Racers Grand Prix goes Continental - Top local meet gets Gold status by World Athletics for 2020 staging

Racers Grand Prix founder and head coach Glen Mills was delighted with the meet’s designation as a Gold-level World Athletics Continental Tour meet, highlighting its increasing reputation and continued role in the development of the sport.

Heading into its fifth staging on June 13, 2020, the Racers Grand Prix was yesterday named as one of nine Gold-level Continental Tour meetings, placing it one level below the Diamond League series. A 10th gold-level meet is to be announced shortly.

“This is the fifth year of the Racers Grand Prix and over the four years, we have provided a meet to Jamaica and the world, at a very high level of organisation and performance and we are indeed delighted that we have been recognised by World Athletics,” Mills told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday.

“We are still in discussions with them (World Athletics), but they have sent out guidelines that we are now studying and we will be formalising to meet those. We are looking forward to bigger and greater things in the future and we sincerely hope we will get the support from corporate Jamaica, the ministry of sports and the general public, as we continue to make our contribution to the development of the sport,” Mills added.

The Continental Tour was established by World Athletics to create more opportunities in the sport for athletes and was announced on the heels of a development, which saw several disciplines – the 200m, discus throw, triple jump and 3000m steeplechase, removed from the list of events for the Diamond League final in 2020.

Mills underlined the importance of having these events being contested at the Continental Tour meets.

“The removal of those events from the top competition, to me was a fatal blow to the aspirations of the athletes who do those events and so we are happy that we are in a position to provide another opportunity for them to compete and to earn, because it is very necessary that they have as many opportunities at a high level, for their continued development and survival in the sport,” said Mills.

World Athletics will offer a prize money purse of at least US$200,000 (J$27 million) to organisers of each Gold meeting.

Additionally, each Continental Cup Gold meeting will offer significant world ranking points, with the discarded Diamond League final events being allotted the same level of ranking points as the Diamond League.

WILDCARD ENTRY

Also, the best athletes in the core disciplines will receive a Wildcard entry to the 2021 World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

A minimum of $20,000 will be available for each of the core events – US$6000 (JMD$817,000) for the winner and US$10,000 for each of the discretionary events – $3,000 ($408,000) for the winner.

“You have core events and discretionary events and you must have a minimum of 12 events in the meet, so we will be putting out shortly, an announcement and greater details as to the meet itself and what it means to be part of the Continental Tour at the Gold Level,” Mills noted.

The Continental Tour will be divided into three levels – Gold, Silver and Bronze – whose status will be determined by the quality of competition and prize money on offer, with World Athletics investing directly into the Gold-level meetings.

Area associations will be responsible for managing the Silver and Bronze level competitions, which will number up to 100 meetings across the globe.

“We are kick-starting our campaign to build more quality one-day meetings around the world with the new Continental Tour, which will give more athletes more opportunities to compete across all disciplines, to earn prize money and world rankings points and to build their profiles,’’ World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.

“Between the Diamond League and the Continental Tour, all disciplines will be catered for and many more athletes will have access to top-class competition. Those that have not been included in the Diamond League final next year will be core disciplines on the Continental Tour.”

The 2020 Continental Tour Gold events will take place across Asia, Europe and North America and include the Fanny Blankers Koen Games in Hengelo, Netherlands, the Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland, and the Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia, Poland.

Other renowned meetings on the Tour include the Golden Spike in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and the Hanzekovic Memorial in the Croatian capital, Zagreb.

2020 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level calendar

o 10 May – Tokyo, JPN

o 13 May – Nanjing, CHN

o 22 May – Ostrava, CZE

o 01 Jun – Hengelo, NED

o 09 Jun – Turku, FIN

o 13 Jun – Kingston, JAM

o 07 Jul – Szekesfehervar, HUN

o 06 Sep – Silesia, POL

o 15 Sep – Zagreb, CRO

*Tenth meeting to be confirmed