Non-sense. These guys are all friends. If you follow their twitter feeds they are always joking with each other and wishing each other good luck before races, and in life situations.
Non-sense. These guys are all friends. If you follow their twitter feeds they are always joking with each other and wishing each other good luck before races, and in life situations.
Yes, to me also this seems very ugly. Very strange comments from Wejo - seems like he's trying to apologize for Stewart. Could it be that Wejo is in a conflict of interest here? Trying to get access to meets, yet trying also to be a independent reporter?
He says that the British Grand Prix events are trying to highlight British athletes is crap. There were two inferior Americans in the 800m, but Stewart said Symmonds was a liability. His wife was shouting down Symmonds earlier this year. Shame on you Wejo for bailing on this story.
I must admit the treatment of this by the site does seem a bit odd.
On Brock and Nike it was OMG , this is horrible etc. etc.
Now we have a guess where Lolo, Symmonds and the entire Schumacher group were barred/banned or what have you.
Couple that with the Hightower crap and it seems worthy of investigation...
I'm much more interested in this than I ever was on the Brock bruhaha...
ucrunner09 wrote:
If meet directors use anything other than cold, hard performances to determine who gets invited, they should be dumped from the Diamond League.
Think about that for a minute. Let's suppose that next spring there are 12 runners ready and able to come to the New York Grand Prix, all with 800m PB/SBs superior to those of Robby Andrews. Should the meet director not put Andrews in the field because he's not among the top 12 available, even though his sponsor is the meet's primary sponsor and the meet is within a stone's throw from where Andrews grew up?
Or you could Usain Bolt's manager and along with taking Bolt for his huge fee, you're asked to take a developing 100m runner that's part of the same group. Do you say no?
There's more that goes into making fields for events like this than just personal and season best marks.
Lolo Jones has more going for her than just her current time ranking.
She's a major name, just made the USA Olympic team, and if you think personal vendetta's had nothing to do with this, you aren't paying attention.
get ugly wrote:
Also, there is a difference between being "linked to on the homepage" and providing real coverage. To me, this is a bigger story than the Nike box because we have a case where the husband of the USATF president is actively blocking US athletes from competing in a Diamond League meet. Especially since Stewart and Hightower have a history of attempts to bully the athletes.
Agree with all this. Paraphrasing here but I'm sure I've read on this site "We write about things others don't want to talk about".
It seems Letsrun doesn't want to talk about Ian Stewart for whatever reason.
wejo wrote:
4) Does the IAAF have any guidelines on who must be entered into a DL meet? It should for the events that are in DL and the 800 and 5000 were both in the Diamond League at this event. However, the meets are going to push back with having to accept certain athletes. The Pre Classic wants Nike athletes, etc.
The Diamond League is not under the IAAF's control, apart from the rules used during the competition. The ways to assure entry into a Diamond League competition are to have won a previous Diamond event or to be in the hunt for the overall Diamond title. After that, it's purely invitational.
BVB wrote:
get ugly wrote:Also, there is a difference between being "linked to on the homepage" and providing real coverage. To me, this is a bigger story than the Nike box because we have a case where the husband of the USATF president is actively blocking US athletes from competing in a Diamond League meet. Especially since Stewart and Hightower have a history of attempts to bully the athletes.
Agree with all this. Paraphrasing here but I'm sure I've read on this site "We write about things others don't want to talk about".
It seems Letsrun doesn't want to talk about Ian Stewart for whatever reason.
+1
A few points.
I am not trying to downplay this. I asked where is the outrage with the 6 Kenyans who have broken 13 this year and are not on the Kenyan Olympic team not being at the meet. No doubt some of those guys would run if they could get free travel and a hotel as well.
That is no different than Nick Symmonds.
My main point is this may be ridiculous but there is no rule that Ian Stewart is breaking. Private meet directors can apparently do whatever the hell they want. Doesn't mean it's right or people shouldn't get upset.
When that person is married to the USATF president and it involves issues related to her presidency I see how that raises the interest of the story.
Ian is not very popular with British runners either
wejo wrote:
A few points.
I am not trying to downplay this. I asked where is the outrage with the 6 Kenyans who have broken 13 this year and are not on the Kenyan Olympic team not being at the meet. No doubt some of those guys would run if they could get free travel and a hotel as well.
That is no different than Nick Symmonds.
But see, Wejo, based on Stewart's comments re: Symmonds being a "liability," there is evidence to suggest that this isn't a matter of Symmonds' athletic performances, but is instead a vendetta.
My main point is this may be ridiculous but there is no rule that Ian Stewart is breaking. Private meet directors can apparently do whatever the hell they want. Doesn't mean it's right or people shouldn't get upset.
No one is getting mad because Stewart broke a rule that doesn't exist. Posters are mad because they see Symmonds' (and Lolo's and apparently the Schumacher crew) ban from the meet as being related to Stewart's relationship with Hightower and her dislike of those athletes for whatever reason.
I don't mean to be insulting, but was your post serious? Do you honestly think because some Kenyans didn't get invited to run the 5k, Symmonds getting barred from a meet because the meet director is married to a USATF official who dislikes his stance on the sponsorship rule is ok because it "doesn't break any rules?"
C'mon, Wejo. I know you're better than that. This smacks of the same USATF corruption that you've covered in the past.