Visa Money [Lolo's $25K]

[Smoke]

Sorry if this was in another thread, but I think it is absolutely disrespectful that the scoring table allowed Lolo to win the $25k this weekend over Jenn's American Record.
Something is terribly wrong when the 2nd or 3rd highest jump is out pointed by a "fast" run. 7.84 is a good good run but not enough to trump the AR. And I can't believe this was not noted on air, it was glaring to me.

[sprintblox]

Re: Visa Money

Sorry if this was in another thread, but I think it is absolutely disrespectful that the scoring table allowed Lolo to win the $25k this weekend over Jenn's American Record.
Something is terribly wrong when the 2nd or 3rd highest jump is out pointed by a "fast" run. 7.84 is a good good run but not enough to trump the AR. And I can't believe this was not noted on air, it was glaring to me.

7.84 is 0.16s behind the world record in a long-established event.

4.83 is 17cm below a soft world record in a relatively new event. At the upper echelons of the pole vault, 17 cm is like a country mile. I don't think the IAAF tables are wrong for scoring the 7.84 slightly higher than the 4.83m.

When the points are equal, the Visa championship uses the AR as a tiebreaker. You seem to be of the opinion that an AR should give a boost of something like an extra 20 or 30 points. Maybe you're right. I disagree though. I think ARs should be given bonuses independently of whoever is the $25000 Visa champion.

[Walt Murphy]

Re: Visa Money

Sorry if this was in another thread, but I think it is absolutely disrespectful that the scoring table allowed Lolo to win the $25k this weekend over Jenn's American Record.
Something is terribly wrong when the 2nd or 3rd highest jump is out pointed by a "fast" run. 7.84 is a good good run but not enough to trump the AR. And I can't believe this was not noted on air, it was glaring to me.

7.84 is 0.16s behind the world record in a long-established event.

4.83 is 17cm below a soft world record in a relatively new event. At the upper echelons of the pole vault, 17 cm is like a country mile. I don't think the IAAF tables are wrong for scoring the 7.84 slightly higher than the 4.83m.

When the points are equal, the Visa championship uses the AR as a tiebreaker. You seem to be of the opinion that an AR should give a boost of something like an extra 20 or 30 points. Maybe you're right. I disagree though. I think ARs should be given bonuses independently of whoever is the $25000 Visa champion.

If Lolo had run 7.85, she would have scored 1200 points, the same as Stuczynski. Jenn would have been declared the winner, not because she set the AR, but because she had a better 2nd mark within the VISA series. (Lolo didn't run in the previous 3 VISA meets).

[MJR]

The bigger miscarriage of justice is that pro athletes are only making $25000 as the Visa winner. They should be taking that much home for winning their event, at least. Winning $2500 in your event barely covers expenses and makes claiming you're a professional athlete on your tax return a joke.

[Barto]

Because the bonus is only awarded to USA athletes, I always thought the Visa Champion should be determined by % of the American Record in your event. If you break it you score 102.739%. If you come close you score 98.382% and so on.

The point of the contest is to improve American track and field performances. Why not reward someone who is progressing in an event where other Americans have not?

my 2 cents

[Powell]

Because the bonus is only awarded to USA athletes, I always thought the Visa Champion should be determined by % of the American Record in your event. If you break it you score 102.739%. If you come close you score 98.382% and so on.

I wonder if you'd be happy with the rule you're proposing if Stuczynski was then beaten to the prize by a 14.30 TJ...

[Marlow]

The bigger miscarriage of justice is that pro athletes are only making $25000 as the Visa winner. They should be taking that much home for winning their event, at least. Winning $2500 in your event barely covers expenses and makes claiming you're a professional athlete on your tax return a joke.

The market pays what the market bears. That's why A-Rod (!) can get $250,000,000 to play a game he'd be thrilled to play for $50,000 a year (with just a little less talent/steroids), and our athletes get a pittance.

[Barto]

Because the bonus is only awarded to USA athletes, I always thought the Visa Champion should be determined by % of the American Record in your event. If you break it you score 102.739%. If you come close you score 98.382% and so on.

I wonder if you'd be happy with the rule you're proposing if Stuczynski was then beaten to the prize by a 14.30 TJ...

Yes, I would because we need to encourage that 14.30 girl to continue and develop in the sport. Jenn will continue without the extra help. The big names in track from the US do not need help. The emerging elite do.

[Pego]

Because the bonus is only awarded to USA athletes, I always thought the Visa Champion should be determined by % of the American Record in your event. If you break it you score 102.739%. If you come close you score 98.382% and so on.

The point of the contest is to improve American track and field performances. Why not reward someone who is progressing in an event where other Americans have not?

my 2 cents

14.24 TJ beats a 6.96 60? You can't be serious.

[Smoke]

A soft wr? One woman has jumped anywhere near that. There's very little about it that screams soft. If it were there would be more than one woman at 5 meters. That's just bad speculation.
7.84 is a good run as I said but did you expect anything else to win that race? It would have taken 7.04 for a woman to win it in the 60. That's a full tenth off the American record.
Yes setting a record should garner bonus points.

And yes it is a sad state when 2500 is the purse for winning an event.

[ralmcg]

USA Track and Field should have at least paid a bonus for breaking the American, if not the world, record of, let's say, $5,000.

[eldrick]

i suppose the stipulation coud be

"break american record with a performance within ?2% of the world record"

to throw out this tj nonsense of jumping 14.25 - reward a national record only if it is world class

[AS]

It's curious that everyone is so sad about poor prize money for this champs, but noone seemed very excited about it actually happening anyway.

Were VISA/USATF judicious in realising most stars would bypass meet in post-Olympic year? Or did low prizemoney lead to poor turnout?

[AthleticsInBritain]

Do people really go to a meet to see someone win a lot of money? Can't say the idea of anyone winning a million in gold bullion at the Golden League ever made any difference to me when it came to wanting to watch Oslo or Zurich. I couldn't care less about the money - as a reason to go to a meet anyway.

[Smoke]

AIB the money is never the draw. No one goes to see the UEFA Cup for the prize money. That is all about the athletes. Thats the point. You watched a bunch of professional athletes do what they do at full capacity for $2500.