The stars were shining metaphorically and literally on a warm summer night in the Italian capital, which witnessed a series of superb performances on the Stadio Olimpico’s Mondotrack athletics track.
The fourth stop of this summer’s Diamond League saw four world-leading marks, two meeting records and five national records on the stunning blue athletics at the historic venue.
Highlights from this year’s Golden Gala Pietro Mennea included:
Mondotrack athletics track was installed in the Stadio Olimpico in October 2023 ahead of the stadium hosting the 2024 European Athletics Championships.
During the two days prior to the meeting, the public were allowed into the spectacular Stadio dei Marmi, which is ringed by giant marble sculptures and nestles alongside the main Stadio Olimpico and can boast of a Sportflex Super X 720™ K39 athletics track.
Athletics fans witnessed the likes of Paris 2024 Olympic Games 100m champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred train ahead of their victorious outings under the stars.
The Diamond League meeting in Rome has a special place in the heart of Mondo not just because it is staged on one of its athletics tracks but also because since 2013 the meeting has been named after the Italian sprint icon Pietro Mennea who died just a few months before that year’s meeting.
Mennea set three world records on Mondo athletics tracks during his career, including the Italian company’s very first global mark when he was part of an all-Italian 4x200m quartet who ran 1:21.50 in Barletta back in 1972.
After a quartet of Diamond League meetings, more than a quarter of the way through the season – with all the meetings staged in stadia with Mondo athletics tracks – there has been an impressive roll call of records and stellar performances.
After 2026 Diamond League meetings in the Chinese cities of Shanghai/Keqiao and Xiamen, Rabat in Morocco and now Rome, there will be four more meeting on Mondo athletics tracks in the coming months, including the 2026 Diamond League final in Brussels.