Best Athletics Meeting of the Year, Second Best of All Time

The festive 50th edition of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme has gone down as one for the history books. No fewer than 14 meeting records were broken, five world leads were set, and a Belgian record was smashed. This makes the Memorial the best athletics meeting of the year and the second best of all time, the cherry on the cake!

All athletics events are awarded a total score based on the top five performances (times, distances, heights) across the 12 disciplines with the highest scores, plus the 12 best remaining performances achieved at the meeting. The calculations give this 50th Memorial a total of 89,641 points. This means it scores higher than the Diamond League meetings in Zurich and Silesia earlier this year. What’s more, in the all-time rankings, the 2026 Memorial is second only to the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in 2023. That ranking includes all athletics events except the international championships.

That total score and ranking above all highlight just how impressive this Memorial was across the board. This was already evident from the 14 meeting records, as well as the five world leads at the end of a season that had already been packed with top performances. In the men’s 400 metres, four runners dipped under 44 seconds, whilst the men’s 5,000 metres and the women’s 3,000 metres steeplechase also produced impressive times.

Alongside all these sporting high-flyers, this Memorial, which drew 60,000 visitors over two days, who created a great atmosphere, featured a festive opening and closing show, and plenty of extras in the run-up to the meeting, can look back on its 50th edition with great satisfaction. We are already looking forward to the 51st edition on Friday 20 August 2027. Tickets are now on sale.

The 5 world leads of the 50th Allianz Memorial Van Damme: