Track and field's season final: World's longest mobile running track and four annual world best times!

It was the last global athletics highlight of the 2022 season. The Weltklasse Zürich Meeting was also the finale of the Wanda Diamond League, the most important global athletics event after the World Championships in Eugene and the European Championships in Munich. Athletes achieved:

- 4 annual world best times,

- 6 meeting records,

- 1 Diamond League record,

- 16 season bests and 9 personal bests.

The finals took place both in the Letzigrund Stadium and on the Sechseläutenplatz, where in just two days, Swiss track specialist Conica had built a high jump and a pole vault module along with its record breaking world’s longest mobile running track measuring 560m.

The final of the Diamond League was filled with records. The exceptional Norwegian athlete Jakob Ingebrigtsen achieved a world best time of 3:29.02 minutes in the 1500m. In the women's 400m, Marileidy Paulino from the Dominican Republic also set a world best with 48.99 seconds. In the men's 800m, world champion Emmanuel Korir of Kenya delivered the annual world best time of 1:43.26. These records were achieved in the stadium. In the first part of the Diamond League finals a day earlier in downtown Zurich, shot putter Joe Kovacs managed an outstanding performance with 23.23m, setting an annual world best, the meeting record and the Diamond League record at the same time.

Noah Lyles from the USA managed to set the meeting record in the men's 200m with 19.52 seconds. Aaron Brown matched his season best over the same distance with 20.02 seconds. Bryce Deadmon (USA) managed a season's best time of 44.47 seconds in the men's 400m. In the same race, Zakhiti Nene of South Africa ran his personal best in 44.74 seconds.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce from Jamaica also set a meeting record: She ran 10.65 seconds in the women's 100m. Nigeria's Tobi Amusan was able to set the meeting record in the women's hurdles discipline with her top performance of 12.29 seconds. Armand Duplantis was pleased with the last meeting record set: the Swedish athlete cleared 6.07 m in the men's pole vault.

The world’s longest mobile running track in downtown Zurich

Six of the 32 competitions (women's and men's 5,000m final, women's pole vault and men's high jump, women's and men's shot put) were moved from the stadium to downtown Zurich, where Swiss track specialist Conica had built a new 560m running track in just two days, making it the longest mobile running track in the world to date. These disciplines took place on the first day of competition. The other 26 events were held on the second day of competition in the Letzigrund Stadium. Last year, only 2,500 visitors were able to watch the sporting event from close range due to the Corona pandemic. This year there were about 7,500.

Julio F. Fadel, Head of Marketing & Communication at Conica was responsible for the running track project at the Sechsläutenplatz: "We are very pleased with the results both in the stadium and in the city. Once again, we saw fantastic times being run and heights being surpassed on our running tracks. The particularly big challenge on Sechseläutenplatz was that Conica's usual process technique – casting/pouring in place the running track surface - could not be used because the track had to be removed smoothly and without residue right after the event. For this reason, for the 560 m track as well as for the pole vault and the high jump, we used a Conica spray-coated running track pre-produced on mats, which were then rolled out and fixed onto the Sechseläutenplatz pavement. For the tight turns, specially made inclined curve ramps based on indoor facilities were produced, which offered the athletes optimal conditions for the best competition experience in the middle of the city."

About Conica

Conica has been developing and manufacturing innovative seamless flooring solutions based on polyurethane and epoxy resins for sports, games, leisure as well as other areas for over 40 years. Conica is one of the world's market leaders and innovation drivers in this field. The user-oriented requirements for technical and sports functional performance as well as usability while guaranteeing health aspects of the material itself and for the user are the focus of product development. Conica is part of the Serafin group of companies based in Munich.