogh)
Five winners of global titles have been confirmed to compete at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting – which this year returns to Budapest after 11 years of being hosted in Szekesfehervar.
The meeting, due to take place on 12 August, will be held at the National Athletics Center, venue of the 2023 World Athletics Championships and the 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
Four of the athletes set to compete at this year’s edition have fond memories of that venue as it’s where they won a world title.
Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis, who won his second world title in Budapest in 2023, returns to the Istvan Gyulai Memorial after setting a meeting record of 5.80m in 2022. European indoor champion Emmanouil Karalis, who took Olympic bronze behind Duplantis in Paris, will renew his rivalry with the Swedish superstar in Budapest.
World 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol will also be making a return appearance. The Dutch runner won in Szekesfehervar in 2020 and 2021, then claimed world gold in Budapest in 2023.
The hammer is always a popular event at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial, and all eyes will be on two athletes in particular: world and Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg, who won in Szekesfehervar last year, and world and Olympic medallist Bence Halasz, Hungary’s leading athlete.
Miltiadis Tentoglou is another multiple winner in Szekesfehervar who’ll be heading to Budapest. The world and Olympic long jump champion has won at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial for the past two years.
Bahamian sprinter Steven Gardiner has become synonymous with the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in recent years. The 2019 world champion and 2021 Olympic gold medallist has won the 400m in Szekesfehervar on six occasions, and he set a meeting record of 43.74 with his 2023 triumph. He’ll be back this year, looking for a seventh victory as he takes on a field that includes home hope Attila Molnar, the European indoor champion.
Other leading Hungarian athletes confirmed to compete include 2022 European 100m hurdles silver medallist Luca Kozak and Boglarka Takacs, the Hungarian record-holder at 100m, 200m and 60m.
