Duplantis kicks off Diamond League amid Johnson-led altering panorama

Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis heads up a stellar forged of athletes kicking off the sixteenth Diamond League season in Xiamen on Saturday amid a altering panorama that has seen Michael Johnson launch his Grand Slam observe sequence.

Petr Stastny, CEO of the Diamond League, insisted that he welcomed competitors, however added he thought the 15-meet circuit he oversees was the “spine” of world athletics, with a report US$9.2 million in prize cash on supply.

“You’ll get probably the most complete protection on the best doable stage of competitors in our sport, in observe and discipline. Nice arenas, nice massive crowds,” Stastny mentioned.

Former U.S. dash star Johnson is the founding father of Grand Slam Monitor, which debuted in Kingston earlier this month.

Conceived by Johnson as a manner of reinvigorating curiosity in athletics outdoors of Olympic years, his four-event sequence goals to showcase extra races between the world’s finest runners, sprinters and hurdlers. There are not any discipline occasions.

“We really feel strongly that the game is extra than simply observe and we are going to proceed rising the game and never simply part of the game,” mentioned Stastny. “We see different occasions and sequence being established round us, which we’re, usually talking, joyful about.

“However we’re the spine of the game between the main championships, together with the Olympics. We now have observe and discipline, that is one. We’re actually world.

“With one occasion in Jamaica and three in america I believe it relies upon the way you outline world,” he mentioned in reference to the Grand Slam Sequence.

“I see there a considerable distinction. Being actually world means that you’ve athletes from lots of nations and thus far we have had it within the Diamond League — athletes from 142 nations competing. I do not see that taking place, a minimum of for now, anyplace else.”