2003 IAAF World Outdoor Meetings
# 2003 IAAF World Outdoor Meetings

The 2003 IAAF World Outdoor Meetings was the first edition of the annual global series of one-day track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). It replaced the IAAF Grand Prix as the IAAF's primary outdoor track and field series. Compared to the 2002 IAAF Grand Prix, a new tier of meetings – IAAF Super Grand Prix – was introduced and the IAAF Permit Meetings concept was dropped. The series had four levels: 2003 IAAF Golden League, Super Grand Prix, Grand Prix and Grand Prix II. There were 6 Golden League meetings, Super Grand Prix category featured 7 meetings from 12 June to 8 August, the IAAF Grand Prix category featured 10 meetings from 4 May to 7 September and Grand Prix II featured 11 meetings from 1 March to 3 August, making a combined total of 34 meetings for the series.

The Herculis meeting was dropped from the Golden League circuit as it was given the role of host of the new series-ending IAAF World Athletics Final, which had an expanded programme of events compared to the IAAF Grand Prix Final of previous years. The changes to the tiers of the series saw the meeting schedule expanded by nearly 50%. The Super Grand Prix meetings saw two new additions to the circuit (Golden Spike Ostrava and the Meeting de Madrid) with the other five being former Grand Prix meetings. At the Grand Prix level, the sole new introduction was the Meeting Lille-Métropole (formerly an IAAF Permit Meeting) which was supplemented by existing Grand Prix level meetings and the promotion of the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games, Meeting de Atletismo Sevilla, Grand Prix Zagreb, Gugl-Meeting, Asics GP Helsinki and the Rieti Meeting from Grand Prix II status. The Grand Prix II meetings were mostly upgraded IAAF Permit Meetings (Meeting du Conseil General de la Martinique, Notturna di Milano, Memorial Primo Nebiolo, Brothers Znamensky Memorial, Josef Odložil Memorial, KBC Night of Athletics and International Meeting Thessaloniki) with four pre-existing GPII meetings retaining that status.

Four meetings changed venue from 2002: the Grand Prix Brasil de Atletismo was moved from Rio de Janeiro to Belém and the Tsiklitiria meeting was moved from Athens to Tríkala, the second British meeting moved from Sheffield to Gateshead, and the Oregon Track Classic moved from Portland to Gresham, Oregon. Despite the expansion of the series schedule, two meetings lost Grand Prix status: the Engen Grand Prix in Pretoria and the Qatar Athletic Grand Prix in Doha (which was not held that year).

Performances on designated events on the circuit earned athletes points which qualified them for entry to the 2003 IAAF World Athletics Final, held on 13–14 September in Monaco. This competition replaced the IAAF Grand Prix Final, with the key difference being that the new final held a full set of track and field events, rather than the rotating partial event schedule of the Grand Prix Final. The points scoring format of previous years was replaced with a world rankings system which scored athletes on both their finishing position at qualifying meetings and also the standard of their performance based on IAAF Scoring Tables. The world rankings system formed the selection criteria for entry to the World Athletics Final rather than exclusively placings at IAAF Grand Prix meetings.

## Meetings

| # | Date | Meeting name | City | Country | Level |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1 | 1 March | Telstra A-Series Melbourne | Melbourne | Australia | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 2 | 26 April | Meeting du Conseil General de la Martinique | Fort-de-France | France | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 3 | 4 May | Grande Premio de Brasil de Atletismo | Belém | Brazil | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 4 | 10 May | Japan Grand Prix | Osaka | Japan | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 5 | 17 May | Adidas Oregon Track Classic | Gresham | United States | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 6 | 24 May | Prefontaine Classic | Eugene | United States | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 7 | 1 June | THALES FBK-Games | Hengelo | Netherlands | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 8 | 3 June | Notturna di Milano | Milan | Italy | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 9 | 6 June | Meeting Memorial Primo Nebiolo | Turin | Italy | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 10 | 7 June | U.S. Track & Field Open | Palo Alto | United States | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 11 | 7 June | Meeting de Atletismo Sevilla | Seville | Spain | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 12 | 8 June | Znamenski Memorial | Tula | Russia | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 13 | 10 June | Cena Slovenska - Slovak Gold | Bratislava | Slovakia | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 14 | 15 June | Lille Metropole Meeting | Villeneuve-d'Ascq | France | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 15 | 12 June | Golden Spike Ostrava | Ostrava | Czech Republic | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 16 | 24 June | Super Grand Prix Tsiklitiria | Trikala | Greece | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 17 | 27 June | Bislett Games | Oslo | Norway | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 18 | 29 June | Memorial Josefa Odlozila | Prague | Czech Republic | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 19 | 1 July | Athletissima | Lausanne | Switzerland | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 20 | 4 July | Meeting de Paris | Paris | France | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 21 | 7 July | Grand Prix Zagreb | Zagreb | Croatia | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 22 | 11 July | Golden Gala | Rome | Italy | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 23 | 13 July | Norwich Union Classic | Gateshead | United Kingdom | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 24 | 19 July | Meeting de Madrid | Madrid | Spain | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 25 | 31 July | Intersport Gugl-Meeting | Linz | Austria | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 26 | 2 August | KBC Night of Athletics | Heusden-Zolder | Belgium | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 27 | 3 August | International Meeting Thessaloníki | Thessaloniki | Greece | IAAF Grand Prix II |
| 28 | 5 August | DN Galan | Stockholm | Sweden | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 29 | 8 August | Norwich Union British Grand Prix | London | United Kingdom | IAAF Super Grand Prix |
| 30 | 10 August | ISTAF Berlin | Berlin | Germany | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 31 | 15 August | Weltklasse Zürich | Zürich | Switzerland | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 32 | 18 August | Asics GP Helsinki | Helsinki | Finland | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| 33 | 5 September | Memorial Van Damme | Brussels | Belgium | 2003 IAAF Golden League |
| 34 | 7 September | Rieti Meeting | Rieti | Italy | IAAF Grand Prix I |
| F | 13–14 September | 2003 IAAF World Athletics Final | Fontvieille | Monaco | IAAF World Athletics Final |
