TRACK AND FIELD INTRODUCING PRIZE MONEY AT OLYMPICS WITH PARIS GOLD MEDALISTS TO GET $50,000

Sebastian Coe. AP Photo

 MONACO (AP) — Track and field is set to become the first sport to introduce prize money at the Olympics, with World Athletics saying Wednesday it would pay $50,000 to gold medalists in Paris.

The governing body of athletics said it was setting aside $2.4 million to pay the gold medalists across the 48 events on the track and field program for this year's Paris Olympics. Relay teams will split the $50,000 between their members. Payments for silver and bronze medalists are planned to start from the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“While it is impossible to put a marketable value on winning an Olympic medal, or on the commitment and focus it takes to even represent your country at an Olympic Games, I think it is important we start somewhere and make sure some of the revenues generated by our athletes at the Olympic Games are directly returned to those who make the Games the global spectacle that it is,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

The prize money will come out of the share of Olympic revenue that that the IOC distributes to World Athletics and other governing bodies of individual sports.

Athletes will have to pass “the usual anti-doping procedures” at the event before they receive the money, World Athletics added.

The modern Olympics originated as an amateur sports event and the International Olympic Committee does not award prize money. However, many medalists receive payments from their countries’ governments, national sports bodies or from sponsors.

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee awarded $37,500 to gold medalists at the last Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021. Singapore's National Olympic Council promises $1 million for Olympic gold, a feat only achieved once so far by a Singaporean competitor.

The move by World Athletics could be seen as an indicator of Coe’s intentions for the Olympics as a whole if he makes a run for the IOC presidency.

“I haven’t ruled it in, and I certainly haven’t ruled it out,” Coe said last year when asked whether he would consider running for the IOC’s top post when Thomas Bach’s term ends in 2025. The IOC typically disapproves of any public campaigning for the presidency.

COE TO HEAD MAN UNITED TASK FORCE AROUND NEW AND REBUILT OLD TRAFFORD

 

Reuters 

Manchester United do not plan to leave Old Trafford, the club confirmed on Friday, and have appointed Sebastian Coe as chair of a task force to study whether to renovate the 144-year-old stadium or build new on adjacent club-owned land.

The Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force comes on the heels of British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's acquisition of a 27.7%stake in the club.

"This can be a major regeneration project for an area of Greater Manchester which has played such a key role in British industrial history, but which today requires new investment to thrive again," Ratcliffe said in a statement.

"The north-west of England has a greater concentration of major football clubs than anywhere else in the world, yet we don't have a stadium on the scale of Wembley, the Nou Camp or the Bernabeu.

"We will not be able to change that on our own, which is why this task force is so important to help us seize this once-in-a-century opportunity."

Ratcliffe's initial conclusion was that a new-build would be the best solution and the club's board is supportive of exploring this route.

Coe is the former chair of the 2012 London Olympics organising committee and current president of World Athletics.

Other members of the task force include Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Sara Todd, Chief Executive of Trafford Council, and Gary Neville, former captain of Manchester United, among others.

United want to be equipped to handle international games and major finals plus provide a modernised home for the club, they said, but were keen to stay in the Old Trafford area to remain rooted to their historic home. Old Trafford opened in 1910 and last had renovations in 2006.

Ratcliffe committed 237 million pounds ($304.50 million) of his own money for improvement in infrastructure, though any project would cost considerably more and so the club will explore public-private partners.

"It is very encouraging to see the emphasis being put on fan consultation, and exciting to see the vision and ambition behind this project, not only to put Old Trafford back on among the world's leading football stadiums, but for it to form part of a wider regeneration," said task force member Duncan Drasdo, CEO of Manchester United Supporters Trust.

"Fans are the heartbeat of any football stadium.

($1 = 0.7783 pounds)

- Lori Ewing 

KENYA'S 🇰🇪 KELVIN KIPTUM: MARATHON WORLD RECORD HOLDER DIES IN ROAD CRASH

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 The men's marathon world record holder, Kenya's Kelvin Kiptum, 24, has died in a road accident in his home country.

He was killed alongside his coach, Rwanda's Gervais Hakizimana, in a car on a road in western Kenya on Sunday.

Kiptum made a breakthrough in 2023 as a rival to compatriot Eliud Kipchoge - one of the greatest marathon runners.

And it was in Chicago last October that Kiptum bettered Kipchoge's achievement, clocking the 26.1 miles (42km) in two hours and 35 seconds.

The two athletes had been named in Kenya's provisional marathon team for the Paris Olympics later this year.

Paying tribute to Kiptum, Kenyan Sports Minister Ababu Namwamba wrote on X: "Devastatingly sickening!! Kenya has lost a special gem. Lost for words."

Kenya's opposition leader and former prime minister, Raila Odinga, said the country had lost "a true hero" and was mourning "a remarkable individual... and Kenyan athletics icon".

Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, said Kiptum was "an incredible athlete leaving an incredible legacy, we will miss him dearly".

230TH WORLD ATHLETICS COUNCIL PRESS CONFERENCE