Honestly, all in all this was as good or better than those early season diamond leagues in China or wherever.
The difference here is that the level of athletes racing was far better than in those early diamond leagues in China, which means the product should be better. I loved watching fisher's 3k and 5k at BU, and now other than GST we will only see him at Pre before the trials and WC.
In the end GST will be a bad influence on the sport by decreasing the quality of the rest of the season. Jakob's legend will continue to grow as he dominates the Diamond league circuit in races watched by hundreds of thousands of people, while the GST athletes will make a lot of money but with tarnish their legacies. Josh Kerr will probably keep telling us how good he is.
I read all the posts in this thread and over it seems like 95% were just people pathetically complaining about something with the meet or tv production.
No one should not be complaining about the size of the crowd when they made no effort to be in the stadium watching the meet If the size of the crowd really upsets you book a flight to be there Sunday.
No one should complain about slow races or lack of splits when we heard all along that GST was about head-to-head competition and racing. If you want splits start your watch and glance at it as you watch.
No one should complain about what big name athletes are not at this meet. They had their chance to race this weekend, and you can try to see what they post online instead.
If you don't like the coverage or pace of the meet schedule don't watch. Maybe you can catch a few fast-paced baseball games this weekend instead.
How about being glad that GST even exists? How about being happy that you actually get to watch 24 exciting races live in three days at the beginning of April? How about feeling good that a bunch of track athletes are going to make some money?
GST definitely has a lot of room for improvement, but I’ll say this: it’s early April, and we have over 25 pages of discussion about a track meet featuring a boat load of Olympic medalists. I’m grateful for that.
There’s very little at “stake” in these races, aside from money. Athletes are showing up in decent form (like we’d expect in April) and seem almost detached from the races. The positives they do say during interviews sound scripted. It’s obvious they’re here for money, and not much else.
A tactical, 14:40 5000m is fun to watch when an Olympic or WC Gold is on the line. When it’s just money, and supposed bragging rights (which we can tell matter little to the athletes) the excitement dwindles.
Not even a sub 10 in the Men's 100, but "Only the fastest"
By the way, I have not wanted this to fail. I still want it to succeed. However, if this is what to expect for the next three slams, then this is already the end.
At least the athletes are getting paid sorta handsomely...
After this event, I'm starting to agree with Rojo (and disagree with Michael Johnson) that track (and field) doesn't really need saving.
Assuming that Trump hasn't completely ruined the country by 2028, the LA Olympics will be fantastic. The US trials and Pre Classic will continue to be great meets (after tonight, I'll never complain about Hayward Field again).
The Diamond League needs a little more structure and higher prize money to bring it more in line with the PGA or ATP/WTA tours. Four of its meets could be given 'grand slam' status to encourage the biggest names to show up consistently. Other than that, it's great.
Let's just accept that the sport's spiritual home is in Europe and enjoy it the way it is. Maybe it doesn't need to break the Americas.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Wow... this was really hard to watch. And the worst(?) part is, there is still two more days of it!!
I'm really surprised by how bad the production of this was. I was expecting so much more. The Athlos meet last fall was a lot at "trying something new and different". Like so many others have said, this just seemed like a terrible diamond meet with no spectators, no splits, bad commentary, athletes who didn't care.
I was excited about GST but after this... no.
Can't believe top athletes skipped World Indoors to focus on this.
And now we are going to have so many top athletes skipping Diamond Leagues now to do these slams. This is just going to splinter competitive fields even more than they already were.
There are already so many great meets throughout the year (NB Grand Prix, Millrose, Indoor Trials and Worlds, Monaco, London Diamond, Outdoor Trials and Worlds/Olympics, etc)... why do we need 4 more when we could have just made the already good meets even better?
I can’t believe Fisher took that after being terribly boxed in at 400. I’m actually less surprised by Jacobs and Teare finishing that well, reminiscent of Cooper’s win over Nuguse a few years back
Fisher seems to keep his inner miler in good stead. I suspect even when he moves up to the marathon, he'll see the old horse is well looked after.
Let's just accept that the sport's spiritual home is in Europe and enjoy it the way it is. Maybe it doesn't need to break the Americas.
I assumed the atmosphere would be more like when the world relay championships was in the Caribbean a while back. So disappointed, I thought kicking it off in Jamaica was a good idea. Shows how much I know.
