Olympics 400m champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone will not compete at the Diamond League Final after organizers yielded to pressure from fans and observers who questioned her inclusion.
The American had been invited to feature at the final on September 13 and 14 in Brussels, Belgium after being given a wild card but her inclusion was met with uproar after track and field fans pointed out that she did not meet the criteria.
One of the rules of featuring at the final via the wild card is that the athlete must have participated in at least one Diamond League event but McLaughlin-Levrone has not run a Diamond League race this season.
That saw questions of favouritsm raised at the organizers who were looking to add some stardust to the meet with McLaughlin-Levrone having initially been slated to feature in both 200m and 400m at the two-day meet.
Diamond League CEO Petr Stastny confirmed on Wednesday that the American is not eligible to compete in the final, unless she runs at least one race, with the only event remaining being the Zurich Diamond League set to take place on Thursday.
“It is not about allowing a specific athlete to compete or not,” Stastny wrote in a reply to LetsRun.com
“It is about rules and criteria which must be fulfilled by all to becoming eligible to compete at the WDL Final. Ms McLaughlin-Levrone does not fulfill those criteria, either by accumulating enough points or receiving a wild card.
“The final leg of the Diamond League is not an invitational meeting, and any athlete proposed for a Global Wild Card must have competed at least in one of our events during this season.”
That effectively means the Olympics champion and world record holder will not compete in the final where a showdown with Olympics 400m gold medalist Marileidy Paulino was in the offing.
McLaughlin-Levrone is, however, not locked from the Brussels meeting entirely but she can only feature in an event that is not classified Diamond League Final which will not be a huge draw as it had been envisaged.
