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Sprinter Daryll Neita has become the first British woman to join Michael Johnson’s new athletics league.<\/b><\/p>\n
Neita, 28, was part of the Great Britain 4x100m relay team that took silver at the 2024 Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n
Grand Slam Track, launched by American legend Johnson in June, will aim to bring together the world’s elite runners, offering $100,000 (\u00a378,683) as a top prize.<\/p>\n
Starting in April 2025, the new format will have a prize fund of $12.6m (\u00a39.9m) split over four events.<\/p>\n
Neita joins 1500m runner Josh Kerr and 400m star Matthew Hudson-Smith, both silver medallists in Paris, as the British athletes confirmed for the competition.<\/p>\n
Alongside Neita, Kenya’s 800m world champion and Olympic bronze medallist Mary Moraa and Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain, a former world champion who won 400m silver in Paris, were also announced as competitors for 2025.<\/p>\n
“I’m really excited to be the first British woman announced as joining Grand Slam Track, and can’t wait to start racing in this fresh new league,” said Neita.<\/p>\n
“I love the concept and getting to race twice in a weekend is fun and exciting for all of us as racers. It\u2019s an amazing opportunity to compete at the highest level in a whole new format that\u2019s going to bring a lot of energy to the sport.”<\/p>\n
Grand Slam Track will feature four meetings each year, with two hosted in the United States.<\/p>\n
Athletes will compete in two events each and 48 will be contracted to the league.<\/p>\n
Money in athletics has become a talking point in recent months, with World Athletics announcing in April it would pay prize money to Olympic athletes.<\/p>\n
In June, the governing body announced a new global championship to start in 2026 with gold medallists receiving $150,000 (\u00a3118,000).<\/p>\n
World Athletics said its championship would have $10m (\u00a37.87m) in prize money.<\/p>\n
The Diamond League currently offers a $30,000 (\u00a323,610) prize for those athletes winning an event across its 15 meetings.<\/p>\n
“They deserve to be compensated,” said 56-year-old Johnson, who is a BBC athletics pundit.<\/p>\n
“The structure of the sport in the past has not compensated those athletes to take that risk to go and compete against the best athletes in the sport.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n