I sense a lack of creativity and essentially a lack of love for the sport. If you loved something truly you would not treat it like this. When we truly love something we intuitively do a good job. I've never bought the idea that parenting is a result of not knowing what to do, it is very often that they simply don't care enough. When you care truly you find a way.
And bean counters have insane ideas like probably asking Valerie Allman if she can throw an Olympic record in the 6th round because that's the ideal time to sell candy and soft drinks to all the fat kids watching.
Criticism hurts but when you love something truly you would never care only want to know what's best to do.
I realize its not easy but that stupid tape thing at the end could get an athlete hurt. I saw a marathon last year where a female athlete tried to run through the line and it didn't break and she fell over! Imagine running a 2.20 marathon and getting closed line at the end! That is not a mistake its a lack of love, a lack of care. Novelty stuff that changes nothing.
Feel free to criticise me for being a negative nelly but I think I'm right. What plans were in place for the crowd. Do they even care? Id be heartbroken if I was heading that up and the crowd were like that, I'd feel I let everybody down. How about giving free tickets to all the poorest Jamaicans and tell them to have a party. How hard is this really?
Sorry coming from a bad faith place here, wanting to basically camouflage my dominance attempts underneath constructive criticism of the event. I think it really is important to get the crowds in even if you lose money on that side and I hope the organizers will be able to find innovative solutions to the difficulty in getting bums on seats. Good luck.
Reading Reddit threads Jamaica at the time this event started is a difficult commute
Regardless we got an inaugural event landing some big names and had free stream. Big thank you to everyone that made this happen and hope nothing but the best. Full stop.
I read all the posts in this thread and over it seems like 95% were just people pathetically complaining about something with the meet or tv production.
No one should not be complaining about the size of the crowd when they made no effort to be in the stadium watching the meet If the size of the crowd really upsets you book a flight to be there Sunday.
No one should complain about slow races or lack of splits when we heard all along that GST was about head-to-head competition and racing. If you want splits start your watch and glance at it as you watch.
No one should complain about what big name athletes are not at this meet. They had their chance to race this weekend, and you can try to see what they post online instead.
If you don't like the coverage or pace of the meet schedule don't watch. Maybe you can catch a few fast-paced baseball games this weekend instead.
How about being glad that GST even exists? How about being happy that you actually get to watch 24 exciting races live in three days at the beginning of April? How about feeling good that a bunch of track athletes are going to make some money?
Huge huge damper for me was finding out an hour before that it was not streamed live on YouTube, like we were led to believe it would be, on a couple of channels, yesterday. I pretty much tuned it out after that.
Reading Reddit threads Jamaica at the time this event started is a difficult commute
Regardless we got an inaugural event landing some big names and had free stream. Big thank you to everyone that made this happen and hope nothing but the best. Full stop.
ALMOST all Jamaican Track fans care about are Jamaican sprint athletes and maybe Natayle Goule.
Not a good look when most of the Jamaican stars would rather race for free at Miramar, Fla this weekend then race in front of the hometown fans for a payday
Do we not think this was DL paying them to skip GST to make it flop? If so, fantastic play by DL, it's definitely working. Caught the first few races and watching the replay back now, and by far my biggest criticism is the empty stadium. Kingston was a gamble and it's not paying off. $10 isn't nothing for most Jamaicans, should've given tickets away for free, heck offer free food too.
Am I the only one who doesn’t care at all it was slow? Everybody in this thread saying “we need pacers”… Dawg, we get pacers and we see the classic Gebriwhet, Fisher, Bekele finish we see every month on the Diamond League.
this was actually exciting. I’m here for it
I was actually thinking this as I watched. Like, yeah it was slow, but I had it propped on my laptop scrambling some dinner and stayed semi-tuned waiting for either a hard mid-race move or fast last 400-800m. Exactly what I'd have done in a Diamond League, except I had to keep a little closer eye on it because I know for a fact nobody's going to do anything in a DL other than tuck in until the pacers drop and (maybe) go. And unlike DL races, where failing to hit a standard or record leaves not much to care about, I'm genuinely curious now to see (1) what happens in the 3000 and (2) what happens as the season goes on. I like watching fast times and DLs, but I do like seeing something different too--something that could actually transfer better to later-season champs racing. For an NFL analogy, it's kind of like the difference between an offensive shootout and a defensive struggle (the latter of which people also seem to have lost the ability to watch, I suppose).
