(Reuters) – Athletics’s most prestigious one-day series, the Diamond League, is losing its New York meeting with Rabat, Morocco, replacing it, the IAAF said yesterday.
Rabat will become the first African city to participate in the 14-meeting series, which offers cash prizes at the end of the season for each discipline, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said.
Organisers of the Adidas-sponsored New York competition say they plan instead to conduct a street event featuring distance and sprint races along with field events such as the pole vault and long jump.
“We believe that changing our focus to a street meet is one way to make the event attractive to a younger audience.” Mark Wetmore, director of the meeting, said in a statement.
The loss leaves the United States, athletics’ top team and most sought after market, with just one Diamond League meeting, the Nike-sponsored Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon.
It comes at a time when the scandal-plagued IAAF is trying to build interest in the sport in the United States by holding its world indoor championships in Portland, Oregon, this month and the 2021 outdoor championships in Eugene.
Adidas’s chief executive said on Thursday the company was monitoring how world athletics was dealing with a doping scandal while its sponsorship deal still runs, dismissing reports it had terminated the contract.
