HERE’S THIS MONTH’S collection of short takes on generally off-track activities that have gone/will go a long way towards shaping the way the sport is headed.
Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore
In readying its new product for track & field fans, World Athletics is making sure everything about its new Ultimate Championships looks and feels different.
Visually, the black infield is the first clue that UC will be breaking new ground. The broadcast will feature updated visuals, augmented reality and a “refreshed look and feel.” The commentary will focus on storytelling as opposed to race calls in between periods of waiting for the next race. “Every second will be accounted for.”
Stadium sound will also be different, with live musical acts before each session to set the mood. Athlete interviews will be shown in the stadium and simultaneously to the global broadcast audience. A full lighting rig will also enhance the experience, with Noah Lyles a key consultant.
“The Day Before” is what organizers are calling their pre-meet media blitz, including press conferences, red carpet arrivals, content capture stations and kids events inside the stadium.
There are also plans to allow athletes to make greater use of their own images on social media, while they will get access to content from WA’s commissioned photographers. Tara Davis-Woodhall will be working as lead content creator.
Awards will look different also, with winners getting a trophy and all participants a “unique participation token.” And athletes’ loved ones will be stationed on the field, rather than spread through the stands.
Following the meet will be the athlete-only after-party, something most of the athletes may be in the mood for after participating in the best-paid meet in history, with $10 million in prizes. The winners will get $150K each and all participants will get a share.
Lananna New CEO Of USATF Foundation
After 23 years of service to the USATF Foundation, CEO Tom Jackovic announced in July that he was stepping down for personal reasons.
Stepping in to fill the important position will be noted coach Vin Lananna, who played important roles for the programs at Dartmouth, Stanford, Oregon and Virginia. While at Oregon he also served as the president of TrackTown USA. His leadership extended well beyond the collegiate ranks as he was head coach of Team USA at the ’11 WC and ’16 OG. He served as USATF President from 2017–’24.
Said Bob Greifeld, Chair of the USATF Foundation Board, “Vin’s experience makes him uniquely qualified to lead the Foundation into its next chapter. We are confident his passion for athlete development and his deep understanding of our sport will help expand the Foundation’s impact for years to come.”
For his part, Lananna said, “I am excited to accept a new role in our sport. The Foundation has had a transformative impact on our sport, and I’m honored to work with a distinguished group of generous directors. I’m excited to help our sport in expanding opportunities for athletes, inspiring the next generation and eager to get started.”
Cavalier Associate Head Coach Trevor Dunbar has been named as the program’s interim leader.
Sub-2:00 Marathons To Become Common?
Distance legend Paul Tergat believes the fierce rivalry among East Africa’s distance-running powerhouses will continue to drive Kenyan athletes to even greater heights. He told the Kenya Star that the intense competition among Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda is the perfect catalyst to push the marathon into uncharted territory.
He went on to predict that breaking 2:00 could soon become the new benchmark in men’s marathon running: “We are yet to see more athletes in the near future going under 2:00. I know we will see a lot of them.”
Himself a WR setter at 2:04:55 in ’03, Tergat believes Sabastian Sawe’s WR of 1:59:30 is unlikely to stand for long: “All these records being set will, at some point, be broken. Sawe is at his peak, and he is still young, so we hope he can push the barrier even further.”
Does Kerr Deserve A Raise?
A $50,000 bonus for World Records has been a fixture in our sport for quite some time now (note that it’s $100K if the record happens at a major WA event). Josh Kerr, the recipient of the latest $50K check, thinks the number hasn’t kept pace with the times, saying, “$50,000 is a ridiculous number. To get the same amount 27 years later is appalling, not to sound greedy.”
Kerr noted that Hicham El Guerrouj banked the same $50,000 for setting the previous mile WR 27 years earlier. Inflation has basically cut the payoff amount in half since then.
“I know how much that took from investing in myself financially over the last eight years as a professional. I just feel like I’ve been a bit shortchanged a little bit.”
Resistance To Russian Reinstatement
As expected, the IOC’s greenlight for the readmission of Russia and Belarus to international sports has encountered some serious resistance. While some federations, such as boxing, have readily readmitted athletes from the two nations, many others have held back.
