DIAMOND LEAGUE CEO BATS AWAY CONCERNS OVER RIVAL GRAND SLAM TRACK SERIES

Competition's CEO says the circuit remains integral to global athletics, despite the launch of Michael Johnson's track-event-only series

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

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

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

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

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

But Stastny questioned where Grand Slam Track could be defined as a global competition after only one event.

"We feel strongly that the sport is more than just track and we will continue growing the sport and not just a part of the sport," Stastny said. "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 track and field, that's one. We are truly global.

"With one event in Jamaica and three in the United States I think it depends how you define global.

"I see there 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."

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 100 metres champions Noah Lyles and Julien Alfred, among the 48 racers contracted, with $30 million in funding.

Their absence suggested both would compete in the Diamond League circuit, with a long season featuring often sold-out meets ending with the September 13-21 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

The second Series meet is between May 2-4 in Miami before rounding off in Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Stastny said "competition is good, we welcome that ... 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 organisers 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 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 medallist will face Ethiopia's 5,000m world record holder - and two-time world champion - Gudaf Tsegay over 5km.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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2025-04-22T22:11:29Z