FORMER Olympic champion Michael Johnson will be absent from the BBC’s coverage of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo next month.
The 57-year-old has featured regularly as BBC athletics pundit over the last two decades.
But he will not be on screens next month amid the ongoing financial crisis with Grand Slam Track, his new athletics league.
Grand Slam Track – which launched this year – has been unable to pay some of its athletes on time.
Johnson promised significant prize money for athletes involved ahead of the opening event in April.
However, it has endured a huge loss of funding after the first round in Jamaica lacked spectators and significant broadcast and sponsorship revenue.
Johnson said: “We promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated.
“Yet here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them.”
The Times confirmed this week that Johnson will not appear on the BBC during coverage of the World Championships .
A spokesperson gave no explanation for his absence.
They said: “He has other commitments unfortunately but is looking forward to working with the BBC in the future.”
Ahead of the Grand Slam track launch, athletes were promised money just for being an official racer at each event.
They were also promised around £74,000 ($100,000) for winning their events at each of the four meetings.
That was due to come from a prize fund worth more than £8.8m ($12m).
