{"id":218569,"date":"2025-12-16T22:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/no-guarantee-grand-slam-track-will-be-allowed-back-warns-world-athletics\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:59:16","slug":"no-guarantee-grand-slam-track-will-be-allowed-back-warns-world-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/no-guarantee-grand-slam-track-will-be-allowed-back-warns-world-athletics\/","title":{"rendered":"No guarantee Grand Slam Track will be allowed back, warns World Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Michael Johnson-led Grand Slam Track has been warned by World \u00adAthletics that it may not be \u00adpermitted to return in 2026 even if it pays off its huge debts.<\/p>\n

Court documents released on \u00adMonday showed that the league, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, still owes some of the biggest names in track and field hundreds of thousands of dollars and creditors between $10m and $50m (\u00a37.5m and \u00a337.3m).<\/p>\n

In October the athletes received 50% of what they were owed by GST for competing in Kingston, Miami and Philadelphia before financial difficulties forced it to cancel its final event in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However the documents show that Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the American 400m world champion, is still owed $356,250 (\u00a3265,576), while the Olympic 200m champion, Gabby Thomas, is still waiting to receive $249,375 (\u00a3185,900). Britain\u2019s Josh Kerr, a world champion over 1500m in 2023, is owed $218,500 (\u00a3162,883).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Girraphic, a Wimbledon\u2011based broadcasting and \u00adadvertising agency, is still yet to be paid $690,624 (\u00a3514,810).<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>France’s Sasha Zhoya celebrates winning the men’s 100m race during the Grand Slam Track meet at the National Stadium, Kingston, Jamaica in April 2025.<\/span> Photograph: Ricardo Makyn\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, said the problems of GST deeply concerned him. \u201cWell, it\u2019s not unalloyed joy is it?\u201d he said. \u201cWe welcome innovation into the sport. We welcome fresh investment, but it has to be underpinned by a sustainable, solid financial model executed and delivered on behalf of the athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether World Athletics could stop Johnson\u2019s plans to bring GST back in 2026, despite its precarious financial situation, Coe said he did not \u201cwant to get into the embers\u201d of what might happen next.<\/p>\n

But, pointedly, he added: \u201cWe create the calendar. We have to police the calendar. And we have to make sure that when there are fresh events, that they come to the table with the kind of credentials and assets that I talked about.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the next few years, there are going to be lots of different and new things and I welcome that. But it has to be suffused in a realistic proposition that is fireproof. It\u2019s got to be sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coe also insisted that the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which will launch in Budapest in \u00adSeptember 2026, would be a very different proposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very big moment for us,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s no guarantee of success next year, but we\u2019ve got teams that have been working at this now for three years and they will be working through Christmas to make sure that we don\u2019t let the athletes down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Budapest, we\u2019ve got the biggest prize pot ever, and it\u2019s a very different model.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Michael Johnson-led Grand Slam Track has been warned by World \u00adAthletics that it may not be \u00adpermitted to return in 2026 even if it pays off its huge debts. Court documents released on \u00adMonday showed that the league, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, still owes some of the biggest names in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":218570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-218569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}