Australia’s top track and field athletes will compete for a prize pool of almost $500,000 in a revamped domestic grand prix series this summer.
Brisbane will host the first of four competition rounds before a two-day final – to be held at Perth’s new $73 million athletics stadium – where tour champions will be crowned in the sprints/hurdles, jumps, throws and distance divisions.
World and Olympic pole vault champion Steve Hooker will go up against Commonwealth Games long jump champion Fabrice Lapierre and world championships long jump bronze medallist Mitchell Watt for the jumps title.
Winners of each of the four divisions will receive $10,000, with further prizemoney to be awarded to the top six placegetters in each points race.
Points will be awarded to placegetters throughout the series, with bonus points up for grabs in the final on April 1-2.
In the throws division, world discus champion Dani Samuels will take on Commonwealth Games champions Jarrod Bannister (javelin) and Benn Harradine (discus), while Commonwealth Games gold medallists Sally Pearson, Joel Milburn, Ben Offereins and Sean Wroe will to go head-to-head in the sprints/hurdles class.
The opening round will be at Brisbane’s QEII Stadium on February 11, with further events in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney before the tour final.
jameswm
Guest
Good to see some money being splashed around - they deserve it. I wish they told us a bit more about when the meets are and how it's being spread, though.