EARTH TO NBC, ANDREW WHEATING WAS RUNNING..

he was NEVER mid pack, mid pack of what?

He was 2.5 back at the bell behind 5-6 guys, I think.The lead group was well separated from him.

trialswatcher wrote:

he was NEVER mid pack, mid pack of what?

The pack.

Buy a dictionary, king99.

dhmh wrote:

hammond and bolden are just awful. they have no idea what is going on...i was astonished they couldn't find wheating in that field or mention his name once.

and the 200 was even worse. they are so hell bent on creating melodrama out of nothing: "...AND TYSON GAY HAS MADE IT PAST THE PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIER OF THE FIRST 20M WHERE HE PULLED UP IN 2008!..."

what complete idiocy.

The comments about Gay getting past the psychological barrier were pretty comical.

In the Wheating case, I can understand the oversight to some degree. He ran better than I expected, which really means nothing however to the TV guys they work on a "lets play these guys up" standard (which may or may not be right) and then gear their broadcast around those runners. In this case it's Lagat, Manzano and Lomong with a couple of the Kenyans. Throw on top of the fact that Wheating spent most of the race in the very back and there was no reason to introduce another runner at that point. The weird part was, IIRC, they mentioned Lomong coming around the bend just as Wheating was about to go by him.

One comment on Wheating...his style of competing reminds me of Kevin Sullivan.

trialswatcher wrote:

Look, all criticisms are valid, and they did show 3 minutes of no heighting in PV which is just mindless to me.

BUT, and a huge But, no one ever, ever mentions the 5th placer in anything, even if he is American unless it is like a Golf Tournament or Tour de France.

Come on now, Wheating ran a GREAT time. but was hardly visible in this race unless you knew who he was and he is easy to spot.

But he was a NON factor plain and simple, a great time yes but even at 1200, 3/4 almost 2.5 back and barely in the frame.

The time is great, but it is hard to talk about someone so out of the race for all of it.

you know what? that is bullcrap. because if CERTIFIED HOTTY LOLO JONES wins, loses, falls or farts in the starting blocks, nbc is chasing her all over for that story. how many more times do we have to watch her pulling up at drake last year?

if the story is easy mindless melodrama, or hotty-oriented they are all over it. but if the story revolves around an emerging american talent having a breakthrough performance, the odds are they won't be noticed or mentioned.

and those trackside interviews...jeesus h christ...

it is just moronic. remember when we used to bitch about larry rawson? i'd take him back in a second.

the only positive is that dwight stones does a great job breaking down the jumps. i can't believe they can't find another PROFESSIONAL who can bring the same level of insight to the sprints and distance.

and cutting away from the 5k every 45 seconds...asshooooles...

dhmh wrote:i was astonished they couldn't find wheating in that field or mention his name once.

Tom Harmmon said "Wheating is wearing the Duckie singlet thats some suprise" so he was mentioned and a sly 'what`s a pro doing wearing a school uniform' innuendo attached showing that he knew AW signed with Witmore yesterday and was "Officially a Pro" now now that good reporting.

How come no love for Ryan Gregson who at 20yo moved into 3rd AllTime on the Aussie mile list. I believe Wheating moved to 14th on the US list moving Masback into 15th.

IIRC some female sprinter had the yipps about the turn she pulled on and made a big deal had a headtrip about not being able to run hard at that point on the track- Made Marion?

4:06? Why does NBC spend so much time talking about the Mexican Midget?

Hy Tink wrote:

How come no love for Ryan Gregson who at 20yo moved into 3rd AllTime on the Aussie mile list.

He was in the B race not shown.

sublime voice wrote:

The commentators were simply being professional. They didn't mention the 4th place finisher either and he finished waaaay ahead of Wheating. Why would a professional commentator focus on a guy in distant 5th? Because he's white? The world does not think like Letsrun.

Perhaps because he's an American on an American television network transmitting to an American audience.

I bet they didn't even know who Wheating is

Of course they talk about Lolo Jones, she's MUCH better than Wheating.

dghdfg, you're absolutely correct... with the exception of course of the Larry Rawson comment. Just because pneumonia would be worse than the flu does not make a sane person long for the days when he had the flu.

Even though this thread started with a discussion of the mile and Wheating, the major point is that the entire meet coverage was incompetent and terrible. More than enough examples have already been cited in this thread, however one more specific does deserve some follow-up.

