History
The origins of the meet date back to 1984 when Michel Zilbermann organised an athletics meeting at the Stade Auguste Delaune. Another meeting in Paris was held annually in the Stade Sébastien Charléty. The two meets collaborated to create a new event in the Stade de France in 1999. Following this, the two meetings officially merged to become one meet in 2000. The meeting's founder Zilbermann died in April 2008 following a long illness.
The 2009 event was marred by heavy rain but Kenenisa Bekele, Kerron Stewart, Sanya Richards and Yelena Isinbayeva all remained on target for the 2009 Golden League jackpot. A particular highlight was Usain Bolt's 9.79 seconds run for the 100 m meet record, which was closely followed by a national-record-breaking Daniel Bailey. There were 46,500 people in attendance to see new French record holder Renaud Lavillenie win the pole vault competition.
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“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
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