Bolt too costly for promotion of World Championships

Moscow - Jamaica’s Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt asked for “too much money” to appear in a promotional video for next year’s World Athletics Championships, Russian organisers said.

The event is to be held Aug 10-18 at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.

Bolt, who won all three sprint titles at the London Games, is expected to take a shot at his second world 100 metres title in the Russian capital.

But organisers said they wouldn’t include him in the promo video at any price.

“Usain Bolt’s representatives got in touch with us about including the Jamaican sprinter in a promotional video,” said Alexander Polinsky. “But when they named their price, we decided that we have enough of our own talented athletes who could advertise the competition.”

Triple world record holder Bolt featured heavily in the world athletics body IAAF’s ad campaign for the last world championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Bolt said earlier this month he would try to qualify for the Moscow event via the Jamaican trials, and hand his wild card entry spot to his countryman Yohan Blake.

Organisers for the championships announced earlier Thursday that its overall prize fund would be $7.2 million, with world record breakers pocketing an additional $50,000.

That figure is slightly up on Daegu, which put just over $7 million up for grabs.

Meanwhile, tickets to championships will range from $5 for a basic seat to $1,000 for VIP tickets, Polinsky said.

“For the maximum price, a person can watch the entire world championships from the best seats,” he said.