Bolt leads line-up for new Diamond League

Jamaican triple Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt headlines a group of nine athletes contracted to compete in the new Diamond League circuit next year, league organisers and the IAAF announced on Saturday.

Bolt's chief rivals, compatriot Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay, are also under contract for the 14 meetings.

Distance runner Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia, pole vaulters Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia and Australian Steve Hooker, women's 400 metres sprinter Sanya Richards of the United States, high jumper Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway are the other contracted athletes.

All have agreed to compete in at least seven meetings, with either Bolt, Gay or Powell guaranteed to compete in each. Many meets will feature two of the three and a select few will highlight all three sprinters.

"I will be racing Bolt at least three times or more," Gay said in an interview ahead of Saturday's official launch of the league.

The series will replace the Europe-only Golden League circuit of six meetings. Competitions will be held in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States from late May through August with $6.63 million in prize money at stake.

Athletes with the most points in each of athletics' 32 disciplines at the end of the season will receive a Diamond Trophy adorned with several diamonds.

INTERNATIONAL EXPOSURE

The objective is to create more head-to-head competitions between top athletes and additional international exposure for the sport through a unified presentation.

"What we have seen in the last few seasons is a yearly calendar and agenda for the athletes that didn't work," Patrick Magyar, vice chairman of the Diamond League and organiser of the Zurich meeting, said in an interview.

"The idea is to bring back competitiveness into the meetings and bring back all disciplines."

The series does not have a title sponsor at present but the sale of television rights is going well, said Magyar and Kristian Hysen of IMG, with whom the Diamond League has a contract as a general distributer of its television package.

"There are quite a lot of territories already covered and signed," said Magyar. "I would say overall significantly more than we had so far with the Golden League."

Although four of its meetings fall during the timeframe of the June 11-July 11 soccer World cup finals in South Africa next year, the Diamond League is trying to avoid direct television conflict with matches, Magyar said.

Each meeting will have at least 15 events with the two-day London event in August featuring 27. Zurich and Brussels will hold 16 finals.

The 100 and 200 metres will be split evenly among the 14 meetings.

"The Golden League was a group of six meetings within a very large system," Magyar said. "The Diamond League is a new system in itself. It is not a small group that is part of the whole. It is a whole system of top divisional meetings."