SAVE THE WAF!!!

[dl]

Watching the meet online and on TV the past two days, I thought to myself that I couldn't remember the last time I watched such an enjoyable meet outside of a major championship. Great racing (w/o rabbits), some athletes rounding into peak form trying to hit a mark (Vlasic), some running different events (Richards), doubling (many in the 3/5), etc.

My only complaint is that they didn't allow more attempts for the field events. I'm no expert on meet time management, but I don't think it would've required a longer time schedule to fit in more attempts.

It's also a good way for athletes in non-marquee events (women's throws, especially) to pick up some good money after being neglected most of the year.

Of course, it helped that most of the sports biggest stars showed up (i.e. Bolt, Gay, Bekele, Isinbayeva, etc), when they might earn more than $30,000 per meet. I can only gue$$ how the IAAF/LOC made that happen.

It also helped that the attendance was good and the stadium looked mostly full.

SAVE THE WAF!!!

[Powell]

Re: SAVE THE WAF!!!

My only complaint is that they didn't allow more attempts for the field events. I'm no expert on meet time management, but I don't think it would've required a longer time schedule to fit in more attempts.

Unfortunately, it would. The long throw competitions have to be conducted one at a time, and since each day has 3 of them, they lasted pretty much from beginning till end of the meet each day. With 6 attempts, you'd have to fit in extra 48 attempts on each day, which would extend the meet by about an hour.

[basslop]

I fully agree with you dl. I did not have the ability to see the WAF this year, but I really like what I have seen the previous years.

It is good to see racing without rabbits. In an interview once John Walker called them hoover runners . I have to admit that the most of the Golden League distance races have been boring. Indeed I was tired the Brussels Friday night but I fell asleep during the 5000m. There is always some rabbit holding a pace and always one or two runners more or less following and it is the same runner(s) every time . In the WAF and the championships there is much more variation and unexpected results. I think more races like this will benefit the people’s interest in watching distance running. Maybe I am getting old and/or old fashioned but this reminds me of the entertaining races in the seventies.

[Pelpa]

I think it must be made almost mandatory that new entrants to the professional realms of the sport enter the race to the WAF before they are allowed to request big figured appearance fees. Might need some dressing-up here and there, but you get the picture...

[Ned Ryerson]

I think it must be made almost mandatory that new entrants to the professional realms of the sport enter the race to the WAF before they are allowed to request big figured appearance fees. Might need some dressing-up here and there, but you get the picture...

How is that? With the exception of a single entrant per event, you need to qualfy for the WAF. And who are you to put any stipulations on the contracts that I make with a meet promoter? If I'm Bekele, and I wasn't bound to run the WAF in order to received my GL money, and Pedro's Cup agrees to pay me six figures to show up and win a 3000m, who are you to tell that I can't do that? It's an agreement between a meet promoter and an agent.

[bad hammy]

On the off chance that a fan of sports in general tuned into the broadcast, the constant harping on the huge prize money ($30k for a win, oh boy!) must have that general sports fan laughing in their shorts. In today's pro sports world a $30k payday for a major win is laughable. Hyping the payouts on the broadcast just makes T&F look more Mickey Mouse to the general sports fan than it already does.

[Helen S]

On the off chance that a fan of sports in general tuned into the broadcast, the constant harping on the huge prize money ($30k for a win, oh boy!) must have that general sports fan laughing in their shorts. In today's pro sports world a $30k payday for a major win is laughable. Hyping the payouts on the broadcast just makes T&F look more Mickey Mouse to the general sports fan than it already does.

I thought mentioning the money was strange also. I do not get the impression that in the final meters of a race these athletes were thinking dollars, but rather just trying to be competitive.

Even though I realize that some sports persons (athletes or otherwise- you know which "sports" I refer to) make hundreds of thousands of dollars if not many millions, $30k is more than my annual salary, so it sounded good to me.
I train virtually every day, but to date have only earned about $.75 US dollars in a race when I was a kid, which probable meant I competed illegally as a professional all through HS and College. I would gladly settle for only a measly $10 to $30 thousand the next time I race. But then again, I'd need to finish higher than mid pack.

