Lure to Games’ biggest names
QUEENSLAND athletics bosses will offer Commonwealth stars a tune-up meet in Brisbane six days before the start of the Gold Coast Games next year.
Sprinters Andre De Grasse and Asafa Powell are among the athletes to be approached to compete at a March 28 meet at the State Athletics Facility in Nathan.
QA chief executive David Gynther said the meet, intended to be the revival of the Brisbane Track Classic, was in addition to one already on the schedule for Games athletes in Brisbane on March 22.
The Games athletics will start on April 8, with the heats of the men’s and women’s 100m, on the fourth full day of competition.
“We’ve secured another meet on Wednesday, March 28, and it looks like it will be full of international athletes,’’ Gynther said.
“We understand the whole English team is coming by then to train here (at Nathan), the Australian team will be here (training at Nudgee College), the Canadians, the Welsh and the Scots.
“We want the meet to be seen as a chance for an experience to get up close to the international athletes.
“It looks like we might get De Grasse if we are lucky. Those are the level of athletes we hope to get for the meet.
“With the Caribbean teams, we are working through agents to hopefully secure someone of the quality of Asafa Powell.
‘‘They won’t be coming as a whole team that early.’’
De Grasse, 23, won a Rio Olympic Games 200m silver medal and a 100m bronze medal behind now retired Jamaican great Usain Bolt.
But the Canadian had to withdraw from this year’s world championships because of a hamstring strain.
De Grasse won a 2015 world titles bronze medal in the 100m and is a challenger to world 100m champion Justin Gatlin’s crown.
The March 22 meet may be staged at the main stadium at the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre, but the meet six nights later would be at the more intimate SAF nearby.
“We will do it on the outside track and try to fill it,’’ Gynther said. “We think it’s a better venue for that sort of meet. We hope both will be full IAAF permit meets.
‘‘It’s quite important now because the IAAF is changing how athletes qualify for world championships.
“We will bring it back as the old Queensland Track Classic and we hope to keep doing it in the future, now we have our track.’’
Both arenas at QSAC had new tracks laid this year.