World Tour to be introduced next year

The world governing athletics body intends introducing a World Athletics Tour next year comprising 12 elite meetings plus a further dozen competitions including at least one on each continent.

The tour will conclude with the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart featuring athletes who collect the most points from both series.

Before the start of the Helsinki world championships, the IAAF said the final would be moved from the IAAF headquarters in Monaco to Stuttgart.

IAAF officials said yesterday most points would be available from the top tier meetings, which would include the current six Golden League meetings in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Brussels, Zurich and Berlin as well as the Super Grand Prix competitions in Doha, Ostrava, Lausanne, Madrid, London and Sheffield.

As part of its drive to promote and encourage the sport globally,1 the second tier of meetings will include one from each continent.

The new structure was discussed at an IAAF council meeting on Saturday and there will be further talks during next month's Monaco World Athletics Final.

Final details of the series will be confirmed at the final council meeting of the year in Moscow in November.