2021 Indoors

[Grassmarket]

We have news! 2021 British Indoors will be in the Glasgow Emirates, 20-21 February. Qualifiers for the Euros & Worlds in March. Current plan is no spectators.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/55162620

[Stew-Coach]

I think seeing as the Euros and Worlds had confirmed they would go ahead, this has forced the hand slightly to have a British champs to qualify. But now the HUGE questions are, how will/can athletes qualify for these champs? and then how can ensure athletes have a good opportunity to be in shape i.e. indoor races prior and widening the scope of "elite sport" for Track and Field.

[Grassmarket]

Presuming that if you have a British Champs you can also have English, Scottish etc Champs a week before, at least.

[Occasional Hope]

They might do what the multis do and count outdoor performances this summer as qualifiers.

[Stew-Coach]

It appears they feel a full indoor calendar may be possible along with a reasonable outdoor

http://www.uka.org.uk/wp-content/upl...t-7Dec2020.pdf

[Stew-Coach]

https://www.worldathletics.org/news/...rom-march-2021

Nanjing moved again, now to 2023

[Grassmarket]

But there will be the scheduled Worlds in Belgrade in 2022. Dunno if they’ve picked a venue yet for 2024. Or if we’ll get 3 WCs in consecutive years.....

And the World Indoor Tour is still scheduled to go ahead, even if some venues cancel.

[sprintdude]

Scotland is presently closed !!!!!! so I can't see how the British Champs can go ahead in any shape or form TBH. Athletes don't have access to training facilities, Aren't able to travel and will also have issues around accommodation.
with the issue of no spectators then they should just hold it somewhere else - Sheffield or Lee valley could easily cope at short notice and would make lives easier.
I think BA just need to bite the bullet over costs etc.

[Grassmarket]

Scotland is presently closed !!!!!! so I can't see how the British Champs can go ahead in any shape or form TBH. Athletes don't have access to training facilities, Aren't able to travel and will also have issues around accommodation.
with the issue of no spectators then they should just hold it somewhere else - Sheffield or Lee valley could easily cope at short notice and would make lives easier.
I think BA just need to bite the bullet over costs etc.

Elite sport - football & rugby is going ahead, so presumably this is in the same category. There are also some hotels open for essential use, so again that can probably be managed. As for travel, roads & rail still working. Obvs training will be an issue.

[Grassmarket]

Bit more info on the current state of athletics training in this article. Elite athletes are currently in a bubble allowing them to train normally even if club-level athletes are restricted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/55640618

[LuckySpikes]

There's a ton of NCAA indoor meetings scheduled this weekend (and for most of the next 6 or 7 weekends). I'm currently in the process of working through which ones will be live streamed. However, already I know that all of the home indoor meetings for the following Universities will be live streamed, starting this weekend (I just hope the quality of coverage is decent):
- Akron (Division I) - 4 meetings
- Pittsburg State (Division II, in the MIAA conference) - 3 meetings
- Northwest Missouri State (Division II, also in the MIAA) - 4 meetings
- Grand Valley State (Division II, in the GLIAC conference) - 6 meetings

The MIAA Championships (see more below) & the NCAA D2 Championships are also live streamed for free so, if you fancy these meetings, you can follow these athletes through their 2021 indoor "journey".

Don't sleep on NCAA Division II. I've watched several D2 meetings and the athletics is often very enjoyable and of a pretty decent standard - in general, at the national champs level, the winning marks are broadly comparable (often better) to our BUCS championships but D2 has much greater depth than BUCS.
The MIAA is one of the strongest conferences in D2, especially in the sprints, hurdles & field, so these meetings above should be pretty decent. There's very few primadonnas in D2, just kids busting a gut for their team. Another thing I like about it is that it's a bit more unpredictable - in anything 400m and above, there's sometimes a bit more tactical naivety than in D1 so it produces some fun races!

Regarding European indoor meetings (should they still be going ahead), it really starts to get going properly on the weekend of 23-24 January. The first couple of really big meetings are Paris Indoor (24th) and Karlsruhe (29th). On the 27th there's also what looks to be a very good high jump meeting (M + W) in Udine, Italy - the women's field has been announced and includes Mahuchikh, Licwinko, Trost & Vallortigara as well as top youngsters such as Sajdokova, Pieroni, Dosi & Apostoloski. That meeting will be live streamed by RAI on YouTube.

Also, the new American Track League (WA Indoor Tour Silver meetings) starts on 24 January with 4 meetings over 4 consecutive weekends - all should be possible to watch on the internet.

[Grassmarket]

I’m optimistic. Pretty much all winter sport is going on as normal - without spectators obvs - so both national & sporting authorities seem to be finding a way.

[Occasional Hope]

Mahuchikh's already jumped 2.02 this year.

[LuckySpikes]

Good sources of info for NCAA competition

What with fans not being allowed into arenas to watch NCAA meetings, more of the Universities have started live streaming their meetings. Whether that continues once we're back to normal, time will tell. Most of the absolute best invitational meetings are still being shown on ESPN-affiliated channels that aren't streamed on the internet.

Anyway, for those of you following the NCAA scene and maybe watching some of the streams there's a couple of very useful websites ...

TFRRS at https://tfrrs.org/ - the official source for comprehensive collegiate results, toplists and athlete profiles. It's commonly referred to as "Teefers".

USTFCCCA at http://www.ustfccca.org/ - has some reports/round-ups of weekly action though, for most non-Americans I'm sure, there's too much focus on team scores before they highlight individual performances. There's a wealth of other info on this site too, including archived championship results.

The Stride Report used to be a very good site for reports, opinion & rankings but, sadly, they're going subscription-only in the next few days.

Over the next day or two I'll put together something on how athletes qualify for the national NCAA Indoor Championships - it differs for D1 and D2 - including what marks they'll need to hit. That way, you'll be able to better put into context the performances you're seeing.

[Grassmarket]

Hugues Zango of Burundi has set the first World Record of the season with an 18.07 in the Triple Jump. Don’t have any more details.

https://twitter.com/benjaminsoreau/s...16993%3Fs%3D20

[Grassmarket]

Hugues Zango of Burundi has set the first World Record of the season with an 18.07 in the Triple Jump. Don’t have any more details.

https://twitter.com/benjaminsoreau/s...16993%3Fs%3D20

More information. And Hugues is of course Burkinabé, not Burundian. 🤗. Previous WR was held by Teddy Tamgho, his coach.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/55690702

[trickstat]

More information. And Hugues is of course Burkinabé, not Burundian. 🤗. Previous WR was held by Teddy Tamgho, his coach.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/55690702

Yes BUR is Burkina Faso. Burundi is BDI.

Hope someone will post a video somewhere eventually!