By Rawle Toney
GUYANA’S Commonwealth Games 400m gold and silver medallist Aliann Pompey will now see her June 6 AP Invitational part of the recently structured World Athletics 2020 Continental Tour.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the impetus for creating the Continental Tour was to provide more competition and earning opportunities for more athletes.
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, which will each offer US$200 000 in prize money, 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 (US$75 000 prize money) and Bronze level competitions (US$25 000). There will be ten Silver and up to 50 Bronze meetings.
Those disciplines that are not included in this year’s Wanda Diamond League final – 200m, 3000m steeplechase, triple jump, discus – will be core events in the Continental Tour Gold meetings, as will the hammer throw. Each will have guaranteed prize money of US$20 000 at each meeting.
Performances in those events will attract the same level of world ranking points as the core Diamond League disciplines, and the overall tour winners will receive wildcard entry to the World Athletics Championships Oregon 2021.
Pompey, a four-time Olympian, will hold the Invitational for the fifth time this year at the National Track and Field Centre at Leonora.
The inaugural meet hosted 11 athletes who went on to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity not just for the Aliann Pompey Invitational, but for Guyana and athletics in the region,” Pompey said.
According to the Guyanese, who is an assistant coach for the St John’s University Track team, the AP Invitational will be one of two events that will be held in South America; the other – the Brazil Grand Prix.
“I think this speaks to the commitment of the meet’s sponsors. For the past four years, they’ve supported the vision for the meet and its importance to the development of sports in the country and in the region. This is a collaborative effort with so many pieces,” Pompey added.
The 2020 Continental Tour will span across six continents and offers athletes the opportunity to receive world-ranking points that will count toward the 2020 Olympic Games and World Championships.
