If You Watched the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on TV Posts Your Comments Here

BIG is always a great meet that I wish ESPN could give it 2.5 - 3 hrs coverage. That way we could see more of the complete distance events. I'm not knocking the field events, but I probably would have cared more if Nelson wasn't sitting out indoors. I'm fine with Dwight - he moves things along.

I thought the actual coverage was a step up from what it has been in previous years and thought that was pieced together very well.

The commentary I think most people will rip apart and although there were some bad analogies and such, it still wasn't horrible. Everyone needs to remember they are trying to market this program to others that might be flipping through channels so although some commentary is quite poor from a trackhead's perspective, for the general public it's fine.

We have to remember to enjoy the races more and let the commentary be there for the newbies.

I thought it was kind of crappily produced, with some big screwups with sound and interviews and whatever.

But they showed a lot of the distance action and talked a lot about it, so that's good. I liked the focus on Nick Symmonds and Shalane. It wasn't too boneheaded.. overall the commentary wasn't too boneheaded I'd say.

Is boneheaded commentary, such as "I can tell by turnover they're falling off pace" or, "If you want to know what this race is like, it's about two laps on your local high school track at a full sprint," really what brings in average non-track-nerd viewers? Or I guess keeps them watching? Does USATF have anyone on its staff involved in getting the general public to care about track? I guess probably, but I don't know of what they do.

they covered it well and i am glad they focused on Symmonds. lets not get too picky we don't get much track a year. it's great that they give a meet this mucn time......sure they could have done somethings better, but they showed a fair chunck of the distance races!!

I am sick and tired of US TV following the winner of a race past the finish line while a great battle is raging for the places behind the winner. European TV keeps the camera on the finish line through the 1st 4-6 finishers.

I know that they'll never show us an entire distance race over a mile, but that women's 3k really should have been shown in its entirety. Here, not only does an American set a record, but she runs off the shoulder of a current world record holder. They managed to not show the point at which Flanagan and Smith must have caught Defar when they cut to commercial. Plus they interrupted the race another time to show some segment that was totally botched.

Good coverage overall as far as content goes. The only complaint I have was during many of the races the camera focuses on the front runner travelling alongside them. This actually gives the allusion that they are running slower than they really are. I always liked the more zoomed out view. Its important to see just how much of a gap the leader is opening up on the field or other athlete. This was especially noticeable in the boys mile the whole race was so zoomed in no one saw Duncan Phillips coming.

While I don't like it, I guess I can accept that they won't show an entire distance race. However, if they are only going to show parts of a distance race, at least let us see when the pack breaks apart or the actual "racing" part of the race. Too many times in coverage it seems we see the start and then go to something else, and then the main move of the race has happened and we just see the runners finishing. We are missing what (in my opinion) is usually the most interesting/exciting part. So if they aren't going to show the entire race, at least let us see that.

I'm not sure I needed to see Defar vomiting in the infield . . . . they could have cut to the interview with Shalane.

Thought showing the false start in the men's 60 hurdles was peculiar. Later in the open 60 they just noted a couple runners had already been DQ'd.

Huck Finn wrote:

While I don't like it, I guess I can accept that they won't show an entire distance race. However, if they are only going to show parts of a distance race, at least let us see when the pack breaks apart or the actual "racing" part of the race. Too many times in coverage it seems we see the start and then go to something else, and then the main move of the race has happened and we just see the runners finishing. We are missing what (in my opinion) is usually the most interesting/exciting part. So if they aren't going to show the entire race, at least let us see that.

If a whole distance race isn't going to be shown, at least show the point where the race breaks open. That part is as important as the finish. Also, I agree with a previous poster about the zoomed in camera shots. Please zoom out so that we can see where the field is.

BillCarr wrote:

I'm not sure I needed to see Defar vomiting in the infield . . . . they could have cut to the interview with Shalane.

agree, they showed that image way too many times. it was especially awkward at the end of the program when they were showing short highlight clips and every other one they showed indicated something triumphant.

Think of it this way.

What if the NBA camera man spent the whole game focused only on Gilbert Arenas, and did not show any of the other players during a Wizards game?

Wouldn't be too exciting, would it?

Same thing with running, let us see the whole race, it shouldn't be that hard to focus on the race as a whole, with quick shots to the diffrent runners.

Fans care about others in the race, it is a big deal to get 2nd at BIG, so let us seehow the race is unfolding.

The coverage was as good as we're EVER GOING TO GET.

I enjoyed the coverage of the meet, but was disappointed in ESPN not broadcasting the meet in high-def.

I thought the coverage was excellent. Two hours is a lot of time to fill what with the limited number of events at an indoor Meet.

I've never noticed it done before, but I thought that it was great that they told you how many minutes away certain events were. I hate watching the sprint events, so I could go back to doing other things in the mean time and know when to flip it back to the distance events. Great idea.

In general, I'm not going to complain when two hours on TV are devoted to track. But the one glaring error was, as already stated here, not showing how Flanagan caught up with Defar. When they went to commercial, Flanagan wasn't within 20, maybe not even 30 meters of her. When they came back, the two were very close. It's presposterous to pretend you're showing a race in any meaingful way if you don't show how that gap closed.

I still don't get those out-of-breath after race interviews. I've yet to hear anything of substance out of them. Drop them.

Yes, and show all the runners crossing the line, not just the front runners.