To BROjos regarding OXY

This set up is OK and gives more people a shot at the standard.

I think it is more conducive to fast 800 times than fast 1500 times, though.

You can get a large group to run a fast time in a 1500.

Look at Paris last year where Centro first hit the A standard but finished 11th.

You actually had 12 men under 3:35

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/parisrecap-0708.php

1.8 s seperated 11 men from 3:33.0 to 3:34.8

Doha had 13th place at 3:34.3

And you get to see how they did head to head.

Just showing how you can get a bunch of people to run fast in one race if you go out fast.

Wejo:

Regarding the women's steeplechase, Barbara Parker is in China racing the DL meet in Shanghai.

I don't think Weldon's critique of it was meant for this meet really but just in general.

For this meet, it's great. I mean this meet (and a lot of track meets really) is nothing more than a practice. It's barely about competition and mainly about times.

I actually hate how a lot of collegiate meets will put 8 good guys in one heat of an 800 and then the 9th guy is out of luck.

For this meet, I think it might be better if there were two stacked heats of 1500s. I mean how many guys are really going to get the A? The real issue to me is the rabbits. Are they paying guys? How are they going to have enough rabbits?

I mean USATF is spending a lot on this. If I were them, I'd spend a sizable amount of the money on hiring great rabbits. But how do you get a 3:39 guy to rabbit this thing out? He'll want to run in it.

I'd have two really good 1500s. Do two really good heats and put the guys I've never heard of in heat 3.

Stacked heats makes for an interesting race, but traditionally they don't produce the best times. It is sort of like an NBA Championship game, the scores are usually in the upper 80s, becasue no one cares about how many points they score, they just want to win the game. It is a lot easier to take a risk when you know you are the best guy in the field and in a crowded field your racing instincts take are over and you forget about the clock and just want to get to the finish line first. The best times have been one of two fast guys following a rabbit.

With that said, the OXY races will be at least equal to the A standards becasue you have a lot of guys who need to run at least that fast. And, the guys that have the standard are in the middle of a training cycle that puts them about 2 weeks away from ruuning really fast. The target to run fast for most guys is probably Pre.

USATF is paying a lot for this meet?

With the way the Olympic qualifying is set up I see why there are meets like this.

My problem is with the Olympic qualifying system. The US has 3 "A" qualifiers already in the 1500. They thus should be able to send whatever 3 they want to the Olympics. There wouldn't be the need for people to go hit 3:35.

Also in the big scheme of things 3:35 isn't that crazy fast. Most guys who struggle to hit the standard will struggle in the Olympics. This meet isn't about "fans" at all. It's about die hard distance runners who are the people who will watch or talk about it. Casual Fans of the sport go to Diamond League meets and watch the stars compete. Count the people in the stands at this meet.

You say, "I can’t think of a better set up to the trials, which should be our superbowl where all the best guys race for all the glory."

I see some advantages of not everyone going head to head in terms of speculation. But wouldn't the Trials be better if there wasn't the talk of "A" and "B" standards. IF it was just talk of top 3 across the line.

Meets like this only exist because people haven't hit standards. In the sprints we don't talk about these meets because America's best have the standards.

Scalp and Mutilate wrote:

USATF is paying a lot for this meet?

This is one of their High Performance meets. I'm not sure of the exact criteria but they are here:

You hit the criteria this is one of the meets they will pay your way too.

Not a ton of US distance runners are top 20 in the World but if you're recently out of college and have an "A" standard I think you qualify.

So USATF deserves credit for this meet taking place.

That covers like, um, ?? Rose and Gags deserve credit. Not USATF by any stretch.

wejo wrote:

My problem is with the Olympic qualifying system. The US has 3 "A" qualifiers already in the 1500. They thus should be able to send whatever 3 they want to the Olympics. There wouldn't be the need for people to go hit 3:35.

I actually like this idea.

If a country has already earned the right to send three people in an event by having at least three get the A standard, what does it matter what three the country sends?

It doesn't effect the field size.

I am thinking of 1996.

Jim Sorenson gets to run the 1500 instead of Brian Hyde.

Ronnie Harris gets to run the 5000 instead of Jim Spivey.

Ritz doesn't get to run in the 2004 Olympics.

Hoping for big races from 3 people at OXY. Wheating, Torrence, and Webb. They better listen to Sorry for Party Rockin by LMFAO if they are going to be kicking everyone down that last 150.

I agree that the problem is the qualifying system but at the same time it is the format of the meets. I know that their will probably hardly be anyone in the stands tonight, (i have yet to watch the live feed) an you're right casual fans will go to diamond league meets. I would contest though that it's not because the format is well done. I think rather it has more to do with how many diamond league meets there are (only a few). Compare that to the Yankees who almost sell out 81+ home games a year.

I would love to see the system change, but more than that track as a whole in the US. To be more marketable than we are now to casual fans Diamond league style meets are not the answer. I think if you were to design a way that would attract the most interest, it would be something that looks a lot like the structure of the OXY meet tonight. Although an aspect of teams or maybe points scored by individuals for scalps to culminate in a qualifying system that is similar to NCAA cross. That would be awesome, and something regular people would have more interest in.

As the system is currently set up its more like watching batting practice for a bunch of baseball players, except they kept track of how many hits you got, and if you got enough on a given day where the weather was perfect for pushing your ball out of the park then you qualified for the OT's.

Actually come to think of it that is basically what RoJo said in saying these meets are like practice. I agree it equates to a practice type feel to a casual fan. The casual fan wants the excitment and drama of a points or team based system and I don't blame them because that would be much more interesting. When I used to travel a lot all that would be on TV in the hotels was rugby, soccer and cricket. I ended up really liking cricket and rugby, (already a huge soccer fan) as I can watch any sport, but often I wonder if I wasn't a trackie if I could stand to watch track.