The meeting has traditionally moved on an annual basis but will now stay in the North East until at least 2010 in the build-up to the London Olympics, with this year's event taking place a week after the end of the Beijing Games on August 31.

 

UK Athletics chief executive Niels de Vos said: "The North East has a fantastic athletics heritage and I know how much our athletes will enjoy competing regularly at Gateshead.

 

"The meeting has traditionally moved on an annual basis but will now stay in the North East until 2010 in the build-up to the London Olympics, with this year's event taking place a week after the end of the Beijing Games.

 

"I'm delighted that the first year of this three-year partnership is in Olympic year which will give athletics fans in the region the first chance to welcome back our Olympians and be amongst the first in the world to celebrate what I hope will be some great medals."

 

Triple jump world record holder Jonathan Edwards, who lives in nearby Gosforth, said: "To have an athletics event of this scale on our doorstep during the countdown to 2012 should prove a further motivation for everyone connected with the sport in the area."

 

Gateshead Council Cabinet member responsible for culture, Linda Green said: "The next couple of years are really stacking up to be fantastic years for sport in Gateshead.

 

"We've already had the news that we have been selected as a potential training camp for the London 2012 Olympics but this announcement of regular world class athletics really does reinforce what a superb offer we have for athletes here in Gateshead.

 

"I'm sure we can look forward to a large crowd at the Gateshead International Stadium to support the athletes in this Olympic year."

 

 The Norwich Union British Grand Prix is part of NewcastleGateshead's world-class festivals and events programme, managed by culture10, based at NewcastleGateshead Initiative.

 

Stella Hall, creative director at NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: "We are delighted to support this year's Norwich Union British Grand Prix.

 

"It is a huge coup for NewcastleGateshead as one of only three world-class athletics events taking place in the UK this year, and will include a host of elite athletes fresh from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

 

"There is no doubt that it can only help to cement the region's reputation as one of the best places to watch major sporting events."

 

Meanwhile, UK Athletics has unveiled the programme for the revamped Norwich Union London Grand Prix, promising to make the event the strongest meeting anywhere in the world this year.

 

The Crystal Palace showpiece event will take place over two days this summer for the first time since 1985, when it featured the famous re-match between Zola Budd and Mary Decker.

 

The governing body hopes the attraction of a host of potential British and overseas Olympic medallists will ensure the biggest crowd for a British grand prix meeting in more than 50 years.

 

An ‘early bird’ offer launches this week offering 20 per cent off any ticket bought before March 24.

 

With a total of 34,000 tickets available over the two days for the event on July 25 and 26 the potential total audience would be the biggest at a grand prix meeting in the UK since the White City events in the 1950s

 

De Vos said: “We already have a great event in the Norwich Union London Grand Prix, but this year we will make it better than ever.

 

“It’s our firm belief that there will not be a stronger athletics meeting anywhere other than at the Olympics themselves this summer,

 

“And what the two-day format allows is twice as many people as usual the chance to watch what is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the British sporting summer and give GB athletes the best possible send off to Beijing.”

 

The extended format will allow almost a complete programme of male and female track races, including 100 metres, 200m and 400m sprints for both men and women, the historic Emsley Carr Mile, and two track events for Paralympic athletes.

 

Sprint relays for both men and women is likely to see the mouth-watering prospect of a GB v USA clash in the men’s event, just a fortnight before the teams again do battle in Olympic competition.

 

A four-event challenge for women should provide the perfect pre-Beijing platform for British medal hopes Kelly Sotherton and Jessica Ennis.