‘The more, the merrier,’ Coe says Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track is ‘no threat’ to World Athletics

Sebastian Coe says World Athletics should be comforted that they have created a landscape where people think that it’s worth investing in their sport’

The World Athletics President made the remark in response to the coming on stream of Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track next year.

The Grand Slam Track is coming on the heels of the Athlos, the women’s only competition which was held after the Olympics and which offered the largest purse ever for a women’s track event.

The winner in each of the six disciplines at the Athlos pocketed $60,000, while the second and third-place athletes got $25,000, and $10,000 respectively with 10% of all event revenue also distributed among all competitors.

Johnson’s four-meet Grand Slam Track series will debut in April in Kingston, Jamaica and it is seen as the premier global professional track league featuring matchups between the fastest stars in the sport with the largest purse ever.

Coe is however not worried and has backed Johnson’s event to be a success.

“We should be comforted that we’ve created a landscape where people think that it’s worth investing in our sport. I’m very welcoming of all sorts of innovation. I’m welcoming of all sorts of investment, within reason. And it’s important that we work as collaborators here, not competitors.

“I want them to be successful. I want them to add lustre to our sport. And I think there’s space for everybody here, as long as there’s sort of communication and we have calendar coordination.

“I don’t see it as a threat. I’ve never, ever seen competition as a threat. You either work with competition or you don’t. And frankly, this (World Athletics) is an organisation that welcomes all sorts of innovation, and I think we’ve sort of shown that we’re not afraid of that’, Coe told a press conference in Monaco.