LONDON: Minsk has emerged as the most likely host of a new Europe versus USA athletics event in 2019 after British Athletics turned down a request to stage it in the London Stadium.
The Ryder Cup-style competition is the brainchild of European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen and he had hoped to announce last year that London 2012's centrepiece venue would host the invitational event.
But Press Association Sport understands that British Athletics has other plans for the six-week summer window it has at the stadium while main tenants West Ham are not playing. These plans will be revealed after London's hosting of the 2017 World Athletics Championships in July.
The Belarusian capital is believed to be the only other city in the frame for the inaugural Europe v USA contest, which would take place after the city's staging of the second European Games in June 2019 but before the start of the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha on September 28.
Hansen provided an update on his plans in a 20-page European Athletics report called 'Delivering Change' that was published last week.
In the report, he wrote: "We had hoped that in 2016 we could publicly launch a Europe v USA match, but at the end of the year we were still not quite ready with all the arrangements.
"What we can say is that a host city has been secured for 2019, that contract discussions with USA Track and Field and the other necessary partners are moving ahead and that confirmation of the event is expected in 2017."
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