has been thrown into a new challenge by American long jumper Will Williams following the signing of Quincy Hall in the Grand Slam Track League set to begin operations next season.
Following the announcement of , Williams challenged Michael Johnson to allow him to join the event and compete against any of the athletes and if he wins, the four-time Olympic champion should include the long jump in the list of events to be participated in.
He was replying to a tweet that had made concerning the signing of the Olympic champion and how excited he was about having him join the league.
Fifteen athletes have been confirmed for the Grand Slam Track spearheaded by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
“I been talking about @QuincyHall400 since the US OLY Trials! So excited to have him signed to @GrandSlamTrack,” Johnson said.
In reply to the tweet, Williams said: “Sign me to a wild card contract and when I beat any of the sprinters signed to run, I get paid double and you have to add the long jump! 🤝.”
So far, Michael Johnson has signed a variety of sprinters with 400m hurdles world record holder becoming the first athlete to sign with the Grand Slam Track league.
In the men’s 400m, Muzala Samukonga was the first to be signed with Quincy Hall and Matthew Hudson-Smith also joining the bandwagon.
The women’s 100m hurdles saw the signing of Masai Russell, and Cyrena Samba-Mayela. The men’s 1500m saw the signing of Josh Kerr, Yared Nuguse and Cole Hocker.
Olympic 100m bronze medallist and former world 100m champion Fred Kerley have also signed with the track league with Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek also making the list. Brazilian hurdler Alison Dos Santos and Clement Ducos have also signed with the Grand Slam Track league.
The tactician has weighed in on whether shifting training base to America would be a good thing for Kenyan sprinters such as Ferdinand Omanyala and Wiseman Were.