World champion in the 110 meter hurdles Sergei Shubenkov in an interview with , he said that the amount of prize money at competitions abroad was gradually decreasing, while in Russia, on the contrary, they began to pay more.
In April, the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) announced that bonuses paid at the start of the summer season would be increased by 20% compared to last year.
— Major sponsors are gradually appearing during athletics events. Does this affect your well-being in any way?
— If you take fourth place, that doesn’t reflect anything. This year we collected prize money, although the global trend is the opposite. In the same Diamond League, they are in decline. My generation is slowly finishing (in competition). I spoke to some older guys, they said that in the 90s and early 2000s there was an incredible situation with prize money in world athletics – you were given a chop of one worth 20,000 euros just for showing your face at the start.
When I started competing in Diamond League stages, that was no longer the case: $10,000 for first place was the ceiling. Therefore, everyone tried to win the main competition for $50,000. And now the Diamond League pays 35,000 for winning the overall series. The amount of money devoted to world athletics is decreasing.
– Why do you think?
— We imagined a new beginning: the ultimate World Athletics Championship. This is a mini-world championship reserved for the best. In fact, it is the same Diamond League, which will create this even stronger fork: there will be supertops and everyone. And the middle peasants, who would like to compete, struggle, succeed, will be deprived of it. Where do the tops come from in such conditions? In fact, the global trend is not good.
But for us there would be no happiness, but misfortune would help us. We were locked inside the country, we have to turn back. This is what we do,” Shubenkov told .
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Source : MatchTV
I’m John White and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. My specialty is covering sports news, which I’ve been doing for over 6 years now. During this time, I have worked as an author with Athletistic, a popular online news website focusing on sports topics.
