JÕHVI ATHLETICS MEETING 2023

A high-level international athletics meeting will take place on 16 June 2023 at the Heino Lipp
stadium in Jõhvi. Several of the world’s top track and field athletes will participate alongside the
best Estonian athletes. In the men’s discus throw, the reigning world champion and Diamond
League leader Kristjan Čeh from Slovenia and Olympic champion Daniel Stahl from Sweden will
compete in front of the Jõhvi audience.
After more than a ten-year break, Estonia has again been granted the right to organise a stadium
competition with the World Athletic Bronze label of the International Association of Athletics
Federations.
For the first time, an international track and field competition will be held in Jõhvi, Ida-Virumaa, on
16 June 2023 at the Heino Lipp stadium, as part of the World Athletics Continental Tour.
The high-class athletics event in Jõhvi is included in Europe’s TOP 50 competitions. Participation
gives higher rating points for athletes to enter international title competitions. Among the
neighbouring countries of Estonia, athletics competitions with the same level of organisation are
also held in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.
The global competition system of World Athletics changed in 2019. In addition to fulfilling the
requirements, access to the Olympic Games and the World Championships is ensured by a high
place in the global rating table. In the WA competition system, competitions are divided into
different levels that must meet specific criteria. Based on the updated competition system, it is vital
for Estonian athletics that the competitions in the Estonian athletics calendar have the highest
possible level of organisation in the WA competition system. The higher the level of the competition
in the WA global qualification, the more it is possible to earn rating points for Estonian track and
field athletes in home competitions. This is a prerequisite for ensuring the sustainability of Estonian
athletics in the international sports movement and the basis for representing Estonian track and
field athletes at World Championships and the Olympic Games.
Heino Lipp memorial competitions:

The shot put and discus throw competitions held as part of the Jõhvi athletics event are held in
memory of Heino Lipp, the best track and field athlete of his time in Estonia and the best shot-putter
and all-rounder in Europe.
Heino Lipp was born on 21 June 1922 in Maidla (currently the municipality of Lüganuse), near Kiviõli
in Virumaa. He is one of the most talented athletes of all time to came from Ida-Virumaa.
According to recognised track and field experts and based on the rankings, Heino Lipp was the
world’s best shot-putter in 1947 and the world’s best decathlete in 1948. After Heino Lipp’s top
scores, in the rankings of the world’s best athletes in sports, compiled by the world’s athletic
experts, only five Estonian athletes have received the same rating in their field of competitions: Jüri
Tarmak (1972 in the high jump), Jaak Uudmäe (1980 in the triple jump), and Gerd Kanter (2008 in
the discus throw) as Olympic champions and world leaders, Jüri Tamm (1985 in the hammer throw)
as the winner of world cup competitions, and Erki Nool (2000 in the decathlon) as the Olympic
champion and the winner of the first place in the world cup series.
In the years 1946–1951, Heino Lipp led the European ranking in the shot put, breaking the European
top mark six times: 16.72 and 16.73 in 1947, 16.93 in 1950 (officially confirmed as the European

record), 16.95 and 16.98 in 1951. In addition to the known fact that the ‘uncrowned king’ Heino Lipp
would have been the main favourite for the decathlon Olympic victory in London (1948) and the
Olympic medal favourite in Helsinki (1952), our legendary athlete could have won the gold medal in
the shot put at the European championships in both Oslo (1946) and Brussels (1950). Unfortunately,
politics intervened, and the great athlete was not allowed to compete across the border.
Currently, Heino Lipp’s shot put record of 16.98 is still a final-worthy result in Estonian athletics competitions.