BREAKING: IAAF announces that from 2020 onwards, longest race in Diamond League will be 3000m

Jacksonville wrote:

Yes, but do you think you are in the majority of those who want to view track and field meets? I think not.

I also don't perceive Coe as being "clueless old bureaucrat". Either you are very young, or have a false sense of what "old" is.

What direct connection is there with Greek games of 3000 years ago? They ran on a straight and a few individual ran a marathon distance. I don't see much of a parallel.

Are you also in favor having chariot races being shown on network TV?

Regarding your first two paragraphs, definitely yes, but regarding your last paragraph . . . also yes? I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds kinda awesome.

El Keniano wrote:

Another way of looking at it is that distance has the roads and cross country while sprinting just has track. So it makes complete sense for them to push distance out of track especially since it’s dominated by poorer countries that should have no business denying Western countries complete glory like they have in every other sport except running.

There are no circumstances , that anyone in North America would set aside time to watch an African do anything. Or the print media . Especially the print media. If you were trying to sell commercial spots and said , we want to feature "this person", on our telecast , the door would slam in your face.

ITU no wrote:

The only thing less interesting on tv than 12 laps of running , is a person swimming in the ocean.

They could add a few sharks and barracudas to liven things up

Bad Wigins wrote:

ITU no wrote:

The only thing less interesting on tv than 12 laps of running , is a person swimming in the ocean.

They could add a few sharks and barracudas to liven things up

Or like Rio Olympics , you have to dodge feces a plastic bags during the swim.

TV Businessman wrote:

El Keniano wrote:

Another way of looking at it is that distance has the roads and cross country while sprinting just has track. So it makes complete sense for them to push distance out of track especially since it’s dominated by poorer countries that should have no business denying Western countries complete glory like they have in every other sport except running.

There are no circumstances , that anyone in North America would set aside time to watch an African do anything. Or the print media . Especially the print media. If you were trying to sell commercial spots and said , we want to feature "this person", on our telecast , the door would slam in your face.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ureport-uploads/FILE-1531716185.jpg

Let’s see if it grows with your two dozen sprint events and slow distance runners, then.

Predominately slow twitch people are not athletes; they are scrubs...slow slugs... No one wants to watch 12-15 slow shufflers like slog around the track for 12-25 laps. No one watches it; people prefer to watch explosive athletes run, jump, and throw.

El Keniano wrote:

TV Businessman wrote:

There are no circumstances , that anyone in North America would set aside time to watch an African do anything. Or the print media . Especially the print media. If you were trying to sell commercial spots and said , we want to feature "this person", on our telecast , the door would slam in your face.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ureport-uploads/FILE-1531716185.jpg

Let’s see if it grows with your two dozen sprint events and slow distance runners, then.

I'm not interested in growing the T&F sport , only interest is incoming vs out going revenue.This is the Television business model. T&F will ultimately fail on TV because of people like you. You don't know who is responsible for what, or who to blame.

This reminds me of when I was in middle school and races like the Bislett Mile were on TV and hyped up. The Americans and Europeans were competitive, but not necessarily winning all the races. Watch a 5000m in the Diamond League today. Are there any Europeans or Americans even in the field? If so, they rarely place in the top 6. Many viewers are in Europe and America, I can see how they lose interest. On the same line, how many Americans watch Rugby, Cricket, Soccer? Viewer numbers in America went way up for the Tour De France when LeMond and Armstrong were winning. If your country is not competing, the interest level will drop. This is the wrong way to deal with that problem, but it is a reality.

The 5000 and the 10,000 are the same event, whether the athletes are clean or not. Ditch the longer one. In the sit-and-kick era, the 3000 is also the same.

10,000 and marathon, same talent pool.

The 1500 is a nothing distance, only around because it is the metric mile.

The 100 and 200 can be very different given all clean athletes, but that ship sailed a long time ago. Ditch the 200 because the 100 is more pure.

400 exists only because it is 1 lap of a track based on the mile.

800 is just another mile-based track convenience, attracting athletes too slow for the 400 and aerobically inferior for the mile.

Given the realities of existing facilities, I say:

100

400

Mile

5000

Marathon

or:

100

800

5000

Marathon

, or something like that.

If you want to keep another of those longer middle distances, make it a skill race like hurdles—i.e. steeple—which have a huge technique component.

Lets face it, a lot of the races are contrived, just like in swimming, with all the 100/200 distances, and now the combined relays.

Look at real diving—at various levels you can see 1m and 3m springboard, and 5m, 7m, and 10m platform—but when it gets real it’s just 3m springboard and 10m platform—and now, maybe the marathon-equivalent 20+ m survival attempt that is the high dive. Yes I know that there is synchro, but that is the hurdles/steeple equivalent.

Simplicity = purity = appeal.

Track broadcasting in the US SUCKS. They hire butterhead ex-athletes who have a love affair with the US system. BORING. They are unlistenable morons, just look at what Lewis Johnson just did. Their minds don’t work fast enough for any interesting play-by-play calls, the races are better to watch with music instead .

It’s NOT a time thing, it is a moron commentator thing. Just look at nordic skiing’s Chad Salmela, that guy can make a 2-hour race scintillating. He was great well before his “Here comes Diggins!!!” fame.

Compared to him, track commentators are absolutely flaccid. They need to forget about ex-hero athletes like SRR on NBC and Ackbar on BBC. They SUCK.

Look at figure skating. Yes I said it, FIGURE SKATING. They hire ex-athletes, but only keep the ones good at media—that freak Johnny Weir, and the latest, Tanith Belbin. They are both great, and Weir is even partnered with the Grinch. Yes there are some old hangers-on, but they have been replacing them.

