Highlights from the 2024 Continental Tour Gold season

It was a memorable year for the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold series of meetings, which saw 25 of the individual gold medallists from the Paris Olympic Games competing and delivering some outstanding moments of the 2024 track and field season.

The series concluded at the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, on 6-8 September and spanned 11 meetings across 10 host nations since the first meeting 6 months and 23 days earlier at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne, Australia, on 15 February.

At the Antipodean opener, New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr won the men’s high jump in with a modest 2.25m, but laid the foundations for a dream season which included world indoor gold gleaned in Glasgow in March, topped by the Olympic gold in Paris in August.

The series moved on to the African continent for its second stop, with the hosting of the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya, on 20 April. Canada’s Ethan Katzberg landed a North American record of 84.38m in the men’s hammer, making a clear statement of intent for the year ahead.

Nairobi also witnessed USA’s Courtney Lindsey and Botswana’s Letsile Tobogo having a thrilling duel in the men’s 200m. Both were clocked at 19.71 (-1.5m/s) and the US sprinter just got the nod from the photo finish.

The tour headed to the USA with the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix on 17-18 May and offered a preview into what was to come in Paris in the 400m hurdles disciplines. Men’s champion Rai Benjamin ran a world-class 46.64 in his first 400m hurdles race of the year and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone clocked a searing 22.07 to win the women’s 200m (-0.3m/s).

A day later, Tokyo in Japan played host with the Seiko Golden Grand Prix. Home heroine Haruka Kitaguchi thrilled the crowd with a sixth-round victory with 63.45m, setting the tone for a year that saw her add Olympic gold to world gold from Budapest.

At the Ostrava Golden Spike in Czechia on 28 May, wind and rain greeted a world class field. It didn’t deter Mondo Duplantis from another world record attempt, failing at 6.25m after safely banking victory with 6.00m.

At the USATF New York City Grand Prix in USA on 8-9 June, Noah Lyles made his season debut at 200m with a stunning 19.77 (-1.6 m/s) and in the field, Tara Davis-Woodall won the women’s long jump with 7.14m (0.9m/s) in a demonstration of the seven-metre form that would ultimately land her Olympic gold.

The next Continental Tour Gold meeting was the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, on 18 June and some of the world’s leading throwers started to find their groove. Canada’s Camryn Rogers made her first appearance of the year in Europe and won with 73.36m.

Two days later the tour landed in Bydgoszcz, Poland, for the Irena Szewinska Memorial. Home star Natalia Kaczmarek lined up in the women’s 400m at a meeting named in honour of the 1976 Olympic champion whose 48-year-old Polish record Kaczmarek had taken just eight days earlier at the European Championships in Rome.

Much to the delight of the crowd, she won in a meeting record of 49.86 from 2019 world champion Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain.

Next up, there was Dutch delight at the FBK Games in Hengelo, Netherlands, on 6-7 July. There, 19-year-old prodigy Niels Laros thrilled the crowd with victory in the men’s 1000m in a world U20 record of 2:14.37. Compatriot Jessica Schilder delivered her best performance of the season, landing a national record 20.33m to win the women’s shot.

At the Gyulai Istvan Memorial on 9 July in Szekesfehervar, Hungary, athletes limbered up at a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting for the last time before the Paris Olympics. 

Julien Alfred won a dramatic 200m in 22.16 (0.6m/s) as two-time world champion Shericka Jackson pulled up injured. Alfred went on to win 100m gold and 200m silver in Paris and Jackson’s season came to a premature halt.

In what was a recurring theme of the season, Miltiadis Tentoglou got the better of emerging Italian Mattia Furlani in the men’s long jump with 8.23m (-0.6m/s).

The last meeting of the year came at the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia, on 6-8 September and it delivered drama aplenty in the throws.

Having added a third successive Olympic men’s shot title in Paris, Ryan Crouser was in inspired form competing in the Ivan Ivancic Memorial at the Zagreb Fountains on the eve of the main track and field meeting. He landed a season’s best and meeting record of 22.93m.

In the men’s hammer, Olympic champion Katzberg tasted defeat for the first time in 2024 as Ukraine’s Olympic bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan unleashed a personal best of 81.14m to win.

Chris Broadbent for World Athletics