The competitors featured a bunch of well-known athletes, together with British Olympic sprinters Daryll Neita and Matthew Hudson-Smith, and 1500m world champion Josh Kerr.

Female and male rivals are subdivided into six classes – every containing eight athletes – corresponding to Quick Sprints, with the eight that includes in that group competing within the 100m and 200m every weekend.

It provided important monetary incentives, with as much as $100,000 (£73,600) on provide for the winners of race classes, in addition to salaries for contracted athletes.

GST has suffered controversies in its maiden yr. American three-time Olympic champion Gabby Thomas was allegedly abused through the meet in Philadelphia, the place the programme was lower from three days to 2.

And Johnson himself admitted he would “like to see extra spectators” after the opening occasion in Kingston was poorly attended in April.

British middle-distance runner Elliot Giles took half within the Philadelphia leg of the competitors and informed BBC Sport it was a “phenomenal” occasion.

“The precise expertise, the set-up, the hype, the advertising and marketing, was good,” Giles mentioned.

“I might like to see it once more. Competitors is what we’d like in our sport.

“It is the identical as what’s occurring in boxing now. You get different individuals concerned, new promoters, new individuals, enterprise capitalists placing into it, and the game explodes after which performances come and all the things else follows.”

American sprinters Kenny Bednarek and Melissa Jefferson-Picket have been named the GST Racers of the Yr having gained their respective Slam Championship in any respect three occasions.