By FAR the worst part was the announcers repeatedly saying "I know we're not supposed to talk about time, but omg this is so slowwwwwwww." That'll turn off casuals. (Anderson just said "this is what we signed up for" during the post-game as I type, which, come on man. Maybe just solve this problem with more Centro and less Anderson! Centro's sitting here talking about how he loves this and found it entertaining. I actually believe him, but also, it's his job to hype up the event--so it's nice of him to do it.) Instead, have your actual experts talk about tactics, which moves to expect, bios and medals, coaches and teams, training, etc. etc. They did some of this, but they clearly weren't prepared to fill 13 minutes of warmup. More of an early-season 5000m problem than a format problem in my opinion.
The commentating does tie into my biggest critique so far, which is the program pacing. Could easily have shaved half an hour or, if they're not going to shorten the time between races, there's gotta be something. I really thought they'd have more packaged stuff or live entertainment, since relying entirely on these commentators to awkwardly fill space is tough. Again with the NFL analogy, there's a TON of complaints when commentators have to just sit and fill space there, too, and they've got the option to cut in highlights from other games. Maybe drop some $ to show Olympics and world/national championships highlights between events? Or some track history graphics/stories/highlights. Showing some grainy black and white clips of whichever event back in the 60s, some 90s greats, and then this. Bonus points: some events wouldn't look so slow, relative to the past.
Okay I have this rolling in the background still and the answer really is just sub in Centro. People are really sleeping on Welteji, though.
Agree on all your takes. I actually really like this format for distance, everything is tactical, reminds me of a cycling race (I watch a lot of cycling). They should just eliminate the clock graphic and use a laps to go number. That's effectively what cycling does with distance remaining. No one ever cares about how long a bike race takes, we care about who wins. If someone wants to make all 5,000 meters hard, they can, but just like in cycling, if they do, they'll drag everyone with them and do all the work. Seeing Grant get caught out of position, accelerate but hold his line and wait for gaps to open, and then kick down everyone was awesome, much more enjoyable than just seeing how close everyone can get to 12:45 with multiple pacers and lights. To the people praising DL, don't delude yourself into thinking those races are tactical - guys making passes on the last lap is just a matter of who physically has it. This was actual racing and refreshing. What to do with the 10 minutes of jogging beforehand? Field events, they're the bread before the meal while the chef is cooking up your plate. Cycling has hours of scenic European countryside helicopter shots. The productions are really good at knowing when to focus on the race or not. Track (particularly NBC) can do a better job of focusing on the distance races if moves are actually being made. Biggest issue with GST lacking field events is actually the dead time between setting up hurdles and blocks. All that time wasted just so we can see SML and Dos Santos waltz to victory. I also think the 800/1500 mixing is playing out in a cool way. They should widen the gap for the 3/5 group. 15/10 would be sick but I doubt they could convince the Racers to sign up for four 10ks.
Grades so far: Sprints-C, Distance-B+, Venue-F, Graphics-B- (sharp appearance but slow and sometimes wrong), commentary-B, camera shots-B+ (rail cam, ok drone use, great picture on peacock), overall C+/B-. Hope the points thing makes the second races great. Men's 8 will be lit but the 8 guys are in for a rough 15.
I was actually thinking this as I watched. Like, yeah it was slow, but I had it propped on my laptop scrambling some dinner and stayed semi-tuned waiting for either a hard mid-race move or fast last 400-800m. Exactly what I'd have done in a Diamond League, except I had to keep a little closer eye on it because I know for a fact nobody's going to do anything in a DL other than tuck in until the pacers drop and (maybe) go. And unlike DL races, where failing to hit a standard or record leaves not much to care about, I'm genuinely curious now to see (1) what happens in the 3000 and (2) what happens as the season goes on. I like watching fast times and DLs, but I do like seeing something different too--something that could actually transfer better to later-season champs racing. For an NFL analogy, it's kind of like the difference between an offensive shootout and a defensive struggle (the latter of which people also seem to have lost the ability to watch, I suppose).