In addition, various governments have shown strong opposition. Canada’s Secretary Of State For Sport released a statement saying the nation “strongly opposes” readmission and will not allow Russians and Belarusians in any events on Canadian soil that receive government funding.
European Union president Ursula von der Leyen called the IOC “blind to reality,” and condemned the move. She added, “culture and sport should not be a tool for whitewashing aggression.”
Ukraine, the biggest opponent, naturally, has taken the IOC to court, filing an appeal with the CAS. Ukraine’s Olympic committee is arguing that the IOC move contradicts the Olympic Charter and “fails to take into account the actual circumstances” that led to the ’23 ban on Russia and Belarus.
London Joins World Champs Bidding
It’s official, finally. After reaching an agreement with West Ham United, London has formally submitted its bid to host the ’29 Worlds.
The negotiations with the soccer club centered on London Stadium itself. The club leases it during the season and did not want to rearrange its schedule to accommodate the Worlds. Now the aim is for a September championship, with West Ham assured it will not have to play more than two consecutive away matches in that time.
Said UK Athletics head Jack Buckner, “Bidding to hold the World Athletics Championships in the London Stadium, the showpiece of London 2012, was always at the center of the UK’s Olympic legacy plans.
“We are very grateful to the Government, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Mayor of London and UK Sport for their fantastic support for this bid.”
Not that it’s a shoe-in. Rome is among the other bidders and has obtained government approval of the financial guarantees needed. With Munich and Nairobi, there are four cities now that made the August 05 bid deadline.
WA is planning to name both the ’29 and ’31 hosts on September 20.
NCAA Cancels Altitude Conversions
In a major change for the collegiate sport, the NCAA Div. I oversight committee has voted to eliminate all altitude conversions for Nationals qualifying, along with the track size/indexing conversions, beginning with the coming school year.
“As it relates to altitude conversions, the committee noted that 1)altitude impacts every individual differently, yet a uniform standard conversion is being applied, 2)conversions are not applied for other conditions such as heat, humidity, etc., and 3)nowhere else in any other level of the sport are altitude conversions being used.
“When it comes to track size and indexing conversions for indoor track and field the committee noted 1) every track is different yet uniform conversions are applied based on the track type, 2) there is no true science being applied, 3) there is now more access to 200m banked tracks than ever, 4) every track impacts individuals differently based on their biomechanics, and 5) again, like altitude conversions, no other level of the sport is using track size/indexing conversions.”
What this means in the near-term is that high altitude distance programs such as BYU and Northern Arizona will no longer be able to get qualifying marks at home meets. It will also change the dynamics of which meets will be the big draws for wanna-be national qualifiers, with certain oversized tracks such as Washington’s perhaps getting more business than ever.
Another proposal (in the not-a-done-deal column) is a new “optional” scoring method for major meets. For meets with 12 or more teams, scoring would go 16-deep. If the scheme were used for the outdoor championships, the scoring would extend into the Regionals.
Says Marc Davis, Troy coach and head of the rules subcommittee, “We were trying to make the first round of competition have more value. People in general need to understand that first and second rounds of the NCAA meet happen before teams get to the final site. People will be able to bring those points with them to the final site. It’s a huge deal for track & field.”
The prime motivator, according to critics, is that more teams would be able to claim they scored at Nationals and thus would get a boost in the all-sport Director’s Cup standings. Whether complicating the scoring would make the sport easier for fans to follow remains to be seen.
Hammer Sweep Program Renewed
U.S. fortunes in the ball-and-chain event have been on an uptick recently, and surely no small amount of credit should go to Operation Hammer Sweep, a plan administered by the USATF Foundation.
The top 8 finishers in each sex at the USATF Championships will divvy up $90,000 in support money. The monetary split: $10K, $8K, $7K, $6K, $5K, $4K, $3K, $2K.
The driving force behind the annual project has been 2-time Olympian Ken Flax, who says, “This commitment reflects our continued belief in America’s hammer throwers. The United States now has athletes capable of competing with the very best in the world. By providing grant support we are supporting not only today’s leaders, but also the athletes working to become our next Olympians, world championship finalists and medalists.” ◻︎
