The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). The 2009 Golden League was the last under the Golden League format and it was replaced by a new annual series known as the IAAF Diamond League.^[1]

The series was formed to increase the profile of the leading athletics competitions and it was part of the World Athletics Tour. Athletes (in selected events) who win their event at all six meetings take a share of a USD$ 1 million jackpot. In addition, events at Golden League meetings scored more Grand Prix points than other Grand Prix meetings.

Over its twelve years of competition, it was sponsored by TDK, Ericsson, and finally ÅF.^[2]

History[link]

Hurdles at the Bislett Games, one of the meets comprising the Golden League since 1998.

The Golden League developed from the group of prestigious athletics meetings which became known as the Golden Four in the 1990s, comprising Oslo, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.[1]

The first Golden League season was held in 1998, consisting of the meetings of Oslo, Rome, Monaco, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.

In 1999 a seventh event, Meeting Gaz de France, at St-Denis, Paris was added.

In 2000 and 2001, the USD 1 million was reduced to 50 kg of gold bars and athletes only had to win at 5 out of 7 meetings to qualify for the jackpot.

In 2003, the 50 kg of gold bars was reverted back to USD 1 million and Monaco was dropped from the league after it was awarded the IAAF World Athletics Final.

In 2004, the Bislett Games were moved from Oslo to Bergen due to the redevelopment of the Bislett stadion.

For the 2006 Golden League, the total prize pool remained at USD 1 million, but the award structure had been changed:

• Athletes who won any five of the six events would share in a purse of USD 250,000.
• The remaining USD 750,000 would be divided among athletes who won all six meetings.

In 2007, the Jackpot of USD 1 million were only to be shared amongst those athletes who won at all six meetings. In case no athlete had managed to win all six meetings, USD 500,000 would have been shared amongst those who won at five of the six meetings.[2]

In 2008 IAAF signed a two year agreement with the Swedish company ÅF for title sponsorship, thus renaming IAAF Golden League to ÅF Golden League.

Various rules changed through the years of competition. The list of events which qualify for the jackpot was different each year, but there were usually six men's events and six (four for 2008) women's. For the year 2008, the disciplines were:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 1500 m, 400 m Hurdles, Long Jump, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 200 m, 800 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump.

For 2009, the disciplines were:

• Men: 100 m, 400 m, 3000/5000 m, 110 m Hurdles, Javelin Throw.
• Women: 100 m, 400 m, 100 m Hurdles, High Jump, Pole Vault.

Jackpot winners[link]

Year	Winners	Event(s)	Prize
1998 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (1)	1500 m/mile	$ 333,333
	Haile Gebreselassie	5000 m/10000 m
	Marion Jones	100 m
1999 Details	Wilson Kipketer	800 m	$ 500,000
	Gabriela Szabo	3000 m/5000 m
2000 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (2)	1500 m/mile	12.5 kg Gold Bar
	Maurice Greene	100 m
	Trine Hattestad	Javelin
	Tatyana Kotova	Long jump
2001 Details	André Bucher	800 m	8.33 kg Gold Bar
	Hicham El Guerrouj (3)	1500 m/mile/2000 m
	Allen Johnson	110 m hurdles
	Marion Jones (2)	100 m
	Violeta Szekely	1500 m
	Olga Yegorova	3000 m/5000 m
2002 Details	Hicham El Guerrouj (4)	1500 m	12.5 kg Gold Bar
	Ana Guevara	400 m
	Marion Jones (3)	100 m
	Félix Sánchez	400 m hurdles
2003 Details	Maria de Lurdes Mutola	800 m	$ 1,000,000
2004 Details	Christian Olsson	Triple jump	$ 500,000
	Tonique Williams-Darling	400 m
2005 Details	Tatyana Lebedeva	Triple jump	$ 1,000,000
2006 Details	Asafa Powell	100 m	$ 249,999*
	Jeremy Wariner	400 m
	Sanya Richards	400 m
	Kenenisa Bekele	5000 m	$ 83,333*
	Tirunesh Dibaba	5000 m
	Irving Saladino	Long jump
2007 Details	Yelena Isinbayeva	Pole vault	$ 500,000
	Sanya Richards (2)	400 m
2008 Details	Pamela Jelimo	800 m	$ 1,000,000
2009 Details	Sanya Richards (3)	400 m	$ 333,333
	Yelena Isinbayeva (2)	Pole vault
	Kenenisa Bekele (2)	3000 m/5000 m

Meetings[link]

Meetings in 2009

Date	Meet	Stadium	City	Country
14 June	Internationales Stadionfest	Olympiastadion	Berlin	Germany
3 July	Bislett Games	Bislett Stadion	Oslo	Norway
10 July	Golden Gala	Stadio Olimpico	Rome	Italy
17 July	Meeting Areva	Stade de France	Saint-Denis	France
28 August	Weltklasse Zürich	Letzigrund	Zurich	Switzerland
4 September	Memorial van Damme	King Baudouin Stadium	Brussels	Belgium

Prior to 2003, a seventh meet, Herculis, was held in Monaco

See also[link]

• IAAF Diamond League

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Golden League

• IAAF Golden League 2009 Official Site
• Golden Gala Official Site
• Memorial van Damme Official Site
• ISTAF Official site

Golden League may refer to:

• Golden Baseball League
• IAAF Golden League
• BIGBANK Kuldliiga

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Nery Brenes

Brenes celebrating his win at the 2012 World Indoor Championships.
Personal information
Nationality	Costa Rica
Born	(1985-09-25) September 25, 1985 (age 26) Limón
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	62 kg (140 lb)
Sport
Sport	Running
Event(s)	Sprints
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	200 m: 20.68 (Bogotá 2009) 400 m: 44.65 (Guadalajara 2011)
Medal record Men's athletics Competitor for  Costa Rica World Indoor Championships Gold 2012 Istanbul 400 m CAC Junior Championships (U20) Bronze 2004 Coatzacoalcos 400 m
Updated on 4 May 2012.

