The cream of international athletic competition next season will be concentrated into seven or eight elite meetings, IAAF president Primo Nebiolo announced yesterday.
Nebiolo said the Golden League would include the most successful of the existing Grand Prix meetings: Berlin, Brussels, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Rome and Zurich, with the final in Moscow. The Paris meeting might also be included if it can match the prize money being offered.
The Golden League will have a jackpot of one million dollars to be divided equally among all athletes winning his or her Golden League events and the Moscow final.
In the absence of a jackpot winner, the prize of the overall Grand Prix will be allocated under the existing structure of $200,000 for first place, $100,000 for second and $50,000 for third.
World record breakers in the Golden League disciplines will receive a bonus of $50,000.
Nebiolo said the IAAF wanted prize money to be a bigger incentive than appearance fees. However, the world's best athletes would be offered special promotional agreements to encourage them to compete in the Golden League.
