24th June 2012 05:12
The Spitzen Leichtathletik meeting in the Swiss town of Luzern, a European Athletics Outdoor Classic Meeting, on July 17 will be providing a special incentive for its top performers.
There will be a special jackpot of $20,000 up for grabs, which will be divided between the athletes that produce a world-class performance, such as 9.99 in the 100m or 2.32m in the high jump.
Each of the 16 events in the main programme will have such a standard.
The Luzern meeting organisers are also starting to announce their big names.
American long jumper Brittney Reese, who has not been defeated in four global championships since she won at the 2009 World Championships, will have one of her last outings before the Olympics, subject to her qualifying at the US Olympic Trials this week.
Swiss pole vault record holder Nicole Büchler leads the domestic interest and she will be hoping to show off a medal from next week's European Athletics Championships as she goes to Helsinki ranked fourth in Europe this summer after her recent 4.60m clearance in Riehen last Sunday.
Switzerland's 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships 100m hurdles silver medallist Lisa Urech, who is also the Swiss record holder in her discipline, has decided to skip the European Athletics Championships because of a recent bad bout of flu hopes to be over it soon and will be looking to put in a good run in Luzern as a confidence boost ahead of the Olympics.