By Richard Lewis 
The world’s best sprinters, Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell are just three of the names unveiled to compete in next year’s inaugural multi-million dollar IAAF Diamond League, two fixtures of which will be in the UK at the Aviva British Grand Prix (July 10) and the Aviva London Grand Prix (August 13 & 14).
The IAAF has announced that World and Olympic Champion and record holder Usain Bolt has been contracted  alongside Tyson Gay (100m USA), Asafa Powell (100m JAM), Kenenisa Bekele(10,000m ETH), Yelena Isinbayeva (Pole Vault RUS), Sanya Richards (400m USA), Blanca Vlasic (High Jump CRO), Andreas Thorkildsen (Javelin NOR) and Stephen Hooker (Pole Vault AUS).
Gateshead International Stadium and Crystal Palace are hosting the two IAAF Diamond meetings in Britain.
Top UK sprinter Simeon Williamson said: “I’m really happy that the best meetings in the UK – London and Gateshead - are now part of the IAAF Diamond League.  It will make these events even more exciting for the athletes as we will be guaranteed to race against the best athletes in the world on home soil."
Niels de Vos, Chief Executive of UKA, is delighted with the calibre of the athletes contracted to the Diamond League.
He said: "Usain Bolt is the superstar of the sport globally so we hope to have him racing at one or both of our events in 2010."
The IAAF Diamond League is composed of 14 meetings spread across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the USA, and will showcase 32 athletics disciplines which have been carefully distributed amongst the meetings.
In each discipline there will be an “IAAF Diamond Race” with points available throughout the season. Winners of each Diamond Race get a Diamond Trophy which will include four carats of diamonds but more importantly, they will have showed season long consistency to earn the unchallenged honour of being the World No 1.
Starting in 2010, the IAAF Diamond League will offer more athletes, more earning opportunities with prize money totalling 6.63 MILLION dollars.
The IAAF Diamond League will be discussing central contracts with at least the top two athletes in each discipline to secure exciting ‘head to head’ confrontations between the world’s best on a regular basis throughout the IAAF Diamond League season which in 2010 stretches from mid-May to the end of August.
 

Diamond League Full Event Listings:
 
Doha (QAT)                Friday May 14
Shanghai (CHN)         Sunday May 23
Oslo (NOR)                 Friday June 4
Rome (ITA)                 Thursday June 10
New York (USA)         Saturday June 12
Eugene (USA)            Saturday July 3
Lausanne (SUI)            Thursday July 8
Gateshead (GBR)       Saturday July 10
Paris (FRA)                 Friday July 16
Monaco (MON)          Thursday July 22
Stockholm (SWE)       Friday August 6
London (GBR)            Friday 13 and Saturday August 14
Zürich (SUI)                Thursday August 19
Brussels (BEL)            Friday August 27      Friday August 6
London (GBR)            Friday 13 and Saturday August 14
Zürich (SUI)                Thursday August 19
Brussels (BEL)            Friday August 27