Seb Coe is a fan of the pacing lights: “If our activity is sport, our business is entertainment."

i respect his view, but i think he's wrong. if you want to put the lights up for fans, by means of television trickery, that would actually be great. the athletes should not have that light though. and it is not making the sport more entertaining or more popular. it is still very difficult to find mention of these records in main stream news.

Only shows how corrupt and shallow he is. All that matters is money and pleasing the nonexistent crowd.

Every World Athletics official playing the "entertainment" angle needs to resign. They get no coverage, no attendance, their PR skills are zero. If that's what it's about, turn things over to someone who knows how to entertain.

The purpose of pacing lights is to chase world records. But the purpose of world records is to say a performance was better than all other performances. An * like "set with pacing lights" destroys any attempt at comparison, undermining the whole point.

Moral of the story: cheating is cheating, doping or otherwise. Nobody's fooled. Cheptegei and Gidey are not WR holders unless they do it WITHOUT lights. Will they even try? I doubt it. They know. I know. You know. Everyone reading this thread friggin knows. Seb knows. Who will admit it?

Oh, shut up. You snowflakes have too much time on your hands if you're going to make a big fuss about this. I'm of the same view as Seb, it brings an entertainment factor to it. Something the sport needs. It's hilarious reading from couch potato 19-minute 5kers that these records are illegitimate. You haven't got a clue.

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No, Bad is right, and read what he said; despite the lights, no additional coverage is gained. partly because there is no faith in the sport anymore and part of this is the lights.

sport must be about integrity. if it isnt, it dies. its dieing because it lacks integrity, due to people like coe and the ioc etc.

the sport is supported (paid for) by people who, the majority of whom, cant run 5k at all. i am just grateful i can, and dont give a damn what you think of my time, boomer.

If they want entertainment then they should introduce the beep test as an event. Winner is the last athlete standing. That would be by far the most entertaining event for distances inside a stadium.

The races of 20 years ago were far more entertaining.

Coe is a clown

That's such a stupid take. Integrity is what matters to fans? Get a grip. Soccer has some of the biggest viewership in the world and that is just a corruption-infested dungpile. Integrity is about number 37 on the list of what the viewership cares about. Only a small but very vocal minority of track fans are concerned about this change. It doesn't diminish what previous greats have achieved, it just guards against piss-poor pacemaking.

Btw, I am not a boomer. But you can keep calling me that if it makes you feel better.

Seb really is clueless. People primarily watch sport for the athletes, not a time or achievement. Conor McGregor isn't the most dominant UFC fighter but everybody watches because it's him. You buy tickets for a Barcelona match in the hopes of seeing Messi not because you want to see a record breaking number of goals.

He should be focusing on the athlete profiles and building up rivalries to grow interest in the sport. Maybe even change the events up a bit, add a much-needed team element here and there. Imagine Team Ingebrigtsen versus Team Cheruiyot where each runner on the team's performance counts for the final result, like in cross country club results. Seb's belief that pacing lights will suddenly bring droves of viewers to watch a bunch of dreary athletes they've never heard of is like the commissioner of the NBA expecting record breaking sales by changing the colour of the ball.

craggle wrote:

Seb's belief that pacing lights will suddenly bring droves of viewers to watch a bunch of dreary athletes they've never heard of is like the commissioner of the NBA expecting record breaking sales by changing the colour of the ball.

Where did Seb say this? It isn't some huge draw for fans but it makes it a bit more easy to follow without knowing splits.

It's supposed to be sports for entertainment purposes. Coe is out of it. Nowadays I really do appreciate Brian Oldfield for who he was as at least he was honest about it.

GrapeSon wrote:

craggle wrote:

Seb's belief that pacing lights will suddenly bring droves of viewers to watch a bunch of dreary athletes they've never heard of is like the commissioner of the NBA expecting record breaking sales by changing the colour of the ball.

Where did Seb say this? It isn't some huge draw for fans but it makes it a bit more easy to follow without knowing splits.

He said pacing lights provide entertainment, excitement and jeopardy. Having watched three events with pacing lights now I'd say it potentially does the opposite. It makes what can be a very dry sport even drier.

craggle wrote:

GrapeSon wrote:

Where did Seb say this? It isn't some huge draw for fans but it makes it a bit more easy to follow without knowing splits.

He said pacing lights provide entertainment, excitement and jeopardy. Having watched three events with pacing lights now I'd say it potentially does the opposite. It makes what can be a very dry sport even drier.

Yes, now they look like running on a treadmill. When Cheptegai broke the 5k WR, it felt sorta refreshing, but then it got dull, and didn't feel nearly as exciting in his 10k WR and Gidey's 5k WR. As for the "easy to follow thing", they can just do it on TV without the lights. Didn't they feature Geb's hologram in Mo's one-hour WR for TV viewers?

Track and field was long dead before these lights came up.

Some flashy lights will not change that.

Pacing lights would be interesting for 400m & 800m athletes. I tend to believe 400m & 800m athletes do not need to positive split their events in the manner those events are often positive split. We see 400m athletes often passing 200m mark less than 3/4 of a second slower than 200m personal best; we see 800m athletes often hitting 400m split less than 3 seconds slower than one's 400m personal best. It is accepted by most that 400m & 800m need to be positively split, maybe not so much. The lights would make 400m & 800m fun to watch. It is common for 400m races to split 200m faster than WR pace; it is common for 800m to split 300m faster than WR pace.

George213 wrote:

Yes, now they look like running on a treadmill. When Cheptegai broke the 5k WR, it felt sorta refreshing, but then it got dull, and didn't feel nearly as exciting in his 10k WR and Gidey's 5k WR. As for the "easy to follow thing", they can just do it on TV without the lights. Didn't they feature Geb's hologram in Mo's one-hour WR for TV viewers?

Yeah, the hologram was actually really funny. It was like a slightly wonky playstation 2 graphic popping up now and then; I enjoyed that as a little extra for viewers. But yeah the pacing lights make for a boring event, especially when we consider that these races have had the best possible outcomes. If Cheptegai had visibly fallen behind after 6k, there would be close to zero incentive to keep on watching.

Reina de Corazones wrote:

The races of 20 years ago were far more entertaining.

Coe is a clown

Yes, that's why track went from being the biggest non-team sport in the world, in the 70's and 80's attracting front page headlines, to having about the same status as badminton and synchronised swimming today.

The problem is not the lights, the problem is that these guys are running solo races against time the whole season. Some of the best distance races the past seasons have had three or more guys battling out for a great time. In 2019 mens 5000meters DL final cheptegei led the whole way but then barega, kejelcha and gebriwhet led a ferocious chase last 600m, people were standing in the seat cheering because it was so exciting. Year before at 5000m DL final kejelcha dropped som seriously fast laps, but barega and gebriwhet hung on and outkicked kejelcha running 12:43, one of the best races of the last decade. This year Kiplimo, J. Ingebrigtsen and McSweyn battled it out on the last 1k of Ostrava 3000m running 7:26 and 7:27, two of the best times ever! To get real excitement you need multiple people battling out for a great time.

That said, the lights could be cut on the last lap to make things more exciting for tv-viewers. Everyone knew last lap that cheptegei would beat the record, but while Karsten Warholm ran 46.87 in Stockholm you were on the edge of your seat because you knew he would be close, but not if he would beat the WR or not.

I'm thinking of writing a letter to Seb Coe and getting a petition going against pacing lights. Who's down?