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

I was hoping you were trolling. This is an abject tragedy.

The problem is that if you try to cater to the general public (for something that they don't care about), then you risk losing everything.

I was kind of looking forward to see Kejelcha succeed at 5000m and 10000m.

Oh well...

I'll invite all the pros to run the 5000 and 10,000 at my high school track

calpa wrote:

I'll invite all the pros to run the 5000 and 10,000 at my high school track

This creates starved market for 5k & 10k.

Therefore, it creates a market opportunity to have a few high profile 5000s and 10000s put on by some other sponsor.

Maybe (?)

Where in that 22 minute video do they say that?

Hidden down the bottom of the article I'm bullet points. 24 events down from 32, "the longest being 3000m."

Also trying to make it so that the final can be aired in one 90 minute television slot...

Star wrote:

Where in that 22 minute video do they say that?

Maybe around 9 mins? It was near the beginning of the speech that the right most guy was giving (Jon something).

Sad day. I love the 3k and I'd love to see it run in more outdoor meets at the collegiate/sub elite level, but that's about it.

In one regard, this may be because the current and just past stars (Kejelcha, Jakob, Tefera, Mo, Barega, Hagos) are all probably best suited for the 3k so maybe once we get more 10k suited studs the tides will shift back.

Press F to pay respect to our sport

That's a terrible idea to save time.

Air it in two hours instead of 90 min.

Most sporting events take 3 hours to air.

People watch golf 8-10 hours a day for four days straight.

Or run the 5000's with online viewing early and televise recaps.

It's not a good idea to alter the sport.

If we had free streaming of uninterrupted 5000m races, you'd get a pretty large audience of people viewing whatever scrolling ads they could put up at a low cost to produce.

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

Still there wrote:

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

It's sad that that had to be said.

This is a travesty.

As well as the 5000, other events are for the chop too with the number of disciplines being reduced from 32 to 24. They don't say which though.

The bunch of clowns currently running the IAAF are obsessed with "engaging the yoot" but they should just accept that athletics will never be a mainstream sport. As a fan, I'm fine with that as long as they don't tinker majorly with the sport and I suspect many other fans are too. It's not the 1980s anymore when there was no satellite TV and very few sports were broadcast live. The live sports market is much, much more saturated now and athletics will never be as popular as it once was. There's simply too many other sports competing for the same eyeballs. Wake up, IAAF!

I would imagine this would open the door for some meet promoter to organize a "distance only" meet that includes the 5000m and 10000m, which would be done in about 90min.

Alan

They used to have cross country running in the Olympics but got rid of it.

So, maybe the 5/10 won't be run at the Olympics for long.

Star wrote:

They used to have cross country running in the Olympics but got rid of it.

So, maybe the 5/10 won't be run at the Olympics for long.

I thought that the 10000 had already been put on the list of next to be removed events from the Olympics. It should be, regardless. It's boring as all get out. Replace it with XC on a visually interesting course.

They really think the problem with the sport is the meets take 2 hours instead of 1.5?

If people are going to PAY to go to a track meet I think most people would actually probably rather be there 2 hours intead of 1.5.

Name ONE sporting event on television that is under 2 hours.

I can't think of a single one. If they're were going to take an extra 30 minutes to preview the races, etc and have less action over 2 hours I think that might improve the broadcast. But cramming more stuff into 1.5 hours is going to save our sport?

I already consider the 3000 to be a spare event when they have it versus the 5000.

Is dropping 6 minutes from a broadcast going to save the sport? It might hurt it as a bunch of casual runners can relate to 5k more than 3ks.

How about letting the meets decide if they are going to have a 3k or 5k?

And why have 1500 and 3000? They aren't that different. The 3k means nothing to anyone who follows the sport.

What other events are getting dropped?

Also the whole worlds ranking system is based on the 5,000 not the 3,000.

So now people will be encouraged to go race 5,000s outside of the DL at meets no one has heard of? This really makes no sense. Either scrap the 3,000 entirely or keep the 5,000.

Distance fans don't enjoy the 3000 that much.

So no we'll have 800/1500/3000/steeple ? Or are they going to drop the steeple?

Horrible decision. Basically turning track into sprint meets. Well I don’t have to watch their Diamond Leagues. The roads is where it’s at.

I love the 3000m and am biased as the wife's best event is arguably the 3000m so this will help her out.... but yeah you just set up rankings by 5000m times and yet have 3000m at your flagship events.

Agreed that the 5000m is great because so many hobby joggers have done a 5k fun run. They sweat their asses off in 26min or 30 min or something 5km races, get on the couch and watch someone drop a 12:58 and their jaw drops at how an athlete cut their PB in half.