The athletics world is hoping to cash in on the success of cricket's high-octane Twenty20 format with a new team event spearheaded by Usain Bolt which starts Saturday in Australia. The inaugural Nitro Athletics in Melbourne, which will also be held on Feb. 9 and 11, features non-traditional events such as middle-distance and hurdles relays. World 100-meter record holder Bolt said Friday: "We just want to make it more exciting so I'm looking forward to seeing the crowd reaction to what we are doing." Twelve events each evening will include an elimination mile, where the slowest runners are knocked out after each lap until three competitors contest the final circuit. Male and female runners will also accumulate team points in a 60-meter (65.6-yard) dash, the 150 meters and a 2x300-meter relay. Bolt will be supported by US Olympic hurdle champion Kerron Clement and sprinter Asafa Powell to try to draw in the crowds. "I think it's going to be great, it's going to be like cricket, but Twenty20," Bolt said Thursday. The format sees an ‘All-Stars' team captained by the Jamaican sprinter compete against teams from Australia, China, Japan, England and New Zealand. "Hats off to you guys for being brave enough to step out of the box that athletics has found itself in for donkey's years," England's captain and 2008 Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu said. Australia's Twenty20 Big Bash League smashed spectator and television viewership records this season pulling in families and younger spectators. Crowds averaged 30,114 a game, Cricket Australia said. Athletics Australia chief Phil Jones said there was a need to lift spectator and sponsorship interest in athletics outside the Olympics and World Championships. "We have a number of backers," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The concept is supported by International Association of Athletics Federations President Sebastian Coe. NZ joins Kenya U18 snub New Zealand Friday became the fifth major team to pull out of the World Under-18 Athletics Championships in Nairobi, citing security concerns, organizers said. The biennial championship, taking place for the first time in Africa from July 12-16, was expected to lure athletes from 155 countries. But in a major blow to the east African nation, New Zealand joined Britain, Australia, Canada and Switzerland in withdrawing. New Zealand cited a foreign ministry recommendations which puts Kenya as "currently high risk, with kidnapping, hijacking, terrorism and violent crime among major concerns". New Zealand and Britain will instead send their athletes to the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas from July 19-23. The championship is set to take place just two weeks before general elections, which typically generate tension and have in the past been accompanied by violence. Since sending troops into neighboring Somalia in 2011, Kenya has come under repeated attack from Al-Shabaab, East Africa's long-time branch of Al-Qaeda. Nairobi was hit by a dramatic assault on the Westgate shopping mall in which at least 67 people were killed in 2013, and 148 people were murdered in the northeast at Garissa University in 2015. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has decided to discontinue the World Under-18 Championships after the Nairobi event, with a different competition structure under scrutiny. — Agencies
