Eugene, Jun 21 (IANS): An additional $2million (Rs.14.82 crore) has been allocated to prize money for the World Championships in 2022 and 2023, the World Athletics (WA) has said. This money is the fine paid by the Russian Athletics Federation (RAF) for breaching the sport's anti-doping rules. 

"We have allocated $2 million prize money from the fines paid by the RAF for breaching the sport's anti-doping rules for flagship World Championships, starting with the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 next year," said WA.

According to the WA, it will fund an additional $1million (Rs.7.41 crore) per World Championships for the next two editions, with each of the 44 individual events receiving an additional $23,000 (Rs.17.05 lakh) of prize money at each championship.

At the most recent World Championships in Doha in 2019, $75,30,000 (Rs.55.83 crore) in prize money was distributed to athletes who finished in the top eight in their respective events.

"The last 18 months have been really tough for thousands of athletes who make their living from competing in events around the world. While we have focused on helping meetings around the world stage as many events as possible over this period -- more than 600 events - we know many athletes had a very lean year last year and are still experiencing challenges this year," Sebastian Coe president of WA said here on the sidelines of ongoing US Olympic Trials.

WA said last year it had set up an athlete fund, supported by some generous donations, to provide financial relief to those athletes most in need. In all, 193 athletes from 58 countries were granted up to $3,000 (Rs.2.22 lakh) to go towards basic living costs such as food, accommodation and training expenses.