Stastny: 'We welcome the competition'

Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis heads up a stellar cast of athletes kicking off the 16th Diamond League season in Xiamen, Fujian province, on Saturday, amid a changing landscape that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam Track series.

Petr Stastny, CEO of the Diamond League, insisted that he welcomed competition, but added he thought the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the "backbone" of global athletics, with a record $9.2 million in prize money on offer.

"You will get the most comprehensive coverage of the highest possible level of competition in our sport, in track and field. Great arenas, great big crowds,"Stastny said.

Former US sprint star Johnson is the founder of Grand Slam Track, which debuted in Kingston, Jamaica, earlier this month.

Conceived by Johnson as a way of reinvigorating interest in athletics outside of Olympic years, his four-event series aims to showcase more races between the world's best runners, sprinters and hurdlers. There are no field events.

"We feel strongly that the sport is more than just track, and we will continue growing the sport — not just a part of it," said Stastny. "We see other events and series being established around us, which we are, generally speaking, happy about.

"But, we are the backbone of the sport between the major championships, including the Olympics. We have both track and field, that's one (reason). We are truly global. With one event in Jamaica and three in the United States I think it depends how you define global," he said in reference to the Grand Slam Track series.

"I see a substantial difference. Being truly global means that you have athletes from a lot of countries, and so far we've had it in the Diamond League — athletes from 142 countries competing. I don't see that happening, at least for now, anywhere else."

Regrettable clash

While the athletes in Kingston served up some high-quality performances, Johnson's opening event failed to capture the imagination of spectators, with swathes of empty seats at the National Stadium on all three days of competition.

There was also an absence of several high-profile athletes, including Olympic men's and women's 100m champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred, among the 48 racers contracted, with $30 million in funding.

Their absence suggests that both will soon be plying their trade on the Diamond League circuit, with a long season featuring meets that are often sold out and ending with the Sept 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The second Grand Slam Track meet will be between May 2-4 in Miami, before rounding off in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Stastny said that "competition is good, we welcome that", regretting however that the Miami meet clashed directly with the second Diamond League meet of the season.

"What we would have liked to avoid is a day clash with the Grand Slam Track," he added.

"When we have our second Chinese meeting in Shanghai/Keqiao, it has a direct date clash with Grand Slam Track.

"We do establish our calendars well in advance, the main reason being that we allow ... other organizers to look for dates which don't clash. In this case, we have one clash. There's not much we can do about it."

Clash or not, the likes of Norway's Karsten Warholm, US hurdling star Grant Holloway and Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana have spurned the Grand Slam Track by opting to compete in China.

Also taking to the track in Xiamen on the weekend will be Kenya's three-time Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon, in the 1,000m, while teammate Beatrice Chebet, a two-time Olympic gold medalist will face Ethiopia's 5,000m world record holder — and two-time world champion — Gudaf Tsegay over 5km.

AFP