© Philippe Fitte
Tokyo will kick off the new 2020 World Athletics Continental Tour, a series of the world’s best one-day meetings outside the Diamond League.
Ten cities will host Gold level series meetings, offering a total of $US2 million in prize money. The series will begin on 10 May in Tokyo in the same stadium that will host athletics competition at the 2020 Summer Olympic Games just 12 weeks later. The tenth meeting for 2020 has yet to be confirmed.
The Continental Tour will be divided into three levels – Gold, Silver and Bronze – whose status will be determined by the quality of competition and prize money on offer.
World Athletics is investing in the Gold level meetings to increase the number of high quality competitive opportunities available to showcase our sport’s best athletes.
Area associations will be responsible for managing the Silver and Bronze level competitions, which will number up to 100 meetings across the globe.
“We are kick starting our campaign to build more quality one-day meetings around the world with the new Continental Tour, which will give more athletes more opportunities to compete across all disciplines, to earn prize money and world rankings points and to build their profiles,’’ World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said.
“Between the Diamond League and the Continental Tour all disciplines will be catered for and many more athletes will have access to top-class competition. Those that have not been included in the Diamond League final next year, will be core disciplines on the Continental Tour.”
2020 World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level calendar
10 May – Tokyo, JPN
13 May – Nanjing, CHN
22 May – Ostrava, CZE
01 Jun – Hengelo, NED
09 Jun – Turku, FIN
13 Jun – Kingston, JAM
07 Jul – Szekesfehervar, HUN
06 Sep – Silesia, POL
15 Sep – Zagreb, CRO
*Tenth meeting to be confirmed
A total prize money purse of at least US$ 200,000 will be offered for each Gold meeting as well as significant World Ranking points.
For the 2020 season’s core disciplines – the 200m, 3000m steeplechase, triple jump, discus throw and hammer throw for both men and women – the ranking points will be allotted at the same level as the Diamond League.
Wildcard entry to the World Athletics Championships Oregon 2021 will also be on offer for the best athletes in the core disciplines.
A minimum of $20,000 will be available for each of the core events ($6000 for the winner) and $10,000 for each of the discretionary events ($3000 for the winner).
The 2020 Continental Tour Gold events taking place across Asia, Europe and North America will include some of the sport’s most venerable meetings, which honour some of athletics’ greatest legends.
They 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, the Hanzekovic Memorial in the Croatian capital Zagreb and the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, made famous by world 100m and 200m record holder Usain Bolt.
The World Athletics Council also approved the proposed date changes for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023, which were to be held on 26 August – 3 September, but will now be held on 19-27 August.
The council also confirmed Hasan Arat, Abby Hoffman and Sunil Sabharwal as appointed members of the World Athletics Executive Board.
Arat, a former professional basketball player, is the Vice President of the Turkish Olympic Committee and an Executive Committee Member of the European Olympic Committee. He is also Vice Chairman of Beymen, Turkey’s largest retail group.
Hoffman, who represented Canada in middle-distance events at four Olympic Games, has been a World Athletics Council member since 1995 and was Chair of the World Athletics Competition Commission from 2015-2019. She is currently the Assistant Deputy Minister for the Strategic Policy Branch for Health Canada.
Sabharwal, a three-time winner of the NCAA All-American fencing title, has been Secretary General of the International Fair Play Committee since 2003. The US Olympic fencing team Chief de Mission in 2008, he has also been a member of the International Olympic Committee commission on sustainability and legacy since 2000.
The role of the Executive Board is to govern World Athletics’ business. The Executive Board has responsibility for all decisions related to the business of World Athletics including the annual plan and budget, risks and compliance, and organisational policies, procedures and systems.
Three of the nine members of the Executive Board are appointed rather than elected, to ensure the Executive Board has the necessary skills, expertise, as well as gender and geographical diversity, to undertake its responsibilities.
Along with the three newly appointed members, the Executive Board includes World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, Senior Vice President Sergey Bubka, Vice Presidents Nawaf Bin Mohammed Al Saud, Geoff Gardner, Ximena Restrepo, and CEO Jon Ridgeon (non-voting).
World Athletics’ 10-year sustainability strategy and plan was also approved. It will be released publicly in early 2020.
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