WORLD Athletics president, Lord Coe, has warned that “we have to police the calendar” of track and field after sprinting great Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track (GST) competition filed for bankruptcy.
Last week, four-time Olympic champion Johnson said that despite “significant challenges… I refuse to give up on the mission” of the failed project, with millions of pounds being owed to creditors, which include top athletes.
However, when asked whether World Athletics could prevent GST from returning, Coe said: “I don’t want to get into the embers of this…but we do create the calendar”. The world governing body would have to authorise any attempt by GST to stage future events.
“We have to make sure that when there are fresh events that they come to the table with the kind of credentials and assets that I’ve talked about,” said Coe. “There’s a responsibility to do that, and I think probably going forward, that is something we will look at in greater depth.
“Over the next few years, there are going to be lots of different and new things. And I welcome that, but it has to be suffused in a realistic proposition that you have stuff that is fireproof, it’s got to be sustainable.”
Organisers of GST have said the competition, which offered lucrative prize money, had been impacted by the withdrawal of committed investment, and that it intends to utilise the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the United States “to stabilise its finances, implement a more efficient cost and operating model, and position GST for long-term success”.
Chapter 11 is a mechanism which allows a company to restructure its debts in order to stay in business.
GST launched this year with events in Kingston and the US cities of Miami and Philadelphia but, amid cash flow problems and poor attendances, a fourth meet in Los Angeles in June was cancelled.
This week it was revealed that, according to court documents filed in Delaware, Scottish middle-distance runner Josh Kerr is among the biggest creditors, with the athlete owed £162,000 by GST in appearance fees and prize money, alongside American sprint stars Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (£265,000) and Gabby Thomas (£186,000).
Speaking about the inaugural Ultimate Championships, a biennial event that World Athletics is staging in Budapest next year, Coe said: “We welcome innovation into the sport, we welcome fresh investment, but it has to be underpinned by a sustainable, solid financial model, executed and delivered on behalf of the athletes.
“We have to do this well. This isn’t something that can be a happy accident or ‘it’ll be OK on the night’. And some in this building here will be working through Christmas to make sure that we don’t let the athletes down.
“There is a responsibility to make sure that you’ve got a business plan that is solid, a plan A, and a bulletproof plan B. You’ve got to execute really well, and if you don’t, the risk is always going to be that the group you most want to take with you, the athletes, are put at risk.”
A prize pot of £7,438,988 will be on offer at the Ultimate Championships, with winners each receiving £111,582. – BBC
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