London Stadium to host inaugural Athletics World Cup

British Athletics has today (Monday) revealed details of a new Athletics World Cup event that will take place at the London Stadium this summer.

Athletics World Cup London 2018 will take place at the venue formerly known as the Olympic Stadium on July 14-15. It will feature athletes from eight nations.

Each of the eight teams will be captained by female athletes as part of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign.

The World Cup will feature all track and field events up to and including the 1500m. The competing nations are USA, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Poland, China, Germany, France, Jamaica, and South Africa.

The event will take place in the evenings, with each nation to compete for a $2m (£1.4m/€1.6m) prize fund. One male and one female from each nation will be selected in each event in an all-straight final format.

Richard Bowker CBE, chair of UK Athletics, said: “The Athletics World Cup London 2018 will be one of the biggest athletics events in 2018 and as such we’re thrilled to be able to launch it at the London Stadium. This is world-class competition where nation will face nation and fans will see an amazing feast of athletics over two days featuring many of the biggest global superstars in the world of sport.

“This will be an incredible event which we are thrilled to be able to launch on the back of a highly-successful World Championships last summer.”

Sebastian Coe, president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, added: “This is one of the exciting innovative events we are seeing in our sport and our thanks go to British Athletics and the Mayor of London for creating it and hosting it. We have eight lanes, eight top nations, eight teams and a host of world-class athletes lining up in each event to win the trophy and prize pot. This will be a fast-paced and exhilarating experience for athletes and fans.”

The London Stadium served as the centrepiece of the 2012 Olympic Games and also hosted the World Para Athletics and World Athletics Championships last summer. It is primarily the home ground of Premier League football club West Ham United.

Registration opens today for a ticket ballot for the inaugural Athletics World Cup.

Image: Tob Lubbock