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The competition featured a host of well-known athletes, including British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith, and 1500m world champion Josh Kerr.<\/p>\n
Male and female competitors are subdivided into six categories – each containing eight athletes – such as Short Sprints, with the eight featuring in that group competing in the 100m and 200m each weekend.<\/p>\n
It offered significant financial incentives, with up to $100,000 (\u00a373,600) on offer for the winners of race categories, as well as salaries for contracted athletes.<\/p>\n
GST has suffered controversies in its maiden year. American three-time Olympic champion Gabby Thomas was allegedly abused<\/a> during the meet in Philadelphia, where the programme was cut from three days to two.<\/p>\n And Johnson himself admitted he would “love to see more spectators” after the opening event in Kingston was poorly attended<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n British middle-distance runner Elliot Giles took part in the Philadelphia leg of the competition and told BBC Sport it was a “phenomenal” event. <\/p>\n “The actual experience, the set-up, the hype, the marketing, was brilliant,” Giles said.<\/p>\n “I’d love to see it again. Competition is what we need in our sport.<\/p>\n “It’s the same as what’s happening in boxing now. You get other people involved, new promoters, new people, venture capitalists putting into it, and the sport explodes and then performances come and everything else follows.”<\/p>\n American sprinters Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden have been named the GST Racers of the Year having won their respective Slam Championship at all three events.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n