The United States of America recorded a comprehensive victory in the inaugural edition of the Athletics World Cup after dominating the second day of the event in London on Sunday.
It might have lacked the prestige and visibility of football’s World Cup final earlier in Moscow, hindered by the absence of many of track and field’s most recognisable names and an unfortunate clash of dates with the final of the greatest sporting show on the planet.
Yet reasonable crowds, compared to much of the Diamond League circuit, and a rapid format with audience appeal, is worth extending, according to IAAF president Sebastian Coe, with three nations understood to have expressed interest in staging the next scheduled edition in 2020.
“I’ve been very clear that I want new things to be tried,” he said. “They are not always going to work out from the word go but that can’t inhibit us from going ‘we tried, it didn’t do everything so we go back to the same old thing’.
“There is a lot of work being done on the calendar and the Diamond Leagues. But while we’re working that out, I didn’t want the sport just to stop doing creative things.
“We will figure things out. They’ve already had interest in this from other cities. But I’m really pleased UK Athletics have taken up the challenge.”
The USA were virtually unopposed in landing the platinum winners trophy on a final tally of 219 points. They were well clear of Poland in second on 162 with the hosts consigned to third place when their men’s 4x400 relay team were disqualified prior to the concluding event when first leg runner Cameron Chalmers pulled a hamstring in the warm-up.
Holding a 24-point advantage overnight, the Americans kept extending their margin with Paul Dedewo running a personal best of 44.48 seconds to win the men’s 400m.

Final standings
1. USA, 219 points, 2. Poland 162, 3. Great Britain and Northern Ireland 155, 4. Jamaica 153, 5. France 146, 6. Germany 137, 7. South Africa 135, 8. China 81.
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