China, Japan and England Monday signed on for an innovative team athletics event in Melbourne in which sprint superstar Usain Bolt will make his first Australian appearance. Nine-time Olympic champion Bolt launched the inaugural Nitro Athletics and will captain the ‘Bolt All-Stars' in the February competition, which will feature six teams. "Both the Chinese and Japanese fans love their athletics and both have a lot of emerging young athletes who love to entertain and will be well suited to Nitro Athletics," said event ambassador John Steffensen. "Having one team in Asia is good, but having two really strong Asian-based teams in China and Japan participating is fantastic." The meet, involving 24 athletes, split equally between men and women, will include non-traditional events such as middle-distance and hurdles relays in an attempt to broaden athletics' appeal. It will take place at Melbourne's Lakeside Stadium on Feb. 4, 9 and 11. England Athletics chief executive Chris Jones said he was looking forward to submitting the body's best possible team. "We are always looking for exciting and innovative ways to create new opportunities in our sport," he said. "This is a tremendous idea from Athletics Australia." Bolt's appearance will kick off preparations for what is expected to be his final major competition, the world championships in London in August. Although Bolt is expected to retire after London, he has reportedly not ruled out extending his career to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia's Gold Coast. Besides Bolt, several other top names have expressed an interest in the new series with announcements expected over the coming weeks. IOC backs Craig Reedie for new 3-year WADA term The IOC is backing Craig Reedie's bid for a new three-year term as president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, despite the tensions that broke out between the two sides over the Russian doping scandal. The support for Reedie to continue in his role came after he assured the International Olympic Committee that he would "respect the rules and responsibilities of WADA and its stakeholders," suggesting the agency will refrain in the future from publicly calling for a nation to be barred from the Olympics, as it did with Russia before the games in Rio de Janeiro. Reedie, a Briton who has been WADA president since 2013, is up for re-election at agency meetings in Glasgow, Scotland, next weekend. No other candidates have been put forward. The backing for Reedie was contained in a letter from the IOC to all of its 98 members. A copy of the letter was obtained Sunday by The Associated Press. The letter was sent following a private meeting of the IOC executive board on Thursday in Lausanne, Switzerland. Reedie briefed the board at that meeting. "Sir Craig Reedie committed to respect the Olympic Charter and respect the rules and responsibilities of WADA and its stakeholders, including the catalogue of points put forward by the Olympic Movement three years ago," the letter said. "On this basis, the IOC will encourage the Olympic Movement representatives on the WADA foundation board to approve the re-election of Sir Craig Reedie as WADA President, as well as inviting them to speak to their government counterparts concerning a reform of the system for electing the WADA President." Under current rules, a WADA president is elected for three years, with the option of a second three-year term. The presidency rotates between representatives of governments and sporting bodies. WADA and the IOC came into sharp conflict before and during the Rio Games following a report by WADA investigator Richard McLaren that detailed state-sponsored doping in Russia, including manipulation of samples at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and cover-ups of positive tests across dozens of summer and winter Olympic sports. WADA recommended that the entire Russian team be excluded from Rio. The IOC rejected the proposal and instead let international sports federations decide which athletes should be eligible to compete.
