World Athletics has done the maths: the 15th Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial was the best one-day meeting in history. It is a distinction we cannot yet comprehend – Piotr Małachowski admitted. On Sunday in the Silesian Stadium, 30 records fell, including two global marks. We now know the date of next year's Diamond League meeting in Poland – August 9th.
Since Sunday, the Silesian Stadium and the Diamond League competition dedicated to Kamila Skolimowska's memory have been the talk of the sports world. The first meeting in Poland featuring two world records, the first world record in the Silesian Stadium since 1969 (Nadezhda Chizhova's 20.09 shot put) and the first ticketed meeting in Poland with a crowd of this size. A record 42,357 fans in the stands and millions of television viewers watched a spectacle which could be called a Hollywood-worthy athletics show. This is not an overstatement. It is the conclusion following from the statistics presented by World Athletics after the event.
Two world records were set at this year's „Kama”. – The same number of individual records was set at the Olympic Games in Paris, but the competition there took place over 11 days – Piotr Małachowski observed. While the tenth world record in the career of the pole vaulter Armand Duplantis could be called another day at the office, there had never been another competition with three vaulters reaching six metres. The vaulting show featured Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis, but the last word belonged to Mondo, who, in addition to the world record, won the first ever MVP title at the meeting.
– It was my mom who was responsible for the maths and she calculated what height I had to clear to beat Jakob's score after he ran 7:17. I could become the MVP by clearing 6.20, but I decided there was no reason to jump lower and I could just as well attack the world record. I felt sorry for Ingebrigtsen for his effort, but that is how it goes – Duplantis said after the competition.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen did not take home the MVP trophy, but his feat in the 3000 metre race will go down in the annals of history. His time of 7:17.45 broke a barrier that seemed impossible to break for a long time. The 1320 points that the time is worth in the tables is the highest score achieved in the history of distance running.
– Daniel Komen remained the world record holder for 28 years. When he set the record, Jakob had not yet been born – Marek Plawgo observed, adding: - there were many added flavours about that race. But what is most spectacular to me is that he is a 1500 metre specialist. On Sunday he ran his primary event twice without stopping, with an average pace of 3:38.7. That would be an excellent result in itself, never mind twice in a row!
Komen, whose record fell in the Silesian Stadium, once promised the young runners he would give out his Mercedes when anyone could erase his mark. It is not certain if the offer is still valid. But it shows the magnitude of what the Norwegian achieved in Poland.
In addition to the two world records, many other top-level results were achieved on Sunday. Mondo, Jakob and Nelly Chepchirchir at 1000 metres set world-leading marks. Area records were set and we witnesse ten national records in various events. Just as many events of the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial saw new meeting records being set.
– One more record was set compared to last year. Step by step, edition by edition, the result list is becoming more and more spectacular. This builds our place in the global hierarchy – Piotr Małachowski poined out.
The individual results, however, have more significance.
– We waited for the statistics after the final event, we have it confirmed and now we have a reason to be proud. In the World Athletics rankings for 2024, no meeting was better than ours. The quality of the results and fields gave us 97,178 points. The meeting in Eugene, currently second in the rankings, is a full one thousand points behind – Marek Plawgo said.
The ranking is a sum of two elements: the results achieved and the quality of the fields (ranking places of participants, number of Olympic medalists, world record holders etc.).
In 2022, when the Diamond League first came to Poland, the Skolimowska Memorial placed sixth in the world rankings. Last year it was second, although it lost only to the two-day circuit final in the US.
– The third time, we raised the bar, just as Mondo does. This time it has a historic dimension, as it turned out no one-day meeting in the history of athletics had a higher score than the „Kama”! It is an honour that we still cannot process. How many meeting have there been over the decades? Tenths of thousands? A million? And we are number one – the emotional Małachowski said.
The last element Silesia is waiting for in the evaluation of this year's event is the result of the athlete surveys. It is a traditional form of evaluating competitions by the stars, who in the past gave the organisers top marks. Last year, on a ten-point scale, the score surpassed nine points,
– We did everything to be even better this time – Plawgo declared.
Małachowski stressed on the opinions expressed by the athletes in private conversations. He also stated the reception of the Polish Diamond League by the fans was just as important to the organising committee.
– Over 42 thousand spectators, that is nearly 70% more than a year ago. Throughout Sunday, we watched families and children with hand-painted signs. People, who were sometimes present at an athletics event for the first time in their lives and saw it was a fantastic sport. That is great news, because it is true. In what is not an easy time for our national team, it is particularly important to prove the value of the sport. The greatest reward for us would be hearing from a Polish Olympic medalist a decade from now „I started training after coming to the Silesian Stadium. After seeing a world record. After one of the stars gave me an autograph” etc. We feel responsibility for the Polish sport. We hope the promotional value of this Sunday was as great as the entertainment value – the meeting's sports director stated.
The management of the Diamond League has already accepted the date of the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in 2025. The event will take place on 9 August. Tickets will be available on the eBilet.pl site.
