History

The Hungarian Grand Prix series, which was launched in 2021, aims to give the best Hungarian athletes the opportunity to compete two more times in Hungary in a prestigious international field, in addition to the Gyulai István Memorial – Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix, which has a history of more than a decade. This will also help them to collect ranking points in qualification for major world meetings such as the World Championships in Budapest 2023.

The two one-day events, both part of the Continental Tour Bronze Series, made their debut in Tatabánya in June 2021, followed by Budapest in the second half of the season.

In both venues, there were a number of excellent performances: Great Britain’s Taylor Campbell reached the Olympic qualifying standard in the hammer throw at the foot of the Vértes mountains, Ukraine’s Iryna Geraschenko won the women’s high jump with 1.94 metres and Janka Molnár set a Hungarian U23 record in the 400 m hurdles.

In Tatabánya, our young Hungarian hurdler was not the only home-grown athlete to win: Bianka Bartha-Kéri (800 m), Petra Farkas (long jump), Réka Szilágyi (javelin throw) and Máté Koroknai (400 m hurdles) also started the season with great success. Réka Szilágyi was also unbeaten in Budapest at the end of the summer, while Anasztázia Nguyen won the women’s long jump at the Lantos Mihály Sports Centre.

The 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix Series will be held in Budapest on 2 September and in Pápa on 6 September. One of the reasons for the late dates is that both events fall within the qualifying period for the World Championships, which will take place in the Hungarian capital in a year’s time.