The Madrid Athletics Meeting is about to complete its twentieth year and throughout those two decades it has seen the world's leading athletics stars compete in its different venues. Athletes as famous as Said Aouita, Carl Lewis, Edwin Moses, Michael Johnson and more recently the pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva and the high jumper Blanca Vlasic have provided great moments for all athletics fans in the city and have given us great exploits and performances. We have tried to bring together in this article the ten best moments ever from the Madrid Meeting. They are:

1979: ITS ORIGIN
    The Madrid competition first took place in 1979 and was called the I International Meeting "Villa de Madrid". It was held in the Vallehermoso Stadium over two days. One of the most outstanding athletes was Ramón Cid, who jumped 16.68 metres in the triple jump, improving on his own Spanish record. There was a similarly interesting result in the javelin where the Finn Haerkonen threw 87.96 metres, beating his compatriot Puranen (86.70m).

1984: FIVE SPANISH RECORDS IN VALLEHERMOSO
    After an interval of five years, the Meeting began again with a magnificent day in which no less than five Spanish records were set. In the men's category, the stars were Antonio Sánchez who ran 45.76 in the 400 metres and Alberto Ruiz who vaulted 5.46 metres in the pole vault. Meanwhile, the female star of the Meeting was Teresa Rioné, who ran a splendid 11.48 in the 100 metres, smashing the national record of 11.80 held by Lourdes Valdor. The list of records was completed by Natividad Vizcaíno in the javelin (55.22) and by Enriqueta Diaz in the shot put (14.33).

1985: AOUITA DEMOSTRATED HIS CLASS IN MADRID
    One of the best all time distance runners, the Moroccan Said Aouita, demonstrated his class in Madrid with a sensational front running performance in the 2000 metres with a time of 4.54.98, beating José Luis González (5.02.25). Meanwhile, the Pole Zdzislaw Hoffman jumped a magnificent 17.53 metres in the triple jump, only four centimetres outside the European record held British athlete Connor.

1987: EDWIN MOSES LOSES HIS INVINCIBILITY
    Without doubt the Meeting of 1987 has the fondest memory for older athletics fans with a stunning moment that made history not only at the Meeting, but also in the Athletics World. That evening, the American Edwin Moses lost his first race over 400 metres hurdles after nine years, nine months and nine days invincibility and 122 consecutive victories. His scourge was his compatriot Danny Harris, who timed a magnificent 47.56, against 47.69 by Moses. The magical day was completed by a majestic 200 metres race, dominated by Carl Lewis in 19.92. Previously, the quadruple Olympic Champion in Los Angeles had won the 100 metres in a time of 10.12.

1991: SERGEY BUBKA WITH THE WIND AS HIS ONLY ENEMY
    The 1991 Meeting moved to Alcobendas with a great world athlete as its main star, the Ukrainian Sergey Bubka (competing then for USSR), who in his third attempt cleared the bar at 5.81 metres for victory. Other stars on the Alcobendas track were the Jamaican Merlene Ottey, who won the 200 metres in a windy 22.12 and the German Heike Dreschler, who jumped a spectacular 7.23 metres in the long jump, beating the Soviet athlete Laria Berezhnaya, who also went over 7 metres

1993: MIKE POWELL TOOK PART IN THE LONG JUMP
    This year the Madrid Meeting was held in Alcorcón, on a warm evening but with a gusting wind. All the eyes of the spectators were on Mike Powell, the long jump world record holder, who gave a genuine performance with a jump in windy conditions of 8.50 metres in his second attempt, beating the Cuban Ivan Pedrosa, who did 8.41 metres, while the then national record holder Antonio Corgos had to be satisfied with fourth place in 7.90 metres.

1994: INAUGURATION OF THE COMMUNITY OF MADRID STADIUM WITH BIG NAMES
    The venue for this year could not have been more majestic: the brand new Community of Madrid Stadium, popularly known as the "Peineta", which was inaugurated for the occasion before 20.000 spectators. Some of the great international athletics stars did not wish to miss this event, beginning with the American Michael Johnson who dominated the 400 metres , going under 44 seconds (43.94) and the Briton Colin Jackson who ran the 110 metres hurdles in a magnificent 12.99.

2001: JONATHAN EDWARDS, UNRIVALLED IN THE TRIPLE JUMP
    After a few years during which its level had dropped, the Madrid Meeting entered the 21st century with gusto and among the big names appearing at the Meeting that year we can highlight the world record holder and Olympic triple jump champion Jonathon Edwards, who had an easy win in the triple jump with 17.22 metres. Also interesting was the 400 metres race, won by the Bahamian athlete Avard Moncur in 44.45.

2004: THE MEETING WITH THE BEST AVERAGE QUALITY
    If we look at the scoring on the international athletics table, the 2004 Meeting was of higher quality in the records with 84.217 points, which allowed it to end the year in a magnificent standing within IAAF Meetings. Great athletes took part in it such as the Russian pole vaulter Svetlana Feofanova, who cleared the bar at 4.70 metres and tried unsuccessfully to break the world record. Adam Nelson with 21.25 metres in the shot put, Dwight Philips (8.36 metres in the long jump) and Osleidys Menéndez with 67.87 metres in the javelin were others of note.

2005: ISINBAYEVA, THE MEETING'S FIRST WORLD RECORD
    We have seen that throughout the history of the Meeting there have been great performances and other eye-catching moments. However, the icing of a world record was missing and this was achieved in 2005 by the Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, the great star of this event over these last few years. After going through a complicated situation at 4.65 metres, when the strong wind disorientated her somewhat and caused her to fail with her first two attempts, the Russian demonstrated her powers of concentration by achieving this height with her third attempt. And afterwards, without further ado, she immediately raised the bar to 4.95 metres, surprisingly breaking her custom of raising the bar centimetre by centimetre. She failed in her first attempt but the high point was reached at exactly half past eight in the evening when she faced the height for a second time. Isinbayeva spoke to her coach and he told her to wait until the wind had calmed down a little. She effectively did so and took advantage of a moment when the wind dropped a little to step on to the run way and begin her run towards glory. Twenty strides later the Russian rose to clear the bar with authority and to bless the mythical Madrid facility.