THE TOKYO WORLD CHAMPS are coming in 8 days as I write. I can’t wait! Before I know it I’ll be in the Tokyo stadium in a city where I’ve not watched a track meet since the ’91 World Champs — an epic edition and not just on the strength of the Powell-Lewis long jump war that produced a still-standing World Record.
I’ll never forget that competition or the aftermath babbling with colleagues about it at a late-night izakaya restaurant while a roaring typhoon rushed in. It felt like the heavens had let loose a meteorological 1812 Overture as an ovation for the jumpers. At least that’s how I remember it. I promise the T&FN crew returned to our hotel in the wee hours so drenched our shoes sloshed buckets of wet stuff around the lobby as we beelined for the elevator.
As to the fireworks of Tokyo ’91, I should note that Lewis — who’d had the greatest long jump comp of his career that night — had, oh, almost forgot, chopped 0.04 from the 100 WR 5 nights earlier.
Tokyo ’91 was a tough act to follow for the 4 Grand Prix meets, including the GP Final, held in the 3 weeks immediately following. (It was a pre-Diamond League era.)
This time the year’s blockbuster championships will ring down the season’s curtain with hoped-for appropriate drama. WA’s plan is that hereafter every season, other than Olympic years where our sport can’t set the calendar, will wind up with a title-meet bang.
That sits well with me. I love grand finales. I’ll confess, too, that to the extent I follow pro ball sports I’ve always been a playoffs guy. Late June or mid-July bring fine summer days for catching a ballgame and a couple cold ones. What stirs my blood, though, are the do-or-die season-ending series sequences.
Over the last month in our sport, I’ll confess to being captivated as I followed the final sequence of DL meets covered in this issue. The needle-threading of Brittany Brown, Josh Hoey, Joe Kovacs, Yared Nuguse and others chasing qualification to the DL Final, and once there a DL Final win in the hope of securing a Tokyo Wild Card — well, that drama floated my boat even as most of these brave chases came up short. We also were treated to intriguing tuneup clashes among medal favorites.
Not everyone at T&FN agrees, though. As Zürich unfolded, in came this sample in-house e-mail from Colleague No. 1: “Is it just me… or is this a rather dull DLF? I realize weather is prob putting a damper on things, but beyond that, every time I open an event [result] I find myself asking, ‘Where’s the exciting names?’”
Me: “I think we saw it coming. Many athletes back to last pre-WC top-up training with long trip and time zone adjustment to follow.”
Colleague No. 2: “Definitely a case that in making the World Championships the final big meet of the year, the Diamond League has taken a big loss. The fields are decimated, and the stars that are here don’t really have anyone at their level to race.”
I raised my “but look at other sports” talking point and was met with a retort to chew on: “Some non-team sports (tennis and golf come to mind) have multiple big fixtures, and the biggest (Wimbledon, The Masters) come in the middle of everything.”
Here colleague No. 3 chimed in: “Yeah… even though it makes sense and is in common with other sports to have the championship at the end, there was often something great about 2–3 weeks of Zürich, Brussels and others that were attractive for WR-chasing, redemption tours, etc., after OG and WC.”
Fair point. A common observation after the knocked-our-socks-off DL Final of Eugene ’23 was “greatest 2-day meet the sport has ever staged.”
Colleague No. 1 again: “I’ve long been in favor of the “big climax” that we’re now set up to have, but I’m concerned that from the get-go the DL season has been a weak sister. I worry that we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul. I suppose the way Tokyo plays out will have some effect on my ultimate opinion.”
Back in November I polled three Olympians. Two were Paris gold medalists, the third a 4th-placer. They all favored the calendar change ahead. They cited winners from Paris skipping the post-Games season entirely. They mentioned wondering as they lined up at meets after the year’s title clash, “Why am I doing this?” The answer, they admitted, for most athletes was the green stuff, money in the bank.
Who’s right? Let’s ask ourselves again in 3 weeks. I’ll be very surprised, in any case, if Tokyo doesn’t deliver the goods.