[dl]

Re: SAVE THE WAF!!!

My only complaint is that they didn't allow more attempts for the field events. I'm no expert on meet time management, but I don't think it would've required a longer time schedule to fit in more attempts.

Unfortunately, it would. The long throw competitions have to be conducted one at a time, and since each day has 3 of them, they lasted pretty much from beginning till end of the meet each day. With 6 attempts, you'd have to fit in extra 48 attempts on each day, which would extend the meet by about an hour.

Thanks for the edification. But they could still have 6 attempts in the SP, LJ and TJ w/o affecting the schedule, as long as they had two horizontal jump runways, no?

[Pelpa]

I think it must be made almost mandatory that new entrants to the professional realms of the sport enter the race to the WAF before they are allowed to request big figured appearance fees. Might need some dressing-up here and there, but you get the picture...

How is that? With the exception of a single entrant per event, you need to qualfy for the WAF. And who are you to put any stipulations on the contracts that I make with a meet promoter? If I'm Bekele, and I wasn't bound to run the WAF in order to received my GL money, and Pedro's Cup agrees to pay me six figures to show up and win a 3000m, who are you to tell that I can't do that? It's an agreement between a meet promoter and an agent.

Was going off the same kind of thinking, where FIFA lands spending protocol on rich clubs or similar to jocket apprenticeship on the tracks. I know my idea might be filled with holes.

[tm71]

i found the WAF to be far more interesting compared to the anticlimactic WAF meets of the last 4-5 years where most top athletes begrundingly compete or simply dont show up at all.

[tandfman]

Re: SAVE THE WAF!!!

My only complaint is that they didn't allow more attempts for the field events. I'm no expert on meet time management, but I don't think it would've required a longer time schedule to fit in more attempts.

Unfortunately, it would. The long throw competitions have to be conducted one at a time, and since each day has 3 of them, they lasted pretty much from beginning till end of the meet each day. With 6 attempts, you'd have to fit in extra 48 attempts on each day, which would extend the meet by about an hour.

Thanks for the edification. But they could still have 6 attempts in the SP, LJ and TJ w/o affecting the schedule, as long as they had two horizontal jump runways, no?

Yes, but would they really tell the long throwers that they and they alone are limited to four attempts? The throwers would probably say that the it would be better to extend the time schedule of the meet. (And by the way, I think it would be likely to be more than a half hour, unless you did what they used to do when the meet was in Monaco and hold the Hammer Throw elsewhere so you only had two long throws each session.)

[tandfman]

I think it must be made almost mandatory that new entrants to the professional realms of the sport enter the race to the WAF before they are allowed to request big figured appearance fees. Might need some dressing-up here and there, but you get the picture...

You say that as if there were going to be a WAF next year. There won't be.

[Pelpa]

I think it must be made almost mandatory that new entrants to the professional realms of the sport enter the race to the WAF before they are allowed to request big figured appearance fees. Might need some dressing-up here and there, but you get the picture...

You say that as if there were going to be a WAF next year. There won't be.

...well, to be iterated on the running of the diamond league. Thanks for that, I don't think half the board remembered either.

[James Fields]

2010 WAF

" . . . as if there were going to be a WAF next year. There won't be."

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=49550.html

"As for the World Athletics Final (WAF), President Lamine Diack confirmed that it will be discontinued after 2010 (as the IAAF already has an engagement with Morocco who will host the 2010 edition of the IAAF WAF)."

[tandfman]

Re: 2010 WAF

" . . . as if there were going to be a WAF next year. There won't be."

http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=49550.html

"As for the World Athletics Final (WAF), President Lamine Diack confirmed that it will be discontinued after 2010 (as the IAAF already has an engagement with Morocco who will host the 2010 edition of the IAAF WAF)."

That quote was from March. I'm not sure exactly when it was decided that it would be discontinued after 2009, but that clearly is the case.

http://www.iaaf.org/WAF09/news/kind=100 ... 54388.html

Thessaloniki, Greece - Carmelita Jeter and Valerie Vili were the undoubted stars of the second and final day of the last ever IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final