Without Bolt, track & field starts life

Thompson, McLeod take center stage

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Aug 24, (AP): As Usain Bolt parties in London, around 30 Olympic medalists including nine champions have headed to Switzerland for the first major track and field meeting since the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Still, none are named Bolt — now being photographed daily outside nightclubs by British paparazzi — and without the sport’s biggest star there are unsold tickets for the Athletissima meet in the Diamond League series.

Bolt’s absence lets fellow Jamaican sprint gold medalists Elaine Thompson and Omar McLeod take center stage at the 14,000-capacity stadium in the International Olympic Committee’s home city of Lausanne.

Meet director Jacky Delapierre said the stadium would have been sold out “for sure” if Bolt was running, though noted the sport must get ready for a new era.

“We have to be prepared for the future without Bolt,” Delapierre, who has worked in track for nearly 40 years, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We are at the end of a cycle now.”

Delapierre is in talks to bring Bolt back Jamaica’s Omar McLeod (center), reacts as he crosses the finish line ahead of third place France’s Dimitri bascou (left), and fourth placed France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde to win the Men’s 110m Hurdles Final during the athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on

Aug 16. (AFP)