You are definitely right about the "hottie" factor. That's probably why they showed Jen S. missing three times in the pole vault. Reflecting back to the NCAAs, the coverage of the womens 1500 was totally focused on Jorday Hasay, at least partially for the same reason. She was third but got much more time than the winner, and they completely ignored one of the best stories of the meet by pretending the runner-up (a cancer survivor) didn't even exist.

But I come back to the same bottom line... The coverage has been awful for a long time and we've been ranting about it for a long time, with no improvement whatsoever. The networks don't have the motivation or incentive to do anything different. Let's shift our focus to USATF. Their job is to promote our sport. How hard would it be for them to "work with" the networks to fix this problem? As someone observed a page or so ago, Craig Virgin did a great job. If everyone who posts on here emails USATF as well...

The pack.

Buy a dictionary, king99.

Hey nit wit...the guy said Wheating was mid pack, at best he was in the back of the DISCONNECTED pack of runners for most of the race.

That was my point, did you even watch the race? With 300M to go Wheating was so far back it was whacked. You cannot say he was IN the main race up front at all, could you?

He ran to his abilities, ran a great time with a well managed run and picked off a lot of guys from 450 on in.

The 'winner' lives in Australia.

trialswatcher wrote:

The pack.

Buy a dictionary, king99.

Hey nit wit...the guy said Wheating was mid pack, at best he was in the back of the DISCONNECTED pack of runners for most of the race.

That was my point, did you even watch the race? With 300M to go Wheating was so far back it was whacked. You cannot say he was IN the main race up front at all, could you?

He ran to his abilities, ran a great time with a well managed run and picked off a lot of guys from 450 on in.

If you know anything about Wheating, running the way he did is how he always does, he was always in contact with the race and started moving up when guys fell apart. He was always in the heart of the race because even when he's in the back, he's not finishing back there. Everyone knows this.

trialswatcher wrote:

Come on now, Wheating ran a GREAT time. but was hardly visible in this race unless you knew who he was and he is easy to spot.

But he was a NON factor plain and simple, a great time yes but even at 1200, 3/4 almost 2.5 back and barely in the frame.

The time is great, but it is hard to talk about someone so out of the race for all of it.

Hardly noticeable? A 6'5" guy with a bright yellow jersey with a huge green O? He was hardly visible because the commentators directed you to others, including short guys with purple nike jerseys who were just in front of him during the race. Leo and Lomong were just in front of him. He finished ahead of 3 guys who were mentioned.

Who didn't think that might happen besides the obvious idiots. Plenty of people were saying if he stays in contact he will storm home, he did and he did.

This was all discussed long before the race, it shouldn't have been a huge shocker. Wheating was on the press conference panel with 6 others, who were the top athletes in the world. Again, somehow these commentators missed this???

Lopez, Lagat, Leo, Solinsky & Teg all got mentioned. Who would you say did not get mentioned and deserved it a lot more.

That's right, the american distance runner with the story of the day, which they completely missed.

gonchar wrote:

That was a dark. dark moment in American track broadcasting history. One of the greatest moments for American middle distance...totally, completely missed by NBC. There is no excuse, and we want a sincere and complete apology from NBC Sports.

Anyone who owns GE stock, SELL.

GE stock isn't worth anything except as a capital loss.

My biggest problem with NBC coverage of track and field, is the announcers are just plain boring. I could listen to Phil Liggett talk about a chateau, farmer or bike race for hours. I can listen to some of these World Cup matches simply because the announcers are poetic, poignant and excitable. The ONLY time I can remember Hammond making any type of memorable energetic call was BOLT's world record. Other than that, very forgetful commenting. You have to remember that when it comes to announcing/communication for TV it is always HOW the broadcasters says something and then what they say is marginally important.

Hmmmmm????

Again you are not helping yourself here.

Of course everyone knows how Wheating races, that said he was NOT a factor in this race whatsoever.

Now is he recognizable, hell yes, is he a story and should it have been mentioned after he ran the time? Yes and maybe during the race? Yes, but he was barely in the frame at times, you have to CALL the race that is before you as an announcer, not say a bunch of flowery shit about a guy those watching already know tons about.

You are missing the point, great run , yes, great time yes. Big story , yeah I guess.

He was not a factor in this race at all, that just is.Was it worth more than the 3 minutes they spent on NH PV'ing? For sure.

At least they didn't cut to a baseball game in the middle

he was actually jogging this 3:51.

can't wait to see what he can drop on the european circuit once he actually starts racing