Hexham’s Tynedale Athletics Park at Wentworth Leisure Centre, will stage its annual International Combined Events Meeting on 29-30 June 2024 as part of the World Athletics Combined Events Tour.
Hexham will be at a key date in the 2024 athletics calendar as it will count towards qualification for athletes seeking a ticket to the Paris Olympic Games.
This is one of the leading meetings in the World Athletics Combined Events Tour and as a World Athletics Silver (B) level meeting, it is one of very few athletics competitions staged in the UK at this level with only the Diamond League at a higher level.
Background:
Hexham Combined Events Meeting was established in 1997 as an annual combined events (decathlon/heptathlon) meeting – attracting international athletes from over 40 countries since it started.
Highlights include:
Dean Macey (GBR) qualifying for the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he finished in 4th place, the same position as in 2000 Games in Sydney AUS).
Macey won Gold in 2006 at the Commonwealth Games as well as Silver and Bonze in 1999/2001 World Championships.
Macey also bowed out of the decathlon in 2008 with his final competition of his career, in Hexham (he also won that year!). More here
Adam Sebastian Helcelet (CZE) set a meet record of 8148pts winner in 2015 and qualified for Beijing World Champs and Rio Olympics. Adan went on to Silver medal at the 2026 European Championships in Amsterdam.
Women’s heptathlon meet record is shared between Kylie Wheeler (AUS), a double Commonwealth Games silver medallist in 2002/2006 and Karolina Tyminska (POL) who took the bronze medal at 2011 World Champs. The 2004 winner and meeting record holder in the Long Jump was Hanna Melnychenko (below), who went on to be World Champion in 2023.
Organisation:
The event has been held at the Tynedale Athletics Park, Hexham (excluding 2014, when it was at Sport City, Manchester)
Meeting Director and founder – Richard Hunter