Track SUCKS at putting on a show. Their idea of interesting is some cheap flamethrowers at the finish line that the athletes don’t even have to run through—or worse yet, some angle grinders in boxes set up for athlete intros. Or the worst, a vomit of mylar litter after medals.

Unreal. Embarrassing. MORONS.

Here's some former pros who just screw around now to produce videos. This is money:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hw_Y4N5RdMo

One or the other shoe companies encouraged outlaw races some time back. Parkrun is a thing some places. And like Chelimo says, it's a good thing there are road races. (Put the racing back into road races.)

ALL the pieces are here for distance running to thrive. Problem is, we've got a bunch of presumably fast guys in this country who never race, never take on the real fast guys, while the world just gets faster and faster.

And yeah, cyclocross is the biggest thing in the world in Belgium. 3-4 hours live every weekend morning in the fall and winter. You wouldn't believe the crowds who turn out to see this.

The world wants extreme stuff now, not this boring sit-kick stuff. T&F is worse than golf, and more foreign to 99.999999 percent of the US population. I say tighten it up to try and make it more exciting. And if you want distance running to be in the public consciousness, it might help if everyone raced once in a while.

I honestly don't know. What I wrote was a personal view of something that inspired me as a kid for the reasons I gave. For sure other people will think similar but I don't know how many.

No, he isn't. I worded it poorly.

Afaik they ran sprints and distance races, threw the discus and javelin, did long jump, and so on. Sounds pretty similar - clearly many modern events are direct descendants.

Now you're talking - yes!!

And another thing: whatever distance is chosen, 3000, 5000, or 10000, make it an elimination race where the last runner on each lap is eliminated, depending on distance.

The best would be a 3000 starting with 8 competitors, one eliminated every 400m starting at 2400m:

3000 - 8

2800 - 8

2400 - 7

2000 - 6

1600 - 5

1200 - 4

800 - 3

400 - 2

A small enough field that nobody would be left behind so far that the best 2 could really just sit and kick off each other. Real excitement every lap. And make it a money race, so that each racer really tries to survive for just that 1 more lap.

Or, make it like a team pursuit, but the "teams" are really just 2 groups of, say, 8 runners each, the last one of which is pulled every 400m, so that the "teams" whittle down to just 2 racers on the track for the last 400m.

Or just have actual teams and an actual team pursuit, for money. This would be especially cool indoors, with teams of say 4 runners each, over a distance where one team would not catch the other. No sit-and-kick in that type of race. Outdoors could have larger teams.

Or have a mile TT that starts in lane 8, then moves to lane 6, lane 4, and finally lane 1, with say 10 athletes and starts staggered by one minute. Or, heck, use 20 athletes. What a great race--action everywhere on the track, no drafting, still finishing down the home straight, and fastest athletes starting last, with a rolling leader board.

Or something like that.

T&F is really stuck in the mud. As far as events go, sprints are still OK, but the mid-d/distance stuff has become somewhat lame. As a sprinter, who the heck wants to see some 5k/10k guys "sprinting" it out the last lap? I want to see sustained endurance play more of a role, their so-called "sprinting", isn't.

Sprintgeezer,

I like that you are putting up ideas. You are definitely not a distance fan and that bias shows, but that's cool.

You brought up the team idea and that is something really missing. Even if you are rooting for a particular athlete or country, how can we tell them apart when they are all wearing the same uniform from 1 or 2 sponsors? No way to tell their country or their name. L L L Lame.

I went to the Mets vs Braves opening game of spring training. Attendance was over 7,000 people (just about a full house in this small stadium). I paid $100 for 3 seats in the last row behind first base up near the top of the stadium. Maybe half of the two teams had their starters in the game, mostly for 2 innings. When Tebow came into the game fans rose up and cheered him on. This guy has yet to play in the majors. There were "events" between every half inning, including a race where a kid had to run from the left field wall to third base and back under 14 seconds. He won, got a t-shirt and the crowd cheered. Hot dogs cost $4.00, beer was $7.00 and the lines were long. Mind you this was a "practice" game.

Track now is happy if they can draw 2,000 fans to an indoor meet. Back when I ran, Madison Square Garden was sold out almost every year. Up in Toronto the Maple Leaf Garden was filled right up until the final mile relay ran close to midnight. I don't know what happened, but I saw the empty seats at the NCAA meet and the USATF meet. It was sad.

El Keniano wrote:

TrinityIsMyName wrote:

Sebastian Coe and Ato Bolden.

That is why this happened.

Coe’s succumbed to the sprinters who think everyone prefers to watch their events. I remember Michael Johnson pushing for this too. But I haven’t seen a website, or online community, as dedicated to sprinting and field events as there are for distance running.

Disappointed in how insipid the protests, especially from athletes, have been. They’d be forced to reconsider if there had been open revolt.

No one wants to watch a group of guys they dont know run around the track 20 times. That's terrible television.

I need all the languages of all the IAAF people who voted for this. I want to send them messages like "Yuck foo!" and "You are a ducking fildoe!" in their native language for making this egregious decision. Anyone willing to help?

Still there wrote:

Don't worry, the 5/10 will still be run at the Olympics/WC's.

Won't this DL development trigger a rethink of road 10k's (or half marathons) at the Olympics (instead of an hour's worth of two races on the track)?

Another mindless post of someone wanting someone else to do something . "This" is why Track fails, people like you without initiative. Seb Coe is a

make it happen person , both in his athletic career and now as a business leader.

Sprintgeezer wrote:

The 5000 and the 10,000 are the same event, whether the athletes are clean or not. Ditch the longer one. In the sit-and-kick era, the 3000 is also the same.

True about sit and kick, but the 10,000 properly raced is a special kind of torture. It's a beautiful distance, very different than the 5k. It'd be a shame to lose the 10,000. Do you want to lose the 60m sprint because it's "the same" as 100m?