IAAF President lashes out at Bolt

[jamaicantrackfan]

Our sport is in the stadium. The future is not on the street," Diack said. "This is only for promotion."




http://www.universalsports.com/ViewArti ... ID=3740572

[Marlow]

Re: IAAF President lashes out at Bolt

Our sport is in the stadium. The future is not on the street," Diack said. "This is only for promotion."

No duh - what's your point, Mr. Diack?

[knite]

At first I was like why is he attacking Bolt!!! But then again, there is a point to this.

If you take the sport out of the stadium and have it on every street, highway, bi-way etc, then you minimze the importance and diminish the many facets of he sport to a street run.

Ah well...different strokes for different folks i guess....

[EPelle]

He and Steve Cram see completely differently on the subject; Cram thinks this could be the wave of the future.

[jamaicantrackfan]

I think the point the IAAF President needs to get is that the sport can be much further enhanced by such street races.

Olympics are every 4 years. For example, most Americans only recognize these track stars every 4 years. Having these types of "street races" say in Times Square, Washington DC, London, etc will further promote the sport and as such, it is a great thing especially in non Olympic years.


Can you imagine a 100m track being layed down in the middle of Times Square with Bolt, Asafa and Tyson running for a million dollar cash prize with thousands of cheering fans(NY has over a 1 million Jamaicans alone . That would do so much for the sport especially here in the US where track ranks lower than the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.

[gh]

Shee-it! Talk about getting it 180-degrees wrong. WTF is Diack thinking?

If the people won't come to you, then you go to the people. Has nobody at the IAAF ever noticed how popular street vaults are with (npi) the man in the street? Drake does a fab job of promoting the Relays by staging HJ and PV in shopping malls ahead of time.

I'm guessing the suits are feeling threatened by big-time spectacles over which they have little control and get no piece of the pie.

[guru]

Alrighty then - no more marathon or 50K walks either.

:roll:

[jamaicantrackfan]

Shee-it! Talk about getting it 180-degrees wrong. WTF is Diack thinking?

If the people won't come to you, then you go to the people. Has nobody at the IAAF ever noticed how popular street vaults are with (npi) the man in the street? Drake does a fab job of promoting the Relays by staging HJ and PV in shopping malls ahead of time.

I'm guessing the suits are feeling threatened by big-time spectacles over which they have little control and get no piece of the pie.

Excellent point GH. Mr. Diack is definitely from the old school of thought. Track is huge in Europe. They need things like "competitve street races" here in the US to bring track to the masses and to get Prime Time track coverage on a regular basis versus only during the Olympics.

Track meets are only attended by avid trackfans. Street races would broaden that scope to include avid track fans and “regular” folks whose interests would be spiked just by having a meet in the middle of the street.

[marknhj]

I once watched a beach PV competition next to Manhattan Beach Pier in SoCal.

The crowd were both highly enthusiastic and amazed at the spectacle. No comparison to the totally moribund vibe at adidas Carson this past weekend...

[Daisy]

The crowd were both highly enthusiastic and amazed at the spectacle.

In other words the perfect fan recruitment drive. I hope Diack is not speaking for the IAAF as a whole.

[Conor Dary]

I'm guessing the suits are feeling threatened by big-time spectacles over which they have little control and get no piece of the pie.

How true. There is so little imagination in IAAF--oh where is Primo, aka Goldfinger, when you need him?.

Along with street miles, pv's etc. a great idea.

[Omega4ul]

One of the Best Shot Put competition I have ever seen was Downtown Stockholm, Sweden. They called it the "Big Shot" it was in conjunction with the Super Grand Prix DN Galan. Here is a little Video of the crowd and atmosphere. It was like a concert!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKyHgDfrVgo

[Mighty Favog]

One of the things that makes these so popular is the ability to be up close. You can really see just how fast sprinters move, or how high pole vaulters go, or how far guys can throw the equivalent of a 16-lb bowling ball. Stadiums keep you relatively far away from the action, and TV usually doesn't do the athletes justice.

For this reason I've always thought we should have an NBA center helping put up the bar for pro HJ competitions. Shaq is a bit out of our price structure, but Dwayne Shintzius should come pretty cheap these days.

[scratchman]

I think the point the IAAF President needs to get is that the sport can be much further enhanced by such street races.

Olympics are every 4 years. For example, most Americans only recognize these track stars every 4 years. Having these types of "street races" say in Times Square, Washington DC, London, etc will further promote the sport and as such, it is a great thing especially in non Olympic years.


Can you imagine a 100m track being layed down in the middle of Times Square with Bolt, Asafa and Tyson running for a million dollar cash prize with thousands of cheering fans(NY has over a 1 million Jamaicans alone . That would do so much for the sport especially here in the US where track ranks lower than the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.

I AGREE 1000%
We need this type of thing in the states.
Nobody ever said when they made this thing that they were trying to take it out of the stadium altogether. :roll: Some people have no business being in charge. Street match races/relays would be terrific! And they could play with odd distances like 50m, 150m, 300m, 500m, etc..Downtown NY (Times Square), Las Vegas for sure, just to name a couple. They could do a Super Bowl Media Week street race. It's always gonna be in a warm city anyway. They'd be stupid to think the sport doesnt need this.

[ndamix]

Off with your headz for promoting such hearesy from the True Faith of Track & Field.... Long Live Lamine Diack - Defender Of The Faith.... :lol: