ATHENS, 23 June 2009 - On Thursday, July 18, 1998, when the 100m sprinter Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago, reached the finish line in 9.86 (- 0,4) - just a breath away from the Canadian Donovan Bayley’s 9.84 world record - during the first year of the upgraded Athens Grand Prix Tsikitiria, not even one of the 35.000 spectators in the Olympic Stadium of Athens could possibly imagine that this was only the beginning and that in the coming years we would have many similar stories to narrate about this particular Track and Fields event.

Furthermore, we should not forget one very important detail: an Olympic golden medalist (Gatlin, 9.85 in 2004), a world champion (Green 9.86. in 1997) and a Europe champion (Emmelmann  10.21 in 1982) all achieved their records in the same stadium, running across the same track and covering the exact same distance, towards the same finish line.

In a few words, it comes as no surprise that, twice in the past, a 100m. race world record has been broken during the Tsiklitiria Grand Prix.

On June 16, 1999, at 20.51, in this very same stadium, American Maurice Green became the world’s fastest man, with a time of 9.79 seconds.

Six years later, on June 14 2005, the 'cyclone' arrived from Jamaica: Asafa Powell covered the 100m in 9.77, breaking the world record and adding his name to the glorious history of the Tsiklitiria Grand Prix.