Nery Antonio Brenes Cárdenas (born September 25, 1985) is a Costa Rican sprinter.^[1] He is one of Costa Rica's up-and-coming athletes and reached the semi-finals at the 400 m sprint in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.^[2] Brenes won the gold medal at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, setting a new national and championship record. ^[3] "Brenes improved his personal mark by approximately one second, something nobody expected on a championship, taking the gold medal", cited his personal trainer and motivator Andrés Oro Fijo Calderón. ^[4] He has participated in major events like the 2007 World Championships in Athletics in Osaka, Japan, and achieved a 4th place finish at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain. He also finished in 3rd place at the 2008 ÅF Golden League meet in Oslo, Norway.

Achievements[link]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Costa Rica
2004	Central American and Caribbean Junior Championships	Coatzacoalcos, Mexico	3rd	400 m	48.05
2005	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	38th (h)	400 m	47.11
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	11th (sf)	400 m	45.01
	NACAC Championships	San Salvador, El Salvador	3rd	400 m	46.00
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	4th	400 m	46.65
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	10th (sf)	400 m	44.94
2009	Central American and Caribbean Championships	Havana, Cuba	4th	400 m	45.92
2010	Ibero-American Championships	San Fernando, Spain	1st	400 m	45.19
	Central American and Caribbean Games	Mayagüez, Puerto Rico	1st	400 m	44.84
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	17th (sf)	400 m	45.93
	Pan American Games	Guadalajara, Mexico	1st	400 m	44.65
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	1st	400 m	45.11

References[link]

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Nery Brenes
• sports-reference
• "Against the Odds: Nery Brenes", BBC, July 21, 2008

Ariane Friedrich

Ariane Friedrich at European Athletics Championships in Barcelone 2010.
Personal information
Birth name	Ariane Tempel
Nationality	German
Born	(1984-01-10) 10 January 1984 (age 28)
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	High jump
Medal record Women's athletics Competitor for  Germany World Championships Bronze 2009 Berlin High jump European Championships Bronze 2010 Barcelona High jump European Indoor Championships Gold 2009 Torino High jump Universiade Gold 2009 Belgrade High jump Silver 2007 Bangkok High jump Bronze 2005 Izmir High jump

Ariane Friedrich, born Tempel (born 10 January 1984 in Nordhausen) is a German high jumper. She won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and represented Germany at the 2008 Summer Olympics. She is the German outdoor record holder in the event with a best of 2.06 m, although this is 1 cm less than the indoor record held by Heike Henkel.^[1]

She became German champion in 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, and represents the club LG Eintracht Frankfurt.

Controversy arose in 2012 when she named an alleged stalker on Facebook, potentially violating German privacy laws.^[2][3][4]

Career[link]

Friedrich won the gold medal at the 2003 European Junior Championships,^[5] the bronze medal at the 2005 Summer Universiade, silver at the 2007 Summer Universiade and the gold medal at the 2009 Summer Universiade.

The 2008 indoor season saw significant improvement in Friedrich's clearances: she improved her best by 8 cm during the period, clearing two metres for the first time and setting her top mark at 2.02 m. Her coach noted that these achievements were due to her improved work ethic and focus.^[6] She finished eighth at the 2008 World Indoor Championships and took seventh in the high jump final at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Her 2009 indoor season started strongly with a win at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships in a jump of 2.01 m. Her outdoor season started with a personal best jump of 2.06 metres in June 2009 at the Internationales Stadionfest, breaking Heike Henkel's outdoor national record of 2.05 m,^[7] and she won another gold at the 2009 European Team Championships later that month. She gained a complete set of Universiade medals in July when she finally won the gold at the 2009 Summer Universiade.

Ariane Friedrich won the bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. She reflected that the public pressure for her to become world champion had placed her under much stress. However, she was very happy at having achieved a jump of 2.02 m for third place behind Blanka Vlašić and Anna Chicherova. Friedrich missed the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships due to a knee injury and instead set her sights on medalling at the 2010 European Athletics Championships.^[8] She jumped 2.01 m at the European Championships in Barcelona, but she was beaten by Vlašić (who equalled the championship record) and also by Emma Green on count-back, leaving her with the bronze medal. She became the first German woman to win at the Internationales Hochsprung-Meeting Eberstadt a month later.^[9]

On December 22, 2010 she ruptured her left Achilles tendon during training and will be ruled out of the entire 2011 season including the World Championships in Daegu.^[10]

Personal bests[link]

• All information taken from IAAF profile.

Competition record[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• IAAF profile for Ariane Friedrich
• German Athletics Federation

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ariane Friedrich