By FAR the worst part was the announcers repeatedly saying "I know we're not supposed to talk about time, but omg this is so slowwwwwwww." That'll turn off casuals. (Anderson just said "this is what we signed up for" during the post-game as I type, which, come on man. Maybe just solve this problem with more Centro and less Anderson! Centro's sitting here talking about how he loves this and found it entertaining. I actually believe him, but also, it's his job to hype up the event--so it's nice of him to do it.) Instead, have your actual experts talk about tactics, which moves to expect, bios and medals, coaches and teams, training, etc. etc. They did some of this, but they clearly weren't prepared to fill 13 minutes of warmup. More of an early-season 5000m problem than a format problem in my opinion.
The commentating does tie into my biggest critique so far, which is the program pacing. Could easily have shaved half an hour or, if they're not going to shorten the time between races, there's gotta be something. I really thought they'd have more packaged stuff or live entertainment, since relying entirely on these commentators to awkwardly fill space is tough. Again with the NFL analogy, there's a TON of complaints when commentators have to just sit and fill space there, too, and they've got the option to cut in highlights from other games. Maybe drop some $ to show Olympics and world/national championships highlights between events? Or some track history graphics/stories/highlights. Showing some grainy black and white clips of whichever event back in the 60s, some 90s greats, and then this. Bonus points: some events wouldn't look so slow, relative to the past.
Okay I have this rolling in the background still and the answer really is just sub in Centro. People are really sleeping on Welteji, though.
Agree on all your takes. I actually really like this format for distance, everything is tactical, reminds me of a cycling race (I watch a lot of cycling). They should just eliminate the clock graphic and use a laps to go number. That's effectively what cycling does with distance remaining. No one ever cares about how long a bike race takes, we care about who wins. If someone wants to make all 5,000 meters hard, they can, but just like in cycling, if they do, they'll drag everyone with them and do all the work. Seeing Grant get caught out of position, accelerate but hold his line and wait for gaps to open, and then kick down everyone was awesome, much more enjoyable than just seeing how close everyone can get to 12:45 with multiple pacers and lights. To the people praising DL, don't delude yourself into thinking those races are tactical - guys making passes on the last lap is just a matter of who physically has it. This was actual racing and refreshing. What to do with the 10 minutes of jogging beforehand? Field events, they're the bread before the meal while the chef is cooking up your plate. Cycling has hours of scenic European countryside helicopter shots. The productions are really good at knowing when to focus on the race or not. Track (particularly NBC) can do a better job of focusing on the distance races if moves are actually being made. Biggest issue with GST lacking field events is actually the dead time between setting up hurdles and blocks. All that time wasted just so we can see SML and Dos Santos waltz to victory. I also think the 800/1500 mixing is playing out in a cool way. They should widen the gap for the 3/5 group. 15/10 would be sick but I doubt they could convince the Racers to sign up for four 10ks.
Grades so far: Sprints-C, Distance-B+, Venue-F, Graphics-B- (sharp appearance but slow and sometimes wrong), commentary-B, camera shots-B+ (rail cam, ok drone use, great picture on peacock), overall C+/B-. Hope the points thing makes the second races great. Men's 8 will be lit but the 8 guys are in for a rough 15.
This is simply nonsense. Diamond League 3000m/5000m races with the best runners in the world ARE tactical. What about this race was more tactical? That there were more people at the bell??
Here are tons of examples of 3000m/5000m races with the same level of “tactical finishes”, in the Diamond League.
I read all the posts in this thread and over it seems like 95% were just people pathetically complaining about something with the meet or tv production.
No one should not be complaining about the size of the crowd when they made no effort to be in the stadium watching the meet If the size of the crowd really upsets you book a flight to be there Sunday.
No one should complain about slow races or lack of splits when we heard all along that GST was about head-to-head competition and racing. If you want splits start your watch and glance at it as you watch.
No one should complain about what big name athletes are not at this meet. They had their chance to race this weekend, and you can try to see what they post online instead.
If you don't like the coverage or pace of the meet schedule don't watch. Maybe you can catch a few fast-paced baseball games this weekend instead.
How about being glad that GST even exists? How about being happy that you actually get to watch 24 exciting races live in three days at the beginning of April? How about feeling good that a bunch of track athletes are going to make some money?
I can't imagine this bringing more TV viewers to track. There were two short races in the first HOUR of the coverage and a 30-minute wrapup??!! Golf is more captivating than that.